October 6, 1883 Alaska Peninsula Tsunami - English Bay Narrative

Passage from Kienle, et al. (1987) (quoting 2 contemporary accounts):

"The sudden displacement of a large volume of seawater from the impact of a debris avalanche at the north shore of St. Augustine Island apparently triggered a tsunami on the morning of 6 October 1883. The daily logs that were kept by the Alaska Commercial Company at Alexandrovsky (English Bay) noted (10, 11),

At this morning at 8.15 o'clock 4 Tidal waves flowed with a westerly current, one following the other at the Rate of 30 miles p. hour into the shore, the sea rising 20 feet above the ususal Level. At the same time the air became black and foggy, and it began to thunder. With this at the same time it began to rain a finely Powdered Brimstone Ashes, which lasted for about 10 Minutes, and which covered all parts of Land and everything to a depth of over 1/4 of an inch, clearing up at 9 o'clock A.M. Cause of occurrence: Eruption of the active volcano at the Island of Chonoborough.

Davidson (12) vividly described the events of 6 October in a paper published in an early issue of Science. According to Davidson (12, p. 186),

Twenty-five minutes after the great eruption, a great "earthquake wave," estimated as from twenty-five to thirty feet high, came upon Port Graham (near English Bay) like a wall of water. It carried off all the fishing-boats from the point, and deluged the houses....Fortunately it was low water, or all of the people at the settlement must inevitable have been lost. The tides rise and fall about fourteen feet."

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