Why the Alaska Pipeline Zigzags on Stilts | Trans-Alaska Pipeline 3D

On 3 November 2002, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake moved the ground about 14 feet sideways right under the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. The pipe slid, bent, and did not spill a drop. We built the pipeline in 3D from Alyeska's own Fact Book and cut it open to show why it stands on stilts, zigzags across the tundra, and rests on shoes that slide. In this video: • 800 miles from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, over the Brooks Range, the Alaska Range and the Chugach • The 48 in pipe, its half-inch steel wall and its insulation • Permafrost, and what a buried hot pipe would do to it • 376 miles buried, 420 miles raised on 78,000 vertical support members • Heat pipes: ammonia that pulls cold into the ground all winter with no pumps and no power • Why the line zigzags: steel that grows and shrinks between anchors • Teflon shoes that slide up to 8 ft one way and 4 ft the other • The Denali Fault crossing, and what happened in the 2002 earthquake • Refrigerated burial, animal crossings, slow oil and pipeline pigs Chapters 0:00 The 2002 Denali Fault earthquake 0:23 Built to move 0:36 Prudhoe Bay to Valdez 0:56 The pipe 1:06 Permafrost 1:15 What a buried hot pipe would do 1:33 Buried or raised 1:47 78,000 supports 2:08 Keeping the piles frozen 2:29 How a heat pipe works 2:56 Why it zigzags 3:17 Anchors 3:29 Sliding shoes 3:43 The Denali Fault crossing 4:06 The 2002 slip 4:39 Refrigerated burial 4:51 Animal crossings 5:03 The oil today 5:14 Pigs 5:25 Stilts, heat pipes, zigzags 5:45 Next: Inside Fallingwater Scale & Section: real things, cut open in 3D. New video every Saturday. #AlaskaPipeline #Permafrost #3DAnimation