Great Alaska Earthquake, 1964-Magnitude 9.2 -Causes & Effects

[@raej1307]

My dad was Air Force and we were stationed at Elmendorf AFB in 1964. I was only 8 years old, but I remember it like it was yesterday. I saw a lot of the devastation shown in pictures firsthand. I vividly remember the now iconic 4th Street picture and JC Penney store. My elementary school is in one of them too. It was destroyed. Elmendorf itself was severely damaged. My dad had just walked in the door, still in uniform, when it hit. He knew right away what was going on, kept calm, and grabbed us, kids, to get us to safety. I remember watching TV (cartoons of course :) and suddenly the TV was coming AT me. My dad grabbed me and got all of us out of the house. People were screaming that it was the end of the world. The ground was pitching and rolling so, we could barely stand up. Four and a half minutes is a LONG time. We were blessed to be military because there was no water, no power and it was still cold. March in Alaska is still winter. It would take a while to restore everything. The base had backup and a lot of families were doubling up so those who lived off base and/or had their homes destroyed also had a place to stay. Military members had to report to base asap and get (or give) orders. I didn't see much of my dad for a while. The AFTERSHOCKS were incredible. In the first few months, there were thousands, most over 6.0 on the Richter Scale. The earth shook more often than not. It took about a year for them to diminish. In all of this, as terrifying as it was, the absolute weirdest part of it all was the silence that descended right after it stopped. Earthquakes are LOUD, like a freight train going through your living room. The earth itself was imploding. The silence that came right after had its own sound. It was literally surreal. And then all you could hear was sirens and people yelling and screaming. As this video demonstrates, they learned a lot about earthquakes from this one. It also affected future architecture for safety. I'm so glad about that.

[@khristine1229]

Thank you for sharing your experience.

[@EllenLewis-bs5le]

I was a 2nd grader in Michigan but remember the earthquake very well. We were so shocked. Your account is quite helpful and very informative. Thank you for sharing.

[@alaskabarb8089]

This is the most concise and understandable video explaining the immensity of the Good Friday Earthquake I’ve seen yet. Great job.

[@wellforever2561]

I was downtown at 5th Ave & C street. The most frightening experience of my life.

[@romainlettuce118]

Would you consider doing an interview about it?

[@Leah4842]

Excellent animation. George Plafker also documented a third zone, a zone of relatively small uplift, inboard (northwest) of the zone of subsidence. This zone was confirmed by resurveying precise pre-earthquake surveys along the route of the Alaska Railroad.

[@greenman6141]

Thanks for adding this comment. I always find George Plafker to be especially interesting to listen to when I find bits of film footage of him. And I really enjoy his sense of humour. The work he did seemed so important, yet he mostly makes fun of himself. It is very endearing.

[@haroldburrows4770]

My aunt uncle and cousins were there. She said the ground looked like the ocean

[@leewhite6425]

I was there ,on 4th ave stopped about fifty ft from the collapse in the street.

[@mikebecket7458]

The 1964 earthquake was upgraded to A 9.6 a little over six months after the March 27th quake I was there as I lived there and was working for the city of Anchorage at the time.

[@timothyashe3779]

My father was in downtown Anchorage during the quake so the quake has been an ongoing conversation my whole life. I have heard the same thing about 9.6 I had heard conflicting stories about the magnitude over the years and it was a hotly debated issue in my house and among family friend that lived through it like yourself. My understanding is that the scale has changed over the years as the science has become more well understood and this is the reason it is a 9.2 now. It’s not that they changed their mind about how strong it was more that the measurement changed.

[@davidlafleche1142]

@@timothyashe3779 The original magnitude was 8.6, but upgraded to 9.2.

[@STJukes]

I can't find any source on this. All sites still say 9.2.

[@itz_andrey9137]

Nope. Still 9.2. Although in the movie San Andreas, it was stated that it was 9.1.

[@romainlettuce118]

Would you consider doing an interview about it?

[@randysmith6493]

This was excellent and showed me things that I knew an noticed in and around South Central Alaska. I was in 4th grade then during the quake in Anchorage. My friends home was ripped apart in Turnagain (you photos showed subduction) , my home was okay an I still live in it. Kayaking around Prince William Sound we saw islands where you walk into the woods off the beach about 50 yards and all of a sudden you would see the forest had raised up like a long wall about 8’, it was bizzar looking. And of course we have also in areas like Turnagain Arm which is in away from the coastal waters, where tree forest were sunk into the Salt water table and of course died and still are as standing dead trees. There was some gruesome measure of life lost by the Tidal Waves of various inlets were towns were located at the back ends were great damage is done.

