Why the World's Biggest Aquarium Broke

December 15th 2022 400 p.m. C it's a wintry cold afternoon in Berlin however here in the lobby of the Rison collection hotel in the heart of the city you wouldn't feel it guests are lounging on comfortable armchairs and sofas perhaps enjoying a drink from the atrium bar of the five-star hotel their gaze often wanders over the centerpiece of the hotel lobby directly above the bar is the world's largest freestanding cylindrical aquarium the Aquadome it is breathtaking standing at 16.5 M High it holds 1 million L of salt water since it's opening in 2003 the aquarium

has been home to over 1,500 tropical fish it has become a popular attraction the elevator ride through the interior of the aquarium is a highlight for many guests often they even choose rooms with a view of the aquarium after dinner they observe serve the underwater world right from their bed as they fall asleep but in the early morning hours of the next day the peaceful Slumber comes to an end 1 million lers of water rush through the hotel lobby like a tsunami the water masses sweep everything in their path a hotel employee on the ground

floor is pushed through a wall The Saltwater crashes through the front of the hotel and pours onto the street outside it is an absolute miracle that no one died during this incident had it happened just hours [Music] earlier how could this have [Music] happened building a massive aquarium is quite a challenge an understanding of math and physics does not only come in handy for for aquariums though but also in everyday life brilliant gives you skills that can be applied to everything literally all the way from basic logic to artificial intelligence it does so in an

engaging and playful way you can customize the content and work through the exercises and problems at your own pace take a quick quiz when you sign up and you'll get content matching your personal skill level and interests the new brilliant course thinking and code helps you understand the inner workings of technological approaches to solve real world issues in a truly intuitive and engaging manner booster analytical skills become a better Problem Solver at work to try everything brilliant has to offer free for a full 30 days visit brilliant.org Fern or click on the link in the

description the first 200 of you will get 20% off of brilliant's annual premium subscription start developing new skills today just minutes after the incident the fire department is on the scene somehow no one died only two people suffered minor injuries then Berlin mayor Francisco GFI says in an interview nonetheless the scale of the devastation is staggering the force of the Rushing Water has left a trail of Destruction at least six other shops next to the hotel were damaged debris was swept onto the street nothing remains of the Cozy living room at osphere inside instead there's

chaos destruction and countless dead fish very few have survived the rupture of the aquarium those that did were rescued immediately the investigation of the case begins why did the Aquadome burst unfortunately there's no surveillance camera aimed at the aquarium so logically they speak with the people who were in the hotel at the time maybe they saw something one one of them is a 42-year-old Hotel employee named J Marin Marin is on the night shift actually it's not supposed to be his shift today at all he spontaneously filled in for a colleague it's a normal Thursday

evening he's sitting on the ground floor of the building in the back office at the computer maybe 20 M away from the aquarium then it's no longer a normal night shift he hears a loud noise he gets up and walks towards the lobby to check but he doesn't get far just seconds later he's completely underwater the water bursts through a non-bearing wall and drags him with it he lands in the lint chocolate shop right next door buried under all sorts of delicious debris he can't move but he is conscious he can breathe and calls for

help every 30 seconds he tries to attract attention the fire department arrives and hears his calls they slowly remove the debris above him until he is freed on the way to the ambulance Marin can hardly believe how lucky he was he just survived the burst of the world's largest freestanding aquarium on his way out of the chocolate shop he grabs a piece of candy nonetheless Marin couldn't see what caused the aquarium to [Applause] burst so there are no surveillance recordings no Witnesses speculations arise the Aquadome is a cylinder made of acrylic glass despite its name

acrylic glass is not a glass in a traditional sense it's a type of plastic the material is particularly popular for its break resistance it is considered a construction material that remains stable for a long time nonetheless investigators in the public first suspect material fatigue be the cause of the catastrophe was it perhaps an act of sabotage did someone damage the aquarium by firing a gunshot was there an earthquake or did movement in the substructure lead lead to the rupture theories range from temperature fluctuations and construction errors to the use of the wrong cleaning spray the

