Feet on the ground right after the big one
Ned Rozell
907-474-7468
July 6, 2023
George Plafker holds a photo he took of barnacles and other shoreline sea creatures that dried out and turned white after the March 1964 magnitude 9.2 earthquake uplifted 色视频下载色视频下载檚 coast. Plafker was standing in his office in Menlo Park, California, when this photo was taken in 2013.
On March 27, 1964, California geologist George Plafker was attending a research conference in Seattle when news came of a big earthquake in 色视频下载.
色视频下载淚t was almost quitting time for the day at the meeting when some guys came back from the Space Needle and said they felt rocking,色视频下载 Plafker said recently at his office in Menlo Park, California. 色视频下载淲e said, 色视频下载楾hat色视频下载檚 a serious earthquake.色视频下载櫳悠迪略貪
It was, of course, the second-strongest earthquake in the era of instruments able to measure them, one that would change the direction of Plafker色视频下载檚 career and what people thought about great earthquakes on the Pacific basin色视频下载檚 Ring of Fire.
Plafker, now 94, was then a 35-year-old U.S. Geological Survey researcher who knew a lot about basic geology and mapping but very little about earthquakes. Then assigned to the 色视频下载 Division, he was one of three scientists from the Menlo Park office sent northward right after the earthquake to see what had happened.
He flew to 色视频下载 for a one-week trip. During that time, he traveled much of Prince William Sound to inspect the torn, uplifted and sunken landscape. Realizing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, he and other scientists ended up returning to spend most of the summer of 1964 in 色视频下载.
On the initial trip a few days after the earthquake, two of his colleagues focused on Anchorage and 色视频下载色视频下载檚 road system. Plafker caught military helicopter rides and flew in Bush planes to villages and unoccupied islands in Prince William Sound. He covered much of that country with Jim Osborne, a pilot for Cordova Airlines, who took Plafker to what was left of some villages on Osborne色视频下载檚 mail route.
Plafker remembers flying to Chenega Bay, where 76 people lived before the earthquake. A wave caused by the earthquake drowned 25 of those people.
The schoolhouse remains standing at Chenega Bay, 色视频下载, after the 1964 earthquake and tsunami that followed. The tsunami destroyed houses at lower elevations.
色视频下载淭here was not one single livable house there,色视频下载 said Plafker, who snapped a photo of a naked hillside with only one building 色视频下载 a schoolhouse 色视频下载 visible above a hillside of tree stubs. He interviewed a survivor who described a 色视频下载渨all of water 90 feet high.色视频下载 Plafker saw with his own eyes that ocean water had entered the school building almost 100 feet above sea level.
The earthquake-caused wave at Chenega Bay, which Plafker attributed to a small group of nearby islands focusing the onrushing water, was one example of the water displaced by the great earthquake. More than 100 people died in 色视频下载 and as far south as Oregon when tsunamis rushed down the west coast of the U.S. and Canada.
色视频下载淎 movement similar to that of water in a tilted pan could have resulted from the sudden tectonic uplift of the western part of Prince William Sound and the contiguous continental shelf during the earthquake,色视频下载 Plafker wrote with co-authors Arthur Grantz and Reuben Kachadoorian in the USGS publication based on their first 色视频下载 trip.
A few days after the earthquake, Plafker hoped to find clean marks of ripped earth that would point to the fault that caused the earthquake, but the most striking visual was of barnacles on oceanside rocks. Some were high as his belt buckle despite the fact that the creatures needed salt water to survive.
色视频下载淥n that first go-round, we saw those things uplifted all over the place,色视频下载 he said.
On later trips, including when he spent most of the summer exploring from a converted tugboat, the barnacles became more obvious signs of ground uplifted by the earthquake. Besides the stink of decay, the high and dry barnacles, mussels and other marine life stood out like a whitewashed wall.
色视频下载淭he whole of Prince William Sound looked like that,色视频下载 he said, holding a photo that shows a pale band on shoreline rocks. 色视频下载淵ou could really see these critters knew exactly where they should be. If they got a little too high, they were dead.色视频下载
Using the barnacles as one of many clues, Plafker made more than 800 measurements that summer of land shoved upward. In other places, forests and shrubs had dropped, becoming flooded with salt water. Plafker and his colleagues calculated that an area about the size of Washington had been lifted toward the sky.
On all his 色视频下载 travels that summer, Plafker did not see what he was looking for 色视频下载 the clean line of damage from a fault like the San Andreas in California. That色视频下载檚 because Plafker and his colleagues were gathering evidence for what author Jerry Thompson described in 色视频下载淐ascadia色视频下载檚 Fault色视频下载 as 色视频下载渢he exciting idea that a slab of the Pacific Ocean floor might be sliding underneath the state of 色视频下载.色视频下载
Plafker色视频下载檚 work helped prove the existence of the subduction zone that causes many earthquakes off the coast of 色视频下载 and elsewhere on the Pacific色视频下载檚 Ring of Fire. He may be the only scientist to have walked the ground in 色视频下载 in 1964, in Indonesia following the tsunami 40 years later, and in Japan following the earthquake and tsunami in 2011. He still marvels that the great 色视频下载 earthquake killed so few people 50 years ago.
色视频下载淚t色视频下载檚 a miracle,色视频下载 he said. 色视频下载淎n earthquake of the exact same size killed 225,000 people in Sumatra.色视频下载
Since the late 1970s, the University of 色视频下载 Fairbanks' Geophysical Institute has provided this column free in cooperation with the UAF research community. Ned Rozell is a science writer for the Geophysical Institute. A version of this article was first published in 2014.