Over the next three weeks, the climbers made the second ascent of Mount Fairweather, a first ascent of an unnamed peak, and had come within 200 feet of the first ascent of Mount Lituya. (Photo: USGS), The spur that forms the corner between Gilbert Inlet and the main body of Lituya Bay. Obviously, megatsunamis will happen again, and possibly without warning. On October 27, 1936, a megatsunami occurred in Lituya Bay in Alaska with a maximum run-up height of 490 feet (149 m) in Crillon Inlet at the head of the bay. (Photo: USGS), South side of Lituya Bay, soon after the tsunami. Lituya Bay Oblique aerial photograph of Lituya Bay in the summer of 1958. This massive tremor triggered around 30.6 million cubic meters of rock to fall 3,000 feet into the Lituya Glacier, causing a torrent of displaced water to rear up and form a monstrous wave which, miraculously, only killed five people. Two hundred miles to the south, underwater landslides in Lynn Canal severed ACS's Juneau-Skagway cable in four places. Six years later, the magnitude 9.2 Great Alaska earthquake would trigger landslide tsunamis across southern Alaska, accounting for many of the deaths from that earthquake. A 1,720 foot tsunami towered over Lituya Bay, a quiet fjord in Alaska, after an earthquake rumbled 13 miles away. It is 14.5 km long and 3.2 km wide at its widest point. The boat rode over the crest of the wave, down its shallower tailing side, and was carried by a returning wave towards the center of the bay. Conferences, Workshops and Board Meetings, 2015 WSSPC Registration (Payment By Check), Join/Renew Affiliate Membership (Credit Card), Engineering, Construction and Building Codes Committee. By 9pm they were in the air, leaving behind three fishing boats that had come into the steep-walled bay for the night. Two other boats also were anchored in the bay that night; those four people managed to ride out the wave. In the 1950s, a sturdy cabin on the island served as a sometime base camp for Don Miller, a geologist who had taken an interest in Lituya Bay’s other great hazard. Unfortunately, the qualities that make Lituya Bay so prone to landslide tsunamis are found in bays and fjords throughout Southeast Alaska. Don Miller, the geologist, was on a USGS barge in Glacier Bay when the earthquake struck.

It also caused a rockfall in Lituya Bay that generated a wave with a maximum height of 1,720 feet – the world’s largest recorded tsunami. The biggest tsunami in present times struck at Lituya Bay, Alaska on July 9, 1958. Incredibly, the altimeter read 1,800 feet—1,300 feet higher than the 1936 trimline. World's Biggest Tsunami: The largest recorded tsunami with a wave 1720 feet tall in Lituya Bay, Alaska. The mountaineers’ pilot came early, on the evening of July 9, forcing a mad scramble to leave before nightfall. At approximately 10:15 PM Pacific Time, a magnitude 8.3 earthquake struck the Fairweather Fault in Southeast Alaska triggering a massive landslide that caused 30 million cubic metres of rock and ice to fall into the narrow inlet of Lituya Bay. At Yakutat, bridges, docks, and oil lines were damaged, a water tower fell, and a few cabins were destroyed. Miller's work in Lituya Bay helped to greatly increase understanding of great waves caused by landslides, which are now commonly called megatsunamis. The impact generated a local tsunami that crashed against the southwest shore… This was so big that it is known scientifically as a megatsunami. Lituya Bay is a fjord located on the coast of the south-east part of the U.S. state of Alaska. CONTRIBUTIONS TO GENERAL GEOLOGY GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 354-C A timely account of the nature and possible causes of certain giant waves, with eyewitness reports of their destructive capacity UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFIC.E, WA:SHIN:GTON : 1960 That was not the case in 2015, when 180 million tons of rock—the largest non-volcanic landslide ever documented in North Amerca—into Taan Fjord, an inlet of Icy Bay. Accessed November 20, 2020. Cenotaph Island, a large wooded mound at the center of the bay, is named for the 21 members of the La Perouse expedition who drowned in 1798 after capsizing in the tidal bore at the bay’s shallow entrance. They flew over rafts of logs fanning out in the open water as far as five miles from the mouth of the bay. The barge heaved, and Miller watched as rocks fell from high cliffs into the bay. By 9pm they were in the air, leaving behind three fishing boats that had come into the steep-walled bay for the night. They felt the quake and watched as an 800-foot stretch of the island's beach disappeared into the bay along with, To Miller, the destruction he saw was clearly the work of a giant wave, but its height seemed unbelievable. The hat brim is 12 inches in diameter. geologist, had already documented a total of three other major tsunamis at this location; he flew out to the site the next day, and although he was able to take photos from the air, it was another three weeks before it was safe enough to land to document the destruction. Don Miller, a USGS, Above: The stump of a living tree broken off by the wave at the mouth of Lituya Bay, about 7 miles from where the wave originated. Melting Alaska glacier could unleash ‘mega-tsunami’ hundreds of feet tall THIS year ... 