Alaska’s near-record landslide tsunami sent a wave 1,580 feet up the fjord walls – and left clues for building a warning system

By Michael E. West, Director of the Alaska Earthquake Center and State Seismologist, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Ezgi Karasözen, Research Seismologist, Alaska Earthquake Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks

On the evening of Aug. 9, 2025, passengers on the Hanse Explorer finished taking selfies and videos of the South Sawyer Glacier, and the ship headed back down the fjord. Twelve hours later, a landslide from the adjacent mountain unexpectedly collapsed into the fjord, initiating the second-highest tsunami in recorded history.

We conduct research on earthquakes and tsunamis at the Alaska Earthquake Center, and one of us serves…

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