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Second Biggest Tsunami Ever Hit America Last Year
May 6, 2026
Posted 2 hours ago by
U.S. Geological Survey agency / via REUTERSThe massive megatsunami that plowed into Alaska last year was the second-largest ever recorded. Its waves have only been bested once since records began, after part of a mountain sloughed off into the water in August, triggered by tiny earthquakes. It saw the equivalent of 24 Great Pyramids falling into Tracy Arm Fjord below, creating 1,581-foot-high waves, the BBC reports.
Alaskan archeologist Dr. Bretwood Higman visited the scene just weeks later and told the BBC how he found trees hurled into the water and rock stripped from greenery. “We know that there were people who were very nearly in the wrong place,” he said, referring to a cruise ship that only missed the waves because it happened very early in the morning. “I’m quite terrified that we’re not going to be so lucky in the future.” New research published in the journal Science reveals how melting ice contributed. University College London researcher Dr. Stephen Hicks said a glacier was “helping to hold up this piece of rock,” but when it melted, the bottom of the cliff became exposed, “allowing that rock material to suddenly collapse into the fjord.” The largest ever was in Ltyua Bay, Alaska, reaching over 1,719 feet. Read it at BBCRead more at The Daily Beast.
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