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Posted: Thursday, September 2nd, 2004 5:21 AM HST

Ancient tsunami reached 4 miles inland

By Associated Press

HONOLULU (AP) _ Scientists have determined a gigantic tsunami hit the Big Island 120-thousand years ago. The wave surged almost four miles inland and deposited fossil-laden sand up to an elevation of at least 16-hundred feet. The University of Hawaii's School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology says the tsunami was generated by the Alika Two Landslide, which came down the western slope of nearby Mauna Loa. The resulting wave surged across a coral terrace, now located at a depth of 14-hundred feet, before moving inland. The wave left a deposit of smashed-up marine shells, chunks of lava rock, lumps of soil and fragments of coral, all cemented together by what was once coralline sand. (Copyright 2004 by the Associated Press. All rights reserved.)