hotel owner Union investment wants to know the exact cause so they hire acrylic expert Christian bondon and material examiner Robert kirner to get to the bottom of this whole mess every single piece of aquarium glass is collected from the hotel lobby to the street bondon and kirner start examining the shards each piece is photographed numbered and sorted by size the Aquadome is not reassembled but rather unrolled and laid out on the floor in a warehouse in Brandenburg they reconstruct where each Shard was in the Aquadome with this technique they may be able to find out

where the damage began a gigantic 700 piece puzzle emerges it occupies an area of 578 M and weighs a total of 90 tons every professional Puzzler knows that you should start with the edges the experts do the same they identify the edge pieces mostly based on their thickness the cylinder wall is thicker at the bottom Edge than at the top this allows them to slowly figure out where each Shard once was this puzzle takes months some glass fragments are even examined under a microscope and chemically analyzed in October 2023 expert kishan Bonton presents their final

results they have three possible hypotheses for the damage when the Aquadome was built in 2002 the aquarium was not transported in one piece the American company Reynolds polymer technology was hired to build the acrylic tubes nobody in Germany has the technology 15 acrylic panels were manufactured in Colorado and brought to Germany it was an incredibly complex construction project P will swing right a little bit yeah we swing right now okay now down down down down down down down down stop in the future lobby of the hotel the individual parts were then carefully connected and glued

together how exactly they put the acrylic panels together without visible seams remains a company secret then the acrylic is meticulously polished for weeks as a result the view of the fish is as clear looking out your window of your office after months of work the construction is finally finished 1 million L of salt water are filled into the aquarium and only a short time later the first inhabitants are allowed to move in the Aquadome is completed it becomes a popular attraction sometimes there are even guided tours they are now standing in the world's greatest fre

standing tank and the only one with an elevator the most famous fish in this tank is the small blue fish with yellow tail this fish is known by almost every child in the world of story from the movie Finding Nemo it's the P surgeon fish but almost 20 years later the Aquadome is destroyed it's possible that an adhesive seam came loose into December 2022 such a huge aquarium with all of its marine life naturally requires a lot of work and care you need to make sure that the water is always at the ideal temperature for

the tropical fish that they're doing well and are being fed every day divers swim in the Aquadome and clean the aquarium the view of the fish always has to stay as clear as the view from your office window sometimes though it also needs more intensive care it was noticed that the gaskets at the base were leaking and water was Dripping into the lobby this didn't matter for the stability of the Aquadome but an aquarium still shouldn't drip anyway between 2019 and 2020 the Aquadome underwent extensive renovation for this all the fish were removed from the

aquarium and the water was completely drained but here's the thing when acrylic absorbs moisture the surface expands when it dries out it shrinks this can cause small cracks to form on the surface it could be that the aquarium wasn't refilled with water soon enough this might have caused the wall to dry out leading to tensions in the acrylic glass that may have caused cracks the experts also came across photos of the renovation process on these they saw that The Renovators were using a hammer and chisel it's possible that they unintentionally caused a small notch on

the gasket during their work over time this could have caused a crack for months the experts worked tirelessly on this enormous puzzle yet in the end it remains incomplete ultimately they can't pinpoint the origin of the crack all three hypotheses are possible maybe a combination of them played a role unfortunately and quite unsatisfyingly there isn't a definitive answer but the Aquadome burst led to other important discussions ions numerous dead tropical fish two injured people who survived a traumatic event damage in the tens of millions after the disaster Animal Welfare organizations criticized keeping tropical fish in

giant aquariums one organization argued that it should not be allowed to use fish as living decorations in the first place according to Nabu fish are sentient and are highly developed vertebrates that should not be kept behind glass just for our entertainment instead of living in their natural habitat these fish fish are crammed into a glass tank Peta even filed a criminal complaint with the public prosecutor's office in Berlin for animal killing Aquadome isn't the first big aquarium that broke in 2012 the glass of an open a shark tank in a shopping mall in Shanghai China

cracked the cause was probably a combination of Sub-Zero temperatures warm water and weak material 16 people were injured these tragedies might raise concerns about the safety of such huge aquariums but also fundamental ethical questions about keeping marine animals in captivity should we do that in the first place maybe the Aquadome is an opportunity to focus on a more respectful way of dealing with marine life in early 2023 the news broke the Aquadome will not be rebuilt