Bute Inlet

A retreating glacier in a remote British Columbia valley caused a massive landslide that crested a 100-metre-tall tsunami, wiped out kilometres of salmon habitat and was detected as far away as Australia, a study says.

Natural Resources Canada researcher Gwyn Lintern recently spent six days aboard the Coast Guard vessel Sir Wilfrid Laurier as part of the first federal marine investigation of the inlet following the slide on Nov. 28.

Climate change set the stage for the landslide that occurred on the morning of Nov. 28, said Brent Ward, a geologist at Simon Fraser University.

The washout has devastated hundreds of acres of forest, severely damaging salmon spawning grounds and sweeping trees, rocks and mud into Bute Inlet.