These first waves, assisted by the subsidence, virtually annihilated 

 the Valdez waterfront. They damaged or destroyed almost all the boats 

 and facilities in the small-boat harbor and left the Nort>^ and South arms 

 looking like amputated stubs. The waves reached to a level about l6 feet 

 above MLLW at McKinley Street, in the lower part of town (Figure 179), 

 and did considerable damage to light wooden-frame buildings. 



Higher and much longer period waves were to inundate Valdez later 

 during the night. Shortly after the Chena's escape, another large wave 

 of longer period assumed to be about l8 minutes, rolled in on Valdez and 

 filled the Valdez Hotel to a level of l8 inches (Figure 165). This is 

 held to be an antinodal surge from the longitudinal uninodal seiche for 

 Port Valdez (T = 18.O minutes), generated by a large submarine slide at 

 the opposite end of Port Valdez near the Narrows. Large waves, apparently 

 deriving from submarine collapse of the submerged glacial deposits at the 

 mouth of Shoup Bay, rushed southward out of the Narrows destroying the 

 Valdez light at an elevation of 37 feet above MLLW. Runup and splash 

 marks were identified to elevations of 125 to 220 feet near Shoup Bay. 

 These waves are pres^umed to have set in motion longitudinal seiches in 

 the Valdez embayment which began to build up in the lowest frequencies, 

 as stimulation from Prince William Sound also made itself felt. 



The most likely system of waves to fit all the facts of eyewitness 

 reports, including the periods of local seiches and oscillations of Prince 

 William Sound, is shown in Figure 165. On the high tide during the night 

 the combination of waves produced the highest runup in Valdez to a level 

 about 20 feet above MLLW. These later waves were like fast-rising tides, 

 and being more sustained than earlier waves, produced more wetting damage, 

 but not much violent motion. Oil tanks, however, were set on fire by 

 these waves. 



The heaviest loss of life at one place (31 persons) occurred at 

 Valdez. The waves are estimated to have caused damage between $12 and 

 $13 million. 



The destruction that occurred at Whittier near the head of Passage 

 Canal on the west side of Prince William Sound is less well understood 

 than at Seward or Valdez, mainly because of fewer eyewitnesses. It is 

 evident, however, that the waves which assailed and destroyed the water- 

 front of Whittier were waves of displacement created by submarine slumping 

 of the slope and toe of the unconsolidated glacial deposits on which the 

 town is founded and of neighboring deposits at the head of the bay. 



The waves are said to have been exceptionally high and their pene- 

 tration reached an elevation about 30 feet above MLLW along a wide front, 

 and UO feet in localized places. At the head of the bay the waves washed 

 more than 50 feet above MSL. Only two waves are recorded as having 

 struck during the earthquake. The existence of later, longer-period 

 waves, occurring on the high tide, is completely unrecorded. The reason 

 for this is unknown, but probably resides in the complicated oscillating 

 behavior of the Port Wells complex of fjords, and possibly the absence 

 of witnesses during the night. 



360 



