FAIRBANKS (AP) -- Researchers will discuss the Nov. 3 earthquake at a conference in San Francisco next month.

More than 40 scientists will present research on the 7.9 magnitude quake at the American Geophysical Union Conference that opens Dec. 6.

Unlike large earthquakes that have occurred in densely populated areas, Alaska's big earthquake left scientists with an event that will help them understand the natural episodes but that caused a comparably small amount of human damage, said Alaska state seismologist Roger Hansen.

''The science benefits outweigh the damage here,'' said Hansen, who's also a University of Alaska Fairbanks' Geophysical Institute professor.

Hansen is among 43 scientists scheduled to make presentations about recent major earthquakes in Alaska at the conference. Hansen, who will co-chair the earthquake session, said the gathering will present scientists with their first chance to see most of the research that's been conducted since the Nov. 3 earthquake on the Denali Fault.

He said the conference is the largest gathering of geophysical scientists in the nation and the earthquake, the largest and most destructive in Alaska since 1964, is a hot topic. The conference schedule was already planned before the earthquake struck, but Hansen said the earthquake session was added shortly after and planners began soliciting submissions for presentations.

Researchers are scheduled to make presentations on topics ranging from the physics of the Earth's mantle -- where the energy to produce earthquakes is stored -- to the interpretation of data produced by instruments measuring the quake, Hansen said.

Presenters will either deliver a speech on their research or display a poster summarizing their work. Most of the researchers are from Alaska or traveled here to study the earthquake, but some have conducted their work solely from a computer.

''A lot of the data from this event went onto the World Wide Web fairly quickly,'' Hansen told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.