On January 8, 2026, geologist Hig Higman (Ground Truth Alaska) shared findings on the August 2025 Tracy Arm mega-tsunami and how retreating glaciers are creating new landslide risks for Alaska communities.

In early August 2025 a giant landslide sheared the front off of South Sawyer Glacier and plunged into the depths of Tracy Arm, generating one of the highest tsunamis ever recorded. Luckily, no one was harmed - so this event can become an opportunity to study fascinating natural dynamics rather than a tragedy. Scientists have studied the causes of the landslide, they have modeled the tsunami and seiche that resulted, and surveyed its affects along the fjord. These results are already yielding new opportunities to understand glacial landscapes and fjord tsunamis. However, it might also be seen as a warning - and not the first one - that retreating glaciers can pose unexpected dangers.

In 2015 a tsunami stripped forest along the walls of Taan Fiord, in 2024 a tsunami in a lagoon west of Seward swept under occupied guest cabins at a lodge, and tsunamis have swept down out of mountain lakes in Alaska and BC at least 4 times in the past decade. By studying these landslide-generated tsunamis and other landslides in the state, we are beginning to understand how the risk of these events may be changing, and how this could affect communities like Petersburg.