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towns along the Gulf of Alaska and was felt as far away as Hawaii. The maximum wave height recorded was 67 metres at Valdez Inlet.
Landscape effects
Although most people noticed the landsliding and the collapse of buildings, by far the biggest effects on the landscape were the changes in height that occurred.
It became very obvious when places that were previously at sea level suddenly became dry land.
While the whole region was domed up, old fault lines of weakness in the rocks were exploited by the earthquake, so that the landscape became stepped in places.
A single break in the landscape produces a stepped profile; but in the Alaskan earthquake breaks occurred in parallel, so that whole sections of the land dropped down between others. This is known as rifting.
(Below) The very gently sloping rocky platform at Cape Cleare, Montague Island, Prince William Sound, which had been eroded by wave action
over the centuries, was lifted some 10 metres during the earthquake, exposing about 200 metres width of new land. The white coating is made up of the shells of marine life that died when their sea bed home became dry land.
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