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The Largest Recorded Tsunami Was 50 Years Ago

An anonymous reader writes "July marks the 50th anniversary of the world's largest tsunami — a 1,720-foot-tall wave in Lituya Bay, Alaska. It was triggered by a chain reaction of events that began with a magnitude 7.7 earthquake on the Fairweather Fault, which dislodged a rock fall of 40 million cubic yards, that fell 3,000 feet and splashed into the northwest end of Lituya Bay to generate the wave. This article includes survivor accounts, maps, a satellite image, and photos taken right after the event." To be fair, eyewitness accounts put the height of the wave as it came toward their boats at perhaps 100 feet. The tsunami scoured the land of vegetation and soil to a height of 1,720 feet above sea level, however.

4 of 323 comments (clear)

  1. Why bother with this? by PakProtector · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Not sure why they bothered making this article, as eventually the Doctor will come along and in the process of defeating some alien menace will cause the tsunami to never have happened.

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    Edward@Tomato - /home/Edward/ man woman
    man: no entry for woman in the manual.
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  2. Units by molo · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    This is a science article, right? Use SI units, kdawson.

    1720 ft = 524.25 m

    40 E 6 yard^3 = 30.58 E 6 m^3 = 0.03 km^3

    3000 ft = 914 m

    100 ft = 30.5 m

    -molo

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    Using your sig line to advertise for friends is lame.
    1. Re:Units by Eddi3 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Said the guy that thought KDE and Gnome should be merged. Hah!

  3. We all know what really caused this... by thebonafortuna · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Wait, you mean it wasn't caused by global warming? Blasphemy!

    Also, I saw somebody else make a comment concerning the metric system. I'm also an American, and I too would prefer we switched to the metric system. Who decided to base a mile on 5,280 feet, with a foot being twelve inches, I'll never know. But it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.