up next, the most powerful quake that devastated alaska and touched off a killer tsunami straight ahead. >> good evening and welcome to a second look. i'm julie hanear. a magnitude 12 12 vol can no

ruptured good friday, 5:24 p.m. it was centered in prince williams sound and resulted in a massive tsunami. anchorage with a population of 100,000 parties was in the center that ripped down 4th avenue, the main shopping street. on one side, buildings slipped into the fishers, on the other side, not even some plate glass wood in shops. this department store was crowded with weekend shoppers

storm struck. with statistics being called days later, not many more than 100 lost their lives, however a loss in property is staggering, making it at least $500 million. home in the area are tumbled and broken among the fishers. it is as if some giant hand swept call houses off of -- doll houses off of foundations. it was 35 times as strong as the san francisco storm of 1986, and until now as the greatest shock in history. guards had a hard time keeping people away from going home, meaning a pipe of rubble.

first it was hit by the earthquake, following three title waves. economic dependent on the fishing industry, kodiak lost its boats, railroad lines, they're all gone. the see port had 90 percent of its jobs and industry wiped out. a five-foot chunk of the waterfront disappeared into the bay. the life was minimized that fact the title wave was low. hundreds of thousands of lives might have been lost. alaska has been declared a dazz aster area -- disaster area, not

enough funds are available. supplies from the other states powered into anchorage to elmendorf air force base. local damage was forgotten as the air force other service arms held to the task of bringing order if & relief from chaos. there was little danger of food shortages in larger towns but as communications were reestablished, supplies were rushed to remote areas. the alaskaians turned to rebuilding. >> the tsunami that's earthquake generated killed 113 people, 11 of them in crestant city in the northern coast. we'll take a look back at that

fateful day. >> visitors can sometimes be surprised how quiet. in the bay, the water comes in, in slow washes that are hard, as well. this town south of the oregon bored er, the tsunami of 1964. 29 blocks of the city, the entire business district was wiped away. buildings were lifted off their foundations and sent somewhere else. 11 people died. it began with a massive 9.2 earthquake in alaska, march 27th, 1964. it sent a series of waves racing down the pacific at 500 miles an hour. about 9:00 the first morning, the first wave had crescent city. there would be a series of four waves. >> the first wave came into

about here, second street, about a quarter mile from the ocean. it was the biggest wave anyone here had ever seen but not one big enough to damage buildings or anyone. 30 minutes later, another wave came, this one somewhat smaller. that led people to think maybe the worst was over. some people started to clean up debris around their buildings. a 3rd wave came in bigger than the first and that told some people maybe they ought to seek shelter and then came the 20-foot mall. >> the town newspaper editor jumped in his car and headed inland inland as fast as he could. >> 6 or 7 feet above my head. >> way up there. >> griffin told me about a

family near this creek that piled into arrow bolt -- a rowboat which sucked them into this culvert. they drowned in there. >> how many people? >> seven, i think. but of the seven, i think one survived. >> sandra nuss came downtown in daylight and was shocked about what she saw. >> total chaos. there were cars inside of buildings, refrigerators, stoves, all kinds of things just laying around in parking lots and in stores and in -- everywhere. it's just total mess. >> and some of the major buildings had fallen down?

>> yes, some went from the foundations into the middle of the street. >> 180 houses and stores were bulldozed. running along the coast is the cacascadia subduction, and when that slips again, it will unleash a tsunami that'll reach havoc on more than crescent city. >> it's going to travel to hawaii, and south to san francisco, and los angeles. it's going to travel back up to alaska, basically we will give alaska what they gave us. >> you know this could all happen again? >> oh, yes. >> even bigger. >> does that make you nervous at all? >> yes, it does. >> us, too, ms. nuss.

still to come, what would the tsunami do? we'll have an expert answer that question, and whether e quakes can tripper other earthquakes.

earthquakes can trigger other earthquakes. welcome back to a second look where tonight we remember the biggest earthquake in u.s. history, the one that hit alaska in march 1964. in 1966, the u.s. army produced a film about the quake and it included eight mm film shot by a bystander as the tsunami hit. >> it is march 27th, good friday. although it is late in the afternoon, two of the crew man, fred newmare, and phillip nelson tried to get some pictures with their 8 mm camera. suddenly the whole harbor is

sucked dry of valdez. then heaves upward 50 feet sending a giant wave towards shore. it tosses it high and down where the back had been. somehow, fred manages to hang on and keep his camera running for part of this incredible trip. the harbor of valdez is a seething whirlpool. no one on it will survive, the long shore man, their children, and the dogs have disappeared. in the minutes that followed the tremor, builds to tremendous force and sweeps with terrible speed in a 500-mile an hour arc.

the great waves sweeps along the shore striking ships, town ones and cities. this past december, the u.s. question logical survey released a report saying how much damage a tsunami would do if it were generated off the coast of alaska. the possibilities were frighten, and also listed things that lessened the catastrophe. >> it reports would flood sfrain san francisco's finance district. a 3rd of small boats would be

sunk. and make major on disruptions at bay area ports that could last hours or even days. all of this based on a tsunami that has already happened. usgs scientists say they took the 2011 quake and moved the epicenter to the gulf off of alaska where a 9.1 quake is plausible. a big one occurs every few hundred years and is now overdue. the wave would hit our coast and funnel into the bay flooding the oakland airport, highway 80, the bay area toll plaza and bay front homes. >> a lot of that can be mitigated. >> stephanie ross led the research. they should move emergency generators immediately to second floors, and plan for transportation problems, and there could be at least a two-hour morning, or move

vessels more skrurl. >> it securely. >> and that big one could happen any time. >> when we come back, how a big quake in one place effects the possibility of big quakes elsewhere, and a bit later, the disastrous oil spill that his last alaska almost 25 years after that big quake. the

