There is a place in the world from which photo and video reports about giant waves are often taken. For the past few years, records in Big Wave surfing for the largest wave taken (both by hand and with the help of a jet) have been set on the same Nazaré wave. The first such record was set by Hawaiian surfer Garrett McNamara in 2011 - the wave height was 24 meters. Then, in 2013, he broke his record by riding a wave 30 meters high.

Why exactly in this place are the biggest waves in the world?

Let's first recall the mechanism of wave formation:

So, it all starts far, far away in the ocean, where strong winds blow and storms rage. As we know from the school geography course, the wind blows from an area with high pressure to an area of ​​low pressure. In the ocean, these areas are separated by many kilometers, so the wind blows over a very large area of ​​the ocean, transferring some of its energy to the water through friction. Where it happens, the ocean is more like a bubbling soup - have you ever seen a storm at sea? It's about the same there, only the scale is larger. There are small and large waves, all mixed up, superimposed on each other. However, the energy of water also does not stand still, but moves in a certain direction.

Due to the fact that the ocean is very, very large, and waves of different sizes move at different speeds, during the time that all this seething porridge reaches the shore, it is “sifted”, some small waves add up with others into large ones, others, on the contrary, mutually are destroyed. As a result, what is called Groung Swell comes to the shore - smooth ridges of waves, divided into sets from three to nine with large intervals of calm between them.

However, not every swell is destined to become surfing waves. Although, it is more correct to say - not everywhere. In order for a wave to be caught, it must break in a certain way. Wave formation for surfing depends on the structure of the bottom in the coastal zone. The ocean is very deep, so the mass of water moves evenly, but as it approaches the coast, the depth begins to decrease, and the water that moves closer to the bottom, for lack of another way out, begins to rise to the surface, thereby raising waves. In the place where the depth, or rather the shallowness, reaches a critical value, the rising wave can no longer become larger and collapses. The place where this happens is called the lineup, and that's where the surfers sit, waiting for the right wave.

The shape of the wave directly depends on the shape of the bottom: the sharper it becomes shallow, the sharper the wave. Usually the sharpest and even trumpeting waves are born where the height difference is almost instantaneous, for example, at the bottom of a huge stone or the beginning of a reef plateau.

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Where the drop is gradual and the bottom is sandy, the waves are gentler and slower. It is these waves that are best suited for learning to surf, so all surf schools conduct the first lessons for beginners on sandy beaches.

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Of course, there are other factors that affect the waves, for example, the same wind: it can improve or worsen the quality of the waves depending on the direction. In addition, there are so-called wind swells, these are waves that do not have time to “sift” with distance, since the storm rages not so far from the coast.

So, now about the highest waves. Thanks to the winds, huge energy is accumulated, which then moves towards the coast. As it approaches the coast, the oceanic swell transforms into waves, but unlike other places on our planet, a surprise awaits it off the coast of Portugal.

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The thing is that it is in the area of ​​​​the city of Nazare that the seabed is a huge canyon with a depth of 5000 meters and a length of 230 kilometers. This means that the oceanic swell does not undergo changes, but reaches, as it is, to the very continent, collapsing on the coastal rocks with all its might. Wave height is usually measured as the distance from the crest to the base (where, by the way, something like a trough is often sucked in, which increases the height compared to if measured by mean sea level at a given tide height).

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However, unlike such waves as Mavericks or Teahupu, on Nazar the ridge, even if it collapses, never hangs over the base, moreover, it is separated from the bottom by about 40 meters along the horizontal axis. Due to spatial perspective distortion, when viewed from the front, we see a water block of 30 meters, technically, it is even larger, but this is not a wave height. That is, strictly speaking, Nazaré is not a wave, but a water mountain, a pure oceanic swell, powerful and unpredictable.

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However, the fact that Nazaré is not exactly a wave does not make this spot any less scary and dangerous. Garrett McNamara says that Nazar is incredibly difficult to pass. Usually three people help him in the water: one pulls him out on a jet to the lineup, accelerates him into a wave and does not swim far to make sure that everything is in order with the surfer. He is backed up by a second jet, as well as a third one a little further away, whose driver is watching all three. Also, Garrett's wife is standing on a rock near the lighthouse and tells him on the radio which waves are coming and which one can be taken. On the day he set his second record, not everything went smoothly. The first driver was knocked off the jet by a wave, so the second had to pull Garrett out of the foam, and the third hurried to help the first. Everything was done clearly and quickly, so no one was hurt.