[@cosmophire]

this video is so useful for my geography project thank u!!

[@gingerjackson7811]

My dad was in the air force and we lived on Elmendorf AFB in 1964 and was in that earthquake. I was only 4.My father took numerous movies of after effects of the earthquake.

[@raej1307]

My dad was Air Force and we were also stationed at Elmendorf in 1964. I was only 8 years old, but I remember it like it was yesterday. You and I probably crossed paths all the time. :) I hope you still have those movies. They're part of history.

[@markheaney]

I don't think you can prepare for such a thing.

[@randysmith6493]

You won’t know when. But you can study before buying property what the ground is before you build or buy. Greed is what caused the loss of homes in Turnagain as the Army Corp of Engineers said, not suitable for building, liquefaction trashed the place. You can have a generator, heater, stored water, warm sleeping bags and clothes and food stores. And in this area of the Pacific Rim, it’s a good idea. We lived in our car for a week or so and had snow for water.

[@WhatisReallyGoingOn]

give us more please! We want more info, thank you.

[@talesfromthemoribund702]

Great video bud

[@KafirsAreCool]

very interesting... thanks!!

[@julielabelle2783]

Great video, thank you for sharing. ⛰️ 🗺️ 🌋

[@lesliepropheter5040]

The 'secret' is to constantly monitor the height of land mass? Say SF or LA, if the giant underground metal spring shown here in this video, gets tight, the land mass rises. Obviously you can monitor that somehow. Focusing on recent quiet zones especially.

[@dalehagglund]

The lateral (strike slip) motion of the San Andreas fault is very different from the subduction happening in Alaska, so you don't see the same kind of elevation changes. You still get horizontal motion, though.

[@LardGreystoke]

It is literally a giant metal spring though. Animations don't lie.

[@pipingsetiadi1210]

So, our tectonic plates are elastic but not plastic.. what are tectonic plates made of ??

[@osirismpg7393]

Great explanation, thank you or that!

[@itz_andrey9137]

Chile 9.5

[@kimberlyk3928]

Did this earthquake affect Prince Rupert BC? I'm really curious if it did!

[@bungaraya6082]

Tidal waves = tsunami

[@MaxTheYoutuber]

not so good friday

[@gothicblack5876]

También Alaska Terremotos 7.1 Noviembre 30 😰😱😨

[@tammieknuth6020]

"M" Is for motivation

[@jasonrohrssen3394]

Earthquake resistant buildings. Lmao!

[@randysmith6493]

No, they can and do. A tall building called the Anchorage Hilton had two towers right next to each other. They came close at the top of smacking into each other. They still exist today as one of the finest hostels in Anchorage. Right across the street and for about five bloats was all lost sliding down hill. Four seasons inland , brand new, flat ground, disintegrated . Clearly different engineers.

[@jamesmilton3490]

For the transform faults to exist in their present positions would require perfectly synchronized motions between the plates, an extremely dubious event in the natural world. Furthermore the North American and Eurasian plates would be colliding with the formation of a Himalayan type mountains with abundant seismicity which is not seen. The theory lacks a sufficient driving mechanism and this weakness is no more evident as to what could possibly move the giant Eurasian plate especially as subduction pull is not a possibility. There should be subduction zones and transform faults in the Artic Ocean which overall fits poorly into plate tectonic theory. Both Eurasia and North America are connected by extensive continental crust as continental shelves. They are both in reality one continent. If sea levels were lower and the shelves exposed on a map and the connection obvious, the theory might not have caught on and geologists may well now be believing in an entirely different one.

[@LardGreystoke]

Well, if they were idiots playing with crayons.

[@amberlindemann7738]

Ihetearthquakeamberwe Weneednomoar

[@michaelhudecek2778]

🙏🙏🙏🙏

[@Tropic-life]

👇👇👇

[@WhatisReallyGoingOn]

40,686 quakes in 2014!!!!! It is getting worse folks.

[@WhatisReallyGoingOn]

Adrallon Ded Thanks so much for your intelligent comment. And there were in fact 40,686 earthquakes in Alaska in 2014.

[@clearwave9453]

It got worse

[@ДмитрийБурбовский]

.#zZz#.⚡⬇️⬆️💀☢...