USGS Professional Paper 543-F, Text
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The Alaska Earthquake March 27, 1964 Regional Effects Ground Breakage in the Cook Inlet Area GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 543-F THE ALASKA EARTHQUAKE, MARCH 27, 1964: REGIONAL EFFECTS Ground Breakage and Associated Effects in the Cook Inlet Area, Alaska, Resulting from the March 27, 1964, Earthquake By HELEN L. FOSTER and THOR N. V. KARLSTROM A description of the ground cracks ,and deposits from ground-water eruptions and crustal changes, particularly in the Kenai Lowland GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 543-F UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR STEWART L. UDALL, Secretary GEOLOGICAL SURVEY William T. Pecora, Director UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON 1967 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, D.C. 20402 THE ALASKA EARTHQUAKE SERIES The U.S. Geological Survey is publishing there sults of investigations of the earthquake in a series of six Professional Papers. Professional Paper 543 describes the regional effects of the earthquake. Other Professional Papers describe the history of the field investigations and reconstruction effort; the effects of the earthquake on communities; the effects on hydrology; and the effects on transportation, communications, and utilities. CONTENTS Page Page Page Abstract_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ F 1 Ground breakage-Con. Causes of ground breakage_ _ _ _ _ F24 Introduction__________________ 1 Kenai Lowland______________ F3 Crustal changes in the Cook In- Scope of report and source of Northeast-trending zone____ 3 let region_________________ 25 data_____________________ 1 Coasts_ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 12 Observed coastal changes_____ 25 Acknowledgments___________ 2 Large lakes_______________ 14 Tilting of lake basins________ 26 Regional geologic setting_____ 2 Southern interior__________ 17 Pattern of subsidence________ 27 Geologic history and local geo- Northern Cook Inlet area_ _ _ _ 19 Conclusions___________________ 28 logic setting______________ 2 Northwest side of Cook Inlet_ 23 References______________ _ _ _ _ _ _ 28 Ground breakage______________ 3 Southeast side of Kachemak Types of breakage___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 3 Bay______________________ 24 ILLUSTRATIONS PLATES [Plates are in pocket] 1. Map showing ground breakage reSJUlting from the 1964 Alaska earthquake in the Kenai Lowland. 2. Map of Cook Inlet area. 3. Map of dis:ruption on outwash delta of Tustumena Lake. FIGURES Page Page Page 1. Index map ________________ _ VI 5-17. Photographs-Continued 21-23. Photographs of Eklutna 2. Azimuth-frequency diagram 12. Small vent which valley: showing dominant trend of extruded watery 21. Sites of avalanche ground cracks in the Kenai silt ____________ _ Fll activity ___ - ___ _ F19 Lowland ________________ _ F4 13. Detrital coal ex 22. Dust cloud ______ _ 19 3, 4. Sketch maps of ground truded with sand_ 13 23. A crack in gravel cracks in Kenai Low- 14. Ground cracks at outwash _______ _ 20 land _________________ _ 5,6 Kasilof _________ _ 13 24. Photograph of failure of the 5-17. Photographs: 15. Collapse pits at delta front at Troublesome 5. Tree split by ground Kasilof _________ _ 14 Creek, Lake George ____ -- 21 crack __________ _ 7 16. Outwash delta at 25. Sketch map of Lake George 6. Typical large ground head of Tustu area ___________________ _ 21 crack in Kenai mena Lake a few 26-27. Photographs of Lake Lowland________ _ 8 days after the 7. Vertical displace- earthquake _____ _ 15 George: ment __________ _ 9 17. Crack between delta 26. Wall of silt punch 8. Sand ridges depos front and bedrock ed up on the ited along ground at Tustumena emerged bottom_ 22 Lake __________ _ crack __________ _ 9 15 27. Silt squeezed up 18. Diagramshowingtypeof ground 9. Large fissure ______ _ 10 along cracks in disruption on the north shore 10. Large ground crack the emerged bot of Tustumena Lake _____ _ 16 tom sediments __ 22 with vertical dis- 19. Diagram showing a type of placement ______ _ 28. Photograph of postearth 10 slumping on south shore 11. Microrelief features of Tustumena Lake _____ _ 17 quake high-tide mark along formed in ex- 20. Sketch map of Eklutna val- Turnagain Arm sea bluffs ley ____________________ _ near Hope _____________ _ 25 truded silt ______ _ 11 18 v 6Qo ~~ -11\' Active volcano Fault -=-}...--+-_.:..--~Dashed where approximate ---/5000--- Submarine contour, in feet 164° 160° 156° 152° 148° 144° 140° 1.