July 4, 1905 Tsunami: Disenchantment Bay, AK, United States
A tsunami caused by a landslide began at Disenchantment Bay, AK, United States on July 4, 1905. The water rose as high as 33.53 meters. Its effects were recorded at 4 places.
Where the waves reached
The source (white) and every runup with a place, colored by the water height recorded there. A ring is a runup NCEI marks doubtful.
- Under 1 m
- 1 to 3 m
- 3 to 10 m
- 10 to 30 m
- 30 m and more
- Height not recorded
Travel times
How long the first wave took to reach each part of the ocean, one line for each hour up to 24, estimated from the source and the depth of the sea.
The travel times are computed in your browser, which needs JavaScript.
- 1 to 4 hours
- 5 to 6 hours
- 7 to 14 hours
- 15 hours and more
Computed in your browser the way NOAA’s own travel time maps are: the wave travels at the square root of gravity times the depth, over NOAA’s ETOPO1 depths averaged to a 10 arc-minute grid. Checked against NOAA NCEI’s maps for 21 tsunamis over the first 24 hours, these lines fall within 10 minutes of NCEI’s at half the points compared and within 52 minutes at 9 in 10. They give when the first wave could arrive, not how high it is; bays, harbors and island chains finer than the grid can see it later. Not for use in a warning: see tsunami.gov.
The tsunami
- Date
- July 4, 1905
- Source
- Disenchantment Bay, AK, United States
- Cause
- Landslide
- Maximum water height
- 33.53 m (110.0 ft)
- Runups recorded
- 4
- Tsunami intensity (Soloviev-Imamura)
- 2.5
- Tsunami magnitude (Iida)
- 5.1
- Waters
- Ocean
- How certain
- Definite tsunami
- Source location
- 60.000° N, 139.580° W
The toll
The record gives no deaths, injuries or damage for this tsunami.
What the record says
NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.
A hanging glacier -- now called Fallen Glacier -- slid in its entirety into Disenchantment Bay following a moderate rain. The glacier slid a thousand feet down a steep slope, clearing a half mile wide swath. The resulting subaerial landslide tsunami broke branches 110 feet high at a distance of half of a mile from its source.
Tarr (1909) reported: "At the time I could think only of earthquake origin for the waves, but the next day one of the Indian guides, returning from Yakutat, reported the falling of a glacier in Disenchantment Bay."
Yakutat Bay, there was a slip of the Fallen Glacier in Disenchantment Bay (Reference #415).
Every runup
Nearest the source first. Heights are above sea level at the time; a tide gauge reads half the wave’s full height.
| Where | Country | Km from source | Water height, m | Inland, m | Measured by | First wave, UTC | Deaths |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Disenchantment Bay, AK, AK | United States | 0 | 33.53 | Eyewitness observation of water height | |||
| Haenke Island, AK, AK | United States | 4 | 18.29 | Eyewitness observation of water height | |||
| Turner Glacier, AK, AK | United States | 7 | 19.81 | Eyewitness observation of water height | |||
| Russell Fjord, AK, AK | United States | 10 | 6.1 | Eyewitness observation of water height |
More
Every tsunami in 1905The 1900sTsunamis of United StatesThis day in weather historyAlerts in force
Sources
Tsunami events and runups from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, Global Historical Hazard Database, cited as NCEI/WDS, doi:10.7289/V5PN93H7. Public domain. Read 2026-09-24. NCEI tsunami event 1323.