Is U.S. ready for the next wave?

Midway through “America’s Tsunami: Are We Next?,” set for broadcast Sunday on Discovery, scientists exploring the floor of the Indian Ocean find something: a rare sea creature.

“The biologists are excited,” says the narrator.

To stick with “Are We Next?,” you will probably have to share some of that excitement. If you don’t, you’re liable to have already lunged for the remote control.

The subject matter couldn’t be more serious: Is North America vulnerable to an earthquake-tsunami combo like the one that struck Dec. 26, 2004, and killed upwards of 300,000 people in Indian Ocean countries? Is the Cascadia Subduction Zone -- an underwater fault zone running from Vancouver Island to Northern California -- a ticking time bomb?

The frame of the documentary is an expedition organized by Kate Moran, oceanography professor at the University of Rhode Island. Her team wants to examine where the “mega-thrust” occurred so that they might unravel some secrets that would help predict when the Cascadia will blow.

But it’s the style that “Next?” has decided to use that’s the problem.

Instead of telling viewers what was found, how it was found, and what can be done about it, the documentary uses the whodunit form -- more commonly used by television newsmagazines to wring pathos out of obscure crime stories -- and waits until the last moment to reveal what -- if anything -- was discovered.

“Next?” even seems to give a nod to its use of the form. “We’re getting a chance to revisit the crime scene,” one of the scientists, James Austin, a geophysicist from the University of Texas, says at one point.

That said, the graphics are top-notch, both in reconstructing the Indian Ocean event and suggesting what it would look like if a similar horror hit North America. The scientists are a dedicated and appealing bunch.

There is a particularly poignant moment when Austin is overcome with emotion as he reviews the devastation caused by the Indian Ocean tsunami.

“These people had no warning and there’s no excuse for that,” Austin says. “That’s our job. Scientists should help people prepare.”

Even after a year of massive media exposure, the devastation and the sight of mountainous waves barreling ashore like freight trains are chilling. “Next?” has collected some of the most affecting footage.

“It sounded like somebody was literally ripping the island apart.... In the background you could hear the screams,” says a survivor.

A lot of “Next?” is spent filming the scientists evaluating the data they’re retrieving from the ocean floor.

If you have an appreciation for the romance and challenge of science, you’re in good shape. If you see scientists simply as folks with college degrees who have jobs they enjoy, your interest in “Next?” may be less.

One of the scariest moments comes during an interview with a land-bound official from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

He suggests that the damage from a Cascadia tsunami would be worse than Katrina: “First of all, we don’t have 72 hours’ notice like a hurricane.” Given his agency’s response to Katrina, that’s a frightening comment.

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‘America’s Tsunami:

Are We Next?’

Where: Discovery Channel

When: 9 p.m. Sunday

Ratings: TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children)

Executive producer, Discovery Channel: Peter Lovering