Central Washington University Professor Charles Rubin just returned from Alaska where he and a dozen other scientists studied the effects of the 7.9 quake.

The photographs they took amazed them. The sheer scope of the damage was more than they could have imagined.

"The extent of surface rupture was over 300 kilometers," says Rubin. "To me that was just a lot of fault exposed on the surface. The other was, I never had seen an earthquake rupture through glaciers and snow fields."

Because it was so remote, this quake caused little damage in any populated areas.

Rubin hopes the information they gather can be used by engineers to design buildings, highways and pipelines that can better withstand quakes.

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Denali Earthquake Fault