Buried by 600 Feet of Water; The 2015 Alaskan Megatsunami

On the evening of October 17th, 2015, an unstable cliffside suddenly collapsed, generating a massive landslide. Upon impacting the adjacent water, this slide created a towering megatsunami with wave heights of up to 633 feet or 193 meters. This represented the tallest tsunami recorded in the entirety of the United States since 1980. However, megatsunamis like this are not all that uncommon in Alaska. Since 1750, at least 6 other similar fjord tsunamis have been generated by landslides, the tallest of which occurred in Lituya Bay and had a wave height of 1,720 feet or 524 meters.

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Graphics of eruption dates are courtesy of the Global Volcanism Program, Smithsonian Institution. https://volcano.si.edu/
Images with a list of eruption dates have their dates sources from the GVP of the Smithsonian Institution.

Google Earth imagery used in this video: ©Google & Data Providers

Thumbnail Photo Credit: stockvault.net, Unsplash, CC0 1.0 UPDD

Sources:
[1] Higman, B., Shugar, D.H., Stark, C.P. et al. The 2015 landslide and tsunami in Taan Fiord, Alaska. Sci Rep 8, 12993 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-30..., CC BY 4.0
[2] National Parks Service, "The 2015 Taan Fiord Landslide and Tsunami"
[3] D. Miller, “Giant Waves in Lituya Bay Alaska”, USGS, Geological Survey Professional Paper 354-C
[4] https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/ima...
[5] Strzelecki, M. C. and Jaskólski, M. W.: Arctic tsunamis threaten coastal landscapes and communities – survey of Karrat Isfjord 2017 tsunami effects in Nuugaatsiaq, western Greenland, Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 20, 2521–2534, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-20-2521..., 2020., CC BY 4.0

Creative Commons Licenses Used in this video:
CC0 1.0 UPDD: https://creativecommons.org/publicdom...
CC BY 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...

0:00 A 2015 Alaskan Megatsunami
0:29 Tsunami Runup Heights
2:04 Glacial Retreat
3:10 An Island Washed Away
3:39 Lituya Bay Megatsunami
4:10 Conclusion