Lituya Bay

Common card · No. 255686

Lituya Bay ( ; Tlingit: Ltu.aa [ɬtʰʊ̀ʔàː], meaning 'lake within the point') is a fjord located on the coast of the south-east part of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is 14.5 km (9 mi) long and 3.2 km (2 mi) wide at its widest point. The bay was noted in 1786 by Jean-François de Lapérouse, who named it Port des Français. The bay has also been known as Altona, Alituya and Ltooa. Lapérouse and his crew spent 26 days exploring the bay, but the cost was that twenty-one of his men perished in the tidal current in the bay. Lituya Bay is well known for the 1958 earthquake and megatsunami that produced the highest waves from a tsunami in recorded history.

Read on Wikipedia · Image D.J. Miller, United States Geological Survey, Public domain