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 Tsunami - Earthquake park - Anchorage, AK Posted by:  Lat34North
N 61° 11.912 W 149° 58.802
6V E 339868 N 6788551
This marker is located in Earthquake Park located on W Northern Lights Blvd. It is also accessible from the Tony Knowles Bicycle Trail.
Waymark Code: WMJ26V
Location: Alaska, United States
Date Posted: 09/11/2013
Views: 7
Tsunami
More devastating than the Good Friday earthquake itself, the seismic sea waves or tsunamis, then followed calls the major loss of life and property in Alaska.
Tsunamis are generated by the sudden upward movement of the seafloor along the rupturing fault. These waves can travel thousands of miles and can strike low-lying coastal areas hours after earthquake with violent force. In the Good Friday Earthquake, some areas like Anchorage were barely affected by tsunamis. Other coastal communities with different topography, like Chenega, Kodiak, Seward and Valdez suffered complete ruin. Sharing in grim destructive power are waves generated by submarine landslides along coastal areas where huge volumes of water are rapidly displaced by soil debris. These waves occur during or immediately after an earthquake and can be 30 to 50 feet in height, his high as a large tsunami wave
A Tale of Two Cities
Valdez Valdez was nestled at the head of a scenic fjord in Prince William Sound. A thriving city of 1200 people, Valdez’s economy was based on fishing, shipping and tourism. When the Good Friday Earthquake struck at 5:36 PM, the entire city began violently heaving, and huge fissures formed in the earth spewing mud, water and sewage 20 feet into the air.
Twenty-eight people were on the dock, watching the unloading of the SS Chena, a 400 foot Liberty Ship. As the quake reached full force, it triggered a submarine landslide under the harbor area, which generated a 40 foot wave it instantaneously destroyed to the harbor, the docs, the canneries, and all the people on the dock. The SS Chena bottomed out three times, rolling in pitching so violently that three seamen were killed. When the huge wave retreated, it through the SS Chena out to sea, relatively undamaged. Successive tsunamis completed the destruction of Valdez, after the earthquake, the city decided to move to a seismically safer area rather than rebuild. Today Valdez sits 4 miles northwest of the original site.
Seward A fortunate town, Seward was one of the few ice free ports in Southcentral Alaska, and had an active economy in fishing and industry all year. Everything changed at 5:36 PM, March 27, 1964. Forty-five seconds after the earthquake started shaking, huge slices of the Seward waterfront and harbor slid into the bay. The Standard Oil dock facility ruptured, spewing fuel everywhere. As the Standard Oil tanks overturned, they exploded and caught fire. A wall of water 30 feet high, generated by a submarine landslide, and covered in burning oil, swallowed the remaining harbor and dock area. Forty oil-filled railroad tank cars exploded in a chain reaction. As the first wave subsided, people made their way to high ground, fearing tsunamis. Twenty-five minutes after the earthquake, the first tsunami hit Seward with 40 foot waves moving 100 mph. The ways were still ablaze with burning oil. The last tsunami left the town 10 hours later leaving 13 people dead and Seward totally devastated
More Information:
You Tube video: Great Alaskan earthquake of 1964
AEIC: Alaska Earthquake Information Center - The Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964
ASK - 1964 Alaska earthquake
Wikipedia - 1964 Alaska earthquake
Wikipedia - Megathrust earthquake
Wikipedia - Slump (geology)
Wikipedia - Tsunami
Wikipedia - Valdez, Alaska
Wikipedia - Seward, Alaska
Wikipedia - Cook Inlet
Marker Name: Tsunami
Marker Type: Roadside
Addtional Information:
The Great Alaskan Earthquake occurred on Good Friday, March 27, 1964 at 5:36 P.M. AST. It was a 9.2 megathrust earthquake. The earthquake also caused a destructive tsunami.
"Various sources indicate that about 131 people died as a result of the earthquake: nine as a result of earthquake itself, 106 from subsequent tsunamis in Alaska and 16 from tsunamis in Oregon and California. Property damage was estimated at over $310 million ($2.22 billion in current U.S. dollars)."
Source: Ask: 1964 Alaska earthquake
http://www.ask.com/wiki/1964_Alaska_earthquake?o=2801&qsrc=999&ad=doubleDown&an=apn&ap=ask.com
Date Dedicated / Placed: Not listed
Marker Number: Not listed
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Visit Instructions:
Preferred would be to post a photo of you OR your GPS at the marker location. Also if you know of any additional links not already mentioned about this bit of Alaska history please include that in your log.
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