Tracy Arm, Fjord in Hoonah-Angoon Census Area, United States.
Tracy Arm is a narrow fjord in the Tongass National Forest with rock walls rising up to 1,000 m (3,300 ft) above the water. It runs about 50 km (30 mi) and is roughly 20% covered by ice. At its head stand the tongues of the Sawyer and South Sawyer glaciers, and the lower fjord is bordered by dark, bare rock. A fractured ice wall rises from the water, pale white to gray-blue, with floating ice fragments in front.
Tracy Arm takes its name from Benjamin F. Tracy, Secretary of the Navy from 1889 to 1893. In 1980 the U.S. Congress designated Tracy Arm, the parallel Endicott Arm and their surroundings, over 2,640 km², as the Tracy Arm-Fords Terror Wilderness, the strictest class of protected area in the United States. On 10 August 2025 a rockslide in a side arm of the fjord, on a slope destabilised by the retreat of South Sawyer Glacier, produced the second-highest tsunami ever recorded.
The fjord lies within the Tracy Arm-Fords Terror Wilderness, designated by Congress in 1990, where human intervention is kept to a minimum. The name honours Benjamin F. Tracy, Secretary of the Navy from 1889 to 1893. In summer, cruise ships and Alaska Marine Highway ferries pass through the lower fjord.
The site is best visited from May through September when boat tours depart regularly from Juneau. The waters can be rough and filled with floating ice, so visitors should dress warmly and follow all safety instructions on board.
On 10 August 2025 a rockslide of about 63 million cubic metres fell from a slope some 800 m high, made unstable by the retreat of South Sawyer Glacier. It struck the end of the glacier tongue and sent water surging more than 480 m up the opposite slope, the second-highest tsunami ever recorded. The area was empty that day; the only property lost was a canoe near Harbour Island, where the wave was about 3 m.
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