ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – Researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey have solved a 50-year natural science mystery: the undersea source of tsunami waves that devastated a remote Alaska village following the 1964 Great Alaska Earthquake.
Underwater landslides at depths of 820 to 1,150 feet – much deeper than caused tsunamis affecting other communities – sent killing waves toward the Prince William Sound community of Chenega, where 23 of 75 residents died at all but two buildings were destroyed.
The villagers had little time to get to high ground. The epicenter of the magnitude 9.2 quake, which shook Alaska for four and a half minutes, was about 56 miles away. Deadly waves hit Chenega four minutes later.
Nine people died in Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city, from the quake, the second largest in recorded history.
Many more were killed by tsunamis. The great quake rumpled the ocean floor like a rug, creating a trans-ocean tsunami that sent deadly waves down the West Coast. Four campers on a beach died at Newport, Oregon. A dozen died in the Northern California community of Crescent City.