Thursday, March 4, 2010

Largest Tidal Wave in History- this blows my mind

Due to the recurring theme of earthquakes and with the tidal wave scare in the recent Chile earthquake tragedy, I stumbled across this mind-blowing account:

On July 9, 1958, an earthquake (registering between 7.9 and 8.3 on the Richter Scale) in Lituya Bay, Alaska caused an enormous slab of rock (30.6 million cubic meters) to fall from its perch over the bay. It fell approximately 3000 feet into the water. This impact, concurrent with other seismic activities (tectonic movements, glacial lake drainage) caused the largest recorded tidal wave, also known as one of the few megatsunamis. The wave surged out toward sea and cleared the land of its trees and debris. Immediately near the impact site, trees were cleared from the slope face as high as 1720 feet!



geology.com, wiki

2 comments:

Gabriel said...

Holy smokes!

Anonymous said...

Just before I was born!!! Surprised it didn't cause a drop in atmospheric pressure and all babies came early!!!!