(KSWB/KUSI) — Imagine a wall of water taller than the Empire State Building crashing through a quiet fjord in the dead of night. No warning, no time to run — just the rumbles of an earthquake, the thunder of a mountainside collapsing, and then, a wave unlike any other.
No, this wasn’t a scene from a Hollywood disaster film. It was real.
On the night of July 9, 1958, along the Fairweather Fault in the Alaska Panhandle, nature unleashed the largest tsunami ever recorded after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake triggered a colossal rockslide into Lituya Bay — a narrow, glacier-carved inlet surrounded by steep cliffs.
About 40 million cubic yards of rock fell into the water, triggering a towering wave that reached an almost unimaginable 1,720 feet, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The natural event, also referred to as a mega-tsunami, obliterated tree lines and vegetation in the surrounding area.
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Stump of living spruce tree broken off by the giant wave at Harbor Point, mouth of Lituya Bay. Brim of hat is 12 inches in diameter. This tree is located about 7 miles from where the wave originated. (Photo by D.J. Miller, United States Geological Survey) -
The spur of land between Gilbert Inlet and Lituya Bay that received the full force of the wave. Trees and soil were stripped away to an elevation of 1720 feet above the surface of Lituya Bay. (Photo by D.J. Miller, United States Geological Survey)
Remarkably, the giant wave was mostly localized within Lituya Bay due to its topography, preventing a wider Pacific disaster. The United Nations reported that five people died as a result of the tsunami, two of whom were on a fishing boat within the inlet. A few other lucky fishermen in the area made it out alive, with a USGS professional paper even noting that one couple “was lifted up by the wave and carried across La Chaussee Spit, riding stern first just below the crest of the wave, like a surfboard.”
Unlike most tsunamis caused by undersea earthquakes, the unfolding of the Lituya Bay event was triggered by a landslide. This fact has caused some to question whether this tsunami should be considered the largest ever recorded. Nonetheless, scientists with the United States Geological Survey have labeled it as such.
As climate change increases the likelihood of glacial melt and destabilized terrain in some parts of the world, scientists warn that rare events like the Lituya Bay tsunami could happen in similar high-risk regions. As it stands, the occurrence etched southeastern Alaska into the geological history books.
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