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Garrett himself says the following: “Of course, all these safety nets and technical devices in surfing on big waves are a kind of cheating. And in principle, you can do without them, but in this case, the chances of dying are much higher. As for me personally, since I had a wife and children, I feel more responsibility for them and fear for my life, so I go to all technical tricks in order to most likely return home alive. ”

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Tsunamis are the largest and most powerful ocean waves that sweep away everything in their path with terrifying force. A feature of such a dangerous natural disaster is the size of the moving wave, its enormous speed, the gigantic distance between the crests, which reaches tens of kilometers. The tsunami poses an extreme danger to the coastal zone. Approaching the shore, the wave picks up tremendous speed, shrinks in front of an obstacle, grows significantly in size and inflicts a crushing and irreparable blow to the land zone.

What caused this huge surge of water, which leaves no chance for the existence of even the highest and fortified structures? What natural forces can create a water tornado and deprive cities and regions of the right to survive? The movement of tectonic plates and splits in the earth's crust are the worst harbingers of the collapse of a giant stream.

The largest tsunami in the world in the history of mankind

What is the largest wave in the world? Flipping through the pages of history. The date of July 9, 1958 is well remembered by the people of Alaska. It was this day that became fatal for the Lituya Fjord, which is located in the northeastern part of the Gulf of Alaska. The harbinger of the historic event was an earthquake, the magnitude of which, according to measurements, is 9.1 points. This is what caused the terrifying rockfall, which caused the collapse of rocks and a wave of unprecedented magnitude.

The whole day of July 9 was clear and sunny weather. The water level dropped by 1.5 meters, fishermen were fishing on ships (Lituya Bay has always been a favorite place for avid fishermen). Toward evening, around 22:00 local time, a landslide that rolled into the water from a height of 910 meters pulled huge stones and blocks of ice after it. The total weight of the mass was approximately 300 million cubic meters. The northern part of the bay of Lituya Bay was completely flooded with water. At the same time, a giant pile of stones was thrown to the opposite side, as a result of which the entire green massif of the Fairweather coast was destroyed.

A landslide of this magnitude provoked the appearance of a huge wave, the height of which was 524 meters! This is approximately a house of 200 floors! It was the largest and highest wave in the world. The gigantic force of the flow of ocean water literally washed away Lituya Bay. The tidal wave picked up speed (by this time it had already accelerated to 160 km / h) and rushed towards the island of Cenotaphia. Terrible landslides simultaneously descended from the mountains to the water, carrying a column of dust and stones. The wave was so large that the foot of the mountain was hidden under it.

Trees and green spaces that covered the slopes of the mountains were uprooted and sucked into the water column. The tsunami now and then rushed from side to side inside the bay, covering the points of the shallows and sweeping away the forest covers of the high northern mountains in its path. From the spit of La Gaussy, which separated the waters of the bay and Gilbert's Bay, there was not a trace left. After everything calmed down, on the shore one could see catastrophic cracks in the ground, severe destruction and blockages. The buildings erected by the fishermen were completely destroyed. The scale of the disaster could not be estimated.

This wave claimed the lives of about three hundred thousand people. Only the longboat managed to escape, which, by some incredible miracle, was thrown out of the bay and thrown across the shallows. Once on the other side of the mountain, the fishermen were left without a boat, but were rescued two hours later. The bodies of the fishermen of another longboat were carried away into the abyss of water. They were never found.

Another terrible tragedy

Terrible destruction remained after the invasion of the tsunami on December 26, 2004 for the inhabitants of the coast of the Indian Ocean. A powerful jolt in the ocean caused a disastrous wave. In the depths of the Pacific Ocean, near the island of Sumatra, a fracture of the earth's crust occurred, which provoked a displacement of the bottom over a distance of more than 1000 kilometers. The largest wave ever to hit the coast came from this fault. At first, its height was no more than 60 centimeters. But it accelerated, and now a 20-meter shaft was rushing at an insane, unprecedented speed of 800 kilometers per hour towards the islands of Sumatra and Thailand to the east of India and Sri Lanka to the west! In eight hours, the terrible power of a tsunami, unprecedented in history until now, circled the entire coast of the Indian Ocean, and in 24 hours the entire World Ocean!

The biggest destruction happened on the coast of Indonesia. The tidal wave buried cities and districts tens of kilometers inland. The islands of Thailand have become a mass grave for tens of thousands of people. The inhabitants of the coastal areas had no chance of salvation, since the water blanket held the cities under it for more than 15 minutes. Huge human casualties were the result of a natural disaster. The economic losses were also impossible to count. More than 5 million people were forced to leave their homes, more than one million needed help, two million people needed new housing. International organizations responded and helped the victims in every possible way.

