Geotechnical lessons from the Mw 7.1 2018 Anchorage Alaska earthquake

Cabas, A., Beyzaei, C., Stuedlein, A., Franke, K. W., Koehler, R., Zimmaro, P., Wood, C., Christie, S., Yang, Z., & Lorenzo-Velazquez, C. (2021). Earthquake Spectra, vol. 37, no. 4, Nov. 2021, pp. 2372–2399.

The 2018 M_w 7.1 Anchorage, Alaska, earthquake is one of the largest earthquakes to strike near a major US city since the 1994 Northridge earthquake. The significance of this event motivated reconnaissance efforts to thoroughly document damage to the built environment. This article presents the spatial variability of ground motion intensity and its correlation with subsurface conditions in Anchorage, the identification of liquefaction triggering in the absence of surficial manifestations (such as sand boils or sediment ejecta), cyclic softening failure in organic soils, and the poor performance of anthropogenic fills subjected to cyclic loading.