The rupture history of the March 28, 1964, Prince William Sound earthquake (M w = 9.

2) has been
determined from long-period WWSSN P-wave seismograms. Source time functions determined from the
long-period P waves indicate two major pulses of moment release. The first and largest moment pulse
has a duration of approximately 100 seconds with a relatively smooth onset which reaches a peak
moment release rate at about 75 seconds into the rupture. The second smallerpulse of moment release
starts at approximately 160 seconds after the origin time and has a duration of roughly 40 seconds. The
1964 Prince William Sound earthquake is interpreted as a multiple asperity rupture with a very large
dominant asperity m the epicentral region and a second major, but smaller, asperity in the Kodiak Island
region. The zone that rupturedin the 1964 earthquake is segmented into two regions corresponding to
the two regions of concentrated moment release. Historical earthquake data suggest that these
segments behave independently during previous events.