16 times more debris and 11 times more energy than Alaska's 1958 Lituya Bay landslide and … The earthquake was so strong, and the tsunami came so quickly, that there was not time to get to a safe place. In Yakutat, the earthquake damaged bridges and docks and knocked a water tower to the ground. Education is our best tool. But a record-breaking tsunami of a different sort occurred in 1958, in a remote part of Alaska known as Lituya Bay — and was witnessed by only six people, two of whom died. Scar at the head of Lituya Bay and wave damage on the north shore, from southwest of … In other words, 60 years after the Lituya Bay tsunami, we are still working out how it happened. The Edrie, meanwhile, was caught in a mess of disordered, 20-foot chop filled with ice and logs. A non-profit earthquake consortium for the western states. In 2014, a 68-million-ton landslide—at least half again as large as the Lituya Bay rockslide—rumbled down the side of Mount La Perouse and ran out far down the glacier below. There, a collapsing bluff started a wave that killed four people and caused much damage in the village of, . The undersea slide that killed one in Skagway in 1994 was not triggered by an earthquake at all, but by an extreme low tide. After a minute or so of shaking, Ulrich heard a great roar from the head of the bay. In 2016, an entire mountainside failed and ran out onto the Lamplugh Glacier. Miller first assumed that the wave had been caused by the large movements along the fault in the inlets. On July 10, 1958, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake occurred on the Fairweather Fault in southeast Alaska. This tsunami is analogous to the tallest ever recorded tsunami, which hit Lituya Bay, Alaska in 1958. Scientists who had not seen the effects of the wave firsthand argued that above 300 feet, the soil and trees must have slid into the bay during the earthquake. Usually even a megatsunami like Lituya Bay is a localized disaster, and technology-based warning systems cannot work quickly enough to help people just a few miles from the source. Proving this would require surveying the bottom of Gilbert Inlet to measure and date the layers of sediment. In some respects, it created a similar reaction to that which would have occurred if an asteroid had fallen into the water. During the earthquake, the southwest side of the inlets moved about 20 feet northwest relative to the opposite shore, on the other side of the fault. A landslide like this into water would generate a megatsunami. We develop seismic policies and share information to promote programs intended to reduce earthquake related losses. The landslide was not caused by an earthquake, and residents had no warning before the wave arrived. This was followed by an explosion of water in Gilbert Inlet, which gave birth to a wave that Ulrich described as “the smallest part of the whole thing” even though it was at least 100 feet high. Wiegel's and Fritz's research reinforced Miller's observations as well as Ulrich's eyewitness account of the massive wave in Gilbert Inlet. The undersea slide that, So far we have been lucky to have few human impacts from recent landslide tsunamis in Alaska, but a disaster in Greenland in 2017 should serve as a warning. We develop seismic policies and share information to promote programs intended to reduce earthquake-related losses. Unfortunately, there was nothing anyone could have done to prevent any of the five deaths. Ultimately, it was discovered that a piece of rock, 2,400 feet by 3,000 feet, and 300 feet thick, had dislodged from the face of the northern wall of the inlet, and fallen 2,000 feet into the bay. Most of this total came from earthquakes in Iran and Ecuador Overall ... 