Historic Alaskan Earthquakes

Major earthquakes have been a part of Alaskan life throughout historic time. The first one for which we have specific information occurred on July 27, 1788, somewhere near the south side of the Alaska Peninsula. "Tidal wave; lives lost" is the cryptic entry in a catalogue of Alaskan earthquakes. Ninety years later, on August 29, 1878, the town of Makushin, on Unalaska Island, was destroyed by an earthquake and an accompanying tidal wave.

Perhaps still within memory of some Yakutat residents were the terrible earthquakes of 1899. The town had just spent a week recovering from a Richter magnitude 8.3 earthquake on September 3, when the area was rocked by an even larger 8.6 shock, the biggest ever recorded in North America. Southeastern Alaska experienced several severe earthquakes in subsequent years. Then the magnitude 8.0 earthquake of July 10, 1958, struck, causing five deaths at Lituya Bay and Yakutat.

For death and destruction, no Alaskan earthquakes compare with the Good Friday earthquake of March 27, 1964, in Prince William Sound. One hundred thirty-one people died, and the damage reached a half-billion dollars in this magnitude 8.3 to 8.6 earthquake.

Despite Alaska's low population and the recentness of its development, Alaskan earthquakes are second only to California's in total damages and deaths caused. In California, 1029 people have been killed by earthquake effects; 700 of these died in the 1906 San Francisco quake. Hawaii lost 173 people in a tidal wave caused by an Alaskan earthquake in 1947. If we add these to Alaska's list, it makes a total of 309 plus the unknown number lost in the 1788 earthquake off the Alaska Peninsula and perhaps others of which we have no record.