In Alaska, tsunamis can strike within minutes of an earthquake. Tsunami awareness and safety are crucial to anyone who lives, works, or travels along Alaska’s coast. Earthquakes frequently rumble coastal Alaska. Just offshore, the Pacific Ocean plate scrapes under the continental plate of mainland Alaska, causing much of this activity. Many places along Alaska’s rugged coast are poised for landslides above or below the ocean’s surface. A major earthquake or landslide near the coast could generate a tsunami.

Overview of Tsunamis in Alaska (Alaska Earthquake Center website)
3rd grade to early college students
What causes tsunamis in Alaska? What are the differences between tsunamis caused by local sources vs. distant sources? This brief overview of tsunamis covers what causes them, why they are hazards in Alaska, and gives examples of notable historical tsunamis in the state. This is a good starting point for teachers or students new to the subject.

tsunami.alaska.edu Interactive Tsunami Hazard Map for Alaska Communities (Alaska Earthquake Center website)
3rd grade to early college students
Is your school, home, or workplace in a tsunami inundation zone? Zoom in on more than 60 coastal Alaska communities to see estimated inundation/flood zones based on information from scientific tsunami reports. A good resource for local preparedness activities, or examining how local landscape features could affect tsunami impacts. 

Know Your Tsunami Hazard in ... Community brochures (Alaska Earthquake Center website)
2nd grade to college students, general public
The Earthquake Center works to make our coastal communities safer by providing state and local officials with the best possible information for addressing the tsunami hazards faced by their communities. These community-specific brochures distill information from the scientific inundation, pedestrian travel time, and maritime response guidance reports into a handy, quick reference. The brochures include maps with community-designated safety information, as well as links for local and statewide tsunami preparedness information. There are brochures for more than 15 Alaska communities published.

Tsunami Animations (Alaska Earthquake Center website)
3rd grade to early college students
A variety of short animations (most under 1 minute) illustrating the mechanics of tsunami sources (subduction zone earthquakes, underwater landslides), how tsunami waves move through deep ocean, and how the a tsunami might inundate a coastal town. Also several animations showing re-creations of tsunamis caused by the 1964 Great Alaska Earthquake in different communities.

Investigating Factors that Affect Tsunami Inundation
6th grade to early college students
This activity will have students working in groups with wave tanks to identify the effect topography, landform features, and wave energy have on tsunami inundation.

Tsunami Vertical Evacuation Structures
6th grade to early college students
This lesson teaches students about tsunami vertical evacuation structures (TVES) in communities and has them apply design principles to make their own scale model that would work in their community.

Animation of Subduction Zone Tsunami Inundation Scenario in upper Cook Inlet (about 3 minutes)
3rd grade to early college students
There is a real, though rare, tsunami hazard for upper Cook Inlet. This short animation shows a potential worst-case scenario: a subduction zone earthquake that causes a tsunami that reaches upper Cook Inlet at high tide. It reveals an updated understanding of how tsunamis interact with tides and of the region’s potential tsunami hazard. Affected areas could include low-lying parts of Anchorage, as well as Knik Arm up to the mouths of the Matanuska and Knik rivers and past the Glenn Highway crossings. Turnagain Arm, Hope and Girdwood could also experience flooding. The animation is based on data in the 2023 report Tsunami inundation maps of Anchorage and upper Cook Inlet, Alaska by the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys.

A Hidden Wave Emerges: Tsunami Hazard in Upper Cook Inlet (Story map)
6th grade to college students, general public
There is a real, though rare, tsunami hazard for upper Cook Inlet. For decades, public perception has been that upper Cook Inlet, including Alaska’s biggest city, Anchorage, has virtually no tsunami risk. This belief has persisted because many, including scientists, thought wave energy dissipates as it travels Cook Inlet’s length along the shallow, gently sloping floor. This story map is an interactive tour through the seismic and tsunami history of Cook Inlet, the development of tsunami science, the 1964 Great Alaska Earthquake, and the discovery that there was, indeed, a tsunami in upper Cook Inlet during the 1964. Images, interactive maps, and videos help explore these concepts.