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- Lituya Bay
- Episode 3
Lituya Bay: One Wave. 1,720 Feet. Survivors.Episode 31:16
The Forest Erased 1,720 Feet Above the Bay
A geologist enters a debris-choked disaster zone where missing trees provide the only ruler large enough to measure the wave.
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Transcript
Water surged 1,740 feet up the far wall of Gilbert Inlet.
That wall of water began when a rockslide hit the inlet in 1958.
Lituya Bay is an ice-scoured tidal inlet on Alaska's Gulf coast.
Its inner walls rise from 2,200 to more than 6,000 feet.
About a minute into shaking, Howard Ulrich heard a roar. His anchor was stuck.
About 40 million cubic yards of rock plunged into Gilbert Inlet.
Gravity wave raced toward the mouth at 97 to 130 mph.
Two of the three fishing boats in the outer bay were sunk.
The wave threw the Badger over a spit.
Bill and Vivian Swanson escaped the wreck in a skiff.
A helicopter supported ground and aerial observations and photography.
Ulrich gave his son a life preserver and told him to pray.
Trimlines show forest destruction. 1958's wave stripped trees to 1,720 feet.
The 1958 event did not penetrate into the ocean.
Where it leaves off
But the trimlines around Lituya Bay did not record one catastrophe—they revealed that giant waves had attacked this same inlet again and again…
Sources
- ALASKA STATE LIBRARYdggs.alaska.govprimary
- 60 years ago: The 1958 earthquake and Lituya Bay megatsunami | Alaska Earthquake Centerearthquake.alaska.edusecondary
- LANDSLIDE TSUNAMISnctr.pmel.noaa.govsecondary
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