Disaster in Prince William Bay

Strong, irreplaceable losses were caused by an earthquake on March 27, 1964 in the Prince William Sound (Alaska) of 9.2 on the Richter scale. They covered a huge area of ​​800,000 square kilometers. Such a powerful push from a depth of more than 20 kilometers can be compared with the simultaneous explosion of 12,000 atomic bombs! The western coast of the United States of America was significantly affected, which literally covered a huge tsunami. The wave reached the Antarctic and Japan. Villages and settlements, enterprises, the city of Valdez were wiped off the face of the earth.

The wave swept away everything that came in its way: dams, concrete blocks, houses, buildings, ships in the port. The wave height reached 67 meters! This, of course, is not the biggest wave in the world, but it brought a lot of destruction. Fortunately, a deadly stream claimed the lives of about 150 people. The number of victims could be much higher, but due to the sparsely populated areas of these places, only 150 local residents died. Given the area and the gigantic power of the stream, they had no chance of surviving.

Great East Japan Earthquake

What force of nature destroyed the coast of Japan and brought irreparable losses to its inhabitants, one can only imagine. After this catastrophe, the consequences will be felt for many years to come. At the junction of the world's two largest lithospheric plates, an earthquake with a power of 9.0 on the Richter scale, and approximately twice the force of the tremors caused by the earthquake in the Indian Ocean in 2004, occurred. The tragic event of a huge scale is also called the "Great East Japan Earthquake". Literally in 20 minutes, a terrifying wave, the height of which exceeded 40 meters, reached the shores of Japan, where there were a large number of people.

About 25 thousand people became victims of the tsunami. It was the biggest wave in the history of the inhabitants of the East. But that was only the beginning of the disaster. The scale of the tragedy grew with every hour after the attack by the most powerful stream of the Fokushima-1 nuclear power plant. The system of the power plant went out of operation due to tremors and shock waves. The failure was followed by the meltdown of the reactors at the power units. Today, a zone within a radius of tens of kilometers is a zone of exclusion and disaster. About 400 thousand buildings and structures were destroyed, bridges, railways, roads, airports, ports and shipping stations were destroyed. It will take years to rebuild the country after the terrible catastrophe brought by the highest wave.

Disaster on the coast of Papua New Guinea

Another disaster struck the coast of Papua New Guinea in July 1998. An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.1 on the measurement scale, initiated by a powerful landslide, caused a wave of more than 15 meters in height, which killed more than 200 thousand people, leaving thousands more homeless on the island. Before the invasion of ocean water, there was a small bay called Varupu, the waters of which washed two islands, where the people of Varupu peacefully lived, worked and traded. Two powerful and unexpected impulses from underground happened with an interval of 30 minutes.

They set in motion a huge shaft, which caused strong waves that demolished several villages from the face of New Guinea for a length of 30 kilometers. Residents of seven other settlements needed medical assistance and were hospitalized. The sea level in the capital of New Guinea, Rabaul, has risen by 6 centimeters. A tidal wave of this magnitude has not been observed before, although in this region local residents often suffer from disasters such as tsunamis and earthquakes. A giant wave destroyed and swept under water an area of ​​more than 100 square kilometers to a depth of 4 meters.

Tsunami in the Philippines

Exactly until August 16, 1976, there was a small island of Mindanao in the oceanic depression of Cotabato. It was the most southern, picturesque and exotic place among all the islands of the Philippines. Local residents could not at all predict that a terrible earthquake with a power of 8 points on the Richter scale would destroy this amazing place, washed by the seas from all sides. A huge force formed a tsunami as a result of an earthquake.

The wave seemed to cut off the entire coastline of Mindanao. 5 thousand people who did not have time to escape died under the shelter of sea water. Approximately 2.5 thousand inhabitants of the island were not found, 9.5 thousand received various degrees of injury, more than 90 thousand lost their homes and remained on the street. It was the strongest activity in the history of the Philippine Islands. Scientists who studied the details of the disaster found that the power of such a natural phenomenon caused the movement of the water mass, which provoked a shift in the islands of Sulawesi and Borneo. It was the worst and most devastating event in the history of the island of Mindanao.

The biggest waves in the world are legendary. The stories about them are impressive, the painted pictures are amazing. But many believe that in reality there are no such high ones, and eyewitnesses simply exaggerate. Modern methods of tracking and fixing leave no doubt: giant waves exist, this is an indisputable fact.

What are they

The study of the seas and oceans using modern instruments and knowledge made it possible to classify the degree of their excitement not only by the strength of the storm in points. There is another criterion - the causes of occurrence:

• killer waves: these are giant wind waves;
• tsunamis: arise as a result of the movement of tectonic plates, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions;
• coastal ones appear in places with a special bottom topography;
• underwater (seiches and microseiches): they are usually invisible from the surface, but they can be no less dangerous than surface ones.

