I’m going to be honest, if I saw this shit coming towards me, I’d just close my eyes and accept my fate.

The fact that this wave happened at night makes it even scarier.

Cooper: "Those aren't mountains... they're waves."

There was a man and his son on a boat that ended up riding that wave over top of a nearby mountain and ended up in a whole different bay. Someone was seriously watching out for them that day.

1720 ft. For reference, the Empire State Building is 1454 ft to the tip. I don't think running was an option.

"Those are not mountains, those are waves." - Owright Owrigh Owrih, 2014

Florida man: I can surf that.

Standing in the city looking at the wave towering over skyscrapers would be mind destroying

I remember reading that a boat was picked up by the wave, and carried to the ocean with no major damage (although two other boats were sunk). I cant even imagine being on a boat being carried by a wave hundreds of feet in the air.

A father and son amazingly survived this wave in a small boat. They were washed over a small island and out to sea. Imagine seeing this on a relaxing fishing trip.

Have been hearing about this ever since moving to Alaska decades ago. My brother and others have fished in the area, and say it's an eerie place.... ...

Y'all miss the point ; it happened at night,pitch black and in super cold seas. That's the true nightmare

He said “300 feet” and I was like, wow! And then he said “1,748”!! 😱😱😱

Fun fact - there are actually 2 survivors who made it out alive from that wave. Dunno if they're still alive today but they were about 20 years ago when the son gave his testimony. Long story short it was a father and his son who were on their fishing boat in the middle of that bay and they were lucky in that the 1000 foot wave - yes you heard that right, their little boat was lifted up close to 1000 feet above sea level. Luckily they were deep enough in the Bay where the waved lifted them and travelled underneath them sparing their life. Imagine how trippy an experience like that must have been being lifted up that high on a boat.

Not a Tsunami.....big..big difference.

Meanwhile, every surfer: omg I can't believe I lost that wave

"The biggest wave ever recorded.." me waiting for the recorded video footage of the wave like🥤🥤🥤😶

Imagine if a wave like that were to be caught on camera. That would be utterly terrifying.

Just imagine the wave from interstellar coming directly towards you 😵‍💫

It's events like this that make us realize who's in control and how powerless we truly are.

That wouldn't even kill me I'd die from a heart attack well before it got to me

Christopher Nolan is out there on a raft with his IMAX camera

My neighbor back the 90’s was in that earthquake. She was a teacher in Alaska at the time. She said the thing she will never forget is the noise the earth made. Like a freight train going through your bedroom

That would be like looking up at the top of the Empire State Building, and seeing a wave 300 feet above it

A fishing boat captain and his seven-year-old son, were struck by the wave and lifted hundreds of feet into the air by the swell. Remarkably, both survived with minimal injuries. Now thats one helluva ride!

"The sea was angry that day, my friends. Like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli." - George Costanza

1700ft is roughly 518m for those of us needing the conversion. 👍

That’s up there with my cousin Larry’s bellyflop at the red roof inn Orlando in ‘96

I went on a cruise in ‘06 and seen this spot. You could see where the trees up the sides of the mountains were took out. It was amazing.

I remember seeing an interview of a father and a son who were in a boat on the coast of Alaska and the wave gave them a raid over the forest, over the treetops and returned them back to the ocean in the same way; incredibly nothing happened to them, neither to them nor to the boat, and they commented that there were two other boats that disappeared😥… It must have been a terrifying experience!😱

It’s hard to imagine a wave being that big.. it’s absolutely incredible what the planet is capable of.

He didn’t mention the father and son that were fishing in the bay when it happened. They rode the wave all the way over the crest past 1700 feet. Luckily they both lived and you can watch their interview.

A fisherman and his son witnessed this first hand and survived that incredible catastrophe. While fishing on their boat, they heard a thundering boom towards the mountain, which was part of the mountain collapsing into the lake, seconds later all they saw was a massive wall of water heading towards their boat. Next thing they knew, they were picked up by the crest and started to head out to sea. They were so high, the anchor chain snapped off. Would've been awesome had they caught this event on film?

A man and his son rode it out. Amazing survival story.

Alaskan here. My grandma was a little girl when this earthquake happened. She lived nowhere near Lituya Bay, but still experienced the brunt of the actual earthquake. Alaska is extremely susceptible to natural disasters, people. Take it seriously!

"...everything was destroyed. If you liked this video and would like more..." Bro that ending had me dying 😂

Our vulnerability in face of natural disasters is so incredibly terrifying.

