Images

Repeat oblique photographs of Gulkana glaciers in Alaska.  1967, Unknown USGS photographer. 2016, L. Sass, USGS.

Repeat oblique photographs of Wolverine glacier in Alaska.  1966 image by unknown USGS photographer; 2015 image by L. Sass, USGS.

Album caption: New control tower for Anchorage International Airport, built by Federal Aviation Agency at a cost of $850,000. One of the first of the new 0-type towers in the nation, it was operational by February, 1965. Anchorage district, Cook Inlet region, Alaska. n.d. (Photo by Federal Aviation Agency).

Damage from seismic sea wave aka Tsunami in Seward, Alaska. The waves came in from the sea via Resurrection Bay in the background. A series of large tsunami waves were generated by sudden uplift of the sea floor beneath the continental shelf off south-central Alaska during the earthquake.

The tsunami waves in Seward, Alaska washed the snow from the lower slopes of the hillsides, and the height of the highest wave is marked by the sharp "snow line" on the hillside behind and just above the rooftop in the left center of the photo.

Close-up view of tsunami damage along the waterfront at Kodiak, Alaska.

The rails in this approach to a railroad bridge near the head of Turnagain Arm were torn from their ties and buckled laterally by channelward movement of the riverbanks during the earthquake. The bridge was also com­ pressed and developed a hump from vertical buckling.

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 sloping 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.

During the earthquake fundamental changes in the level of the earth's crust occurred in south-central Alaska and adjacent off­ shore areas. 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. 

An underwater landslide in Blackstone Bay produced a large wave which surged to points 80 feet above sea level. The trees in the photo are about 50  to 75 feet high.

A series of earthquake-triggered landslides in glacial deposits disrupted almost a mile of The Alaska Railroad mainline at Potter Hill, near Anchorage. Avalanches and especially landslides produced major damage to transportation routes during the 1964 earthquake.

The Turnagain Heights landslide in Anchorage occurred along a steep bluff fronting Knik Arm of Cook Inlet. Its length, which was parallel to the bluff, was about one and half miles; its width was about a quarter to half a mile. This landslide reduced to rubble many of the finer homes of the city of Anchorage.

Close-up of damaged homes at Turnagain Heights landslide, Anchorage from 1964 earthquake.

A close-up of one of the scarps bounding the graben of the "L" Street land­slide, showing a house which was undercut by subsidence of the graben. A subsidence trough (or graben) formed at the head of the "L" Street land­ slide in Anchorage during the 1964 earthquake. The slide block, which is the virtually unbroken ground moved to the left.

Scarp at the subsidence trough or graben of the Fourth Avenue landslide, downtown Anchorage. Before the earthquake, the sidewalk in front of the stores on the right, which are in the graben, was at the level of the street on the left, which was not involved in the subsidence.

Close-up of the elementary school which was destroyed by the Government Hill landslide. Subsidence of the graben at the head of the Government Hill landslide in Anchorage tore apart an elementary school and converted the schoolyard into a jumble of fissures, scarps, and tilted and subsided blocks of broken ground.

A close-up of the compressional buckle, the ruptured fuel tank, and the revetment at the foot of the landslide near the Alaska Native Hospital, Anchorage. A rotational-slip landslide with a well-developed compressional buckle at its toe occurred near the Alaska Native Hospital, Anchorage.

The waterfront at Seward, looking south, before earthquake-generated underwater landslides, surge-waves, and tsunami waves devastated the water­ front. Note the small boat harbor, the railroad yards, the large docks, and other waterfront facilities which were removed by the underwater land­ slides.

The waterfront at Seward a few months after the earthquake, looking north. Note the "scalloped" shoreline left by the underwater landslides, the 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.

This truck at Lowell Point, 2 miles from Seward, was bent around a tree by the surge-waves generated by the underwater landslides along the Seward waterfront. The truck was about 32 feet above water level at the time of the earthquake. Many landslides generated by the 1964 earthquake originated beneath, or came to rest within, large bodies of water.

The dock area, a tank farm, and railroad facilities at Whittier were severely damaged by surge-waves developed by underwater landslides in Passage Canal. The waves inundated the area of darkened ground, where the snow was soiled or removed by the waves.