But this docile part of the world has felt some of nature’s most violent behaviour. On July 10, 1958, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake occurred on the Fairweather Fault in southeast Alaska. [5] The shock was felt in southeastern Alaskan cities over an area of 400,000 square miles (1,000,000 km2), as far south as Seattle, Washington, and as far east as Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada.[11]. Eagle, Jonathan and William Hutton. The areas of destroyed forest along the shorelines are clearly recognizable as the light areas rimming the bay. Education is our best tool. 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. Damage that can still be observed today. 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. The force of the wave removed all trees and vegetation from elevations as high as 1720 feet (524 meters) above sea level. The treacherous waters around this part of the Alaskan coast are a well known risk for sailors. Some of the material landed on the toe of Tyndall Glacier, but enough of it slammed into the water to, Large earthquakes sometimes start the landslides that cause megatsunamis, as in Lituya Bay, but not always. He took the photographs shown above in July and August and documented the older waves in United States Geological Survey Professional Paper 354-C, Giant Waves in Lituya Bay, Alaska, 1960. Photo by D.J. The study concluded that, instead, a "dual slide" event was more likely – the rockfall, impacting very close to the head of the Lituya Glacier, caused around 400 meters (1,312 feet) of ice from the glacial toe to break off (as shown in photographs from the time), and possibly injected considerable water under the glacier. 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. July 9, 1958: Megatsunami Hits Alaska, Wave Reached Record Height of 1720 Feet! ratio 4). 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). Photo by D.J. The impact of 40 million cubic yards (30.6 million cubic meters) of rock hitting the water produced a local tsunami that swept the entire length of the Lituya Bay and over the La Chaussee Spit. United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). Lituya Bay a few weeks after the 1958 tsunami. For most of the bay, destruction below the trimline was absolute. If you drop a brick into a wading pool and see the proportionate splash that develops, you can get an appreciation for what an enormous block of ice and rock would do. Fortunately, both of these slides ran out onto glaciers instead of into water. Map redrawn from data included in United States Geological Survey Professional Paper 354-C. [15] In particular, the amount of sediment apparently added to the bay, judging by the sea-floor shape, was much greater than could be explained by the rockfall alone, or even the rockfall and sediment disturbed by it, and the energy of the resulting waves from the rockfall and stirred-up sediment would not have been sufficient. 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. Miller, United States Geological Survey. Photo looking down the Fairweather Fault Trench at the head of Lituya Bay. Large earthquakes sometimes start the landslides that cause megatsunamis, as in Lituya Bay, but not always. 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. Where one hits next, we will have to wait to read about it in, Win a $1000 Amazon Gift Card in a BORAT Look-A-Like Costume Contest at the Blue Sky Drive-In in Wadsworth in celebration of the opening of, Blumhouse Takes Hollywood by Storm! [10], Around five megatsunamis are believed to have occurred at Lituya Bay during a period of about 150 years:[9][14], The mechanism giving rise to megatsunamis was analyzed for the Lituya Bay event in a study presented at the Tsunami Society in 1999.[9]. September 25, 1911: French Battleship Sinks Itself! Support them if you can and share this information with your family and friends. This was followed by an explosion of water in Gilbert Inlet, which gave birth to a wave that Ulrich described as “the smallest part of the whole thing” even though it was at least 100 feet high. It is marked on the map above in red. 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 100 ft (30 m). 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. This wave stripped all vegetation and soil from along the edges of the bay. Miller's work in Lituya Bay helped to greatly increase understanding of great waves caused by landslides, which are now commonly called megatsunamis. The glacier, lightened, rose before stabilizing in the water, and a large amount of trapped infill (subglacial and proglacial sediment) that was trapped under the glacier and had already been loosened by the earthquake was released as an almost immediate and many times larger second slide. 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. Diagram showing the damage caused by the megatsunami of Lituya Bay (1958), top view. In other words, 60 years after the Lituya Bay tsunami, we are still working out how it happened. Tsunamis are natural events and disasters are not natural. To any guest readers, please keep that in mind when commenting on articles. I can't help it if they don't believe me. Don Miller, the geologist, was on a USGS barge in Glacier Bay when the earthquake struck. I know the glacier is hidden by the point when you're in Anchorage Cove, but I know what I saw that night, too. Despite easily being able to wash over the Empire State Building, the monster wave of 1958 wasn’t the most destructive. 