1540 Tsunami: Cook Inlet, AK, United States

Native Alaskan peoples in Cook Inlet may have documented this tsunami. A prehistoric artifact from Kodiak Island appears to be a representation of an erupting volcano and a tsunami. The prehistoric wooden box panel, collected during archeological excavations at the Alutiiq village site of Karluk on Kodiak Island, is currently on loan from the collection of Koniag, Inc. to the Alutiiq Museum and Archaeological Repository in Kodiak. The box panel, measuring 8 by 17 cm, was recovered approximately 150 cm below the surface at the Karluk archeological site on Kodiak Island. Although the box panel has not been directly radiocarbon dated, it is associated with "house floor three" described at the Karluk One site. Radiocarbon dates obtained during excavation at the Karluk site suggest this stratigraphic level dates to ca. 1550 AD. (Jordan and Knecht, 1988). The West Island debris avalanche and tsunami have been radiocarbon dated to ca. 1540 ±110 AD. (Siebert et al., 1989), and so are indistinguishable in age from the artifact found at Karluk. (reference #4220)