In 2016, an entire mountainside failed and ran out onto the Lamplugh Glacier. All told, five people were killed by the earthquake and subsequent wave in Lituya Bay. 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. © 2009-2021 Western States Seismic Policy Council. It was felt from Seattle to Whitehorse, though most of the structural damage was confined to Yakutat. 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. 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). Three persons were killed in Lituya Bay, and two people were missing and presumed dead who were caught in the tsunami. (Image: D.J. (Image: Geology.com/NASA Landsat) 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. 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. In other words, 60 years after the Lituya Bay tsunami, we are still working out how it happened. As the waves calmed, Ulrich piloted through the debris and made a harrowing escape through the shallow entrance at around 11pm. The site of the mountaineers' camp was scoured down to bedrock. University of Alaska (2018, July 13) 60 Years Ago: The 1958 Earthquake and Lituya Bay Megatsunami. 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. Like Paddy Sherman's climbers and the fishermen who survived the wave, it helps to be lucky. The bay was noted in 1786 by Jean-François de Lapérouse, who named it Port des Français. 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. 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. This was so big that it is known scientifically as a megatsunami. The hat brim is 12 inches in diameter. This is a sampling of small clips of 8 mm film transferred to DVD. In June 2016, pilot Paul Swanstrom followed a strange dust plume and found the aftermath of a more than 100-million-ton slide onto the Lamplugh Glacier. The 1958 cataclysm was triggered by a … Lituya Bay offers the only sheltered anchorage for a long stretch of Southeast Alaska coast, but the bay itself is hardly safe. 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. By 9pm they were in the air, leaving behind three fishing boats that had come into the steep-walled bay for the night. (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. (Photo: USGS). Scientists named these waves megatsunami 1. 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 Landslide Blog (2008, July 9) Lituya Bay—50 Years On. This tsunami is analogous to the tallest ever recorded tsunami, which hit Lituya Bay, Alaska in 1958. 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. Scientists fear the resulting event could happen "within the next year" and would drastically outclass the 1958 Lituya Bay Mega Tsunami in Alaska. 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. This mass of rock plunged from an altitude of approximately 3000 feet (914 meters) down into the waters of Gilbert Inlet (see map below). 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. A little after midnight, a boat responding to Ulrich's mayday calls found and rescued the Swansons. Incredibly, the altimeter read 1,800 feet—1,300 feet higher than the 1936 trimline. 1958 had only 368 deaths. The impact generated a local tsunami that crashed against the southwest shore… 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. Two other boats also were anchored in the bay that night; those four people managed to ride out the wave. 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. The Sunmore had vanished, and the Wagners were never found. On July 10, 1958, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake occurred on the Fairweather Fault in southeast Alaska. 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. It caused significant geologic changes in the region, including areas that experienced uplift and subsidence. Accessed November 20, 2020. Obviously, megatsunamis will happen again, and possibly without warning. The landslide was not caused by an earthquake, and, Slope stability assessments can help to identify potential slides before they happen, but this is expensive, and Southeast's thousands of miles of steep coastline make it impractical except in a small number of targeted locations. 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 In Lituya Bay, fewer than five minutes passed between the earthquake and when the wave reached the boats. 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. At Yakutat, bridges, docks, and oil lines were damaged, a water tower fell, and a few cabins were destroyed. Two people fishing in the bay were killed, but another boat amazingly managed to ride the wave. Miller could not explain how the earthquake had caused such an enormous wave, but he was certain that it had. On July 10, 1958, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake occurred on the Fairweather Fault in southeast Alaska. Don Miller, the geologist, was on a USGS barge in Glacier Bay when the earthquake struck. 1958 Lituya Bay This earthquake is also remembered because of the mega tsunami that followed it, killing lots of people. 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). Somehow the Edrie was still afloat with its motor still running. Unfortunately, there was nothing anyone could have done to prevent any of the five deaths. 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." A non-profit earthquake consortium for the western states. Lituya Bay is a fjord located on the coast of the south-east part of the U.S. state of Alaska. The wave didn’t travel far, as it struck land almost immediately.
