Yakutat Bay
Map of Yakutat Bay.
Glacier carved mountains near Yakutat Bay.
Yakutat Bay is a 29-km-wide (18 mi) bay in the U.S. state of Alaska, extending southwest from Disenchantment Bay to the Gulf of Alaska. "Yakutat" is a Tlingit name reported as "Jacootat" and "Yacootat" by Yuri Lisianski in 1805.
Yakutat Bay was the epicenter of two major earthquakes on September 10, 1899, a magnitude 7.4 foreshock and a magnitude 8.0 main shock, 37 minutes apart.[1]
The Shelikhov-Golikov company, precursor of the Russian-American Company, built a fort on Yakutat Bay in 1795. It was known as New Russia, Yakutat Colony, or Slavorossiya.[2]
Other names
Yakutat Bay has had various names.
- It has been called "Bering Bay", on the assumption that Vitus Bering visited it in 1741.
- Jean-François de La Pérouse, who visited it in 1786, named it "Baie de Monti" for one of his officers.
- The same year, Captain Nathaniel Portlock named it "Admiralty Bay"
- the Spanish called it "Almirantazgo."
- It was also called Port Mulgrave when Alessandro Malaspina and José de Bustamante y Guerra sailed into the bay,[3] looking for the Northwest Passage.
References
- ↑ Historic Earthquakes: Yakutat Bay, Alaska - September 10, 1899 from the U.S. Geological Survey Earthquake Hazards website
- ↑ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Glory of Russia (historical)
- ↑ Filipino American History Timeline: 1791 from the Alaska Chapter of the Filipino American National Historical Society
External links
- Marine Forecast for Yakutat Bay from the National Weather Service
Coordinates: 59°43′54″N 139°50′19″W / 59.73167°N 139.83861°W