Unit1: The Earth Natural Hazards

Christina
Ms.Julia
Individual and Societies
MYP3
09/10/2023

Action Plan
Product: Infographic Poster
Topic : 1964 Alaska earthquake

My Research Question:
Because of the subduction zone (the Paci c Plate and the North American
Plate) in Alaska, how was the 1964 Alaska earthquake caused and how did it
affect the environment there?

How/why
What do I want to learn from this RQ (Objectives):
I want to learn about earthquakes, like what they are, why they happen, and
how they a ect the environment.

Outline to nd answers for my RQ:

• I will have to research about the Alaska earthquake(just to understand what
I’m talking about) and why it happened
• Then, I will search for why the Paci c Plate slide underneath the North
American Plate and at what rate it’s happening so that I now if it will happen
again
• It’s been around 60 years since the Alaska earthquake, so it should be fairly
easy to nd the (long-term and short-term) e ects.
• I will research the economic, cultural, ethical, political, social, and
environmental e ects of the 1964 Alaska earthquake.

Research Notes
www.citationmachiine.net

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Source 1 Notes for source The 1964 Alaska earthquake is the strongest ever recorded in
S1 North America.

The magnitude was at 9.2.

It happened in Prince William Sound, 5:36 p.m. on March 27

and ended roughly four minutes later.

131 people died. And in the 131 people that died, only 15 died
because of the earthquake itself. The others died in the resulting
landslides and tsunamis

A lot of the coast moved 50 feet towards the ocean, while

others sank up to 8 feet.

After the earthquake, tsunamis came quickly. Chenega(a village

in Alaska) lost a third of its population because of a tsunami.

Scientists learned that the Paci c Plate slid between 30 to 60

feet underneath the North American Plate.

While most of Alaska learned a lesson, some still decided to

rebuilt luxury homes on places that have a big chance of an
earthquake again.

MLA Citation S1 history.com Editors. “1964 Alaska Earthquake.” history.Com,

A&E Television Networks, 6 Mar. 2018, www.history.com/
topics/natural-disasters-and-environment/1964-alaska-
earthquake. Accessed 10 Oct. 2023.

Source 2 Notes for source Aftershocks of the Alaska earthquake went on for three weeks.
S2
https:// The Paci c Plate and the North American Plate are responsible
www.ncei.noaa.go for most of Alaskas earthquakes.
v/news/great-
alaska-earthquake The earthquake triggered landslides and tsunamis. Landslides
destroyed water mains, electrical systems, and the sewer.

Repairs cost 311 million dollars in 1964(which is about 2.3

billion today)

MLA Citation S2 “On This Day: Great Alaska Earthquake and Tsunami.” National
Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), 30 Mar. 2023,
www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/great-alaska-earthquake.

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Source 3 Notes for source 86 houses were completely destroyed

S3
Entire economic base was wiped out

Because Alaska is so close to the mountains, the earthquake

created new landslides and triggered old ones and tsunamis

The landslides created a lot of damage(they cause rock and

snow avalanches, debris ows, etc)

A new dock for the Alaska Railroad was constructed after the
earthquake by the U.S Army Corps of Enineers,

MLA Citation S3 Lemke, Richard W. E ects of the Earthquake of March 27, 1964,
at Seward, Alaska. pubs.usgs.gov/pp/0542e.

Source4 Notes for source 141 out of 204 bridges were damaged and 92 were destroyed
S4
186 out of 830 miles of the roadway on the south central were
damaged. 83 miles were so damaged that they needed to be
relocated or replaced.

Damaged was caused by : the earthquake itself, landslides,

avalanches, tsunamis

It was found that roadways with a thicker ll su ered more than

ones with a thin ll

Piles constructed of three railroad rails welded together broke

more than wood piles.

Brides that have heavy superstructures also were damaged

more severely than all wood or concrete decks.

MLA Citation S4 Kachadoorian, Reuben. “Effects of the Earthquake of March 27,

1964, on the Alaska Highway System.” U.S. Geological Survey
Professional Paper, United States Government Publishing Of ce,
Jan. 1968, https://doi.org/10.3133/pp545c.

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Source 5
Photo Resource 1

Caption for the The 1964 Alaska earthquake

photo for S5

MLA Citation for Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Alaska earthquake of

the photo S5 1964". Encyclopedia Britannica, 6 Oct. 2023, https://
www.britannica.com/event/Alaska-earthquake-of-1964.
Accessed 12 October 2023.

Notes for S5 The only reason why the death toll was only 131 was because of
the low density of the population but the property damage was
huge

It released twice the amount of energy that the Sam Francisco

earthquake of 1906

46,442 square miles(120, 000 square km) were a ected(tilted)

Crescent City, California was a ected by tsunamis.

Faulting extended along the North Paci c Plate (620 miles)

Source 6

MLA Citation for “The Great Alaska Earthquake and Tsunami of 1964.”
S6 Environment & Society Portal, www.environmentandsociety.org/
tools/keywords/great-alaska-earthquake-and-
tsunami-1964#:~:text=Coastal%20marshlands%20and%20fore
sts%2C%20that,saltwater%20and%20sediment%20from%20la
ndslides.

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Notes for S6 There were 11 aftershocks thats magnitude was bigger than 6.0
throughout the day that the earthquake happened.

Forests, coastal marshlands, salmon spawning areas and

freshwater reservoirs were either damaged or destroyed by salt
water(from the tsunami).

Pretty much all of the animals that live in Alaska were

e ected( sh, clams were killed, and deer, sheep, moose, and
goats were killed too because their habitat was wiped out.

Source 7 Photo Resource

S7

Caption for the The aftermath of the Alaska earthquake

photo for S7

MLA Citation for DHS&EM | the 1964 Great Alaska Earthquake History.
photo S7 ready.alaska.gov/_64Quake/History.

Notes for S7 Also known as the Good Friday Earthquake, it caused a lot of
damage to the houses, buildings and infrastructures that were
inadequately earthquake engineered.

Some areas of the coastline(Kodiak and Hinchinbrook Island)

were raised by 30 feet permanently because of the earthquake.

Firewood and Portage required reconstruction because they

dropped 8 feet

A huge underwater landslide happened in the Port of Valdez.

Close to there, a tsunami that was 27 feet high demolished
Chenega(a village), killing 23 people(out of the 68 that lived
there).

While Valdez wasn’t completely destroyed, they moved to higher

ground 4 miles west away three years later.

Nine aftershocks happened over the three weeks after the initial
tremor.

It wasn’t until a year later that the aftershocks weren’t noticed.

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