5 people were killed in the 1958 Lituya Bay, Alaska earthquake and megatsunami. Howard Ulrich had brought his seven-year-old son along on the Edrie. On July 9, 1958, the largest wave in modern history occurred in Lituya Bay, on the northern Southeast Alaska coast about halfway between Cape Spencer and Yakutat. Make It Happen Memories. Two were rescued from a dinghy after their boat sank, the others managed to pilot out of the bay on their own power, but at great risk, as the water continued to swirl unpredictably, and was littered with millions of tree trunks that had been ripped from the banks. This 7.8Mw earthquake was characterized as extreme and triggered many rockslides accounting to three million cubic meters that fell into the Lituya Bay … However, Steven Ward and Simon Day of UC Santa Cruz felt that the Gilbert Inlet slide alone could not account for the size of the wave that swept through the outer bay or the amount of material deposited at the bottom of Gilbert Inlet. The four eyewitnesses to the wave in Lituya Bay itself all survived and described it as … When hot weather made glacier travel untenable, they returned to Lituya Bay and radioed a request to be picked up on July 10. 11,300 feet up Mount St. Elias, another group of climbers felt the ground moving in waves as avalanches pounded down the slopes around them. The Landslide Blog (2008, July 9) Lituya Bay—50 Years On. A second Berkeley researcher, R.L. 1958 had only 368 deaths. The move that I just made looks like this: 1958 Lituya Bay megatsunami → 1958 Lituya Bay, Alaska earthquake and megatsunami. When an earthquake strikes...Drop, Cover and Hold on! As the waves calmed, Ulrich piloted through the debris and made a harrowing escape through the shallow entrance at around 11pm. © 2009-2021 Western States Seismic Policy Council. It caused significant geologic changes in the region, including areas that experienced uplift and subsidence. One World Trade Center in New York City is only 56 feet taller. Opposite this scar, on the spur that forms the corner between Gilbert Inlet and the main part of the bay, pilot Kenneth Loken flew alongside a sharp new trimline below which the trees and earth had been stripped away to clean bedrock. There, a collapsing bluff started a wave that killed four people and caused much damage in the village of Nuugaatsiaq. In the morning, he learned of the disaster in Lituya Bay and chartered a float plane to take him there. A full-grown Alaskan brown bear on the rocky slope looked the size of a mite. Southeast Alaska Earthquake. People living in coastal communities should understand how megatsunamis happen and what to do if they are near the water when they feel an earthquake or witness a large slide (hint: run uphill). That was not the case in 2015, when 180 million tons of rock—the largest non-volcanic landslide ever documented in North Amerca—into Taan Fjord, an inlet of Icy Bay. Over the next three weeks, the climbers made the, The mountaineers’ pilot came early, on the evening of July 9, forcing a mad scramble to leave before nightfall. When Miller returned to study the effects of the wave, he measured the highest trimline more precisely at 1,720 feet. Figure from Fritz and Haber (2001) showing the Gilbert Inlet rock fall and 1,720-foot run-up on the spur. Unfortunately, landslide tsunamis are especially difficult disasters to prepare for. Their 2010 paper describes a possible double slide, where the destruction of the toe of Lituya Glacier triggered a much larger, slower submarine slide of glacial deposits after the initial rockslide. A flying boat dropped Paddy Sherman’s mountaineering expedition at Lituya Bay on June 17, 1958. Damage from the 1958 megatsunami … The hat brim is 12 inches in diameter. The Fairweather fault runs directly through Gilbert and Crillon inlets, which form the crosspiece at the top of Lituya Bay's distinctive "T" shape. UAF is an AA/EO employer and educational institution and prohibits illegal discrimination against any individual. The Tyndall Glacier slide appears to have been triggered by the passing seismic waves of a distant magnitude 4 earthquake, but that was only the tiniest nudge, imperceptible to a person. The, A hundred miles up the coast, in Yakutat Bay, a couple was heading home in a skiff after picking berries on Khantaak Island. The lighthouse at Harbor Point and the cabin on Cenotaph Island were both gone without a trace. Ulrich steered into the wave and the Edrie shot up its face, snapping the anchor chain and sending it whipping around the pilot house. On July 10, 1958, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake occurred on the Fairweather Fault in southeast Alaska. (Image: Geology.com/NASA Landsat) Ulrich was awakened by the shaking and went up on deck. The earthquake struck at 10:16pm. Bill Swanson described his boat lodged bow-first near the crest of the wave, as if surfing it backwards, as he looked down at treetops far below him. The 1958 