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. 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. Two hundred miles to the south, underwater landslides in Lynn Canal severed ACS's Juneau-Skagway cable in four places. Damage from the 1958 megatsunami … The Fairweather fault does not produce the largest earthquakes, but the danger from these earthquakes is increased by the combination of steep slopes, unconsolidated soils, narrow fjords, and a population that lives and works by the sea. 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. This 7.8Mw earthquake was characterized as extreme and triggered many rockslides accounting to three million cubic meters that fell into the Lituya Bay … Scar at the head of Lituya Bay and wave damage on the north shore, from southwest of … Make It Happen Memories. 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. Two of the deaths were the Wagners, who had tried to flee Lituya Bay aboard the Sunmore; they were never seen again. Slope stability assessments can help to identify potential slides before they happen, but this is expensive, and Southeast's thousands of miles of steep coastline make it impractical except in a small number of targeted locations. University of Alaska (2018, July 13) Lituya Bay. The earthquake struck at 10:16pm. Fritz and Hager found that a slide like the one at Gilbert Inlet could generate that much run-up because the rapid impact of the slide would bring a large air cavity into the water behind it, displacing far more water than just the volume of the rock. 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. 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 wave was brought on by an enormous 8.3 magnitude earthquake that hit the Fairweather Fault and caused a massive earth landslide. After a minute or so the wave reached Cenotaph Island, breaking as it came around the left side but smooth-faced on the right. Miller was not around to study these, as he had drowned on the Kiagna River with a young assistant in 1961. Education is our best tool. 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. (Photo: USGS), The spur that forms the corner between Gilbert Inlet and the main body of Lituya Bay. 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. The magnitude 7.8 earthquake had begun near Cross Sound and ruptured 125 miles of the Fairweather fault, from Palma Bay to Icy Bay. 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. 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. To Miller, the destruction he saw was clearly the work of a giant wave, but its height seemed unbelievable. 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. The largest event was a magnitude 8.3 earthquake in Russia in November. I think I have resolved the issue that I mentioned three years ago by including the words "Alaska" and "earthquake" in the title (a few sources that I looked at labeled the earthquake the "1958 Alaska earthquake"). Our. Wiegel's and Fritz's research reinforced Miller's observations as well as Ulrich's eyewitness account of the massive wave in Gilbert Inlet. One World Trade Center in New York City is only 56 feet taller. Alaska, Ecuador and Peru saw fairly high activity. It is 14.5 km long and 3.2 km wide at its widest point. This is the site of the 1,720-foot run-up, the highest ever documented. The Wagners on the Sunmore reacted first, raising their anchor and making for the entrance of the bay. 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. (Photo: Paul Swanstrom), A flying boat dropped Paddy Sherman’s mountaineering expedition at Lituya Bay on June 17, 1958. UAF is an AA/EO employer and educational institution and prohibits illegal discrimination against any individual. 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. Miller, USGS/Wikimedia Commons). displacing far more water than just the volume of the rock. 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. 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. A flying boat dropped Paddy Sherman’s mountaineering expedition at Lituya Bay on June 17, 1958. The earthquake was so strong, and the tsunami came so quickly, that there was not time to get to a safe place. Accessed November 20, 2020. Howard Ulrich had brought his seven-year-old son along on the Edrie. It’s also possible that big landslides are becoming more common as glaciers retreat, removing support from the lower slopes of steep valleys. Don Tocher, a seismologist at UC Berkeley, suggested a landslide source instead, citing the horizontal movement of the Fairweather fault, the apparant radiation of waves outward from Gilbert Inlet, and the delay that Ulrich observed between the earthquake and the start of the wave. After a minute or so of shaking, Ulrich heard a great roar from the head of the bay. 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. Ulrich steered into the wave and the Edrie shot up its face, snapping the anchor chain and sending it whipping around the pilot house. We develop seismic policies and share information to promote programs intended to reduce earthquake related losses. 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. 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. In the morning, he learned of the disaster in Lituya Bay and chartered a float plane to take him there. Miller first assumed that the wave had been caused by the large movements along the fault in the inlets. The red arrow shows the location of the landslide, and the yellow arrow shows the location of the high point of the wave sweeping over the headland. Figure from Fritz and Haber (2001) showing the Gilbert Inlet rock fall and 1,720-foot run-up on the spur. April 1, 1946: The April Fools tsunami, triggered by an earthquake in Alaska, killed 159 people, mostly in Hawaii. A full-grown Alaskan brown bear on the rocky slope looked the size of a mite. 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. 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. 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. The move that I just made looks like this: 1958 Lituya Bay megatsunami → 1958 Lituya Bay, Alaska earthquake and megatsunami. Twenty-one of his men perished in the tidal current in the bay. The landslide scar, which was high above Gilbert Inlet on a near-vertical slope, appeared to have dumped about 40 million tons of rock into the inlet all at once. 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. The four eyewitnesses to the wave in Lituya Bay itself all survived and described it as … 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. 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. There, a collapsing bluff started a wave that killed four people and caused much damage in the village of Nuugaatsiaq. 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. All five deaths occurred in the water, which speaks to the nature of earthquake hazards in Southeast. 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. Lituya Bay is a fjord located on the Fairweather Fault in the northeastern part of the Gulf of Alaska. Proving this would require surveying the bottom of Gilbert Inlet to measure and date the layers of sediment. 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. They flew over rafts of logs fanning out in the open water as far as five miles from the mouth of the bay. This trimline is 180 feet above sea level and 1000 feet from the high tide mark. A landslide there in 1958, caused by a major earthquake, had pushed a gigantic wave over that mountain's shoulder and out the bay. Lituya Bay Oblique aerial photograph of Lituya Bay in the summer of 1958. Cenotaph Island is at center. Ulrich was awakened by the shaking and went up on deck. Unfortunately, the qualities that make Lituya Bay so prone to landslide tsunamis are found in bays and fjords throughout Southeast Alaska.
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