Alaska earthquake of July 10, 1958: Intensity distribution and field investigation of northern epicentral region

Abstract

The 10 July 1958 earthquake centered near Lituya Bay, Alaska, produced moderate property damage at Yakutat, 100 miles to the northeast, and was readily felt within 400 miles of the epicenter. Five persons died during the earthquake: two in Lituya Bay, where a cataclysmic wave sank two fishing vessels; three others near Yakutat, when a beach on which they were standing fell 100 feet beneath the sea. The earthquake caused large slides in the mountain areas and produced great numbers of sandblows and fissures on the low coastal plain southeast of Yakutat.

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

“…A few toppled chimneys that we observed in Port Chilkoot may have fallen during this quake. Intensity at Skagway was given as VI (Davis and Sanders, 1960). The same or a slightly higher intensity for similar geologic units in Haines seems reasonable.…”

Earthquake Relocations Delineate a Discrete Fault Network and Deformation Corridor Throughout Southeast Alaska and Southwest Yukon

“…It was suggested that this larger event was a multi‐fault slip event, triggered on local reverse faults, in a region with high strain‐partitioning (Walton et al., 2022). In 1958, there was an M 7.9 event that triggered the destructive tsunami in Lituya Bay and ruptured between 250 and 370 km of the Fairweather fault (Davis & Sanders, 1960; Doser, 2010; Stauder, 1960). Finally in 1979, there was a series of strike‐slip and low‐angle thrust events in the Pamplona fault zone (Doser et al., 1997; Doser & Lomas, 2000).…”

Seismic Sources in the Aleutian Cradle of Tsunamis

“…Equipment left by a mining company at an intended campsite on the south shore was also washed away. Davis and Sanders (1960) report that when they flew over the area on July 12, the ocean beaches for 10 miles on both sides of the mouth of Lituya Bay were covered with ice and trees stripped of their bark. Ice and trees were also being carried seaward at right angles to the coast.…”

“…Two fled to their boat and spent several hours riding out the swells. The third man tried to save their equipment but lost much to 5-foot waves (Davis and Sanders, 1960). These were probably small tsunami waves generated by the falling ice from the glacier.…”