Mondo Knows Facts
The highest tsunami ever recorded ran up 524 metres
A landslide into Lituya Bay, Alaska, in 1958 sent water over the ridge
An earthquake shook loose a huge rockfall at the head of Lituya Bay, and the water it displaced surged up the opposite slope, stripping trees to a height of 524 metres. Three fishing boats were in the bay; one rode over the wave and survived. It is a megatsunami, caused by displacement rather than by a tectonic sea-floor shift.
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Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
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Tags: tsunami, alaska, landslide
The highest tsunami ever recorded ran up 524 metres: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- A landslide into Lituya Bay, Alaska, in 1958 sent water over the ridge. The figure is taken from USGS, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a records & extremes fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Records & Extremes shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.