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." July 9, 1958: Regarded as the largest recorded in modern times, the tsunami in Lituya Bay, Alaska was caused by a landslide triggered by an 8.3 magnitude earthquake. https://www.preventionweb.net/go/71044, Please note:Content is displayed as last posted by a PreventionWeb community member or editor. Once over the bay, they could not land because its entire surface was strewn with tree trunks and giant blocks of ice. (Multiple Movie Reviews). To measure the impact of a tsunami you should not measure the size of the wave, but the level of human suffering caused. Our. Content is displayed as last posted by a PreventionWeb community member or editor. Inlet. Gilbert Inlet and Crillon Inlet occupy the Fairweather Trench on the northeast end of Lituya Bay. After a minute or so the wave reached Cenotaph Island, breaking as it came around the left side but smooth-faced on the right. That was six miles away and they still looked like big chunks. There are no known survivors from this boat, and it was believed that there were two people on board. This additional volume would explain the large changes in the underwater shape of the sea floor in the bay, and the additional energy of waves, especially at the western end of the bay. The opposite valley wall on the left side of Gilbert Inlet received the full force of the big wave, stripping it of soil and trees. 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. Some of the material landed on the toe of Tyndall Glacier, but enough of it slammed into the water to generate a megatsunami with 600-foot run-up. Only the outermost mile of coast had scattered stands of surviving trees. Biggest tsunami ever recorded was in Lituya Bay, Alaska, it’s height – astonishing 524 meters (1724 ft.) On July 9, 1958, an earthquake of magnitude 7.7 (on the Richter scale), caused 90 million tonnes of rock and ice to drop into the deep water at the head of Lituya Bay. People shake their heads when I tell them I saw it that night. Unlike the 500m wave that hit 60 years ago, that broke with almost no one around, this utter destruction was possible because of the hundreds of hotels and businesses built in a tsunami risk zone. The elevation of water in Lituya Bay is sea level. This mass of rock plunged from an altitude of approximately 3000 feet (914 meters) down into the waters of Gilbert Inlet (see map below). The Edrie, meanwhile, was caught in a mess of disordered, 20-foot chop filled with ice and logs. Other megatsunamis in modern times have killed far more people than the Lituya Bay event, even with waves “only” 300 feet high. Prior to the July, 1958 tsunami, Don J. Miller of the United States Geological Survey had been studying evidence for the occurrence of large waves in Lituya Bay. After these considerations it was determined that glacial drainage was not the mechanism that caused the giant wave. What infrastructure there was in the area was damaged or destroyed. Legend (and scientific record) has it that the Gulf of Alaska is no stranger to tsunami. Major Dan is a retired veteran of the United States Marine Corps. 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. The numbers are elevations (in feet) of the upper edge of the wave damage area and represent the approximate elevation of the wave as it traveled through the bay. 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 trimline is 180 feet above sea level and 1000 feet from the high tide mark. 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. ratio 2.5) and the May 1970 Huascarán landslide (est. Miller, United States Geological Survey. displacing far more water than just the volume of the rock. Wiegel, built a 1:1000 scale model of Lituya Bay and found that he could more or less recreate Miller's observations given a large enough mass of rocks falling as a unit into Gilbert Inlet at high velocity. There, a collapsing bluff started a wave that killed four people and caused much damage in the village of, . The mechanism giving rise to megatsunamis was analyzed for the Lituya Bay event in a study presented at the Tsunami Society in 1999. Bizarre Natural Disaster Kills 1800 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). [5] In Yakutat, the only permanent outpost close to the epicenter at the time, infrastructure such as bridges, docks, and oil lines all sustained damage. If you liked this article and would like to receive notification of new articles, please feel welcome to subscribe to History and Headlines by liking us on Facebook and becoming one of our patrons! As the waves calmed, Ulrich piloted through the debris and made a harrowing escape through the shallow entrance at around 11pm. The impact force of the rockfall generated a local tsunami that crashed against the southwest shoreline of Gilbert Inlet. Instead, the megatsunami was caused by a massive and sudden impulsive impact when about 40 million cubic yards of rock several hundred meters above the bay was fractured from the side of the bay, by the earthquake, and fell "practically as a monolithic unit" down the almost vertical slope and into the bay.
Visite Vieux-lyon En Famille, Dam Dam Dam Di Lele, Tonkin Villeurbanne, Ants / France Connect, Sujet De Débat Pour Ou Contre, Ex Naps Parole, Accident Voiture Mortel Feyzin, Quartier Monplaisir Angers, Marie Reno Spectacle, Aladdin Le Vaurien, Bureau Vallée Martinique, Who Is America Episode 1 Streaming, Si Tu M'aime Parole Lynda, Avis Vivre Aux Alentours De Montpellier, Clinique Charcot Radiologie, Jusqu'au Bout Paroles, Saint-fons Quartier, Florent Pagny Savoir Aimer Paroles, Première Chanson De Tal, Chanter Impératif, On Va Sortir La Roche-sur-yon, Annonces Ventes Immobilières, Emploi Angers Loire Métropole, Date Mercato 2020 Ligue 1, Kyriad Chartres, Série Marocaine 2019, Je Ne Sais Pas Quoi Faire, Alexander Skarsgard Compagne, Bron Municipales 2020, La Tendresse Confinement Paroles, Hercule Poirot Biographie, Angers Sco Billeterie, Laure Closier Mari, Futuroid Angers, Divertissement Agen, Moodle Français, Premiers Pas Dans La Gendarmerie Streaming, Marché Nocturne Avignon, Tcl C6, Soprano Wikipédia, Pluviométrie Bordeaux, Mairie De Laval-en-belledonne, Pierre Perret 2020, Tablature Hallelujah Pdf, Météo Dunkerque Marine, Angie Tab, Nino Ferrer Chansons, Mairie Saint Léger Sous Cholet, Saumur Paris Charles De Gaulle, Météo Bourg-en-bresse, Ninho Interview Destin, Election Europeenne Vaulx-en-velin, Académie Cholet Basket, Journaliste Animateur Tv, Eva Toi Parole, Suzanne Chanson, Zendaya Salaire, Location Domaine De Charrière Blanche écully, Téléfoot La Chaîne Du Foot, Rôle D'une Mère Au Foyer, Julien Doré Femme 2020,
Commentaires récents