reaching to door height, probably about 6 to 9 inches above floor level. 

 Maximum pressure at the floor wo-uld have been about 215 pounds per square 

 foot and the total load per foot on the wall about 1,350 pounds. 



A 12-foot diameter, 10-ton mooring buoy was torn loose from its an- 

 chorage in Womens Bay and deposited on the taxiway of the air terminal 

 (Figure 120) near the supply depot at location 5 in Figure 113. It was 

 carried to this position, about a quarter mile inland, by the fifth (and 

 highest) tsunami wave, which crested between ll:l6 and 11:3^ p.m. on 

 March 27, l8.8 feet above MLLW (Figure 38a) (Kachadoorian and Plafker, 

 1967). The buoy had apparently torn loose from its die-lock anchor chain. 

 Tudor (l96i+) has estimated that merely the complete immersion of the buoy 

 by the rising water would have increased tension on the mooring chain by 

 a factor of 3.6 above the free-floating load. 



The asphalt taxiways between the hangars and seaplane ramps were 

 fragmented under the seismic action. In the hangars there were differ- 

 ential settlements between the fill- supported hangar deck and the pile- 

 supported columns , and relative settlements between the hangar footings 

 and the hangar deck occurred around the perimeter of the hangar (Tudor, 

 196U; Worthington, et al, I96U; Kachadoorian ana Plafker, I967). The 

 hangars were constructed on a fill of approximately 15 to 20 feet of 

 unconsolidated glacial till which was compacted under seismic vibrations 

 and the additional loading of the subsequent waves (see Figure 121 ). 

 According to Kachadoorian and Plafker, no significant amount of erosion 

 accompanied this settlement. 



At the edge of the seaplane parking area, the vertical sheet pile 

 bulkhead was buckled outward along its length. It is not known whether 

 this damage was caused by the earth tremors or by the tsunami, A slump- 

 ing movement of the ground could undoubtedly have bent the steel piles. 

 During the inundation periods, however, the fill behind the sheet piles 

 was probably fully saturated by water filtering through a zone of cover 

 stone between the bulkhead and the concrete parking area. This trapped 

 water would have established a hydraulic head, which, in association 

 with suction pressures on the retaining wall from receding flood waters, 

 could have buckled the sheet piling outward. 



At the edge of the seaplane parking area a small white house, visible 

 in Figure 11^, survived the floodings because of hold-down cables over 

 the roof (Tudor, I96I+). 



According to Tudor, the ground floor of the main power plant was 

 repeatedly flooded by water with a heavy silt load. Heavy fuel oil on 

 the water coated the boilers, blowers, motors, and pumps on the boiler 

 flat (deck) and rendered them inoperative. The maximum water elevation 

 inside the plant was below the generator deck where the high voltage 

 switching gear and control instrumentation were located. 



Some low-level radioactive contamination occurred in the Ground 

 Electronics Building when tsunami waters scattered traces or minute 

 sources of radio-nucleides (Tudor, I96U ) , 



186 



