The Good Friday Earthquake in Alaska, 1964

The "Good Friday Earthquake"

On March 27, 1964 the "Good Friday Earthquake" struck South-central Alaska, churning the earth for four minutes with a magnitude of 9.2. The earthquake was one of the most powerful ever recorded and killed 131 people. Most of them were drowned by the tsunamis that tore apart the towns of Valdez and Chenega. Throughout the Prince William Sound region, towns and ports were destroyed and land was uplifted or shoved downward. The uplift destroyed salmon streams, as the fish could no longer jump the various newly created barriers to reach their spawning grounds. Ports at Valdez and Cordova were beyond repair, and the fires destroyed what the mudslides had not. At Valdez, an Alaska Steamship Company ship was lifted by a huge wave over the docks and out to sea, but most hands survived. At Turnagain Arm, off Cook Inlet, the incoming water destroyed trees and caused cabins to sink into the mud. On Kodiak, a tidal wave wiped out the villages of Afognak, Old Harbor, and Kaguyak and damaged other communities, while Seward lost its harbor. Despite the extent of the catastrophe, Alaskans rebuilt many of the communities.
The earthquake

At 5:36 p.m. Alaska Standard Time (3:36 a.m. March 27, 1964 UTC), just as people were traveling home, a fault between the Pacific and North American plates ruptured near College Fjord in Prince William Sound. The earthquake lasted for three to five minutes in most areas. Ocean floor shifts created large tsunamis up to 70 feet in height, which resulted in many of the deaths and much of the property damage. Large rockslides were also created which resulted in great property damage. Vertical displacement of up to 38 feet occurred, affecting an area of 100,000 miles within Alaska.

Type of fault

The Alaska Earthquake was a Subduction Zone Earthquake.(Megathrust earthquake)

Death toll, damage and casualties

131 people were killed as a result of the earthquake: 9 in the earthquake itself, 106 from tsunamis in Alaska, and 16 from tsunamis in Oregon and California. Property damage was estimated at over $300 million ($1.8 billion in 2007 U.S. dollars).

Anchorage area

Most property damage occurred in Anchorage, 75 mi northwest of the epicenter. Nine people were killed, the only deaths directly attributed to the earthquake. Anchorage was not hit by tsunamis, but downtown Anchorage was heavily damaged, and parts of the city built on clay or near bluffs, most notably the Turnagain Heights neighborhood, suffered landslide damage. Most other areas of the city were only moderately damaged.

The small coastal towns of Girdwood and Portage, located approximately 40 mi southeast of Anchorage on Turnagain Arm, were destroyed. Girdwood was later relocated a few miles inland, while Portage, which subsided below the high-water level, was abandoned entirely.

Elsewhere in Alaska

Most towns in the Prince William Sound, Kenai Peninsula, and Kodiak Island areas, especially the major ports, such as Seward and Kodiak, were heavily hit by a combination of seismic damage, tsunamis, subsidence, and/or fire. Valdez was not totally destroyed as is commonly thought and was inhabited for the next three years; the town was later moved to more solid ground 4 mi west of its original site. Several of the smaller, low-lying Alaska Native villages in the area, such as Chenega and Afognak, were mostly or totally destroyed. The earthquake also caused the ballistic missile detection radar of Clear Air Force Station to go offline for six minutes, the only unscheduled interruption in its operational history. The Million Dollar Bridge also collapsed.

Canada

A 4.5 ft wave reached Prince Rupert, British Columbia, just south of the Alaska Panhandle, about 3.3 hours after the quake. The tsunami then reached Tofino, on the exposed west coast of Vancouver Island, and travelled up a fjord to hit Port Alberni twice, damaging 375 homes and washing away 55 others. The towns of Hot Springs Cove, Zeballos, and Amai also saw damage. The damage in British Columbia was estimated at $10 million Canadian ($65 million in 2006 Canadian dollars, or $56 million in 2006 U.S. dollars).

Elsewhere

12 people were killed by the tsunami in Crescent City, California, while four children were killed on the Oregon Coast at Beverly Beach State Park. Other towns along the U.S. Pacific Northwest and Hawaii were damaged. Minor damage to boats reached as far south as Los Angeles.

Since the entire Earth vibrated as a result of the quake, minor effects were felt worldwide: several fishing boats were sunk in Louisiana and water sloshed in wells in South Africa.

Aftershocks

Over 10,000 aftershocks were recorded following the main shock. In the first day alone, eleven aftershocks were recorded with a magnitude greater than 6.0. Nine more occurred over the next three weeks. It was not until eighteen months later that the aftershocks were no longer a danger.

Submitted by Barb Ziegenmeyer

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