Wikimedia Commons
Plafker’s Plate Tectonic Breakthrough at Turnagain Heights
When Alaska shook for four minutes on March 28, 1964, it changed both science and lives forever. USGS geologist George Plafker flew north just one day after the 9.2 quake hit. He spent months in boats and planes, using dead sea life to map land shifts up to 38 feet.
His work, published in 1965, proved that plates slide under each other—the first real proof of plate tectonics. Meanwhile, in Anchorage’s Turnagain Heights, 75 homes slid away when soil turned to liquid.
Eight-year-old Penny Mead and her brother ended up on their station wagon in mud flats while two brothers vanished. Today, Earthquake Park stands where science and tragedy met on that fateful day.
Wikimedia Commons/U.S. Army
The Earth Shook Alaska for Five Terrifying Minutes
Alaska got hit with a huge 9. 2 earthquake on March 27, 1964, at 5:36 PM as families made Good Friday dinner…