Could you imagine standing there seeing a wave that big coming straight at you!? 😩💀

Don't forget that in 1964 Alaska also had the 2nd largest earthquake in recorded history at 9.2 magnitude. It destroyed practically everything within the state and caused massive tsunamis not only all over every coastal region of alaska but also went as far as japan and caused tsunamis and seismic aftershocks all over Alaska and Japan for quite some time. I was born and raised up there and knew personally many people who experienced both of these natural disasters. I couldn't imagine how I would react to being in such a situation myself

Geologist here. Actually, this post is not accurate. The WAVE was not 1700 ft high; the run-up on the side of the canyon wall was 1700 ft. When the bay got shallow, the water sloshed inland much higher than the actual wave height. Try it in your bath tub.

Imagine sailing on your boat and all of the sudden you see this big shadow

“Those aren’t mountains… Those are waves.” Cooper in Interstellar.

I had read about this previously and was somewhat familiar with the details. However, I just picked up on the fact that this insanely scary event happened at NIGHT. Man, that had to be utterly terrifying to those near the epicenter.

The fact that you can say "those aren't mountains, they're waves" moment

I was there in 1984, and the damage was still obvious. I think it was 1500 ft though as you could see clearly where the trees had fallen.

I used to live in AK, and took a boat trip thru that inlet. You can still see the line of death way up on the mountains where nothing ever grew again. The dimensions are mind-blowing.

After seeing millennium force at cedar point. A 300 ft wave would be terrifying. Over 1700 would’ve shocked me to death before it killed me 😂

Apparently a dad and his son were out fishing in the bay on their boat and they survived.

You can still see the damage in the bay… above the wave solid pine trees and below ground stripped to the rocks and not any trees… a very humbling site.

That's pretty insane. I go hiking really often in a canyon that is about 700' deep at the most. It seems daunting at first. I could only imagine waves more than twice as tall as the walls of the canyon on my way back up. Literally, a mountain of water.

And 64 years later, the scars left by the wave on the hills either side of the bay are still visible.

I saw a father and son interviewed that rode out the wave and their boat ended up above the tree line. Another boat disappeared.

That tidal wave was as tall as the freedom Tower in NYC.

I’m just impressed that someone was there to measure it

The wave scoured the hills directly across from the landslide up to 1700 ft, thats not the wave height. It splashed up to that height. It was 300 ft tall traveling down the bay

Interstellar was the last movie I've seen at a theater. Cancer and several other incidents left me with what I assume is a kind of PTSD. Can't tolerate crowds, closed spaces, and panic attacks from nowhere. I used to think people were just exaggerating or needed just to get ahold of themselves. I can usually minimize it but when that cold terror overtakes and you pour sweet from head to toe. It just has to pass. I'm a 6 foot 1, over 200 lbs and fear was never a problem but this isn't fear, it's an irrational physical assault. This has nothing to do with the subject of tidal waves, the reference to the movie "INTERSTELLAR" reminded me of the last time I was able to see a movie. It helps to write it down. I didn't like Interstellar at all by the way. I understand that time is not always linear and most probably is a function of mass and gravity as Einstein theorized. Einstein said the universe is not just strange but stranger than we can imagine (paraphrased).The movie must have been totally confusing to most of the public. It just annoyed me with all the doors of possibility. It was like a night with no floor or walls to stand on or find your way out of. I'm an old man with a degree in science and a life long science fiction fascination. KZfaq is a great place to keep your mind active especially when your old. Most people aren't intellectually curios so there's few if any to converse with. This allows me to talk to myself forming a narrative. I've always required little sleep and can work for long periods of time. I recently read there is a genetic cause for this. Like right now it's 3pm and I'll probably get a few hours sleep eventually and do it again. My wife of 40 years is not bothered by this to much, thankfully. I don't really care if anyone reads this or comments. Keeps a person focused. Nighty, night.

I saw a documentary on mega-tsunamis that mentioned this event. It included an interview with a guy who as a boy was anchored in this bay after a day’s fishing with his dad. He tells a gripping story that in summary described how the wave picked up their boat, transported it across a nearby peninsula, and dropped it in the ocean. He and his dad survived. Two other vessels in the vicinity and their occupants were not as lucky.

I remember watching the doc on the Discovery channel, their was a boat in the bay with a father and son. The son recalled his father throwing him a floater and telling him to say one last prayer. He said the anchor chain snapped like a twig then up they went. Amazingly they road the wave and were left hundreds of feet high in the mountains hill.

I'm surprised that they didn't mention the father and son that experienced it. They were fishing on a boat. The kid was 8yrs old and they survived it.

“Those aren’t waves, they’re mountains”

Man I wish we had a 4k recording of that wave... also why I would rather live inland the ocean can be as scary as it is beautiful.

