Essay On Alaska Earthquake

Prince William Sound, Alaska earthquake was one of the second most powerful earthquakes recorded in the U.S. and North America. It took place on March 27 1964. The earthquake had a magnitude of 9.2, it lasted nearly four minutes. This was an extremely destructive earthquake in Prince William Sound and other areas of Alaska. In Western Canada, Oregon California and Hawaiian Island a Pacific-wide tsunami was produced which was destructive in.

The death rate from the earthquake was about 128 people. Most of the deaths were in Alaska 115, Oregon had 15 and Washington were caused by quake-generated tsunamis. The human toll could have been much larger. However, the low population in the immediate area of the quake (and Alaska’s relatively low population density in general) as well as the fact that the earthquake occurred on a holiday limited the loss of life from the event. Property losses from the quake totaled over $300 million or about $2.2 billion today.

The aftershock

These were mainly of two kinds: the tsunami of open-ocean sea wave, generated by large-scale motion of the sea floor; and the local wave, generated by underwater landslides in bays of fiords.

The 1964 Alaska tsunami was the second largest ever recorded, again following only the one caused by the 1960 Chile earthquake (4 meters at Sitka). Of the 119 deaths attributable to the effects of the ocean, about one-third were due to the open-ocean tsunami: 4 at Newport Beach, Oregon; 12 at Crescent City, California; and about 21 in Alaska. Local waves claimed at least 82 lives. Maximum height reported for these waves were 70 meters in Valdez Arm.

Seiches, a sort of sloshing of water back and forth in a small body of water like a boat harbor or swimming pool, were observed as far away as Louisiana where a number of fishing boats were sunk. Oscillations in the height of water in wells were reported from as far away as South