Nevertheless, that was not the end of this tragedy. There were more than thousands of aftershocks for 3 weeks following the main shocks. In the first day alone, eleven major aftershocks were recorded with a magnitude greater than 6.2. Nine more occurred over the next three weeks. It was not until more than a year later and people started to recover the infrastructure. However, After the earthquake, there were some problems still left in Alaska. Across South-central Alaska, ground fissures and collapsing structures make life of citizens much more difficult.
In theory, earthquake happened because of the tectonic plates. Due to the theory of Plate Tectonic and Continental Drift, we know that different plates move toward or away from each other. A subduction zone may be formed from this procedure. Thus, we could find the subduction in this earthquake- Pacific Plate sink under North America Plate as Old Oceanic Plate sink under Continental Plate.Academically, when an Oceanic plate get older their density increase and may sink under another Continental Crust that has less density. Then that area become a subduction zone and convergent boundary is occurred during the procedure. Usually, earthquake happened within the force Plate Tectonic or subduction. However, 2 plates not always slide smoothly past one another. They may have fiction and get struck temporarily. When they overcome the snags, energy was released and caused shaking in the ground surface. Earthquake was formed. As for the tsunamis after the Alaska Earthquake, it result in large amount of death and property damage. The reason about why tsunamis take place is connected to the Plate Tectonic as well. Because when 2 plates collided, tons of rock was shot upward with force, and the energy of that force transfer to water and push the water upward above the normal sea level.
In the other hand, mantle convection is one of the most important factors of tectonic plates. Mantle convection carry heat from the interior of the Earth to the surface within magma.It is like a driving force that causes tectonic plates to move. Whenever a plate has too much thermal energy from the hot add mantle, they need to cool it down by conduction and convection of heat. During the procedure, The add material has thermally contracted and become part of the dense. It sink in the process of subduction in the end. After that, earthquake, tsunamis and so on are occurred.
No one is able to stop the natural disaster, nevertheless, we can face it bravely!
Bibliography
1. "1964 Alaska earthquake." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Aug. 2013. Web. 10 Dec. 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_Alaska_earthquake>.
2. Valdes, Robert, Robert Lamb, and Nathan Halabrin. “How Tsunamis Work.” How Stuff Works. A discovery Company, n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2013. <http://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/natural-disasters/tsunami2.htm>.
3. "Structure of the Interior of Earth." Earth042s Interior. windows to the universe, n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2013. <http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/earth/Interior_Structure/interior.html>.