When part of a mountain in southeast Alaska slid into the ocean last summer, it triggered the second highest tsunami ever recorded. That tsunami ran 481 meters—one-and-a-half times the height of the Eiffel Tower—up the wall of the Tracy Arm fjord more than a kilometer away and generated a seismic signal equivalent to a magnitude 5.

The world’s second-tallest tsunami wave on record tore through the remote Tracy Arm fjord in Alaska last August, leaving immense destruction in its wake.

Tracy Arm, a narrow inlet with steep walls, sits at the edge of two glaciers. Both are fed by the nearby Stikine ice field, which has been rapidly thinning for decades, causing the glaciers to shrink and retreat. Higher global temperatures, driven by greenhouse gases, are a major factor in the melting.

Learn how climate change is the likely culprit behind a 1,500-foot tsunami that narrowly avoided disaster at a popular tourist location in Alaska. Spending an early morning watching the sun rise over the glaciers of Alaska would typically sound like a dream.

A tsunami at a popular tourist spot in Alaska was the second highest ever recorded and it was "unbelievably lucky" no one was hurt, researchers have said.