postquake shoreline. A detailed prequake plan of the city and waterfront 

 facilities is contained in Figure 136. The city, with a population of 

 about 2,000, is a major fishing center and has strategic importance as 

 the chief year-round port for Alaska and the rail terminal connecting the 

 southern coast with Anchorage and Fairbanks. The port facilities were 

 totally destroyed by the earthquake and seismic sea waves; all means of 

 comm-unication and transportation, other than by radio and air travel, 

 were disrupted for some time (Eckel, 1967). 



The waves which hit Seward first were caused by locally generated 

 seismic sea waves. Later the city was assailed by the main tsunami and 

 Continental Shelf oscillations that travelled up Resurrection Bay from 

 the mouth. The Coast & Geodetic Survey tide gage at Seward was located 

 on the dock of the Standard Oil Company of California and its record was 

 lost when the dock collapsed shortly after the onset of the earthquake. 

 The gage, heavily damaged, was later found among the debris on board 

 the small (l,9^T gross tons) oil tanker Alaska Standard which had been 

 moored to the dock at the beginning of the earthquake. 



With the horrifying events that prevailed during and after the earth- 

 quake, it is understandable that few people took very detailed notice of 

 the behavior of the sea. In this account of events, the sequence of waves 

 is reconstructed as an interpretation of the observations of different 

 eyewitnesses. This interpretation, in the form of an inferred marigram 

 (Figure 137), is based on the data summarized in Table VII. At best this 

 marigram can convey only a crude picture of the true state of affairs; at 

 worst it can overcomplicate the situation by suggesting more large waves 

 than actually arrived, owing to the uncertainty of the eyewitnesses' 

 impressions of time. 



At the southern end of Seward, while shaking of the earth (first 

 north-south, then east-west) was in progress, the waterfront slumped away 

 from the shore carrying with it the cannery at the south end of Seward, 

 part of the Alaska Railroad docks, and the Standard Oil Company dock (see 

 Figure 136). One of the two 200-ton wharf cranes at the Railroad dock 

 disappeared in this slump and has never been found (Figure 138). This 

 particular slide occurred within about 30 to i+5 seconds of the onset of 

 shaking, apparently only at the south end of Seward, which (Figure 13I+) 

 has the steepest bottom slope of the entire fan delta. This initial 

 slump involved only the waterfront part of Seward, including the Railroad 

 docks and the Standard Oil Company dock. These statements are supported 

 by the evidence of Pedersen, Smith, Kirkpatrick, Gilfillen, Trigg, Clark, 

 Pickett and Mrs. Pickett, John and Robert Eads , and Christiansen (Chance, 

 1968); and of Werner, King, Lambert, and the Eads Brothers (Berg, et al, 

 1961+ ). 



The immediate consequence of this submarine slide as it most likely 

 occurred, is portrayed in Figure 139- The slump caused a drawdown of 

 the water at the southern end of Seward causing the Alaska Standard at 

 the Oil Company dock, virtually to disappear from sight as described by 

 witnesses (Chance, I968). The underwater cascade would have formed a 



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