landward by the wave, but was in sufficiently deep water, as a result of 

 the slide, to escape entrapment at the shore. She sailed, under power, 

 through oil burning on the surface, to the safety of deep water. 



The northmoving wave inundated the water front and carried burning 

 oil to the Alaska Railroad switchyard where a train was in readiness to 

 depart for Anchorage. Loaded tank cars caught fire and exploded as they 

 became enveloped in flame. The wave helped destroy the U. S. Army docks 

 and the cannery dock and boat harbor, already in the process of collapse 

 and disintegration from the earthquake. Boats were carried over the 

 breakwater of the small-boat harbor, and swept into the lagoon on the 

 north side of Seward. The Texaco tank farm near the boat harbor also 

 caught fire . 



It is presumed that the effective period of the initial and immedi- 

 ately subsequent waves was between 3 and k minutes , and that this may 

 well have been resonant for the head of Resurrection Bay in the transverse 

 sense. Seme evidence supports the view that the initial waves originated 

 from two boils of water in the northern part of Resurrection Bay, and 

 that these may have been associated with a horizontal skew faulting of the 

 seabed in this area. The details of this bottom movement are not presently 

 available. It is known, however, that the Bay, as a whole, moved southward 

 through a distance of about 50 feet and that a differential displacement 

 of about 10 feet occurred between the two sides. 



it is believed that longitudinal oscillations of the northern part 

 of Resurrection Bay or of the whole Bay in its second mode became promi- 

 nent during the first hour following the earthquake and contributed toward 

 two further damaging waves which struck the waterfront. The main tsunami 

 waves are presumed to have reached the head of the Bay at about 6:30 p.m. 

 but lacked punch at that time because of low tide. Their amplitude prob- 

 ably increased with time (as at Kodiak) and later waves on the high tide 

 during the night reached an average flood level of 27 feet above MLLW in 

 Seward. At certain places, however, runup exceeded 30 feet within Seward 

 (Figure 1U5). At Lowell Point, to the south, the runup was much higher 

 (Figure ikk) . 



Seward suffered greatest damage from the foundation collapse of the 

 entire waterfront. This was a progressive action of the earthquake, un- 

 doubtedly assisted by the seismic sea waves which with every drawdown 

 would have favored subsidence of the delta under artesian pressure and 

 vibration. 



The train in the switching yard was a total loss and was festooned 

 in a string around the resistant, steel-frame, concrete-block wall engine 

 house. Sudden quenching by water of the rails, made red hot by burning 

 oil, caused them to snake off their tracks. Switching locomotives weigh- 

 ing 115 tons were overturned and transported by the momentum of the sea 

 waves. Boats and houses in the path of the waves were carried away or 

 totally destroyed. The power of the waves was dramatically attested by 

 the destruction of heavy machinery at a marine-way workshop on Lowell 



357 



