The initial quake and subsequent underwater landslides caused numerous tsunamis, which inflicted heavy damage on the coastal towns of Valdez, Whittier, Seward, and Kodiak. Seismic waves caused the earth to “ring like a bell.” It effortlessly toppled telephone poles, buckled railroad tracks, split roads in half, uprooted buildings, cars and docks and tore homes apart. The violent shaking led to water, sewer and gas line breaks and widespread telephone and electrical failures. They recalled seeing asphalt roads rise and fall like waves and the ground opening and closing before them, water shooting up through the ensuing cracks. Lasting four minutes and thirty-eight seconds, the magnitude 9.2 earthquake remains the most powerful earthquake recorded in North American history, and the second most powerful earthquake recorded in world history.Įyewitnesses described hearing a crunching, grinding noise as the earth shook. The epicenter was about 10 km east of the mouth of College Fiord, approximately 90 km west of Valdez and 120 km east of Anchorage. On March 27, 1964, at 5:36 PM, a megathrust earthquake occurred in the Prince William Sound region of Alaska.
The bridge was also compressed and developed a hump from vertical buckling. The rails in this approach to a railroad bridge near the head of Turnagain Arm, southeast of Anchorage, were torn from their ties and buckled laterally by movement of the riverbanks during a massive earthquake on March 27, 1964.
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