Tsunamis radiated out from the epicenter, and four hours after the initial earthquake, the sea invaded waterfronts along the Pacific Ocean coastline. (Following the earthquake, towns such as Seward, Valdez and Chenega were moved to safer ground.)įatalities were not limited to Alaska, however. In Seward, the earthquake had ruptured oil tanks that were set ablaze, and when the tsunami arrived, it created a terrifying wave of fire. Tidal waves killed 31 in Valdez along with 25 in Chenega, one-third of the small village’s population. A monster wave more than 200 feet tall knifed through the Valdez Inlet before slamming into the Alaskan coastline. The earthquake that began a dozen miles deep under Prince William Sound sparked submarine landslides that triggered catastrophic tsunamis. Some areas rose in elevation by nearly 40 feet as others sank by almost 10 feet.Īs destructive as the initial shaking was, however, the bigger disaster followed minutes later. Geodetic surveys found that much of the state’s southern coastline moved seaward by more than 50 feet. The powerful earthquake even permanently altered the Alaskan landscape. Rail lines were bent like licorice sticks and twisted into knots.
Along Anchorage’s Fourth Avenue, which dropped 20 feet, basements became first floors. The shaking left behind destruction of truly seismic proportions. Life magazine reported at the time that the earthquake contained 400 times the total energy of all nuclear bombs ever exploded up to 1964. Water sloshed in harbors as far away as Louisiana, where several fishing boats capsized as a result. Geological Survey (USGS), the earthquake was as powerful as all subsequent American earthquakes combined and “so large that it caused the entire Earth to ring like a bell.” More than 1,000 miles away in Seattle, the Space Needle swayed from the vibration, and water-level recorders in every state except for Rhode Island, Delaware and Connecticut registered the quake. The Great Alaska Earthquake lasted for nearly five minutes and registered a magnitude of 9.2, still the largest ever recorded in North America and second only to the 9.5-magnitude quake that struck Chile in 1960. The severe shaking pulverized the soil into a quicksand that swallowed houses and cars. Trees whipped so viciously that their tops touched the ground. Telephone poles snapped like matchsticks.
Images alaska quake cracked#
Roads cracked like shattered peanut brittle. Alaskans struggled to stay on their feet.
The earthquake centered 75 miles east of Anchorage caused the ground of south central Alaska to heave and convulse. local time on Good Friday was unlike any they had experienced before. earthquakes occur in the state-but the quake that struck at 5:36 p.m. Periodic rumbles were nothing new to Alaskans-four out of every five U.S. As the sunlight waned on March 27, 1964, Alaska’s frozen ground shivered violently.
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