The mechanics of the occurrence of the largest waves is completely different, as are the height and speed records set by them. Therefore, we will consider each category separately, and find out what heights they conquered.

killer waves

It is hard to imagine that a huge tall solitary killer wave really exists. But over the past decades, this statement has become a proven fact: they were recorded by special buoys and satellites. This phenomenon has been well studied in the framework of the MaxWave international project, created to monitor all the seas and oceans of the world, where satellites of the European Space Agency were used. And scientists used computer simulations to understand the causes of such giants.

An interesting fact: it was found that small waves are able to merge with each other, as a result of which their total strength and height are summed up. And when meeting with any natural barrier (shoal, reef), “wedging out” occurs, this further increases the strength of the waves of water.

Killer waves (they are also called solitons) arise as a result of natural processes: cyclones and typhoons change atmospheric pressure, its changes can cause resonance, which provokes the appearance of the highest water columns in the world. They are able to move at great speed (up to 180 km / h) and rise to incredible heights (theoretically up to 60 m). Although these have not yet been observed, the recorded data is impressive:

• in 2012 in the southern hemisphere - 22.03 meters;
• in 2013 in the north of the Atlantic - 19;
• and a new record: near New Zealand on the night of May 8-9, 2018 - 23.8 meters.

These highest waves in the world have been observed by buoys and satellites, and there is documentary evidence of their existence. So skeptics can no longer deny the existence of solitons. Their study is an important matter, because such a mass of water moving at great speed is capable of sinking any ship, even an ultra-modern liner.

Unlike the previous ones, tsunamis occur as a result of serious natural disasters. They are much higher than solitons and have incredible destructive power, even those that do not reach special heights. And they are dangerous not so much to those who are at sea as to residents of coastal cities. A powerful momentum during an eruption or earthquake raises giant layers of water, they are able to reach speeds of up to 800 km / h, and fall on the coast with incredible force. In the "risk zone" - bays with high coasts, seas and oceans with underwater volcanoes, areas with increased seismic activity. Lightning speed of occurrence, incredible speed, huge destructive power - this is how all known tsunamis can be characterized.

Here are a few examples that will convince everyone of the dangers of the highest waves in the world:

• 2011, Honshu Island: After an earthquake, a tsunami 40 meters high hit the coast of Japan, killing more than 15,000 people, and many thousands more are still missing. And the coast is completely destroyed.
• 2004, Thailand, the islands of Sumatra and Java: after an earthquake of magnitude more than 9 points, a monstrous tsunami with a height of more than 15 m swept across the ocean, the victims were in various places. Even in South Africa, people were dying 7,000 km from the epicenter. In total, about 300,000 people died.
• 1896, Honshu island: more than 10 thousand houses were destroyed, about 27 thousand people died;
• 1883, after the eruption of Krakatau: a tsunami about 40 meters high swept from Java and Sumatra, where more than 35 thousand people died (some historians believe that there were much more victims, about 200,000). And then, at a speed of 560 km / h, the tsunami crossed the Pacific and Indian oceans, past Africa, Australia and America. And reached the Atlantic Ocean: in Panama and France, changes in the water level were noted.

But the biggest wave in the history of mankind should be recognized as the tsunami in Lituya Bay in Alaska. Skeptics may doubt, but the fact remains: after the earthquake on the Fairweather fault on July 9, 1958, a supertsunami was formed. A giant column of water 524 meters high at a speed of about 160 km / h crossed the bay and the island of Cenotaphia, rolling over its highest point. In addition to eyewitness accounts of this catastrophe, there are other confirmations, for example, uprooted trees on the highest point of the island. The most surprising thing is that the casualties were minimal, the crew members of one longboat were killed. And the other, located nearby, was simply thrown over the island, and he ended up in the open ocean.

coastal waves

The constant roughness of the sea in narrow bays is not uncommon. Features of the coastline can provoke high and rather dangerous surf. Unrest of the water element can initially arise as a result of storms, the collision of ocean currents, at the "junction" of waters, for example, the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. It should be noted that such phenomena are permanent. Therefore, we can name especially dangerous places. These are Bermuda, Cape Horn, the southern coast of Africa, the coast of Greece, the Norwegian shelves.

Such places are well known to sailors. It is not for nothing that Cape Horn has long enjoyed a “bad reputation” among sailors.

But in Portugal, in the small village of Nazare, the power of the sea began to be used for peaceful purposes. Surfers have chosen this coast, every winter a period of storms begins here and you can ride waves of 25-30 meters in height. It was here that the famous surfer Garrett McNamara set world records. The coasts of California, Hawaii and Tahiti are also popular with conquerors of the water element.

