Effects of the March 1964 Alaska earthquake on the hydrology of south-central Alaska

Waller, Roger M.

doi:10.3133/pp544a

Cited by 13 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…They are qualitatively consistent with the predictions of the simple model summed up in Eqs. (6,7) and ( 8) for saturated cases and in Eq. ( 11) for dry cases.…”

Section: A Water Influence On Soil Liquefactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some areas are well known to be prone to soil liquefaction, like the New Madrid Seismic Zone in the central United States or Mexico city in Mexico [2,5]. The last main earthquakes which have been followed by severe liquefaction effects -listed in [4] -are the 1964 Alaska Earthquake, magnitude Mw 9.2 [6], the 1964 Niigata Earthquake, magnitude Mw 7.5 [7,8], Japan, and the 2011 Christchurch Earthquake, magnitude Mw 6.3 [9], New-Zealand.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sinking during earthquakes: Critical acceleration criteria control drained soil liquefaction

et al. 2018

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This article focuses on liquefaction of saturated granular soils, triggered by earthquakes. Liquefaction is defined here as the transition from a rigid state, in which the granular soil layer supports structures placed on its surface, to a fluidlike state, in which structures placed initially on the surface sink to their isostatic depth within the granular layer. We suggest a simple theoretical model for soil liquefaction and show that buoyancy caused by the presence of water inside a granular medium has a dramatic influence on the stability of an intruder resting at the surface of the medium. We confirm this hypothesis by comparison with laboratory experiments and discrete-element numerical simulations. The external excitation representing ground motion during earthquakes is simulated via horizontal sinusoidal oscillations of controlled frequency and amplitude. In the experiments, we use particles only slightly denser than water, which as predicted theoretically increases the effect of liquefaction and allows clear depth-of-sinking measurements. In the simulations, a micromechanical model simulates grains using molecular dynamics with friction between neighbors. The effect of the fluid is captured by taking into account buoyancy effects on the grains when they are immersed. We show that the motion of an intruder inside a granular medium is mainly dependent on the peak acceleration of the ground motion and establish a phase diagram for the conditions under which liquefaction happens, depending on the soil bulk density, friction properties, presence of water, and peak acceleration of the imposed large-scale soil vibrations. We establish that in liquefaction conditions, most cases relax toward an equilibrium position following an exponential in time. We also show that the equilibrium position itself, for most liquefaction regimes, corresponds to the isostatic equilibrium of the intruder inside a medium of effective density. The characteristic time to relaxation is shown to be essentially a function of the peak ground velocity.

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“…They are qualitatively consistent with the predictions of the simple model summed up in Eqs. (6,7) and ( 8) for saturated cases and in Eq. ( 11) for dry cases.…”

Section: A Water Influence On Soil Liquefactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sinking during earthquakes: Critical acceleration criteria control drained soil liquefaction

et al. 2018

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“…Megaturbidite formation in Skilak Lake is directly related to the disintegration of subaqueous landslides and depends predominantly on the volume of the remobilized sediments for a particular area of deposition (Praet et al ., 2017). Furthermore, during the 1964 ce megathrust earthquake several seiches (lake water oscillations) were reported in Skilak Lake, probably initiated by a combination of tilting of the lake basins and the movement of large amounts of remobilized sediment (Grantz et al ., 1964; Plafker, 1965; McCulloch, 1966; Waller, 1966). Seiching can transport significant amounts of surface sediments from coastal areas to basin depocentres and its signature can be reflected in the internal structure of megaturbidites, as observed in lake records in the European Alps (Chapron et al ., 1999; Schnellmann et al ., 2006) and Chile (Van Daele et al ., 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unravelling a 2300 year long sedimentary record of megathrust and intraslab earthquakes in proglacial Skilak Lake, south‐central Alaska

et al. 2022

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Seismic hazards in subduction settings typically arise from megathrust, intraslab and crustal earthquake sources. Despite the frequent occurrence of intraslab earthquakes in subduction zones and their potential threat to communities, their long‐term recurrence behaviour is barely studied. Sedimentary sequences in lakes may register ground shaking from different seismic sources. This study investigates two long sediment cores (13 m and 16 m) from Skilak Lake, a proglacial lake in south‐central Alaska, to evaluate whether different seismic sources leave a distinct imprint. The sedimentary record shows a continuously varved sediment sequence, occasionally interrupted by turbidites, slump deposits and tephra beds. Turbidites and slump deposits were objectively identified using a statistical outlier analysis on varve thickness. The earthquake origin of these deposits was ascertained by resemblance with deposits induced by instrumentally recorded earthquakes (for example, 1964 ce Mw 9.2 megathrust and 1954 ce Mw 6.4 intraslab earthquakes) and correlation with multiple coeval landslide deposits on sub‐bottom profiles. The Skilak Lake record chronicles 19 earthquakes with moderate to very high confidence level in the past 1350 years. The sedimentary evidence of instrumentally‐recorded intraslab and megathrust earthquakes within the past 70 years demonstrates that not only megathrust earthquakes, but also past intraslab events are recorded. Although reported seismic intensities at Skilak Lake are comparable for the 1964 ce megathrust and the 1954 ce intraslab earthquakes, the long duration and low frequency content of seismic ground motion during megathrust earthquakes facilitate the triggering of multiple, voluminous landslides and the generation of megaturbidites. In contrast, the shorter duration and higher frequency source spectrum of intraslab earthquakes may only induce surficial slope remobilization and the generation of thinner turbidites. This study demonstrates that the sedimentary record of Skilak Lake has the potential to decipher multiple seismic sources, which opens possibilities for a comprehensive seismic hazard analysis for south‐central Alaska.