cataclysm was triggered by a … Nine days later, descending after a blizzard suffocated one of the men in his tent, the survivors found the landscape of snow and ice deeply altered, and no sign of the lower camp where they had cached their snowshoes. Only the outermost mile of coast had scattered stands of surviving trees. The bay was noted in 1786 by Jean-François de Lapérouse, who named it Port des Français. This mass of rock plunged from an altitude of approximately 3000 feet (914 meters) down into the waters of Gilbert Inlet (see map below). Like Paddy Sherman's climbers and the fishermen who survived the wave, it helps to be lucky. It does, however, highlight the importance of documenting such events for posterity, and to consider such extreme events when making development decisions for coastal areas in areas with high seismicity or vulnerability to tsunamis. (Photo: Paul Swanstrom), A flying boat dropped Paddy Sherman’s mountaineering expedition at Lituya Bay on June 17, 1958. Accessed November 20, 2020. Philip Fradkin (2001), Wildest Alaska, University of California. For most of the bay, destruction below the trimline was absolute. 1958 Lituya Bay This earthquake is also remembered because of the mega tsunami that followed it, killing lots of people. Hermann Fritz and Willi Hager (2001), "Lituya Bay Case: Rock Slide Impat and Wave Run-Up", Don J. Miller (1960), "Giant Waves at Lituya Bay, Alaska", Don Tocher (1960), "The Alaska Earthquake of July 10, 1958: Movement on the Fairweather Fault and Field Investigation of Southern Epicentral Region", Steven N. Ward and Simon Day (2010), "The 1958 Lituya Bay Landslide and Tsunami - A Tsunami Ball Approach", Lituya Bay (at center left) offers the only sheltered anchorage for a long stretch of Southeast coast. On July 10, 1958, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake occurred on the Fairweather Fault in southeast Alaska. A total of five people were killed in the event: three people died on Khantaak Island at the mouth of Yakutat Bay when the beach they were standing on subsided 100 feet below sea level; the other two died when their boat was sunk by the tsunami at Lituya Bay. Accessed November 20, 2020. From there it raced toward the mouth of the bay—and the fishing boats—with some side-to-side sloshing that accounted for variations in the height of the trimline along the length of the bay. Two of the deaths were the Wagners, who had tried to flee Lituya Bay aboard the Sunmore; they were never seen again. Cenotaph Island is at center. He found that all evidence of previous tsunamis had been destroyed by this one. The magnitude 7.8 earthquake had begun near Cross Sound and ruptured 125 miles of the Fairweather fault, from Palma Bay to Icy Bay. This trimline is 180 feet above sea level and 1000 feet from the high tide mark. The wave didn’t travel far, as it struck land almost immediately. My ship seemed very small there beneath the steep walls of ice and stone. Giant Waves in Lituya Bay Alaska By DON J. MILLER SHORTER. After a minute or so the wave reached Cenotaph Island, breaking as it came around the left side but smooth-faced on the right. This is the site of the 1,720-foot run-up, the highest ever documented. On July 9, 1958, an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.7-8.3 triggered an enormous rockfall in a remote bay along the Gulf of Alaska. Avalanches were coming down the mountains at the head of the bay. 1936: Lituya Bay, Alaska. Aerial photograph of Lituya Bay a few weeks after the 1958 tsunami. But Miller had seen driftwood and rocks strewn across the slopes at the top of the trimline, and the trees that had not been washed into the bay all lay on the ground pointing westward, as the wave had traveled. 100-million-ton slide onto the Lamplugh Glacier, generate a megatsunami with 600-foot run-up, residents had no warning before the wave arrived, Lituya Bay Case: Rock Slide Impat and Wave Run-Up, The Alaska Earthquake of July 10, 1958: Movement on the Fairweather Fault and Field Investigation of Southern Epicentral Region, The 1958 Lituya Bay Landslide and Tsunami - A Tsunami Ball Approach, Embedded video for 60 years ago: The 1958 earthquake and Lituya Bay megatsunami, 2156 Koyukuk Drive, PO Box 757320, Fairbanks, AK 99775. Twenty-one of his men perished in the tidal current in the bay. The combination of steep slopes rising directly out of the sea, rapid erosion from glaciers and heavy coastal precipitation, and frequent earthquakes all contribute to frequent landslides capable of causing tsunamis. Scientists named these waves megatsunami 1. All told, five people were killed by the earthquake and subsequent wave in Lituya Bay.