Tsunamis have been a nightmare for the inhabitants of the islands for all ages. These multi-meter waves swept away everything in their path with tremendous destructive force, leaving behind only bare earth and debris. The statistics of monstrous waves has been conducted by scientists since the nineteenth century, during this period more than a hundred tsunamis of various power were recorded. Do you know what were the biggest tsunamis in the world?

Tsunami: what is it?

It is not surprising that the term "tsunami" was first introduced by the Japanese. They suffered from giant waves most often, because the Pacific Ocean gives rise to the largest number of destructive waves than all other seas and oceans combined. This is due to the peculiarities of the relief of the ocean floor and the high seismicity of the region. In Japanese, the word "tsunami" consists of two hieroglyphs meaning a bay and a wave. Thus, the very meaning of the phenomenon is revealed - a wave in the bay, sweeping away all life on the coast.

When was the first tsunami recorded?

Of course, tsunamis have always suffered. Ordinary island residents came up with their own names for the killer waves and believed that the gods of the seas punish people by sending destructive waves at them.

For the first time, a tsunami was officially recorded and explained at the end of the sixteenth century. This was done by a monk of the Jesuit church, Jose de Acosta, he was in Peru, when a wave about twenty-five meters high hit the shore. She swept away all the settlements around in a few seconds and advanced ten kilometers deep into the continent.

Tsunami: causes and consequences

Tsunamis are most often caused by earthquakes and underwater volcanic eruptions. The closer the epicenter of the earthquake is to the coast, the stronger the killer wave will be. The largest tsunamis in the world that were recorded by mankind could reach speeds of up to one hundred and sixty kilometers per hour and exceed three hundred meters in height. Such waves do not leave a chance to survive for any of the living beings that are on their way.

If we consider the nature of this phenomenon, then briefly it can be explained as the simultaneous displacement of a large amount of water masses. Eruptions or earthquakes raise the ocean floor sometimes by several meters, which causes water vibrations and forms several waves that diverge from the epicenter in different directions. Initially, they do not represent something terrible and deadly, but as they approach the coast, the speed and height of the wave increases, and it turns into a tsunami.

In some cases, tsunamis are formed as a result of giant landslides. During the twentieth century, about seven percent of all gigantic waves arose for this reason.

The consequences of the devastation left behind by the largest tsunamis in the world are terrible: thousands of human victims and hundreds of kilometers of land filled with debris and mud. In addition, in the disaster area, there is a high probability of the spread of infectious diseases due to the lack of drinking water and the decay of the bodies of the dead, the search for which is not always possible to organize in the shortest possible time.

Tsunami: is it possible to escape?

Unfortunately, the global tsunami warning system is still imperfect. At best, people learn about the danger a few minutes before the wave hits, so you need to know the signs of impending disaster and the rules for survival during a cataclysm.

If you are on the sea or ocean coast, then carefully follow the reports of earthquakes. A shaking of the earth's crust with a magnitude of about seven on the Richter scale that occurred somewhere nearby could serve as a warning of a possible tsunami strike. The approach of a killer wave gives out a sudden ebb - the ocean floor is quickly exposed for several kilometers. This is a clear sign of a tsunami. Moreover, the further the water goes, the stronger and more destructive the incoming wave will be. Animals often anticipate such natural disasters: a few hours before the cataclysm, they whine, hide, and try to go deep into the island or mainland.

To survive during a tsunami, you need to leave the dangerous area as soon as possible. Do not take a lot of things with you, drinking water, food and documents will be enough. Try to get as far away from the coast as possible or climb to the roof of a multi-storey building. All floors after the ninth are considered safe.

If the wave still overtakes you, then find an object that you can hold on to. According to statistics, most people die when the wave begins to return back to the ocean and takes away all the objects that have come across. Keep in mind that tsunamis almost never end in one wave. Most often, the first will be followed by a series of two or even three new ones.

So, when was the biggest tsunami in the world? And how much destruction did they bring?

This catastrophe does not fit any of the previously described incidents on the sea coast. To date, the Lituya Bay megatsunami has become the most gigantic and destructive in the world. Eminent luminaries in the field of oceanology and seismology are still arguing about the possibility of a repetition of such a nightmare.

Lituya Bay is located in Alaska and extends inland for eleven kilometers, its maximum width does not exceed three kilometers. Two glaciers descend into the bay, which became the unwitting creators of a huge wave. The 1958 tsunami in Alaska was caused by an earthquake on July 9th. The power of the shocks exceeded eight points, which caused a huge landslide to descend into the waters of the bay. Scientists calculated that thirty million cubic meters of ice and stones fell into the water in a few seconds. Parallel to the landslide, an under-ice lake sank thirty meters, from which the released water masses rushed into the bay.

