Significant Earthquake

Date Earthquake Location Earthquake Parameters
Focal
Depth		 Magnitude MMI Int
Year Mo Dy Hr Mn Sec Name Latitude Longitude Mw Ms Mb Ml Mfa Unk
1964 3 28 3 36 ALASKA 61.040 -147.730 33 9.2 8.4 10
Significant Earthquake
Earthquake Effects Total Effects (Earthquake and Tsunami, Volcano, etc.)
Deaths Missing Injuries Damage Houses
Destroyed		 Houses
Damaged		 Deaths Missing Injuries Damage Houses
Destroyed		 Houses
Damaged
Num De Num De Num De $Mill De Num De Num De Num De Num De Num De $Mill De Num De Num De
15 1 311.000 4 139 3 430.000 4


Comments for the Significant Earthquake

Comments for the Significant Earthquake

Display listing of nearby significant earthquakes

This magnitude 9.2 Mw earthquake and ensuing tsunami caused 139 deaths and $430 million in property loss. The earthquake caused 15 deaths and the tsunami caused 124 deaths (106 in Alaska, 13 in California and 5 in Oregon).

Following is from reference #542:

March 28, 1964, 03:36:14 UTC, 61.04 N, 147.73 W, depth 33 km, magnitude 8.4 MS, intensity X. Prince William Sound, Alaska. This great earthquake and ensuing tsunami took 125 lives (tsunami 110, earthquake 15), and caused about $311 million in property loss. Earthquake effects were heavy in many towns, including Anchorage, Chitina, Glennallen, Homer, Hope, Kasilof, Kenai, Kodiak, Moose Pass, Portage, Seldovia, Seward, Sterling, Valdez, Wasilla, and Whittier.

Anchorage, about 120 km northwest of the epicenter, sustained the most severe damage to property. About 30 blocks of dwellings and commercial buildings were damaged or destroyed in the downtown area. The J.C. Penney Company building was damaged beyond repair; the Four Seasons apartment building, a new six-story structure, collapsed; and many other multistory buildings were damaged heavily. The schools in Anchorage were almost devastated. The Government Hill Grade School, sitting astride a huge landslide, was almost a total loss. Anchorage High School and Denali Grade School were damaged severely. Duration of the shock was estimated at 3 minutes.

Landslides in Anchorage caused heavy damage. Huge slides occurred in the downtown business section, at Government Hill, and at Turnagain Heights. The largest and most devastating landslide occurred at Turnagain Heights. An area of about 130 acres was devastated by displacements that broke the ground into many deranged blocks that were collapsed and tilted at all angles. This slide destroyed about 75 private houses. Water mains and gas, sewer, telephone, and electrical systems were disrupted throughout the area.

The earthquake was accompanied by vertical displacement over an area of about 520,000 km2. The major area of uplift trended northeast from southern Kodiak Island to Prince William Sound and trended east-west to the east of the sound. Vertical displacements ranged from about 11.5 m of uplift to 2.3 m of subsidence relative to sea level. Off the southwest end of Montague Island, there was absolute vertical displacement of about 13-15 m. Uplift also occurred along the extreme southeast coast of Kodiak Island, Sitkalidak Island, and over part or all of Sitkinak Island. This zone of subsidence covered about 285,000 km2, including the north and west parts of Prince William Sound, the west part of the Chugach Mountains and a part of the lowlands north of the mountains, most of Kenai Peninsula, and almost all the Kodiak Island group.

This great earthquake was felt over a large area of Alaska and in parts of western Yukon Territory and British Columbia, Canada.

March 28, 1964, 8.4 MS, 9.2 Mw. (reference #1314)

March 28, 1964, 03:36:13 UTC, 61.1 N, 147.6 W, depth 20 km, magnitude 8.5 MS. (reference #88)


References for the Significant Earthquake

References for the Significant Earthquake

ID Author Year Citation
88 Duda, Seweryn J. 1965 Secular seismic energy release in the circum-Pacific belt. Tectonophysics, vol. 2, no. 5, p. 409-452. DOI:10.1016/0040-1951(65)90035-1
542 Stover, Carl W., and Jerry L. Coffman 1993 Seismicity of the United States, 1568-1989 (Revised), U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1527, United States Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.
1003 Bath, Markus 1973 Introduction to Seismology, Halsted Press, 1978.
1040 Rothe, J.P. 1969 The Seismicity of the Earth 1953-1965, United National Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Paris, France, 312 p. plus maps.
1128 Coffman, J.L. and C.A. von Hake 1973-1982 Earthquake History of the United States, Pub. 41-1, U.S. Department of Commerce, Boulder, CO, 1973, and 1982 Supplement.
1231 Berz, G. 1988 List of Major Natural Disasters, 1960-1987. Natural Hazards, vol. 1, no. 1, p. 97-99.
1314 Kanamori, Hiroo 1977 The energy release of great earthquakes. Journal of Geophysical Research, vol. 82, p. 2981-2987.
3834 Cloud, William K. and Nina H. Scott 1972 Distribution of intensity. The Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964: Seismology and Geodesy, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C., p. 65-108.