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### Effects of the earthquake of March 27, 1964, on various 
communities: Chapter G in The Alaska earthquake, March 27, 1964: effects on 
communities

#### Professional Paper 542-G

###### This report is Chapter G in The Alaska earthquake, March 27, 1964: 
effects on communities.  For more information, see: Professional Paper 542.

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#### Links

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- Plates:
- **Plate 1**                                
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- **Plate 2**                                
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- Download citation as:  RIS

#### Abstract

The 1964 earthquake caused wide-spread damage to inhabited places throughout 
more than 60,000 square miles of south-central Alaska. This report describes 
damage to all communities in the area except Anchorage, Whittier, Homer, Valdez, 
Seward, the communities of the Kodiak group of islands, and communities in the 
Copper River Basin; these were discussed in previous chapters of the Geological 
Survey's series of reports on the earthquake. At the communities discussed 
herein, damage resulted primarily from sea waves of diverse origins, 
displacements of the land relative to sea level, and seismic shaking. Waves took 
all of the 31 lives lost at those communities; physical damage was primarily 
from the waves and vertical displacements of the land relative to sea 
level.

Destructive waves of local origin struck during or immediately after the 
earthquake throughout much of Prince William Sound, the southern Kenai 
Peninsula, and the shores of Kenai Lake. In Prince William Sound, waves 
demolished all but one home at the native village of Chenega, destroyed 
homesites at Point Nowell and Anderson Bay, and caused varying amounts of damage 
to waterfront facilities at Sawmill Bay, Latouche, Port Oceanic, Port Nellie 
Juan, Perry Island, and western Port Valdez. The local waves, which ran up as 
high as 70 feet above tide level at Chenega and more than 170 feet in several 
uninhabited parts of the Sound, took nearly all of the lives lost by drowning at 
these communities. Destructive local waves that devastated shores of Anderson 
Bay and adjacent parts of western Port Valdez probably were generated primarily 
by massive submarine slides of glacial and fluvioglacial deposits ; the origin 
of the waves that caused damage at most of the other communities and at 
extensive uninhabited segments of shoreline is not known. At these places the 
most probable generative mechanisms are: unidentified submarine slides of 
unconsolidated deposits, and (or) the horizontal tectonic displacements, of 20 
to more than 60 feet, that occurred in the Prince William Sound region during 
the earthquake.

A train of long-period seismic sea waves that began about 20 minutes after 
the start of the earthquake inundated shores along the Gulf of Alaska coast to a 
maximum height of 35 feet above tide level. At the communities described, they 
virtually destroyed two logging camps at Whidbey Bay and Puget Bay on the south 
coast of the Kenai Peninsula, caused moderate damage to boat harbors and docks 
at Seldovia and Cordova, floated away some beach cabins in the Cordova area, and 
drowned two people, one at Point Whitshed near Cordora and one at the Cape Saint 
Elias Light Station. The seismic sea waves were generated by regional tectonic 
uplift of the sea floor on the Continental Shelf.

Vertical tectonic displacements of the land relative to sea level that 
accompanied the earthquake affected virtually all the coastal communities. 
Tectonic subsidence of 5 to 6 feet, augmented locally by surficial subsidence of 
unconsolidated deposits required either the relocation or raising of structures 
at Portage, Girdwood, and Hope on Turnagain Arm. Shoreline submergence resulting 
from about 31⁄2 feet of tectonic subsidence at Seldovia necessitated raising all 
waterfront facilities and the airstrip above the level of high tides. On the 
other hand, tectonic uplift of the land in the Prince Williams Sound region 
required deepening of the small-boat harbors at Cordora and Tatitlek, dredging 
of the waterways in the Cordova area, and lengthening of some docks or piers at 
Cordova, the Cape Hinchinbrook Light Station, and in Sawmill Bay.

Significant structural damage from direct seismic shaking was largely 
confined to fluid containers and a pier facility near Kenai. Indirect damage 
from fissuring and differential settling of foundation mterials in the vicinity 
of the Cordova airfield mused damage to a building, underground utilities, an 
airfield fill, and the highway. Minor amounts of direct and indirect damage from 
seismic vibrations were sustained by most of the communities situated on 
unconsolidated deposits as far east as Yakutat, north to Fairbanks, and west to 
King Salmon. Except for a few cracked or toppled chimney, all the damage from 
shaking was confined to areas of thick, unconsolidated deposits. Foundation 
damage was almost entirely restricted to water-saturated unconsolidated deposits 
which, when liquefied by seismic shaking, could spread laterally toward free 
faces and (or) settle differentially through compaction.

#### Study Area



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