Great Alaska Earthquake shook Alaska 50 years ago

Electric clocks on walls in Anchorage shut down at 5:36 pm (local time) on March 27, 1964. Time stopped at the start of the '64 Great Alaska Earthquake, the second largest ever recorded at magnitude 9.2.
The ground shook for four to five minutes, roughly twice through "I Want to Hold Your Hand," the Beatles No. 1 song that year. With the U.S. And the USSR facing off in the Cold War, some thought the Russians had attacked.
The quake produced a tsunami that wreaked havoc along the West Coast. Overall damage was estimated at $2.3 billion in 2014 dollars.

The quake and tsunamis killed 131 people.
Though now a distant memory, it helped make experts better prepared for future quakes. It played a role in the formation of the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center and taught the U.S. Geological Survey what evidence to look for of previous great quakes, such as events in the Cascadia Subduction Zone off Oregon and Washington.
From his vantage point on the 12th floor of an apartment building in Anchorage, geologist William Binkley could feel the light tremor.

He later told the USGS that it was then followed by minutes of violent jarring in which the building appeared to sway 10 feet to 12 feet (3 to 3.5 meters) horizontally and 1-2 feet (0.5 meters) vertically.

The sound was a deep rumble followed by shattering plaster and glass. Cabinets and the refrigerator crashed to the kitchen floor.
It was "churned into a melange of broken dishes and glass, catsup and syrup, flour, beans, pots and pans, eggs, lettuce and pickles," Binkley said in a paper reissued recently by the USGS for the anniversary of the quake.
Binkley crawled into a hallway and braced his feet against one wall and his back against another until the shaking stopped.
Landslides caused most of the damage in Anchorage, about 75 miles (120 kilometres) from the epicentre. Sections of the city, including a 14-block stretch in the shape of an oval near the city's main street, slid.

Buildings were damaged, including some that fell into a trench created by the ground subsiding. Nine people died in the city.