Tsunamis of extraordinary scale are uncommon, yet they have punctuated human history. Modern instrumentation now allows us to quantify their magnitude accurately. Below are the highest recorded tsunamis that rival the famed Lituya Bay event, ranked by wave height.
The iconic volcano of the Pacific Northwest erupted on May 18, 1980. The explosive event triggered a massive landslide on the mountain’s northern flank, displacing a colossal volume of water and generating a megatsunami. The resulting wave reached an astonishing 853 ft (260 m) at its peak, inundating the surrounding valley and causing extensive damage.
The Vajont Dam disaster unfolded on October 9, 1963, when a massive landslide slid into the reservoir in northern Italy. The sudden displacement of water produced a 820‑foot (250 m) megatsunami that struck the adjacent valley, devastating communities and underscoring the risks of engineering projects in geologically unstable areas.
In Alaska’s Icy Bay, a catastrophic landslide on October 17, 2015 slammed a vast quantity of rock into the Taan Fiord. The disturbance generated a megatsunami with an initial height of approximately 330 ft (101 m) and a run‑up reaching 633 ft (193 m), illustrating the power of slope failures in shaping coastal hazards.
Earlier that same Alaskan bay witnessed a dramatic event on October 27, 1936. Although the exact trigger remains uncertain—an undersea landslide is a leading hypothesis—the tsunami produced a run‑up of 490 ft (150 m) and an estimated wave height between 100 and 200 ft (30–76 m), predating the more famous 1958 surge.
On June 17, 2007, Greenland’s Karrat Fjord experienced a landslide precipitated by glacial melt. The resulting megatsunami surged 328 ft (100 m) down the fjord, depositing wreckage over 62 mi (100 km) of coastline.
These events highlight the immense destructive potential of megatsunamis, even when casualty counts are unexpectedly low. Advances in geophysical monitoring now enable better prediction and early warning.
