2002 M7.9 Denali Fault Earthquake

 

 

This event caused significant damage to the transportation systems in central Alaska. The Denali Fault ruptured across the Richardson Highway and caused a horizontal offset of nearly 20 feet.

A 2-lane highway extends from the photo foreground to the background, with one car in the distance and flanked by thick spruce forest. In the mid-ground, earthquake damage crosses the width of the road, with one part of the road offset by several feet from the section on the other side.

The Trans-Alaska Pipeline suffered some minor damage, however spilled no oil.

A metal pipline zigzags back and forth from the foreground to the background in the photo. The ground is cleared for a wide stretch on either side of the pipeline, with a road on the left side. Evergreen forest flanks each side. Various parts of the pipeline are labeled, including "Denali Fault rupture," "Built-in bends," "Slider beam," and "Teflon shoe."

USGS photo

Multiple landslides and rock avalanches occurred in the Alaska Range with the largest slide occurring on the Black Rapids Glacier.

Photo of snowcapped mountains on the left, with a white glacier down a valley in the middle of the photo. Dark debris from a landslide reaches from the mountainside across the glacier to the bottom right of the photo.

USGS photo

This event was felt widely across Alaska and as far away as Washington. The hardest hit population centers were the villages of Mentasta and Northway, located at the eastern end of the rupture zone.

The Denali Fault event caused seiches in pools and lakes as far as Texas and Louisiana. There were reports of triggered seismicity in volcanic and geothermal centers in Washington and California and regional seismicity in Utah.