On March 27, 1964, at approximately 5:36 p.m. Alaska Standard Time, the "Good Friday" Earthquake (also known as the Great Alaska Earthquake) shook all of Southcentral Alaska. The quake's epicenter was 80 miles east of Anchorage in Prince William Sound. The quake's magnitude was originally recorded between 8.4 and 8.6 on the Richter scale, but later upgraded to 9.2. The earthquake was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in North America. It was the second largest earthquake ever recorded, second only to Chile in 1960, which experienced a quake of 9.5.

75 homes and several businesses were destroyed in Anchorage. Of the 131 deaths recorded in Alaska, 119 were caused by the tsunami (tidal wave) triggered by the quake that devastated Valdez and severely damaged the coastal towns of Seward and Kodiak.

When the Alaska quake occurred in 1964, there was, in addition to other Standard Oil Company of California (SOCAL) department personnel, an Exploration Department office in the Cordova Building in Anchorage. When the quake news reached the Exploration Department headquarters in San Francisco, an earthquake correspondence file was created with a retention life of ten years. No SOCAL personnel suffered any financial loss in the quake because their property losses, etc. were assumed by SOCAL. This financial information was between them and the company. The correspondence of the individual reimbursements was removed from the file.