More on Seward and the Kenai Fjords

Seward was one of the towns most devastated by the Alaska earthquake of March 27, 1964. The greater part of Seward is built on an alluvial fan-delta near the head of Resurrection Bay on the southeast coast of the Kenai Peninsula. It is one of the few ports in south-central Alaska that is ice free all year, and the town’s economy is almost entirely dependent upon its port facilities.

The Alaska earthquake of March 27, 1964, magnitude approximately 8.3–8.4, began at 6:36 p.m. Its epicenter was in the northern part of the Prince William Sound area; focal depth was 20–50 km.

Strong ground motion at Seward lasted 3–4 minutes. During the shaking, a strip of land 50–400 feet wide along the Seward waterfront (where we are now camping) together with docks and other harbor facilities, slid into Resurrection Bay as a result of large-scale submarine landsliding. Fractures ruptured the ground for'severa1 hundred feet back from the landslide scarps. Seismic sea waves crashed onto shore; where runup was as much as 30 feet above mean lower low water and caused tremendous damage; fire from burning oil tanks added to the destruction. Damage from strong ground motion itself was comparatively minor.

Eighty-six houses were totally destroyed and 260 were heavily damaged. The harbor facilities were almost completely destroyed, and the entire economic base of the town was wiped out. The total cost to replace the destroyed public and private facilities was estimated at $22 million. Anchorage which was 75 miles from the epicenter also sustained damage. The town of Girdwood, which we drove through from Anchorage was destroyed by subsidence and subsequent tidal action. Girdwood was relocated inland. About 20 miles of the Seward Highway sank below the high-water mark of Turnagain Arm; the highway and its bridges were raised and rebuilt.

Today we took a boat tour of the Kenai Fjords National Parks. Unfortunately, due to the weather causing rough seas (swells of 4 feet or more) we were unable to go to 2 of the scheduled glaciers. We did, however, see lots of wildlife. We picked up the tour at the Seward harbor which is about a mile walk from the campground. We headed out from Resurrection Bay which at some points can be as deep as 1000 feet and the water temperature was 45 degrees. Our boat was 95 feet long with top speeds of 20 knots. It generally takes 1 hour to get to Gulf of Alaska.

The park started as a national monument in 1978 and became a national park in 1980. It is 669,984 acres. The park contains the Harding Icefield, one of the largest ice fields in the United States. The park is named for the numerous fjords carved by glaciers moving down the mountains from the ice field. The field is the source of at least 38 glaciers, the largest of which is Bear Glacier which we saw from a distance before the clouds covered it. The fjords are glacial valleys that have been submerged below sea level by a combination of rising sea levels and land subsidence.

Picture 4 is a view of our camp from the boat.Read more