Miller, United States Geological Survey. Distinct trimlines—demarcations in the vegetation with young growth below and old growth above—showed where unusually large waves had torn through the bay and run up hillsides as high as 490 feet. It’s also possible that big landslides are becoming more common as glaciers retreat, removing support from the lower slopes of steep valleys. University of Alaska (2018, July 13) 60 Years Ago: The 1958 Earthquake and Lituya Bay Megatsunami. A little after midnight, a boat responding to Ulrich's mayday calls found and rescued the Swansons. As the wall of water rushed down the inlet, Ulrich found that that his anchor was hopelessly stuck. It’s also possible that big landslides are becoming more common as glaciers retreat, removing support from the lower slopes of steep valleys. A landslide there in 1958, caused by a major earthquake, had pushed a gigantic wave over that mountain's shoulder and out the bay. Our tsunami inundation maps include landslide tsunami scenarios for some of Alaska's most at-risk communities, showing which areas are likely to be safe and which are not. The boat crashed down and foundered on the far side of the spit, but Swanson and his wife Vivian were able to escape the wreck in their skiff with just the clothes they were wearing and a chair for a paddle. (Map from Miller, Great Waves in Lituya Bay, Alaska), During the earthquake, the bay side of Gilbert and Crillon inlets moved about 20 feet northwest relative to the northeast wall that forms the head of the bay. This is a sampling of small clips of 8 mm film transferred to DVD. (Photo: USGS). The other three deaths occurred eighty miles north, on a beach on Khantaak Island. In 2001, Hermann Fritz and Willi Hager attempted to replicate the initial wave's 1,720-foot run-up using a pneumatic landslide generator to blast simulated rockslides into at 1:675 scale model of Gilbert Inlet. There were 2 incredibly lucky fishermen in their boat on the Bay when the megatsunami happened, and they lived to tell about it. Some of the material landed on the toe of Tyndall Glacier, but enough of it slammed into the water to generate a megatsunami with 600-foot run-up. The Sunmore and Badger were each crewed by married couples. Scientists fear the resulting event could happen "within the next year" and would drastically outclass the 1958 Lituya Bay Mega Tsunami in Alaska. It also caused a rockfall in Lituya Bay that generated a wave with a maximum height of 1,720 feet – the world’s largest recorded tsunami. Wiegel, built a 1:1000 scale model of Lituya Bay and found that he could more or less recreate Miller's observations given a large enough mass of rocks falling as a unit into Gilbert Inlet at high velocity. In Lituya Bay, fewer than five minutes passed between the earthquake and when the wave reached the boats. In Gilbert Inlet, which branches north at a right angle from the head of the bay, Miller found that a stream delta had vanished and 1,300 feet of ice had sheared off the end of Lituya Glacier. April 1, 1946: The April Fools tsunami, triggered by an earthquake in Alaska, killed 159 people, mostly in Hawaii. To Miller, the destruction he saw was clearly the work of a giant wave, but its height seemed unbelievable. All five deaths occurred in the water, which speaks to the nature of earthquake hazards in Southeast. Three persons were killed in Lituya Bay, and two people were missing and presumed dead who were caught in the tsunami. From variations in the height of the trimline, Miller inferred that part of the wave had washed over the spur while the rest of it crossed the bay diagonally and struck the south side near Mudslide Creek, creating the second highest trimline. On the night of July 9, 1958, an earthquake along the Fairweather Fault in the Alaska Panhandle loosened about 40 million cubic yards (30.6 million cubic meters) of rock high above the northeastern shore of Lituya Bay. Miller wrote that his observations were "widely doubted both on theoretical grounds and on the basis of aerial observations and study of photographs by others." Two people fishing in the bay were killed, but another boat amazingly managed to ride the wave. It also caused a rockfall in Lituya Bay that