# Talk:1888 Ritter Island eruption and tsunami

The size of the sector collapse that caused the tsunami has been estimated as about double that of the one that triggered the lateral blast at Mount St Helens in 1980. However, more recent studies (Karstens et al. 2019), based on 3D  seismic reflection data have shown that a large part of the mapped deposit came from remobilised seafloor sediment becoming entrained in the landslide as it moved. That paper states "By distinguishing between gradual deformation and catastrophic failure, the volume of the rapidly moving phase of the Ritter collapse (2.4 km3) may have been even smaller than the 2.7 km3 calculated for the 1980 Mount St. Helens sector collapse using a similar approach (Moore et al., 1981), which questions whether the 1888 Ritter sector collapse should be classified as the largest historic sector collapse." Mikenorton (talk) 21:31, 24 September 2021 (UTC)

@Dora the Axe-plorer: Is there any way the lead of the article can be expanded? It's particularly short for a Good Article, and leaves out a fair amount of interesting and notable details from the background and tsunami sections described in the body. Cheers! Johnson524 12:51, 8 August 2025 (UTC)

Hi Johnson, thanks for highlighting this. I'll work on the lede over the next few days. Dora the Axe-plorer (explore) 14:23, 8 August 2025 (UTC)