In the night of June 12, 1962 three inmates used a raft made of raincoats to escaped the ultimate maximum security prison island Alcatraz in San Francisco, United States. History is unclear about what happened to the escapees. At what time did they step into the water, did they survive, if so, where did they reach land?
The fate of the escapees has been the subject of much debate: did they make landfall on Angel Island, or did the current sweep them out of the bay and into the cold pacific ocean?
In this presentation, we try to shed light on this historic case using a visualization of a high-resolution hydrodynamic simulation of the San Francisco Bay, combined with historical tidal records. By reconstructing the hydrodynamic conditions and using a particle based simulation of the escapees we show possible scenarios. The interactive model is visualized using both a 3D photorealistic and web based visualization.
Here are some visualizations of the escape. Created with 3Di, python-subgrid, matplotlib, VTK, cartodb.
Rowing Map
Passive Map
Detailed particles
Contributors
Several people contributed to this research:
Fedor Baart, Particle model and visualization
Rolf Hut, Idea, historic research
Olivier Hoes, San Francisco Bay model
Gennadii Donchyts, Model interactivity
Elgard van Leeuwen, Coordination, storytelling
Martijn Siemerink, Model runs Mick van der Wegen, Model validation and comparison
