His model was published May 15, 1965, in the Journal of Geophysical Research. In 1965, Frank Press, who would become science adviser to four presidents and head of Caltech's Seismological Laboratory, said a vertical fault extending from 9 to 125 miles (15 to 200 kilometers) deep caused the Great Alaska earthquake. In the 1960s, geologists thought straight up-and-down (vertical) faults bounded the edge of continents, similar to the San Andreas Fault that slices through California. President Lyndon Johnson ordered a comprehensive scientific study of the earthquake.

The liquefied ground in Anchorage led to the country's strictest seismic building codes (now outpaced by California). Important coastal ports, roads and rail lines were destroyed. Now ranked a magnitude 9.2, the second-largest ever recorded, the earthquake radically transformed the young state. In 50 years, no earthquake since has matched the power of the March 27, 1964, Great Alaska earthquake. 'It was an eerie thing to see - a huge tide of fire washing ashore,' survivor Gene Kirkpatrick told National Geographic magazine in 1964. When the earthquake-triggered tsunami hit minutes later, the wave was blazing. In Seward, spilled oil slicked the water and caught fire. Landslides launched tsunamis that swept away coastal villages before the shaking even ended. In Anchorage, the ground cracked open and giant fissures swallowed children whole, killing them in front of their siblings.

Few people returned home to their meals that night. For more than 4 minutes, the earth buckled and lurched all across southern Alaska. When the first shaking hit, many parents were in the kitchen, fixing dinner.

The giving tree 1964