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“…The flow of ground water may be changed by strong ground shaking and by any resultant permanent ground displacement. Examples of changes reported by Waller (1966Waller ( , 1968) from south-central Alaska show that the 1964 Alaska earthquake especially affected semiconfined ground water in alluvial and delta de posits. After the earthquake, ground-water levels lo cally were raised because of (1) subsidence of ground, (2) increase in hydrostatic pressure, or (3) compaction of sediments.…”

Section: Effects Of Shaking On Ground Water and Streamflowmentioning

confidence: 97%

Reconnaissance engineering geology of the Yakutat area, Alaska, with emphasis on evaluation of earthquake and other geologic hazards

Yehle¹

1979

Professional Paper

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Yakutat, situated about 360 km northwest of Juneau, Alaska, near the shore of the Gulf of Alaska, has a setting that calls for superlatives. Within the Yakutat region are some of the tallest mountains, some of the heaviest snowfalls, and the largest glacier (Malaspina) in North America. Between the abrupt mountain front and the Gulf of Alaska lies a very gently sloping plain of outwash derived from repeated cycles of advance and retreat of glaciers during the Quaternary Pe riod. The latest melting probably took place 500 to 600 years ago. Yakutat is built upon the moderately steep moraine that is the product of melting of one of these glaciers. Near Yakutat, surficial deposits may be more than 213 m thick and they may overlie siltstone, sand stone, and mudstone. The eight general categories of mapped surficial deposits are artificial fill, organic, eolian, beach, delta-estuarine, allu vial, and outwash deposits, and end and ground moraine deposits of the area.The Yakutat region is part of an active tectonic belt that rims most of the North Pacific Ocean. The latest episode of activity probably began in early Miocene time. Many faults are active, as indicated by numerous earthquakes in the area. One fault is known to have broken the ground surface in historic time, the nearly vertical Fairweather fault, whose closest segment is about 53 km northeast of Yakutat. Movement along this fault caused the major earthquake of July 10, 1958 (magnitude 7.9). The great earthquake of September 10, 1899 (magnitude 8.6), probably was caused by tectonic uplift within a broad area centered about 47 km north of Yakutat. Uplift averaged 2-3 m; one small area shows uplift of about 14.4 m, the greatest onshore uplift ever measured for an earthquake sequence. A sequence of earthquakes in July 1973, centered offshore approximately southeast of Yakutat, has been related to an inferred fault, the Transition fault.Many earthquakes have been felt at Yakutat since written historic records were first kept. Five very large earthquakes (magnitude 7.0 to 8.6) occurred within a radius of 130 km from Yakutat in the period from 1893 through 1975. Of these earthquakes, those of September 10, 1899, and July 10, 1958, were the strongest, causing some damage to buildings at Yakutat. Earthquakes of equally large size undoubtedly will shake the Yakutat area in the future.Several geologic effects that have characterized large earthquakes in the past may be expected to accompany large earthquakes in the future. These effects include (1) tectonic uplift; (2) severe ground shaking; (3) liquefaction of some delta-estuarine, alluvial, and fine grained outwash deposits; (4) ejection of water and sand as fountains from individual craters; (5) compaction and differential subsidence of some materials, especially young and intermediate delta-estuarine de posits and some artificial fills; and (6) landslides, where terrain is steep or where beach spits and delta-estuarine deposits are newly deposited and poorly consolidated.

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Effects of the March 1964 Alaska earthquake on the hydrology of south-central Alaska

Abstract: Water-level hydrograph of changes at Chugiak- .-21. Sketch map of Cordova showing well locations-_ _. 22. Hydrographs of water-level changes on the Kcnai Lowland. _.

Cited by 13 publications

References 6 publications

Sinking during earthquakes: Critical acceleration criteria control drained soil liquefaction

Sinking during earthquakes: Critical acceleration criteria control drained soil liquefaction

Unravelling a 2300 year long sedimentary record of megathrust and intraslab earthquakes in proglacial Skilak Lake, south‐central Alaska

Reconnaissance engineering geology of the Yakutat area, Alaska, with emphasis on evaluation of earthquake and other geologic hazards

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