It has been a month since the 7.0 earthquake in Anchorage. Are these sinkholes which suddenly appeared related?
Observation by Mike Brubaker:
There has been a lot of attention over the past weeks to homes, buildings and infrastructure around Anchorage to assess any damage or other problems from the November earthquake. I was walking through the parking lot at our office here on the ANTHC campus Friday when I noticed these sink holes. I don’t think they were present a week ago. We have experienced some large aftershocks recently. I wonder if these are quake related and how extensive the road damage will be as we transition from cold to warm and winter to spring.
Suzanne Collier, Diplomacy Building Property Manager, writes:
The parking lot damage was observed after the Earthquake and continues to be with the aftershocks. It is the intent when spring arrives to mitigate these.
Comments from LEO Editors:
This observation has been forwarded to the USGS Alaska Science Center.
The effects from the 2018 Anchorage earthquake and aftershocks are in the processes of being fully assessed. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) maintains a map of the most recent earthquakes, and is partnering with the state and universities in Alaska to better understand earthquake hazards in the Anchorage bowl.
There are several spatial tools available to estimate local earthquake impacts. The Municipality of Anchorage has produced an interactive map of historic seismic zones. The Alaska Native Medical Campus (ANMC), located between Elmore and Tudor Center Drive, is located in an area with a moderate-low susceptibility to ground failure during an earthquake. The USGS also provides a hazard map for ground liquefaction specific to the 2018 Anchorage earthquake. In the area of ANMC, the ground is predicted to have a 1-5% chance of liquefaction. Erica Lujan