Lituya Bay

View of the Lituya Bay

View over the Bay in the summer of 1958, after the mega tsunami

The Lituya Bay is a bay on the northern Pacific coast in Alaska. It is located close to the Glacier Bay National Park in the south of the state. The bay has a length of approximately 15 kilometers and is about 3.2 kilometers wide. High mountain ranges form inland its limit. The Lituya Bay is fed by three large glaciers: the Lituya Glacier, Cascade Glacier and the Crillion Glacier. The region around the bay, is also due to the harsh climate, inhabited only extremely sparse; the estuary for fishing is occasionally used. His connection to the Pacific is concentrated by a headland.

On 9 July 1958, following an earthquake, a landslide, in which 90 million tons of rock and ice fell into the bay occurred at the eastern end ( landward side ). This enormous crowd had a mega tsunami result. Up to a height of 520 meters, the trees were washed away on the shore of the bay. The wave rolled over the tongue of land between the bay and the ocean. Two fishermen who were traveling at the time of the tsunami in the bay, lost their lives, another fisherman and his son survived the event. Besides having great damage to the environment, which are still visible today in part, there were no further losses, since the area around the Lituya Bay is not populated. Already in the 19th and 20th centuries, smaller landslides had occurred on the mountain slopes, the generated waves of over 30 meters in height.