a mapA outer representation showing nan Pedersen Lagoon tsunami site. (From National Park Service)

A distant landslide produced a tsunami past period astatine Kenai Fjords National Park adjacent Seward. No injuries aliases fatalities were reported, but nan activity caused insignificant harm to a privately-owned boardwalk. It besides moved a Park Service campground nutrient retention container astir 20 feet.

According to nan National Parks Service, nan Aug. 7 landslide splashed down into nan precocious portion of Pedersen Lagoon astir 20 miles southwest of Seward, producing a activity astir 55 feet high. Then it crossed complete a ridge and flowed into nan little portion of nan lagoon, hitting nan statement astatine a tallness of astir 3 feet.

Chad Hults, nan National Park Service’s location geologist for Alaska, said nan slope supra nan h2o is unstable. As a result, nan landslide and tsunami didn’t travel arsenic a surprise.

“The landslide gave measurement during a very important rainfall arena that happened that week, I judge it was astir 15 inches of rainfall that fell that week,” Hults said.

Hults said nan region has seen respective landslides wrong nan past fewer years, and that dense rains and thinning glaciers are making them much common.

“People should beryllium observant astir recreation and understand erstwhile there’s dense rainfall events, those are times erstwhile landslides tin beryllium triggered, and they tin deed nan h2o and make tsunamis,” he said.  

The Park Service recommends visitors to Pedersen Lagoon return precautions for nan anticipation of different landslides aliases tsunamis.