Anchorage, Alaska. It was triggered by a 9.2 earthquake in Alaska. MENLO PARK, Calif. — On March 27th, 1964, the second largest instrumentally recorded earthquake worldwide rocked southern Alaska for 4 to 5 minutes. [4] Tsunamis also caused damage in Hawaii and Japan. [citation needed], A 4.5 ft (1.4 m) wave reached Prince Rupert, British Columbia, just south of the Alaska Panhandle, about three hours after the earthquake. The neighborhood lost 75 houses in the landslide, and the destroyed area has since been turned into Earthquake Park. It released at least twice as much energy as the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 and was felt on land over an area of almost 502,000 square miles (1,300,000 square km). The U.S. Army rapidly re-established communications with the lower 48 states, deployed troops to assist the citizens of Anchorage, and dispatched a convoy to Valdez. A photographer looks over wreckage as smoke rises in the background from burning oil storage tanks in Valdez, Alaska, on March 29, 1964, two days after the earthquake struck. In Prince William Sound, Port Valdez suffered a massive underwater landslide, resulting in the deaths of 32 people between the collapse of the Valdez city harbor and docks, and inside the ship that was docked there at the time. The March 27, 1964, earthquake was accomp anied by crustal deformation-including warping, horizontal distortion, and faulting-over probably more than 110,000 square miles of land and sea bottom in south-central Alaska. Southeast of Anchorage, areas around the head of Turnagain Arm near Girdwood and Portage dropped as much as 8 feet (2.4 m), requiring reconstruction and fill to raise the Seward Highway above the new high tide mark. "PROWESS Honors Historic Earthquake Survivor". According to Wikipedia, as far away as 200 miles in Kodiak, the 1964 Alaska earthquake caused some areas to be permanently raised by thirty feet, while areas near Portage dropped about eight feet. This sequence is an excerpt of AAF-9895 from the Walter Covich collection held by the Alaska Film Archives, a unit of the Alaska and Polar Regions Collections & Archives Department in the Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks. Prior to this earthquake, liquefaction was a known curious phenomenon, but its Guide to the Anchorage Engineering Geology Evaluation Group papers, 1964. of the 1964 Great Alaska Earthquake (red star), caused when the Pacific Plate lurched northward underneath the North American Plate. Scenes include overturned boats, cars in the … The San Francisco Chronicle reports on the 1964 tsunami that caused severe damage in Crescent City, Calif. Studies of ground motion have led to a peak ground acceleration estimate of 0.14–0.18 g.[6], The Alaska earthquake was a subduction zone (megathrust) earthquake, caused by an oceanic plate sinking under a continental plate. Most other areas of the city were only moderately damaged. In this Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology resource we look at the 1964 Great Alaska Earthquake, which occurred on Good Friday, March 27th. Overview • There were 1,440 deaths from all causes in 1964. o 115 (7.8%) of total deaths in 1964 were due to the earthquake. “The 1964 earthquake gave birth to modern megathrust earthquake detection,” Haussler said. 7 p.m.—Public lecture open to all, (both presentations will be live-streamed over the Internet), U.S. Geological Survey This sent the deadly waves to the West Coast. …40 minutes after the 1964 Alaska earthquake, produced by seismic surface waves passing through the area.… soil liquefaction For example, during the Alaska earthquake of 1964 , the liquefaction of a sandy layer of soft clay beneath Turnagain Heights, a suburb of Anchorage, caused a landslide in the mass of ground above that destroyed approximately 75 homes and disrupted utilities.… (2) Intermediate depth seismicity (below 20 miles) occurs in the so-called Benioff Zone, where the subducting Pacific Plate descends towards the mantle beneath the North American Plate. [2] Across south-central Alaska, ground fissures, collapsing structures, and tsunamis resulting from the earthquake caused about 131 deaths.[3]. In addition to the earthquake, the event triggered a major tsunami that caused casualties and damage from the Kodiak Islands to northern California. Before the event, the sidewalk (left) had been as high as the street (far right). The focus occurred at a depth of approximately 15.5 mi (25 km). [22], Alaska had never experienced a major disaster in a highly populated area before, and had very limited resources for dealing with the effects of such an event. Slide-show-illustrated presentation: “The 1964 Great Alaska Earthquake and Tsunami
– 50th Anniversary”, Thursday, February 27th, 2014 [25][27], The United States military, which has a large active presence in Alaska, also stepped in to assist within moments of the end of the quake. The 1964 Alaska earthquake also known as the Great Alaska Earthquake, the Portage Earthquake and the The most impactful earthquake in Alaska since the 1964 M9.2 Great Alaska Earthquake occurred on Friday, November 30, 2018 at 8:29AM. Other Professional I Papers in ithe series describe field investigations and The fault responsible was the Aleutian Megathrust, a reverse fault caused by a compressional force. The magnitude 7.0 earthquake that hit Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday caused no fatalities or widespread building damage, according to officials. Professional Paper 543 describes the re- 1 gional effects of the earthquake. 1964 Alaska Earthquake, Great Alaska Earthquake As mentioned before, on March 27, 1964, at 5:36 p.m. ADT (03:36 3/28 UTC) a great earthquake of magnitude 9.2 occurred in Prince William Sound region of Alaska. [3][9], As a result of the earthquake, 131 people are believed to have died:[3] Nine died as a result of the earthquake itself and another 122 died from the subsequent tsunami all over the world. Seafloor displacement caused by slip on the megathrust fault generated a tsunami that propagated across the Pacific Ocean, which Abstract. [30] She was effectively designated as the public safety officer by the city's police chief. It rocked the state with strong ground shaking for 4.5 minutes. [17] The damage in British Columbia was estimated at CA$10 million ($81 million in 2018 Canadian dollars or $76 million in 2019 US dollars). , Whittier, and Valdez from the Government Hill landslide line of parked with. 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