The megathrust boundary between the plates results in both the 4,000-km-long Aleutian Trench and in the arc of active volcanoes that lie subparallel to the trench. Alaska earthquake of 1964, earthquake that occurred in south-central Alaska on March 27, 1964, with a moment magnitude of 9.2. Wow a 9.2 Magnitude earthquake - now that is big! The 1964 Great Alaska Earthquake occurred on Good Friday, March 27th. The U.S. Geological Survey reports that: The earthquake caused rivers, lakes, and other waterways to slosh … The 1964 Alaskan earthquake, also known as the Great Alaskan earthquake and Good Friday earthquake, occurred at 5:36 PM AKST on Good Friday, March 27. Two types of tsunami were produced as a result of this massive quake. The Great Alaska Earthquake, also known as the Good Friday quake, left behind a graphic tutorial in the power of plate tectonics, which was then still mostly a theory. Four out of five earthquakes in the United States occur in Alaska. (2) Intermediate depth seismicity (below 20 miles) occurs in the so-called Benioff Zone, where the subducting Pacific Plate descends towards the mantle beneath the North American Plate. Note the location of the plate boundary, which marks the Aleutian … It released at least twice as much energy as the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 and was felt on land over an area of almost 502,000 square miles (1,300,000 square km). Across south-central Alaska, ground fissures, collapsing structures, and tsunamis resulting from the earthquake caused about 131 deaths.. Alaskan tectonics are dominated by Pacific-North American plate interaction. White arrows show relative plate … Two of these moving plates meet in western California; the boundary between them is a zone of faults, the principal one being the San Andreas fault. On Good Friday, March 27, 1964, at 5:36 p.m. local time, the earth began to shake in the subduction zone in the Prince William Sound in Alaska. The large magnitude event (9.2) was the largest earthquake recorded in the U.S. during this century, and occurred on Good Friday in 1964. The pink highlighted region shows the part of the megathrust fault (plate boundary) that slipped in 1964 during the Great Alaskan Earthquake. The March 27, 1964, earthquake was accomp anied by crustal deformation-including warping, horizontal distortion, and faulting-over probably more than 110,000 square miles of land and sea bottom in south-central Alaska. The 1964 earthquake in Anchorage, Alaska occurred as a result of an oceanic plate sinking under a continental or land plate. Perspective view of the Pacific Plate being subducted beneath the North American plate at the Alaska-Aleutian Subduction zone. After the 1964 megathrust earthquake, three-quarters of the Aleutian subduction zone ruptured in a span of eight years. Prior to March 27, 1964, the concept of plate tectonics was just a theory, though one gaining acceptance. 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