Landslide causes tsunami in Alaska

[QED]

Article has video and animations. Gift article

A Landslide in Alaska Set Off a Tsunami. There May Be More to Come.

Nearly 500 feet up a near-vertical rock face, scraped clean of soil and alder trees, Bretwood Higman, a geologist, looked down across the Tracy Arm fjord in southeast Alaska at a scene of devastation.

At 5:26 a.m. on Aug. 10 last year, a mass of rock with a volume 24 times larger than that of the great pyramid of Giza crashed down the mountainside, sending a wave of water 1,578 feet up the opposite wall and setting off a tsunami that roared down the fjord. It swept over the ridge that Dr. Higman was now standing on. The whole thing took about a minute.

Dr. Higman was part of an international team investigating the aftermath of the geologic event, the second largest landslide-generated tsunami on record. Using computer models, the researchers were able to recreate the landslide and tsunami, as well as a standing wave called a seiche that sloshed back and forth for 36 hours after the landslide.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/06/science/tsunami-landslide-alaska-climate-arctic.html?unlocked_article_code=1.glA.CCcq.RP_AkScq66jJ&smid=url-share

[malaise]

1. Freaking wow - and a new word for me

as well as a standing wave called a seiche that sloshed back and forth for 36 hours after the landslide.

———-
Thanks

[highplainsdem]

2. Terrifying. I remember seeing a documentary on the 1958 Lituya Bay landslide and tsunami that was even worse,

but that was caused by an earthquake, and the thought of climate change now causing more of these mega-tsunamis is a nightmare, especially with so much tourism.

There were only 3 fishing boats in Lituya Bay during the 1958 tsunami. One boat didn't make it - no survivors.

https://earthquake.alaska.edu/60-years-ago-1958-earthquake-and-lituya-bay-megatsunami

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958_Lituya_Bay_earthquake_and_megatsunami

I tried to find a good documentary on YouTube, but it's been hit with a tsunami of AI crap in the last few years.

I did find this older video:

[QED]

3. I had a video of a Lituya Bay tsunami

I used to show it to my students. I can't recall who produced it.

[highplainsdem]

4. The documentary I saw was on cable TV, can't recall what channel, and quite a few years ago. Survivors were

interviewed...and I just found a clip at DailyMotion of an interview with the survivors, part of an old BBC documentary:

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xhqagp

[highplainsdem]

5. And a YouTube video I'd found earlier looks like an earlier part of the documentary than the snippet at DailyMotion.

Sounds like the same BBC narrator. This YT snippet ends just before the 1958 tsunami is described:

[eppur_se_muova]

6. There was a second thread on this begun in Weather Watchers -- I posted some links there.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1232&pid=12846

https://earthquake.alaska.edu/60-years-ago-1958-earthquake-and-lituya-bay-megatsunami (Lituya Bay, 1958)

https://www.gi.alaska.edu/alaska-science-forum/giant-wave-icy-bay (Icy Bay, 2015)



https://earthquake.alaska.edu/about-tsunamis-alaska

[malaise]

7. So can I call Donvict a

a seiche that sloshes back and forth on most matters?

[Nittersing]

8. Holy cow!! I was there years ago.

On one of the smaller (63 passenger) cruise ships.

This is such a popular spot on the cruise ship routes. So fortunate that it happened at 5:30am!!

[progressoid]

9. It was pretty amazing

https://youtube.com/shorts/kFZyNPPgwtU?si=coVrjNMIDNmJzeKf