Plate tectonics was still a controversial theory in the mid-60s. But that changed when a 9.2 magnitude earthquake devastated Valdez, Alaska and wiped the island village of Chenega off the map in 1964. In his new book, The Great Quake: How the Biggest Earthquake in North America Changed Our Understanding of the Planet, New York Times science reporter Henry Fountain follows a geologist named George Plafker, who traveled to Alaska in the quake's aftermath to conduct research that would lead to an important discovery.