. tonight on a second look, earthquakes in alaska. 1964, the biggest earthquake killed 113 people in the region. in 2002, another quake hit alaska, and gave geologist how an earthquake can effect seismic faults else were. here is john faller's report from november, 2002. >> the alaska quake shook the ground for almost a minute, slamming the demote denali national park sides, 20 feet. it knocked the alaska pipeline

off its foundations. what experts are learning, the quake was powerful. these pictures are from anchorage more than 200 miles away. from seattle, boats tied up on pujet sound crashed into each other. >> today the break sent out so much energy besides rocking those boats in seattle, seismic pools shook pulls 3,200 miles away. >> this is a very shallow earthquake and that generates a lot of energy traveling just trapped below the earth's surface and that we call surface waste would be responsible for all of these -- could be responsible for all of these reports. >> and yellow stone national park and california's mammoth lakes and the geysers here in sonoma county, experts are say

almost scientific harisy. some more than 2,000 miles away. >> we call it remotely trigger size misity. >> the leading expert linking vol cannic eruptions to earthquakes. six minutes after yesterday's big quake, sizemomters triggered hours of small local quakes. at yellow stone, even more dramatic and small quakes occurred. >> we have a lot of preliminary ideas. it would be related to bubbles and super heated liquid rock. >> the 6.7 quake before yesterday's big one, magnitude

is key. the biggest impact may be on the golden state bridge and others built near faults. when they downloaded the data from the denali fault, they'll learn actual ground motion close to a big earthquake. >> when we come back, the devastating oil spill that hit alaska 25 years ago. [doorbell rings] hey. hey. what's this? it's u-verse live tv. with at&t u-verse... you can watch live tv from your device. hey. hey. anywhere in your home. [doorbell rings] hey. hey. so you won't miss a minute of march madness.

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. in 1964, has alaska suffered a 9.2 magnitude quake, and 25 later, it would suffer the exxon val-valdese spoil. that oil killed hundreds of

thousands of sea birds, orcas, and seals. we have a report from march 27th, 1989, 2 days after it a happened. >> the investigation into what has now become the largest u.s. oil spill is centering why a 3rd mate and not the captain was at the giant helm of the exxx exxon valdeze off the coast of alaska. oil officials tried to pump the oil on to another tanker before the still linking exxon valdz valdeze wanted to to know. only the captain can command in such conditions. the captain was below the bridge

in his cabin. before the investigation can get underway there's a massive, owl spill that must be contained and cleaned up. john fowler has more on this report. >> oil spread on gusty winds across 100 square miles of once pristine, press williams sound. by days end, exxon crews had scooped up less than 1%, equipment failure and 70-mile an hour winds grounded planed and boats. the alaska governor blasted exxon that excuses don't happen. >> we made a bed of the largest oil slick in the history of this

country for them to spawn into. >> investigators have not yet released crew drug or alcohol tests, but the captain who was below deck has a history of drinking problems. he pled guilty to drunk driving years ago. a 3rd inmate had no certificate to pilot the hundred $25 million ship in these waters. >> new position feels much more stable. >> containment booms, and still more oil spilled out. fumes from the crude made volunteer crews nausi eighted. eated. >> instead of it being allowed to e vap wait into the air --

crews were nauseated. >> instead, it evaporated into the air effecting the crew and animals. >> 16 months after the spill, millions of gallons of oil into alaska's prince williams sound, the ntstsb kacht 18 was consist captain was convicted of negligence. he finally began serving his sentence in 1999. 1,000 hours of community service. and in 1999, reporter don knapp tramped to see what happened. here's the update he filed at

that time. >> i'm escorting with the overseas washington. >> every oil tank they're departs has another powerful tug, a spill response spoil system complete with skimmers stands ready. there are no guarantees. >> we have the prevention equipment in place to minimize that risk to the lowest level possible. there's inherent risk in moving oil. >> and after exxon spent $2 billion in cleanup costs and $300 million to compensation for fisherman, scientists are curious on how well the sound recovered. they're among 28 species monitored by the oil spill trustee council, a resource protection group created by the

government after the spill. >> it wouldn't surprise me we're talking about at least another decade before we can talk about full recovery. >> dozens of beaches like this still have remanence of the still. even extremely small amounts of water can sterilize salmon and kill their eggs. >> exxon studies claim they can't be used to predict what happens on the beaches. a decade after the spill, exxon has more than recovered financially. the year of the spill, profits dipped to $3 billion. five years ago, a court ordered exxon to pay for the spill.

don knapp, prince william sound alaska. and that's it for this week's second look. i'm julie haner. thank you for watching.

- alex, what are you doing? - i need to document haley's first day on the chain gang. it's not a chain gang. it's community service. and leave her alone. she feels bad enough as it is. okay, i'm torn. on one hand, i'm like, "ugh, i have to pick up garbage all day." and on the other hand, i'm like, - "look at me in orange." - (camera shutter clicks) aw, that's cute. send that to me. haley had a little run-in with the law in college. she was arrested for assaulting a police officer. accidentally. i fell on him. while evading arrest for underage drinking. that was on purpose. they were very lenient with her. she only has to do community service. because i do not have any priors. taking a little too much pride in that, sweetheart. things can get pretty rough out there. i couldn't get my hands on any cigarettes. but i did make you a shiv out of an old knife. you don't make a shiv out of a knife.