
The Mega-Tsunami of July 9, 1958 in Lituya Bay, Alaska (1999) - jacobwilliamroy
http://www.drgeorgepc.com/Tsunami1958LituyaB.html
======
jl2718
My grandmother told me about this earthquake/tsunami when I was trying to
learn everything I could about my grandfather before he died. At that time he
was a navy pilot flying missions in the bearing strait, and she was living on
a small airstrip somewhere on the Alaskan coast with their three babies. The
earthquake hit in the evening and the buildings had no foundation, so they
slid around a bit, but mostly everybody just went to sleep. A couple of the
CPOs were frantic and spent the night chaining the barracks to ground anchors.
The water came in silently and floated the barracks, then left with most of
the sailors sleeping through it. In the morning, many of the buildings that
weren’t anchored had been swept out to sea.

~~~
herrkuggelblitz
I think that you may be thinking of The Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_Alaska_earthquake](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_Alaska_earthquake)).

As far as I know the 1958 earthquake barely gets a historical mention unless
it is to talk about the Lituya Bay incident.

The 1964 quake was extremely destructive and caused tidal waves that destroyed
towns like Cordova and Valdez. These were "normal" sized tidal waves, not 1700
ft monsters like Lituya Bay.

As a relevant anecdote, my Dad (who as only 3 years old at the time) and his
immediate family lived in Valdez. Thankfully their house was away from the
water and they escaped the worst effects. But many friends and townspeople
were not so lucky. They all moved to Anchorage afterwards to start over.

~~~
jl2718
This is very possible.

------
orobinson
I've always been fascinated by this event. I would love to see a realistic CGI
recreation given the absence of actual footage. However, this write up is the
next best thing.

------
iron0013
This is one of my favorite stories. The fisherman survivors (not mentioned in
this scientific account?) riding the megatsunami experienced something rarer
than walking on the moon.

~~~
codezero
American fishermen aren’t known for their accuracy. I haven’t read their
account, but I’d be curious how credible it is. At the same time, what an
experience, good chance it would sound fake even if it were real. This event
is virtually unfathomable.

~~~
jacobwilliamroy
William Swanson and Howard Ulrich's accounts of the tsunami:

[http://www.redundancydept.com/lituya.html](http://www.redundancydept.com/lituya.html)

~~~
codezero
Thanks so much for sharing that. I like how he specifically called out that
the 1700 feet was the height of splashes, and the wave itself was about 100
feet tall. The other fisherman said the face was about two boat lengths (40
foot boat) so these are really good observations, and seem to lack
embellishment.

Time to google search for a computer simulation of this.

Neat:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCn480_TUgY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCn480_TUgY)

Would love to see a photorealistic view from the inlet!

------
krambs
Using this event to think about what an asteroid hitting the ocean might be
like is quite clever.

"The author suggested that with proper scale corrections, analogies could be
drawn between the impulsive impact of the Lituya Bay rockfall to asteroid
impact on ocean floor sediments and on such impulsive wave generation.
Although, the trajectory angle, terminal velocity and total mass and density
of material of an asteroid would be significantly different than those of the
Lituya Bay rockfall, it was suggested that these could be scaled and adjusted
for the purpose of validating a model of asteroid impact."

------
wakkaflokka
Ever since I was a kid I’ve been fascinated with natural disasters. This is
the one of the most fascinating ones. Can you imagine a giant wall of water
this size coming at you?

~~~
Fezzik
I often sit and think about the Missoula Floods and struggle to fathom what
these walls of water would have looked and felt like as an onlooker. When I
was told about the flood (it was thought to be one big event when I was a kid)
I thought people were pulling my leg. This is such a wild world be live on.

For those that are unfamiliar:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missoula_floods](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missoula_floods)

~~~
Nicksil
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missoula_floods](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missoula_floods)

------
pryelluw
That whole website is a goldmine of interesting climate related information.

