Video Tour

Take a 21-stop video tour of ShAKe and UAMN’s Special Exhibits Gallery with guest curator and UAF associate professor of geophysics, Carl Tape.

Part 1 of 21

Introduction
Alaska is the nation’s earthquake country. Welcome to the exhibition. This tour illuminates over a century of Interior Alaska earthquake stories. (1:16)

Part 2 of 21

Earthquake Stories
Maps of Alaska and the Northern Hemisphere illustrate the tectonic plate boundaries and the presence of fault lines and earthquakes in Interior Alaska. (2:23)

Part 3 of 21

The Earthquake Alarm
The exhibit’s earthquake alarm receives data from the Alaska Earthquake Center, alerting visitors to the most recent Alaska earthquake, on average, every 15 minutes. (2:55)

Part 4 of 21

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
ShAKe’s core is a collection of 78 newspaper pages, largely digitized from the physical archives of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, between 1904 and 2014. (1:37)

Part 5 of 21

1904: The Gold Rush Era
James Wickersham writes the first written record of an earthquake in Interior Alaska as he experiences it in the newly established mining town of Fairbanks Alaska. (6:52)

Part 6 of 21

1912: Katmai Eruption
While the eruption of the Katmai volcano did not occur in Interior Alaska, the blast’s effects were experienced statewide. The news cycle exhibited a now familiar arc. (3:58)

Part 7 of 21

1912: Denali Earthquake
Occurring soon after the Katmai eruption, the 1912 earthquake on the Denali fault was only days late of spelling disaster for the Parker-Browne mountaineering expedition. (3:18)

Part 8 of 21

1929: Healy Earthquake
The earthquakes of 1929 showcase the advantages of log construction in earthquake country. 17 years after the Denali Earthquake, there is a strong memory of those prior events. (2:40)

Part 9 of 21

1937: Salcha Earthquake
A large earthquake strikes near Fairbanks, and the newspaper puts this event along-side national and world events, from Earhart’s disappearance to an influenza epidemic. (3:51)

Part 10 of 21

1947: Healy Earthquake
Interviews with elders from Interior Alaska villages illustrate the importance of oral history and personal observations of earthquakes in a time before widespread sensing technology. (4:05)

Part 11 of 21

1958: Huslia Earthquake
Large earthquakes seldom occur away from tectonic plate boundaries, but 1958 is an example, an earthquake deep into the Interior of the North American plate. (3:35)

Part 12 of 21

The Earthquake Hut
Huts such as this continually record and transmit seismometer data to the Alaska Earthquake Center, helping scientists locate, measure, and study earthquakes anywhere in the state. (2:52)

Part 13 of 21

1964: The Great Alaska Earthquake
Like the Katmai eruption of 1912, the Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964 did not occur in Interior Alaska, but the event’s effects, such as major power outages, were widespread. (2:33)

Part 14 of 21

1967: Fairbanks Earthquake
One of the most important earthquakes of the exhibition is largely forgotten now due to the disastrous flooding of Fairbanks later the same summer. Location is as important as size. (5:35)

Part 15 of 21

1995: Minto Earthquake
Interior earthquake data has illuminated a series of parallel fault zones running north-south through Interior Alaska, any of which can produce large earthquakes. (2:17)

Part 16 of 21

2002: Denali Earthquake
The largest strike-slip event ever recorded occurs on the North American continent. Interior Alaska experiences a globally significant earthquake. (4:45)

Part 17 of 21

Ground Motion
By plotting earthquake ground motion in three dimensions, we can visualize the various waves and huge amounts of energy propagated through the earth by these events. (2:34)

Part 18 of 21

Earthquakes in the News
The ShAKe exhibition provided visitors with the means to browse articles from any of the 78 collected newspaper pages that reference Interior earthquakes. (2:43)

Part 19 of 21

Stomp: Exhibition Seismometer
Guest Curator, Carl Tape demonstrates the effects of distance on earthquake strength using the exhibit’s interactive seismometer. (2:23)

Part 20 of 21

2014: Minto Earthquake
The most recent earthquake of the exhibition illustrates our scientific awareness of the underlining fault zones and the certainty that there are many more earthquakes to come. (2:59)

Part 21 of 21

Plate Tectonics
We see our local events in the context of global tectonic motion, and consider the long-changing fabric of Alaska’s rocks and mountains and our heightened awareness of local earthquake dangers. (4:09)

Click here to go to UAMN's YouTube Playlist

01. Introduction
02. Earthquake Stories
03. The Earthquake Alarm
04. Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
05. 1904: The Gold Rush Era
06. 1912: Katmai Eruption
07. 1912: Denali Earthquake
08. 1929: Healy Earthquake
09. 1937:Salcha Earthquake
10. 1947: Healy Earthquake
11. 1958: Huslia Earthquake

12. The Earthquake Hut
13. 1964: The Great Alaska Earthquake
14. 1967: Fairbanks Earthquake
15. 1995: Minto Earthquake
16. 2002: Denali Earthquake
17. Ground Motion
18. Earthquakes in the News
19. Stomp: Exhibition Seismometer
20. 2014: Minto Earthquake
21. Plate Tectonics

Featuring Carl Tape, Associate Professor of Geophysics, UAF Geophysical Institute and Dept. of Geosciences. Filmed (2019), modeled, and edited (2020) by Roger Topp, Director of Exhibits, UAMN. ShAKe, Earthquakes in Interior Alaska, developed by UAMN, opened in the special exhibits gallery in 2018 and closed fall of 2019.

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