Earthquake Memories and Bore Waves
Wednesday, July 3 |
| Just as we arrived in Anchorage, the weather changed, so we adjusted our plans and rented a car yesterday, driving out to some smaller towns and up into the hills around the city. Girdwood, about thirty minutes south of Anchorage is a real Alpine ski village kind of place, no history there as the original town was wiped out by the earthquake of 1964. Just above Girdwood is a ski resort called Aleyeska, with a tram that takes you up to a snow bowl (still snowy). We shared a table with a Swiss couple and remembered that just this week a year ago we were at the top of the Shilthorn in the Berner Oberland. The climate there was very similar.
Once back in the valley we headed on to Portage Lake where a glacier comes down to sea level. We got some great photos of ice bergs in the lake -- yes, they really are blue -- and saw a rather mediocre film about glaciers and the park interpretive center. We have become a little more fussy about movies after seeing the IMAX movie about Alaska on Monday, followed by an IMAX film on wolves which was pretty, but a little to pro-wolf for my taste. It's fine to argue that wolves deserve a place in the wild, but to show endless scenes of adorable cubs and not one scene of a wolf attacking its prey is to skew the picture just a little. |
| Speaking of films, this morning we got up early enough to get to the 9:00 (only showing) of a free film on the history of the earthquake of 1964. It is amazing how much original footage exists, although of course the film quality is uneven. This is one of a whole series free films sponsored by the various federal offices here in town. We are heading back at four o'clock for one on the Bearing Straits. The earthquake itself did significant damage in Anchorage, but more lives were lost further south in Seward (where we are headed) and Valdez, both on the coast, and both subjected to tsunami waves. Evidently most people stayed off the coast for the first wave, but didn't realize that there would be subsequent waves, and went down to the shore to look at the damage after the first one. I also hadn't realized that the Tsunami subsequently hit and killed people in California (Crescent City) and Oregon.
Last Sunday, coming down on the train, a woman who worked for JC Penny told about her friend who had been the manager of the JC Penny here in Anchorage on the day of the earthquake. The store was just celebrating its first anniversary with special sales at the time. It had a sixties kind of modern facade with vertical slabs of concrete attached to cinder block walls. When the earthquake hit, seven people were killed both inside the store and by the crashing cement outside. The poor manager, who had school age children and two toddlers with a babysitter and a wife who was in the hospital having just delivered their fifth child, didn't know where to go first. Of course, he stayed to deal with the casualties at the store, and subsequently learned his family was fine. The wife of Lowell Thomas was in the film, describing the destruction of their house and a terrifying moment as she and her two children slid down the hill with a pile of rubble before the earthquake suddenly stopped, leaving all her family (although not her neighbor's) safe and secure. |
| OK, so who among you knows what a "bore tide" is? Well, you are smarter than I am, because I had never heard of one. Anchorage is on a peninsula which reaches into the Cook Inlet. On either side of the peninsula are smaller inlets called arms. The one to the south was named Turn Again Arm by Captain Cook when he realized that it was a dangerous place for a ship. The water is shallow, there are treacherous mud flats on either side, and the tides are second only to the Bay of Fundy in terms of the range from low to high tide. At a critical point, just past low tide, the water returns in a wave called a bore tide. We were told that a number of factors determine the height of a bore tide: the range from high to low tide (yesterday that was 28') the closeness to a full moon (FM July 5) and the nearness to spring (well, we lost on that one). In any case we did get to watch one small but steady wave spanning the entire Inlet (about 300 yards from where we were) and moving in one steady line at the speed of about 15 miles per hour. We actually didn't clock the wave, but we estimated the time relative to the tide chart we got from the concierge at our hotel. Well, a one-foot wave isn't going to make it into national geographic, but it was still exciting to see nature trying out a new enterprise. The highest bore wave recorded was six feet. |
 |
| For those who are wondering, we heard there were fireworks last night at midnight, when it was raining and not dark. We did not partake. Today we headed to the native heritage museum where we were offered story telling and dancing which was rather predictable, but as a special "Fourth of July" treat, we had blanket tossing. The blanket was a large skin (pieced together) about the size of a trampoline and used in the same way, except with about 25 people holding the edges. It was traditionally used by hunters on the flat land or ice who wanted to get a look from on high -- a clever solution when you can't climb a tree, although you have to look quickly as you bob up and down. |
| Now we are back in Anchorage, heading for the Art Museum (open until 9) after our film on the Bering Strait. Tomorrow we leave early by train for Seward, from whence we will board our ship Friday afternoon. I suspect e-mail is a possibility in Seward, and it certainly is on the boat, although at cruise prices, these missives might get shorter. |
