Lituya Bay's Apocalyptic Wave - NASA SURVIVING THE BIGGEST WAVE EVER By DAVE KIFFER - SitNews 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. I know you can't ordinarily see that glacier from where I was anchored. Calamity struck at 10pm on July 9, 1958, when a 8.-Richter-scale earthquake rammed the Alaskan coast up and northward. 1958 Lituya Bay, Alaska earthquake and megatsunami. Ward and Day describe how the initial rockfall could have triggered a second submarine slide of glacial sediment capable of generating the wave observed in the outer bay. People died in Turkey & # x27 ; s zmir Province while an additional 1,034 pretty much everything soil. [4] The strike-slip earthquake took place on the Fairweather Fault and triggered a rockslide of 30 million cubic meters (40 million cubic yards) and about 90 million tons into the narrow inlet of Lituya Bay, Alaska. It seems to be solid, but it was jumping and shaking like crazy. "The Alaska earthquake of July 10, 1958: Movement on the Fairweather fault and field investigation of southern epicentral region", Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America; April 1960; v. 50; no. It caused significant geologic changes in the region, including areas that experienced uplift and subsidence. The study concluded that:[17]. Six years later, the magnitude 9.2 Great Alaska earthquake would trigger landslide tsunamis across southern Alaska, accounting for many of the deaths from that earthquake. Description. [11], The earthquake caused a subaerial rockfall in the Gilbert Inlet. The wave caused damage to the vegetation up the headlands around the area where the rockfall occurred, up to a height of 524 meters, as well as along the shoreline of the bay. Lituya Bay is a fjord located on the coast of the Southeast part of the U.S. state of Alaska. [10] Lituya Bay is an ice-scoured tidal inlet with a maximum depth of 722 feet (220m). An 8.3 magnitude earthquake, triggering a tsunami 500 meters high the region, including that, 1946: the 1958 tsunami Inlet to La Chaussee spit, which hit Bay. He confirmed Swansons assertion that the wave originated from the northwestern inlet of the T, where Lituya Glacier spills into the bay; the wave, he said, splashed up the mountain slopes as it came around the corner and spread out as it entered the main body of the bay to a height of about 30 meters. A month earlier, a large rockslide plunged into Gilbert Inlet at the lower right, shearing off part of Lituya Glacier and sending water surging over the opposite spur. Proving this would require surveying the bottom of Gilbert Inlet to measure and date the layers of sediment. 1958 Lituya Bay earthquake and megatsunami. In the late 1990s, chemist Charles Mader of Los Alamos National Laboratory modeled several scenarios of possible tsunami generation in Lituya Bay, including ground motion, the rockfall and the possibility that the sudden draining of a glacial lake had induced the wave. displacing far more water thanjust the volume of the rock. A giant wave generated on July 9, 1958, by a rockslide from the cliff at the head of the bay (background, left) destroyed the forest over the light areas to a maximum altitude of 1,720 feetand to a maximum distance of 3,600 feet in from the high-tide shoreline at Fish Lake (foreground, left). Watching from the Badger, Swanson observed the Sunmore also attempting to escape the bay as the wave approached, he told Alaska Sportsman. How tall was the tsunami in Alaska in 1958? The strike-slip earthquake took place on the Fairweather Fault and triggered a rockslide of 30 million cubic meters (40 million cubic yards) and about 90 million tons into the narrow inlet of Lituya Bay, Alaska. It caused significant geologic changes in the region, including areas that experienced uplift and subsidence. Three glaciers flow into the bay: the Lituya and North Crillon glaciers at the northwest and southeast arms of the T, respectively, and the Cascade Glacier between them. Lituya Bay is situated in the Gulf of Alaska in the northeastern section of the gulf. Recorded tsunami, which hit Lituya Bay on June 17, 1958, a large along. Closer to the head of the bay, on the Erdie, Howard Ulrich and his 8-year-old son were also awakened by the earthquake and saw the shaking and rockslides at the head of the bay. 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. [14] After the earthquake it was observed that a subglacial lake, located northwest of the bend in the Lituya Glacier at the head of Lituya Bay, had dropped 100ft (30m). The largest slide dropped 30 million cubic meters, or more than 80 trillion kilograms, of rock into the bay. At 22:15 hours PST on July 9, 1958, which was still daylight at that time of year, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 struck the Lituya Bay area. The water 1958 lituya bay, alaska earthquake and megatsunami deaths high speed generating a gian 47 PA: 7 MOZ Rank: 5 1958 - Somehow the Edriewas still afloat with its motor still running. A M4.9 Jolt in Interior Alaska. 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. 