August 11, 1900 Lituya Bay Tsunami - Lituya Bay Narrative

Passage from Lander (1996):

""An earthquake is reported at Lituya Bay on August 11. The shock was so heavy as to dislodge great quantities of ice from the five glaciers that discharge in Lituya Bay. Five Indians, who were on a small island near the foot of one of the glaciers, were drowned in the tidal wave caused by the falling ice" (The Alaskan, Sitka, September 29, 1900, p. 4). The description sounds like a report by survivors. Miller (1960, p. 74) mentions a flood in Lituya Bay reported by fishermen to him in 1952. The flood destroyed a native fish saltery near the mouth of the bay and occurred about 1899. There are three, not five, glaciers feeding Lituya Bay: Lituya, Cascade, and North Crillon. There is only one permanent island in the bay, Cenotaph, but there is the possibility of small islands forming in the moraine material at the base of the glaciers."

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