Images

This highway embankment fissured and spread (lurched). The road was built on thick deposits of alluvium and tidal estuary mud along Turnagain Arm near Portage, Alaska. Failure of railway and highway embankments by fissuring and spreading, and by subsidence of the embankments into underlying, earthquake-weakened, unconsolidated deposits.

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&nb

At many places along the mountain front bordering Turnagain Arm, earthquake­ triggered avalanches buried the Seward Highway and the main line of The Alaska Railroad. In this slide the railroad is on top of the embankment at the foot of the mountain; "the highway is at the foot of the embankment, at the edge of the mud flats.

The 1964 earthquake precipitated some large rockslides in the Chugach Mountains. The debris from this one, which fell on Sherman Glacier, covered about 2 square miles. It originated on the highest mountain in the right background.

The modern wave-cut bedrock surface surrounding Middleton Island (the flat surface between the base of the cliffs and the water) was submerged at a comparable stage of tide before the earthquake.

The village of Portage, Alaska at the head of Turnagain Arm of Cook Inlet, is flooded at high tide as a result of 6 feet of tectonic subsidence during the earthquake.

Compare the damage sustained by the Hillside apartment building on left side and the ad­jacent three-story wood-frame dwelling with tall chimney. In general, wood frame buildings in Anchorage sustained little damage from seismic vibrations.

Anchorage municipal wharf area shortly after the earthquake at low tide. The main dock was only slightly damaged, but the older Army dock (upper left) was ruined. Vibration and ground fractures damaged some structures in the port area, including the petroleum tank (lower right). Photo by U.S. Army.

Warehouses at the toe of the Fourth Avenue landslide in Anchorage were destroyed by compressional buckling and foreshortening that are illustrated in slides 49 and 50.  Much of the supply of food and drink for the city of Anchorage was stored in these buildings, and they were guarded by Eskimo units of the Alaska National Guard.

Wreckage of Government Hill School in Anchorage, as viewed from the playground, looking west. The graben in the foreground is about 12 feet deep. The water tower is undamaged.

The marquee of the Denali Theater, which was in the graben of the Fourth Avenue landslide in Anchorage, subsided until it came to rest on the sidewalk in front of the theater, which was on ground not involved in the landslide.

Alaska Earthquake March 27, 1964. Damage to houses from landslides in Turnagain Heights in Anchorage. Photo by R.A. Page.
Pages 24-25, Earthquake Information Bulletin, v.12, no.1.

The control tower at Anchorage International Airport fell to the ground during the earthquake. It was a split-level structure that was seven stories high on one side and built of reinforced concrete.

A subsidence trough (or graben) formed at the head of the L Street landslide in Anchorage during the earthquake. The slide block, which is virtually unbroken ground to the left of the graben, moved to the left. The subsidence trough sank 7 to 10 feet in response to 11 feet of horizontal movement of the slide block.

Alaska Earthquake March 27, 1964.

Collapse of Fourth Avenue near C Street, Anchorage, due to a landslide caused by earthquake. Anchorage, Anchorage District, Cook Inlet Region, Alaska. (Photo by U.S. Army). Published as Figure 45 in U.S. Geological Survey. Professional Paper 541. 1966.

The 1200 "L" Street Building in Anchorage, a fourteen-story reinforced concrete apartment building, was severely damaged during the earthquake. One the main exterior piers (the white bearing walls without windows)shown in this slide, failed at the second floor, exposing the steel reinforced bars within the concrete.

Part of the Turnagain Heights landslide in Anchorage shortly after the earthquake.
Anchorage, Anchorage District, Cook Inlet Region, Alaska, 1964.
Photo by W.R. Hansen, 1964.
Published in Frontispiece, U.S. Geological Survey Professional paper 541, 1966.

Alaska Earthquake March 27, 1964.
Compare the damage sustained by the Hillside Apartment Building and the adjacent three-story wood-frame dwelling with the tall chimney. In general, wood frame buildings in Anchorage sustained little damage from seismic vibration.

Album caption: Wreckage of the J.C. Penney's Department Store at Fifth Avenue and D Street. Building failed after sustained seismic shaking. Most of rubble has been cleared from the streets. Anchorage, Anchorage District, Cook Inlet Region, Alaska, 1964. (Photo by George Plafker). Published as Figure 5 in U.S. Geological Survey. Professional Paper 542-A. 1965.

Damage to building from seismic vibration. The Fifth Avenue Chrysler Center in Anchorage was constructed of pre-cast, pre-stressed concrete roof T's which rested on concrete block walls in most parts of the building. However, in the showroom area the roof T's rested on reinforced concrete columns.