A huge wave rushed to the coast and circled the bay several times. The height of the tsunami wave reached five hundred meters, the raging elements completely demolished the trees on the rocks along with the ground. At the moment, this wave is the highest in the history of mankind. The surprising fact is that only five people died as a result of a powerful tsunami. The fact is that there are no residential settlements in the bay; at the time the wave arrived in Lituya, there were only three fishing boats. One of them, together with the crew, immediately sank, and the other was raised by a wave to its maximum height and carried out into the ocean.

2004 Indian Ocean avalanche

The tsunami in Thailand in 2004 shocked all people on the planet. As a result of the destructive wave, more than two hundred thousand people died. The cause of the disaster was an earthquake in the Sumatra region on December 26, 2004. The tremors lasted no more than ten minutes and exceeded nine on the Richter scale.

A thirty-meter wave swept at great speed throughout the Indian Ocean and circled it, stopping near Peru. Almost all island states, including India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Somalia, suffered from the tsunami.

After killing hundreds of thousands of people, the 2004 Thai tsunami left behind destroyed homes, hotels and several thousand local residents who died as a result of infections and poor-quality drinking water. At the moment, this tsunami is considered the largest in the twenty-first century.

Severo-Kurilsk: tsunami in the USSR

The list of "The biggest tsunamis in the world" should include the wave that hit the Kuriles in the middle of the last century. An earthquake in the Pacific Ocean caused a twenty-meter wave. The epicenter of the tremors of magnitude seven was located one hundred and thirty kilometers from the coast.

The first wave arrived in the city about an hour later, but most of the locals were in hiding on the high ground away from the city. No one warned them that a tsunami was a series of waves, so all the townspeople returned to their homes after the first one. A few hours later, the second and third waves hit Severo-Kurilsk. Their height reached eighteen meters, they almost completely destroyed the city. More than 2,000 people died as a result of the cataclysm.

Killer wave in Chile

In the second half of the last century, the inhabitants of Chile faced a terrifying tsunami, which killed more than three thousand people. The cause of the giant waves was the most powerful earthquake in the history of mankind, its magnitude exceeded nine and a half points.

A twenty-five-meter high wave covered Chile fifteen minutes after the first shocks. During the day, she covered several thousand kilometers, destroying the coast of Hawaii and Japan.

Despite the fact that humanity has been "familiar" with the tsunami for quite a long time, this natural phenomenon is still among the little-studied. Scientists have not learned how to predict the appearance of killer waves, therefore, most likely, in the future the list of their victims will be replenished with new deaths.

When I read about the height of the wave caused by the tsunami in 1958, I could not believe my eyes. Checked once, then twice. Everywhere is the same. No, probably, after all, they made a mistake with a comma, and everyone copies from each other. Maybe in units of measurement?
Well, how else, what do you think, maybe a wave from a tsunami 524 meters high? HALF A KILOMETER!
Now we find out what really happened there ...

Here is what an eyewitness writes:

“After the first push, I fell off the bed and looked towards the beginning of the bay, where the noise was coming from. The mountains trembled terribly, stones and avalanches rushed down. And the glacier in the north was especially striking, it is called the Lituya glacier. Usually, it is not visible from where I was at anchor. People shake their heads when I tell them that I saw him that night. I can't help it if they don't believe me. I know that the glacier is not visible from where I anchored in Anchorage Bay, but I also know that I saw it that night. The glacier rose into the air and moved forward, so that it became visible. He must have climbed several hundred feet. I'm not saying that he just hung in the air. But he was shaking and jumping around like crazy. Large pieces of ice fell from its surface into the water. The glacier was six miles from me, and I saw large pieces that fell off it like a huge dump truck. This went on for some time - it's hard to say how long - and then suddenly the glacier disappeared from view and a large wall of water rose above this place. The wave went in our direction, after which I was too busy to say what else was going on there.

On July 9, 1958, an unusually severe disaster occurred in Lituya Bay in southeast Alaska. In this bay, protruding into the land for more than 11 km, geologist D. Miller discovered a difference in the age of trees on the slope of the hills surrounding the bay. From annual tree rings, he calculated that over the past 100 years, waves with a maximum height of several hundred meters have arisen at least four times in the bay. Miller's conclusions were treated with great distrust. And so, on July 9, 1958, a strong earthquake occurred on the Fairweather fault to the north of the bay, which caused the destruction of buildings, the collapse of the coast, and the formation of numerous cracks. And a huge landslide on the mountainside above the bay caused a wave of record height (524 m), which swept at a speed of 160 km/h through a narrow, fjord-like bay.