-Index map showing location of Cook Inlet area. THE ALASKA EARTHQUAKE, MARCH 27, 1964: REGIONAL EFFECTS GROUND BREAKAGE AND ASSOCIAT:ED EFFECTS IN THE COOK INLET AREA, ALASKA, RESULTING FR.OM THE MARCH 27, 1964, EARTHQUAKE By Helen L. Foster and Thor N. V. Karl strom ABSTRACT The great 1964 Alaska earthquake Cracks were as much as 30 feet across scattered localities. Some tidal flats caused considerable ground breakage and 25 feet deep. Sand, gravel, and were cracked. However, in view of the in the Cook Inlet area of south-central pieces of coal and lignite were extruded many thick sections of unconsolidated Alaska. The breakage occurred largely along many fissures. It is suggested that sediments and the abundance of steep in thick deposits of unconsolidated sedi the disruption in this zone may be due slopes, the cracking was perhaps less ments. The most important types of to movement along a fault in the under than might have been expected. ground breakage were ( 1) fracturing lying Tertiary rocks. Observations along the coasts indi or cracking and the extrusion of sand The outwash deltas of Tustumena cated changes in sea level which, al and gravel with ground water along and Skilak Lakes in the Kenai Low though caused partly by compaction of fractures in various types of landforms, land, of Eklutna Lake and Lake George unconsolidated sediments, may largely and (2) slumping and lateral extension in the Chugach Mountains, of Bradley be attributed to crus1tal deformation ac of unconfined faces, particularly along Lake in the Kenai Mountains, and at companying the earthquake. Most of delta fronts. the outlet of upper Beluga Lake at the the Cook Inlet area was downwarped, The principal concentration of base of the Alaska Range showed much although the northwest side of Cook ground breakage within the area cov slumping, as did the delta of the Inlet may have been slightly unwarped. ered by this report was in a northeast Susitna River. Parts of the flood plains Maximum change in the Cook Inlet area trending zone about 60 miles long and of the Skilak River, Fox River, and was probably less than 6 feet. Little or 6 miles wide in the northern part of the Eagle River were extensively cracked. no regional tilting was detected in the Kenai Lowland. The zone cut across A few avalanches and slumps oc lake basins of Tustumena and Skilak diverse topography and stratigraphy. curred along the coast of Cook Inlet in Lakes. INTROD1UCTION The great 1964 Alaska earth part of the Chugach Mountains ticularly the more populated and quake oaused considerable ground ~and the Kenai Mountains. The accessible Kenai Lowland. De breakage in the Cook Inlet area of greatest ground breakage outside scriptions of the damage in the south-central Alaska. Cook Inlet of the Anohorage and Portage Anchorage and Portage areas are is the major marine reentrant of areas was in the Kenai Lowland, available in previously published the Gulf of Alaska; it extends in about 115 air miles west of the reports (Grantz and others, 1964; land between the Kenai and Chu epicenter. Hansen, 1965). Some observations gach Mountains and the Alaska of ground breakage in the north Range (fig. 1). It is bordered by SCOPE OF REPORT AND western part of the Chugach extensive lowlands on the east, SOURCE OF DATA Mountains are included here. northwest, and north. The epicen This report is concerned pri Most of the information on ter of the earthquake (fig. 1) was marily with the ground breakage earthquake effects presented in to the east and northeast of Cook and related phenomena in the low this report is based on field obser Inlet and separated from it by land areas of Cook Inlet-par- vations made by K a r 1 s t r o m F1 F2 ALASKA EARTHQUAKE, MARCH 2·7, 1964 between May 10 and July 15, 1964, ian, all of the U.S. Geological Sur Tertiary. Near the end of the and by Foster from May 10 to the vey, made their unpublished data Cretaceous, there was downwarp end of May. Ground observations available and gave assistance dur ing and subsidence of the Cook were made in the parts of the ing the preparation of the manu Inlet trough and, in the Tertiary, I\.:enai Lowland accessible by road script. rocks that are now locally more and along beaches. I\.:ar lstrom than 15,000 feet thick were de made boat traverses along the REGIONAL GEOLOGIC posited. By the end of Tertiary shores of Tustumena Lake, Skilak SETTING time, the major topographic ele Lake, and Lake George. The ments of the area were established. The Cook Inlet area is near the ground observations were supple The subsequent geologic history juncture of the western Pacific mented by reconnaissance from has consisted largely of erosion island arc system and the orogenic fixed-wing planes and by the study and modification of the mountain belts of the western part of North of aerial photographs made after ous areas during repeated glacial America. Just northeast of Cook the earthquake by the U.S. Army, interglacial cycles ·and of pa~tia;} Inlet the trends of the mountain the U.S.