1958 Lituya Bay earthquake and megatsunami

An earthquake on the Fairweather Fault, which runs west of Juneau along the Alaska Panhandle, struck at around 10:15 p.m. on 9 July 1958 near Lituya Bay, a seven-mile long fjord about a hundred miles southeast of Yakutat. The shaking triggered a landslide at the head of the bay, and the displaced water stripped the forest to a trimline measured at 524 m of run-up on a spur ridge above Gilbert Inlet, reported elsewhere as a 1,720-foot wave. Millions of trees were swept out into the Gulf of Alaska.

Date and time (UTC)
1958-07-10T06:15
Highest recorded water height (m)
524.6
Cause, as the catalogue records it
earthquake and landslide
Magnitude of the causing earthquake
7.8
NCEI event page
www.ngdc.noaa.gov/hazel/view/hazards/tsunami/event-more-info/1880

Category: Disasters & Incidents

Tags: earthquake, landslide, fjord, alaska, fairweather fault

Coordinates: 58.37, -136.665

Part of Tsunamis with waves of 30 metres or more since 1950

More in Tsunamis with waves of 30 metres or more since 1950

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