On September 16, 2023, more than 25 million cubic yards of rock and ice – enough to fill 10,000 Olympic-size pools – broke loose and plunged into Dickson Fjord.
The impact hurled up a mega-tsunami wave, reaching about 650 feet high.
The surge barreled down the two-mile corridor, bounced off the headland, and tore back again, wrecking roughly $200,000 in equipment at an empty research post on Ella Island.
Water did not calm after the first pass. Instead, it began rocking from wall to wall, a motion known as a seiche.
Computer models later showed the surface rising as much as 30 feet, then sinking the same amount in a steady rhythm that pressed on the seafloor like a giant piston.
Mm yes nice… Image
It’s crazy how the tsunami just sprang out of the mountain like that. Usually they come from the ocean!
Hey, I’m not a tsunami-entist.
Harrison Lake, in BC, Canada, is supposed to have a landslide of similar magnitude that could let go at any time. Some people think the slosh from that might reach as far as the US border, across several municipalities. A couple hundred thousand people.
So that’ll be fun.
