Historic Earthquakes
Prince William Sound, Alaska
1964 March 28 03:36 UTC
1964 March 27 05:36 p.m. local time
Magnitude 9.2
Largest Earthquake in Alaska
Damage Photos
Close-up of Government Hill elementary school, which
was destroyed by the Government Hill landslide.
Anchorage, Alaska.
The waterfront at Seward a few months after the earthquake,
looking north. Note the "scalloped" shoreline left by the
underwater landslides that severed tracks in the railroad yard
which dangle over the landslide scarp and the windrow-like
heaps of railroad cars and other debris thrown up by the
tsunami waves. Alaska.
Uplifted sea floor at Cape Cleare, Montague Island,
Prince William Sound, in the area of greatest recorded
tectonic uplift on land (33 feet). The very gently
slopping flat rocky surface with the white coating
which lies between the cliffs and the water is about a
quarter of a mile wide. It is a wave cut surface that
was below sea level before the earthquake. The white
coating consists of the remains of calcareous marine
organisms that were killed by
desiccation when the wave cut
surface was lifted above the high tide during the earthquake.
Uplifted dock on Hinchinbrook Island, Prince William Sound.
Land in this area rose about 8 feet during the earthquake,
and the dock can now be used only at extremely high tides.
The stumps in the foreground are part of an ancient forest
on Latouche island, Prince William Sound, that was
submerged below sea level and buried in prehistoric times.
Tectonic uplift of 9 feet during the earthquake raised
these stumps above sea level once again, demonstrating
that the area is tectonically restless.
The amount of tectonic uplift on Glacier Island, Prince
William Sound, was shown by the upper limit to which
algae of the intertidal zone are on this sea cliff before
and after the earthquake. The top of the band of green
(still living) algae is near present (post earthquake)
mean high tide. The top of the band of brown (desiccated)
algae marks the approximate position of mean high tide
before the earthquake. The difference in height between
the top of the bands of living and of desiccated algae
(3 feet) is a measure of the amount of tectonic uplift
in this area.
View southwest along the Hanning Bay fault scarp on southwest Montague
Island in Prince William Sound. The Hanning Bay fault was reactivated
during the earthquake. Its trace is marked by 10 to 15 feet high bedrock
scarp which trends obliquely across the field of view from the right
foreground to the left background. The fault trace lies between the
uplifted wave cut surface that is coated white by desiccated calcareous
marine organisms and borders the open ocean and the area of brown sand
and silt in the cove. The ground northwest of the fault (right side of
photo) was displaced upward as much as 16 feet with respect to the ground
southeast of the fault during the earthquake, but both sides of the fault
were uplifted with respect to sea level due to general tectonic uplift
of the region. The fault plane dips steeply NW, or is vertical.
Close-up view of tsunami damage along the
waterfront at Kodiak.
The Hillside apartment building in Anchorage was severely
damaged by the earthquake and has been razed. It was a
split-level, five story building with steel posts and
lintels, concrete floor slabs, and unreinforced concrete
block walls and partitions.
Photos from the Earth Science Photographs from the U.S. Geological Survey Library, by Joseph K. McGregor and Carl Abston, U.S. Geological Survey Digital Data Series DDS-21, 1995.