The 1964 Great Alaska Earthquake Anchorage Walking Tour

The magnitude 9.2 earthquake was the largest recorded earthquake in U.S. history. The Great Alaska Earthquake, also known as the Good Friday Earthquake, occurred at a pivotal time in the history of earth science and helped lead to the acceptance of plate tectonic theory. All large subduction zone earthquakes are understood through insights learned from the 1964 event, and observations and interpretations of the earthquake have influenced the design of infrastructure and seismic monitoring systems now in place. The earthquake caused extensive damage across the State and triggered local tsunamis that devastated the Alaskan towns of Whittier, Valdez, and Seward. 

In Anchorage, the main cause of damage was ground shaking, which lasted approximately 4.5 minutes. Many buildings could not withstand this motion and were damaged or collapsed even though their foundations remained intact. More significantly, ground shaking triggered a number of landslides along coastal and drainage valley bluffs underlain by the Bootlegger Cove Formation, a composite of facies containing variably mixed gravel, sand, silt, and clay which were deposited over much of upper Cook Inlet during the Late Pleistocene. Cyclic (or strain) softening of the more sensitive clay facies caused overlying blocks of soil to slide sideways along surfaces dipping by only a few degrees. New research reveals that a tsunami did indeed reach the upper Cook Inlet that night on March 27th in 1964. View the storymap “A Hidden Wave Emerges.”

This is an interactive web map created as part of the 60th anniversary of the 1964 Great Alaska Earthquake. The website features a map display with suggested tour stops in Anchorage and historical photographs taken shortly after the earthquake. Buildings in Anchorage that were severely damaged, sites of major landslides, and locations of post-earthquake engineering responses are highlighted. The web map can also be used online as a virtual tour. 

The tour area only covers the city of Anchorage. 

• An overview map shows the areas covered by the tour with numbered icons for each tour stop along with a description and photo.
• For simplicity, the stops have been sorted from east to west, so the numbers do not imply the order in which they should be visited, and directions to the stops are not given in this guide.
• Many of the stops are at locations where nearby parking is available or at public parks, but some are on private land where businesses are operating.
• Please be considerate of their business; park away from entrances and exits, make your visit short, and be polite if approached.

Many sites of historic damage show no present-day evidence of the earthquake as most of the massive landslides have been re-graded and developed, and some buildings that were damaged have been repaired whereas others have been removed for other reasons. Tour stops and photograph descriptions come verbatim from Hansen (1965), photograph captions accessed at the USGS Photographic Library or modified from other USGS sources.