generated a wave with a maximum height of 1,720 feet – the world’s largest recorded tsunami. Six years later, the magnitude 9.2 Great Alaska earthquake would trigger landslide tsunamis across southern Alaska, accounting for many of the deaths from that earthquake. USC Tsunami Research Group: 1958 Lituya Bay Tsunami, http://www.usc.edu/dept/tsunamis/alaska/1958/webpages/index.html, Disaster Pages of Dr. George PC: “The Mega-Tsunami of July 9, 1958 in Lituya Bay, Alaska”, http://www.drgeorgepc.com/Tsunami1958LituyaB.html, http://www.gi.alaska.edu/AlaskaScienceForum/article/giant-waves-lituya-bay, BBC Nature: Mega Tsunami – Alaskan Super Wave – Amazing Survival, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN6EgMMrhdI. Scientists were puzzled for some time by the sheer size of the wave, because they could not identify a mechanism that could have created such a massive reaction. The Lituya Bay incident only killed 5 people, as it happened at a rugged part of Alaska’s southern strip. Lituya Bay is a fjord located on the Fairweather Fault in the northeastern part of the Gulf of Alaska. Fortunately, both of these slides ran out onto glaciers instead of into water. Miller, USGS/Wikimedia Commons). The seven miles long and two miles narrow Lituya Bay. It was felt from Seattle to Whitehorse, though most of the structural damage was confined to Yakutat. Somehow the Edrie was still afloat with its motor still running. Fittingly, a research vessel named after Miller served as George Plafker's base of operations for some of his work studying changes to the Alaska coastline after the 1964 earthquake--work that would greatly advance understanding of plate tectonics and especially subduction. Damage from the 1958 Lituya Bay megatsunami can be seen in this oblique aerial photograph of Lituya Bay, Alaska as the lighter areas at the shore where trees have been stripped away. Once over the bay, they could not land because its entire surface was strewn with tree trunks and giant blocks of ice. Alaska, Ecuador and Peru saw fairly high activity. Lituya Bay offers the only sheltered anchorage for a long stretch of Southeast Alaska coast, but the bay itself is hardly safe. July 9, 1958: Regarded as the largest recorded in modern times, the tsunami in Lituya Bay, Alaska was caused by a landslide triggered by an 8.3 magnitude earthquake. University of Alaska (2018, July 13) Lituya Bay. The tsunami was triggered by an 8.3 magnitude earthquake, triggering … (Image: D.J. Some 27,000 people died. Miller believed he had identified four such waves over the last century, but he did not know their cause. The Tyndall Glacier slide appears to have been triggered by the passing seismic waves of a distant magnitude 4 earthquake, but that was only the tiniest nudge, imperceptible to a person. Gilbert Inlet and Crillon Inlet are at the back, mostly hidden by terrain. Still, living with the danger of megatsunamis is part of the cost of working and playing in one of the world's most breathtaking landscapes. Hence, there was little effect on human settlements. The combination of steep slopes rising directly out of the sea, rapid erosion from glaciers and heavy coastal precipitation, and frequent earthquakes all contribute to frequent landslides capable of causing tsunamis. The strike-slip earthquake took place on the Fairweather Fault and triggered a rockslide of 40 million cubic yards (30 million cubic meters and about 90 million tons) into the narrow inlet of Lituya Bay, Alaska. So far we have been lucky to have few human impacts from recent landslide tsunamis in Alaska, but a disaster in Greenland in 2017 should serve as a warning. Unfortunately, the qualities that make Lituya Bay so prone to landslide tsunamis are found in bays and fjords throughout Southeast Alaska. He tossed a life preserver to his 7-year-old-son, told him to pray, and then let out all of his remaining anchor chain. Our. Miller wrote that his observations were ". Up on the northeast wall, Miller spotted a huge landslide scar with cascades of rock still running down it. The wave was brought on by an enormous 8.3 magnitude earthquake that hit the Fairweather Fault and caused a massive earth landslide.

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