Lituya is a fjord located on the Fairweather Fault in the northeastern part of the Gulf of Alaska. It is a T-shaped bay 14 kilometers long and up to three kilometers wide. The maximum depth is 220 m. The narrow entrance to the bay has a depth of only 10 m. Two glaciers descend into Lituya Bay, each of which is about 19 km long and up to 1.6 km wide. Over the century preceding the described events, waves over 50 meters high have already been observed in Lituye several times: in 1854, 1899 and 1936.

The 1958 earthquake caused a subaerial rockfall at the mouth of the Gilbert Glacier in Lituya Bay. As a result of this landslide, more than 30 million cubic meters of rock collapsed into the bay and led to the formation of a megatsunami. From this disaster, 5 people died: three on Hantaak Island and two more were washed away by a wave in the bay. In Yakutat, the only permanent settlement near the epicenter, infrastructure facilities were damaged: bridges, docks and oil pipelines.

After the earthquake, research was carried out on a subglacial lake located to the northwest of the bend of the Lituya glacier at the very beginning of the bay. It turned out that the lake dropped by 30 meters. This fact served as the basis for another hypothesis of the formation of a giant wave with a height of more than 500 meters. Probably, during the glacier retreat, a large volume of water entered the bay through an ice tunnel under the glacier. However, the runoff of water from the lake could not be the main cause of the megatsunami.

A huge mass of ice, stones and earth (about 300 million cubic meters in volume) rushed down from the glacier, exposing the mountain slopes. The earthquake destroyed numerous buildings, cracks formed in the ground, and the coast slipped. The moving mass collapsed on the northern part of the bay, filled it up, and then crawled onto the opposite slope of the mountain, tearing off the forest cover from it to a height of more than three hundred meters. The landslide generated a giant wave that literally carried the Lituya Bay towards the ocean. The wave was so great that it swept over the entire shallow at the mouth of the bay.

The eyewitnesses of the disaster were people on board the ships that anchored in the bay. From a terrible push, they were all thrown out of their beds. Jumping to their feet, they could not believe their eyes: the sea was heaving. “Giant landslides, raising clouds of dust and snow in their path, began to run along the slopes of the mountains. Soon their attention was attracted by an absolutely fantastic sight: the mass of ice of the Lituya glacier, located far to the north and usually hidden from view by a peak that rises at the entrance to the bay, seemed to rise above the mountains and then majestically collapsed into the waters of the inner bay. It all felt like some kind of nightmare. Before the eyes of the shocked people, a huge wave rose up, which swallowed the foot of the northern mountain. After that, she swept across the bay, ripping off trees from the slopes of the mountains; having fallen like a water mountain on the island of Cenotaphia ... rolled over the highest point of the island, which towered 50 m above sea level. All this mass suddenly plunged into the waters of a narrow bay, causing a huge wave, the height of which, obviously, reached 17-35 m. Its energy was so great that the wave rushed furiously across the bay, overflowing the slopes of the mountains. In the inner basin, the impacts of the wave on the shore were probably very strong. The slopes of the northern mountains, facing the bay, were bare: where a dense forest used to grow, there were now bare rocks; such a picture was observed at an altitude of up to 600 meters.

One longboat was raised high, easily carried across the shallows and thrown into the ocean. At that moment, when the longboat was moving across the shallows, the fishermen on it saw standing trees under them. The wave literally threw people across the island into the open sea. During a nightmarish ride on a giant wave, the boat pounded against trees and debris. The longboat sank, but the fishermen miraculously survived and were rescued two hours later. Of the other two launches, one safely withstood the wave, but the other sank, and the people on it went missing.

Miller found that the trees growing on the upper edge of the exposed area, just below 600 m above the bay, were bent and broken, their fallen trunks pointing towards the top of the mountain, but the roots were not uprooted from the soil. Something pushed those trees up. The tremendous force that did this could not have been anything other than the riding of a gigantic wave that swept over the mountain on that July evening in 1958.

Mr. Howard J. Ulrich, on his yacht called the Edri, entered the waters of Lituya Bay at about eight in the evening and anchored in a depth of nine meters in a small bay on the south coast. Howard says that suddenly the yacht began to sway violently. He ran out onto the deck and saw how in the northeastern part of the bay the rocks began to move due to the earthquake and a huge block of rock began to fall into the water. Approximately two and a half minutes after the earthquake, he heard a deafening sound from the destruction of the rock.

“We definitely saw that the wave went from the direction of Gilbert's Bay, just before the earthquake ended. But at first it was not a wave. At first it was more like an explosion, as if the glacier was breaking apart. The wave grew from the surface of the water, at first it was almost invisible, who would have thought that then the water would rise to a height of half a kilometer.