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. At about 10:15 p.m. on July 9, 1958, a magnitude-7.5 earthquake occurred on the Fairweather Fault, displacing the ground by more than 6 meters horizontally and 1 meter vertically. Suzanne Somers Recipes, The 1958 Lituya Bay earthquake occurred on July 9 at 22:15:58 with a moment magnitude of 7.8 to 8.3 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI. You can read more about this event in 60 years ago: The 1958 earthquake and Lituya Bay megatsunami. Though no deaths were recorded, the size was noteworthy. (Image: D.J. 1958 Lituya Bay earthquake and megatsunami is part of WikiProject Geology, an attempt at creating a standardized, informative, . Two survivors of a Mega tsunami tell their stories of the Gulf which hit Lituya Bay request.. July 10, 1958, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake occurred on the island occurred on north. Lituya Bay sits on the Southeast side of Alaska. Suzanne Somers Recipes, Ulrich realized he couldnt haul back the anchor fast enough to get free of the bottom and instead paid out as much chain as he could in the hope that he could ride out the wave. It inundated five square miles of land and cleared hundreds of thousands of trees. Two more individuals, a fishing boat captain and his seven-year-old son, were struck by the wave and lifted hundreds of feet into the air by the swell. 1958 (1958 Lituya Bay earthquake and megatsunami) 1958 7 9 10 15 7.8~8.3, XI 9 , 524m . June 17, 1958, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake occurred on the north shore from! The Mega . It also caused a rockfall in Lituya Bay that generated a wave with a maximum height of 1,720 feet the worlds largest recorded tsunami. July 9, 1958, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake occurred on the island Bay a few weeks after the Mega-Tsunami Epicenter was 8 miles east of Salcha, with a depth of 2.4 miles thousand.! The strongest tsunamis occur in the open ocean, moving at the speed of jet aircraft and reaching the size of a skyscraper. A combination of disturbances triggered by the earthquake generated a mega-tsunami wave that rose to a maximum height of 1,720 feet (516 m) at the head of Lituya Bay. To Miller, the destruction he saw was clearly the work of a giant wave, but its height seemed unbelievable. Prevention Web (2020, March 26) The tallest tsunami wave ever recorded killed only 5 people. This tsunami is analogous to the tallest ever recorded tsunami, which hit Lituya Bay, Alaska in 1958. Learn more about UAs notice of web accessibility. One hundred and seventeen ( 117 ) people died in Turkey & # ;. Accessed November 20, 2020. The 1958 Lituya Bay earthquake occurred on July 9 at 22:15:58 PST with a moment magnitude of 7.8 to 8.3 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme). How far inland would a mega tsunami go? This was the largest earthquake in Alaska since the quake in Yakutat, near Lituya Bay, in 1899. Accessed November 20, 2020. People shake their heads when I tell them I saw it that night. - A subsequent analysis to the 1999 one that examined the wider impact of the event found that the rockfall itself was inadequate to explain the resulting accounts and evidence. 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. The Wagners on theSunmore reacted first, raising their anchor and making for the entrance of the bay. 11,300 feet up Mount St. Elias, another group of climbers felt the ground moving in waves as avalanches pounded down the slopes around them. Some 27,000 people died. Their 2010 paper describes a possible double slide, where the destruction of the toe of Lituya Glacier triggered a much larger, slower submarine slide of glacial deposits after the initial rockslide. [6] The shock was felt in southeastern Alaskan cities over an area of 400,000 square miles (1,000,000km2), as far south as Seattle, Washington, and as far east as Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada. A combination of disturbances triggered by the earthquake generated a mega-tsunami wave that rose to a maximum height of 1,720 feet (516 m) at the head of Lituya Bay. University of Alaska (2018, July 13) 60 Years Ago: The 1958 Earthquake and Lituya Bay Megatsunami. The head of Lituya Bay in August 1958. Wednesday, July 6, 2016. Tonight's M4.9 earthquake at 9:56pm rattled the Interior, with felt reports from Fairbanks, North Pole, Salcha, Nenana, Healy, Cantwell, Delta Junction, Chugiak, Anchorage, and as far south as Victoria, British Columbia. The front of Lituya Glacier is at the lower left corner. In Turkey & # x27 ; s zmir Province while an additional 1,034 Wikipedia < /a Detailed. Accessed November 20, 2020. At the head of Lituya Bay, Alaska, on July 10, 1958, an earthquake of magnitude 7.3 triggered a gigantic rock fall, later estimated as measuring forty million cubic yards, at the headland of the bay and a resultant 1,700-foot-high tsunami wave because of the water that was displaced. 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. But a record-breaking tsunami of a different sort occurred in 1958, in a remote part of Alaska known as Lituya Bay and was witnessed by only six people, two of whom died. [11], The Lituya Bay tsunami caused damage at higher elevations than any other tsunami, being powerful enough to push water up the tree covered slopes of the fjord with enough force to clear trees to a reported height of 524m (1,719ft). 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. On July 9, 1958, an earthquake (7.9 to 8.3 on the Richter scale) struck Alaska, shaking off a 90 million (long) ton block of rock and ice into Lituya Bay in southern Alaska, resulting in the biggest wave ever recorded. The wave did not go up 1,800 feet, the water splashed there. University of Alaska (2018, July 13) Lituya Bay. The 1958 Event. The wave measured at over 524m, the highest ever recorded, and caused significant damage and destruction in the area. 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. 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