Science for Alaska: Mystery Solved: Revealing the 1912 Denali Earthquake

Presented by
Carl Tape, Professor
UAF Geophysical Institute

This is a mystery story about a large earthquake during the Alaska Gold Rush, felt from Dawson to Nome and from Fairbanks to Seward. Near Denali, a team of pioneering mountaineers was blasted with ice and debris from avalanches on the Alaska Range, and the earthquake’s waves traveled across the planet and were recorded by distant seismometers. With newly collected materials, we can write a new chapter about the origin of this earthquake and the implications for future events in central Alaska.

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