Huge Alaska tsunami of 2025 highlights risks to cruise lines as glaciers retreat | US News

A massive tsunami in Alaska last year in a fjord visited by cruise ships is a stark warning of the dangers of coastal rockslides and retreating glaciers fueled by the climate crisis, a new study warns.

Scientists recorded the world’s second-longest tsunami after it struck Tracy Arm Fjord in southeastern Alaska last August following a massive rockfall around the finger of a glacier. The tsunami reached a height of 481 meters (1,578 feet); In comparison, the Eiffel Tower is 330 meters (1,082 feet) tall.

According to new research published in the journal Science on Wednesday and led by Dan Shugar, a geomorphologist at the University of Calgary, the sequence began at 5:26 a.m. local time on August 10, 2025. A large landslide collapsed a kilometer vertically onto the South Suir Glacier and into the narrow, 48-kilometre-long fjord, triggering a massive tsunami.

Oblique aerial photo of Sawyer Island, largely stripped of trees, taken during a US Geological Survey reconnaissance flight on August 13, 2025. Photograph: John Lyons/USGS.

There were no deaths in the early hour but the area is visited by approximately three cruise ships passing daily, along with other ships traveling within a few kilometers of the landslide site.

A few hours after the landslide, a cruise ship from Juneau and a tour boat from National Geographic — each capable of carrying more than 100 passengers — were scheduled to enter the fjord. The previous day, two cruise ships carrying thousands of passengers had already visited the area, and another was scheduled to arrive the next day.

At the time of the event, Dennis Staley of the US Geological Survey described the tsunami as a “historic event,” adding to The Guardian: “I feel like we dodged a bullet.”

“With cruise ships increasingly visiting fjord areas, and climate change increasing the likelihood of similar events, this unexpected near-miss event highlights the increasing risk of landslides and tsunamis in coastal environments,” the researchers said in their report.

Close-source animation of the tsunami generated by the landslide in Tracy Arm on August 10, 2025.

They also noted that the tsunami was only slightly smaller than the world’s longest tsunami, which was recorded in Lituya Bay, Alaska, in 1958 at 530 meters (1,728 feet). The Tracy Arm event also triggered a 36-hour blockade, a standing wave oscillating within an enclosed body of water.

The study also found that the landslide generated long-period seismic waves equivalent to those generated by a 5.4 magnitude earthquake.

Eyewitness accounts in the report highlighted the far-reaching effects of the tsunami. A group of kayakers camping on Harbor Island, about 55 kilometers away, reported rising water near their tent, sweeping away one of their kayaks along with other gear.

Another observer on board a ship at No Name Bay, about 50 kilometers from the landslide, described seeing a 2- to 2.5-meter wave rising along the shoreline from the direction of Tracy Arm, followed by a second wave about 1 meter high, the researchers said.

In the study, the researchers found that tsunamis generated by landslides can have a much higher runoff (the maximum height that water reaches on a slope) than seismic tsunamis, due to greater local variations in water depth and direct displacement of the water column due to slope failure — which is more pronounced in confined bodies of water such as fjords.

Referring to the retreat of glaciers caused by the climate crisis, the researchers noted that “without the rapid retreat of glaciers, the landslide would not likely have triggered such a wave because it would have collapsed completely onto the glacial ice or may not have occurred at all.”

In recent years, fjords with retreating tidal water glaciers have become increasingly popular destinations for cruise ships. According to the study, Alaska’s annual cruise passenger numbers rose from about 1 million in 2016 to 1.6 million in 2025.

Aerial photographs show a clear line along the far side of the fjord where the tsunami stripped vegetation from the cliffs. Photograph: John Lyons/USGS.

Along with the accelerating retreat of glaciers and permafrost degradation due to the climate crisis, the risk of large-scale tsunamis generated by landslides is also increasing throughout the Arctic.

As a result, researchers have emphasized the scale and potential spread of such events. They called for stronger risk mitigation measures, including systematic monitoring of unstable slopes, more realistic tsunami modeling scenarios and enhanced protection for local communities, tourists and critical infrastructure.

Several tsunamis have occurred in Alaska over the past decade, with a large landslide generating a wave 18 to 55 meters high in Kenai Fjords National Park in 2024, as well as another landslide near a retreating glacier in Tan Fjord in southeast Alaska that generated a 193-meter tsunami in 2015.

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