This research will investigate the very long period waves, 100 to 300 second period, from the second-greatest recorded earthquake in history, the 1964 Alaskan earthquake. The long- period recordings of the WWSSN stations will be examined in the normal mode band to determine the low-frequency source characteristics of the event and establish whether this even texcited an unusual amount of low-frequency seismic energy. The source complexity will be determined from an analysis of the long-period surface wave data. The results will then be compared with those obtained by the researchers' similar analysis of the greatest recorded earthquake in history, the 1960 Chilean earthquake, in order to better understand the nature of rupture of these very great earthquakes and to examine the possibility that these events are fundamentally different from other earthquakes. Because of these events' great size and destructiveness from both ground motion and tsunamis, their investigation has direct application to the National Earthquake Hazard Reduction Program.