Ulrich said that he observed the entire development of the wave, which reached their yacht in a very short time - something like two and a half or three minutes since it was first seen. “Since we did not want to lose the anchor, we completely etched the anchor chain (about 72 meters) and started the engine. Halfway between the northeastern edge of Lituya Bay and Cenotaf Island, a thirty-meter-high wall of water could be seen that stretched from one shore to the other. When the wave approached the northern part of the island, it split into two parts, but, having passed the southern part of the island, the wave became one again. It was smooth, only there was a small scallop on top. When this water mountain approached our yacht, its front was quite steep and its height was from 15 to 20 meters. Before the wave came to the place where our yacht was, we did not feel any lowering of the water or other changes, except for a slight vibration that was transmitted through the water from the tectonic processes that began to operate during the earthquake. As soon as the wave approached us and began to lift our yacht, the anchor chain crackled violently. The yacht was carried towards the south coast and then, on the return course of the wave, towards the center of the bay. The top of the wave was not very wide, from 7 to 15 meters, and the back front was less steep than the front.

As the giant wave swept past us, the surface of the water returned to its normal level, but we could observe a lot of turbulent eddies around the yacht, as well as chaotic waves of six meters in height, which moved from one side of the bay to the other. These waves did not form any noticeable movement of water from the mouth of the bay to its northeastern part and back.

After 25-30 minutes the surface of the bay calmed down. Near the banks one could see many logs, branches and uprooted trees. All this rubbish slowly drifted towards the center of the Lituya Bay and towards its mouth. In fact, during the entire incident, Ulrich did not lose control of the yacht. When the Edri approached the mouth of the bay at 11 pm, a normal current could be observed there, which is usually caused by the daily low tide of ocean water.

Other eyewitnesses to the disaster, the Swanson couple on a yacht called the Badger, entered Lituya Bay around nine in the evening. First, their ship approached the island of Cenotaf, and then returned to Anchorage Bay on the northern shore of the bay, not far from its mouth (see map). The Swensons anchored at a depth of about seven meters and went to sleep. William Swanson's sleep was interrupted due to the strong vibration of the yacht's hull. He ran to the control room and began to time what was happening. A little over a minute from when William first felt the vibration, and probably just before the end of the quake, he looked towards the northeast part of the bay, which was visible against the backdrop of the island of Cenotaf. The traveler saw something that he first took for the Lituya glacier, which rose into the air and began to move towards the observer. “It seemed that this mass was solid, but it jumped and swayed. In front of this block, large pieces of ice constantly fell into the water. After a short time, “the glacier disappeared from sight, and instead a large wave appeared in that place and went in the direction of the La Gaussy spit, just where our yacht was anchored.” In addition, Swenson drew attention to the fact that the wave flooded the coast at a very noticeable height.

When the wave passed the island of Cenotaf, its height was about 15 meters in the center of the bay and gradually decreased near the coast. She passed the island about two and a half minutes after she could first be seen, and reached the Badger yacht after another eleven and a half minutes (approximately). Before the wave arrived, William, like Howard Ulrich, did not notice any lowering of the water level or any turbulent phenomena.

The Badger, which was still at anchor, was lifted by a wave and carried towards the La Gaussy spit. At the same time, the stern of the yacht was below the crest of the wave, so that the position of the vessel resembled a surfboard. Svenson looked at that moment at the place where the trees growing on the La Gaussy spit should have been visible. At that moment they were hidden by water. William noted that above the tops of the trees there was a layer of water equal to about twice the length of his yacht, about 25 meters. Having passed the La Gaussy spit, the wave very quickly began to decline.

In the place where Swenson's yacht stood, the water level began to drop, and the ship hit the bottom of the bay, remaining afloat close to the shore. 3-4 minutes after the impact, Swenson saw that the water continued to flow over the La Gaussi spit, carrying logs and other debris of forest vegetation. He wasn't sure it wasn't a second wave that could have carried the yacht across the spit into the Gulf of Alaska. So the Swensons left their yacht, moving onto a small boat, from which they were picked up by a fishing boat a couple of hours later.

There was also a third vessel in Lituya Bay at the time of the incident. It was anchored at the entrance to the bay and was sunk by a huge wave. None of the people on board survived, and two are believed to have died.

What happened on July 9, 1958? That evening, a huge rock fell into the water from a steep cliff overlooking the northeastern shore of Gilbert's Bay. The collapse area is marked in red on the map. The blow of an incredible mass of stones from a very high height caused an unprecedented tsunami, which wiped out all living things from the face of the earth that was along the coast of the Lituya Bay up to the La Gaussi spit. After the wave passed along both sides of the bay, not only vegetation, but even soil was left; there was bare rock on the surface of the shore. The area of ​​damage is shown on the map in yellow.

The numbers along the coast of the bay indicate the height above sea level of the edge of the damaged land area and approximately correspond to the height of the wave that passed here.