Now imagine the wave that was created by the meteorite that killed the dinosaurs… If I remember correctly it was estimated to have reached around 5km high (16 400 feet)

The trees that got hit with saltwater are literally petrified and still there to this day iirc

This is why I respect the power of mother nature

Lat's not forget. A tsunami is not a wave but basically a raised mesa of water that could be a mile long or more.

Surfers be salivating at waves this size

That's really hard to fathom how destructive that really was. 😭

One man drove strait into the oncoming mega tsunami! Saving himself and his son. I think they were the only boaters to survive...

This is basically Tidal wave buffed

600 meters high. 12 Olympic pools end on end. Speed 700 km per hour. 200 meters per second.

Now imagine being on a tiny boat with your son looking around and seeing the giant wave coming,because that’s exactly what happened ,the dad and son road the wave and survived,true story 😧

That’s not a wave, that’s a heart attack waiting to happen and crap your pants 😂😂

From what I understand and from what I had read, that 1720 feet peak in height was achieved when the massive landslide caused by the earthquake slammed into the bay, and the wave itself was realistically around a hundred feet tall or so, basically, imagine the bay is a bathtub, filled with water, when you hop in, there is a tiny or average sized wave created, (in comparison, maybe 1-4 lego figures tall to make it more understandable.) Now imagine that there were people in the bathtub, very tiny people. And to them, every 2 lego figures is around 900-1000 feet tall. I will try to make a simpler explanation, when you slam your hand into a body of water, you can see the splash of water everywhere, imagine the body water is the Lituya Bay, your hand is the landslide, the small splash created, is the initial wave. Basically something like that. Edit: In the most simplest terms possible, the 1720 feet was due to the splash. Not the actual wave itself.

If i'm not mistaken this dude & his son survived on the boat they were on by riding the crazy wave. True story!! I really do think that it's the same wave, story.. 👍

This wave set a man and his son in a fishing boat in the trees halfway up a mountain... An awesome documentary!

There was a father and son that were anchor in the bay that survived , excellent story with interview I believe.

The guy on the boat its Zoink

Wave: 😊😊💀💀 Us: accept it..

5 deaths are believed to have occurred.... although apparently a group of 20 campers were meant to have been by the side of the lake that night but thankfully changing their minds and most likely saving their lives

The awesome power of nature makes us and anything we do on this planet seem insectile

Chicxulub Tsunami: AM I A JOKE TO YOU? HUH??

The RUNUP was 1700 ft. The specific measurement cited is that it caused destruction at up to 1700 ft in elevation on land when it ran into and up a canyon wall. Still mind boggling. But the actual wave wasn’t even 1/3 of that height.

Not this again. :-( Just because water reaches trees in a certain height doesn’t mean the wave crest had that height. Water can flow up a mountain, you know? Speed and sheer mass are enough for that, height is not necessary. If you needed a 2m wave to go over a 2m wall, no harbor would ever have to worry.

Except for the two guys that surfed it in there boat and survived. More incredible than the actual wave... true story.

we be verifying tsunami wave with this one🔥🔥🔥🗣️🗣️🗣️🔥🔥

I think it is referred to as a "harbour wave" because it relies on the land form within which it occurs.

Couple great reads for people liking details: The Perfect Storm by Junger, and Gypsy Moth Circles the World by Chiceshire (both authors probably wrong spelling, sorry). The latter describes going through the Straits of Magellan in a sailboat, waves blocking the sky. The former explains the physics of how far a boat can go up the face of a wave without toppling bow over stern. Two great reads. 👍

It’s a bit of a misnomer because it may have been the tallest but the area it occurred in was relatively Small, contained and the damage to people was minor.

1950: we’re gonna die 2024: NAAH THATS POSEIDON ADVENTURE

Bro remade tidal wave

Daaaaaaaaamn 1700 ft you've lost me that's simply unfathomable.

And legend has it Chuck Norris Surfed and turfed this wave - handstand only.

1720 feet = 524,256 meters. You're welcome.

Was SO stoked up to see your reaction for John meeting the strange man and when he tells you about your past with Dutch n the gang.

This pales in comparison to the tsunamis caused by the Chicxulub impact (the Dino-killer). When they initially reached land on what would one day be the southern United States, the waves were a staggering two and a half miles high. Which makes this tsunami look like a baby.

The pictures in this movie are incorrect. Persons who don't know tsunami painted them. Cycle (not height) of tsunami wave is very long, so shape of the wave is different with normal wave. Tsunami is powerful even if it's only 1 meter height, because cycle is very long.

When you activated "I pay bills" mode for tidal wave:

The wave picked up a boat with a father and son, lifted them over land out to sea where they high fived each other saying, don't tell mum.

Think of the wave planet in the movie Interstellar and something that big actually happened right here 💀

The Wave smashing onto you would feel like Lizzo jumping out of a Plane and Landing straight on top of you