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.