April 10, 1952 Tsunami: Columbia River Valley, WA, United States

A 15 million cubic yard landslide three miles below Kettle Falls bridge on Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake, Washington, created a 65-foot wave on the opposite shore. Many waves were created on the lake during the first few days of landsliding (April 10-13). Many were noticed at the docks of the Lafferty Transportation Company six miles up the lake. (Reference #237)

Location lake mile 98.65 right bank, Main terrace. The landslide of April 10 to 13, 1952, was the largest and most spectacular of all the landslides along the upper Columbia River in recent years. The failure was of the multiple-alcove type. The initial failure took place about 3:00 a.m., Thursday, April 10, 1952. Mr. Reed's house shook and lurched at this time. The landslide is at the north end of the Main terrace, the edge of it being just 2,000 feet from the Reed house. The initial slide occurred in a very narrow throat. Although the throat has been greatly widened by subsequent action, it is still narrow by comparison with the size of the slide (fig. 4). How far back the initial failure cut is not known, but by April 13 repeated sliding had severed the Kettle Falls- Inchelium highway (pi. 1; fig. 12) 2,000 feet from the original lakeshore […] Many waves were created on Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake during first few days of sliding. The largest wave on the shore directly opposite was 65 feet high. Many waves were noticed at the docks of the Lafferty Transportation Co. 6 miles up the lake. (reference #1695)

Note: location approximate