The 500m High Wave that Rocked Alaska

Naught bru, that wasn’t a typo we being for real here. Granted it happened in 1958 but I bet you’ve never heard about it. July 9, 1958, in Lituya Bay, on the southeast of Alaska, an earthquake triggered a series of events that resulted in what can only be described as a megatsunami resulting in the largest recorded wave in history. The 7.8 magnitude earthquake brought about one helluva rockslide displacing over 30.6 million cubic meters of rubble in the Gilbert Inlet. So basically a huge ass mountain gave birth to a mini-mountain and sent it rolling on down the hill straight into the frigid water below. The wave that can only be defined as a FREAK, measured between 100 feet (30 meters) and 300 feet (91 meters), but the subsequent breaking wave became much, MAAAAAAAAHHHUCH bigger. The topography plus the science behind the impact of the broken mini mountain slamming into the water are both huge factors that allowed such a beast to rise from a relatively shallow basin. What is even more remarkable than the fact that a wave got that colossal was the that a boat out in the bay at the time managed to ride the […]

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