1906 San Francisco Earthquake Rachel Ziffer 3rd period At 5:12 a.m. on April 18, 1906, the people of San Francisco were awakened by an earthquake that would devastate the city. The earthquake was caused by a rupture of the northernmost 296 miles of the San Andreas Fault, leaving 225,000 homeless, 3,000 dead and 500 city blocks gone. This photograph, taken by George Lawrence from a series of kites five weeks after the great earthquake of April 18, 1906, shows the devastation brought on the city of San Francisco by the quake and subsequent fire. The San Andreas Fault marks the place where the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate collide, forming a transform boundary. The earthquake occurred when the two plates collided. Pressure built up over time. Then, suddenly, the plates slipped and moved very fast. There’s no way to tell when this could happen. No one in San Francisco was expecting a disaster as great as this. The diagram below shows the …show more content…
City officials of the time estimated the death toll around 700, but more modern calculations say the casualties were more around 3,000 deaths. City figures may have been downplaying the disaster, wanting to rebuild the city quickly. Almost 30,000 buildings and houses and 500 city blocks were destroyed. The government gave money to rebuild buildings that were destroyed by the fire and earthquake, but the earthquake did not lead to any better building codes and the city is still at risk if another earthquake hits. "There are still thousands of hastily rebuilt, unreinforced masonry buildings cheek-by-jowl with wooden structures with no fire-resistant walls between them," reported the San Francisco Chronicle in April 2006. One study by the Association of Bay Area Governments predicts that a magnitude 7.3 quake along the San Andreas Fault near San Francisco would seriously damage 66,000 homes and forced nearly a quarter of a million people into the
When one of the worst earthquakes ever hits the town of San Francisco panic ensues, but not for everyone. On April 18, 1906, at 5:15 am the city of San Francisco was demolished by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake which also led to many fires being started. There was $350m in estimated damages, and 400-750 people perished in the earthquake and fire. Around 490 city blocks were destroyed, causing 250,000 people to become homeless (A Brief Account, SF Tourism Tips). In the aftermath of the earthquake there were many eyewitness accounts written about it. The eyewitness account, “Comprehending the Calamity,” by Emma Burke and the eyewitness account,"Horrific Wreck of the City" by Fred Hewitt both describe the same event, but they both have very different
The scenario mentioned above was based on the rupture located along the Cascadia fault line. This fault system runs from Northern California to Vancouver Island about 700 miles off the shore (FOX5). Scientists use to believe that the San Andreas Fault was where a large earthquake tsunami would originate, but recently their attention has shifted to the Cascadia subduction zone which is now said to be much more dangerous than previously thought (FOX5). Recent earthquake events have added even more tension and possibility for a large-scale tsunami. On March 10, 2014, a 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Northern California, which put a lot of stress on the Mendocino Triple Junction (Davidson). The Mendocino Triple Junction is where three tectonic plates collide, and is very unstable (Davidson). This junction has all this built up pressure and is about ready to explode. Scientists believe that this junction will be the origin of a tear along the 680-mile long Cascadia Subduction Zone. (Davidson). The disaster that follows will be considered the United State’s largest modern-day earthquake.
Earthquakes in California are certainly not a surprise. What is a surprise is their unpredictability and randomness. Geologists say there is roughly a 50 percent chance that a magnitude 8 or more quake will hit the Los Angeles area sometime over the next 30 years. And, over the past twenty years, the Los Angeles area has witnessed several earthquakes, and in particular, two that were quite devastating; the 1971 San Fernando earthquake, and the January 17, 1994, Northridge Earthquake. Given the certainty that earthquakes will occur, they still seem to come as a surprise, and leave many communities unprepared to deal with their aftermath.
The 1894 San Juan earthquake was a major seismic movement that took place in the province of San Juan, Argentina, on 27 October 1894, at about 07:30 PM. It was the most powerful earthquake recorded in Argentina, with magnitude 7.5 on the Surface wave magnitude. Its epicenter was located to the northwest of San Juan, approximately at 29°48′S 69°00′W, and at a depth of 30 km.
On October 17, 1989, a magnitude 6.9 earthquake hit the San Francisco Bay Area. Killing 67 people and causing more than $5 billion in damages. Despite the fact that the disaster was one of the most powerful and destructive quakes ever to hit a populated area of the United States, the death toll was relatively small.
Previously it was said that there were about 200 residents in San Francisco in 1846, and then 2 years later, gold was found, thus starting the California Gold Rush. Four years after the Gold Rush in 1852, there were over 36,000 residents in San Francisco (“California Gold Rush”). It caused so much overpopulation, and it affected San Francisco in a huge way. Now when any place, like San Francisco, gets over populated, possibly because of a huge worldwide event, or problem, it effects that city in some way.... ... middle of paper ...
Ten million California residents who lived closely from the major fault lines could have been endangered in many extreme ways. (House, 56). A tragic thing was that after the earthquake a multitudes of fire followed right after. The situation led to the water mains being destroyed and the firefighter being left with no water to settle the growing fire which continued blazing. The bay water was planned on putting all of the dure out but it was to far in distance to be able to transport it (Earthquake of 1906, 2). The firefighters who were putting out the fire were either surrounded or being burned by the fire that was blazing in all directions (San Francisco Earthquake, 2). A resident who was present during the event mention that he/she saw men and women standing in a corner of a building praying, one person who became delirious by the horrific ways that were surrounding him while crying and screaming at the top of his lungs “the Lord sent it, the Lord”. Someone also mentioned that they experience themselves seeing Stones fall from the sky and crushing people to death. Reporters say there were 100 cannons going off (San Francisco Earthquake, 3). People who lived fifty miles away from the fire was able to “read the newspaper at
This event led to an exponential increase in the population of San Francisco.The population of San Francisco during this historical event soared from around 14,000 to over a population of 100,000. The population eventually exceeded over 250,000. “...the population of California (excluding non-Christianized Indians) soared from about eight thousand on the eve of the rush to 93,000 – 77 percent of whom were males aged fifteen to forty – in 1850. By 1852, population reached about 250,000 – more than one percent of the nation’s population had moved to California in just four years.” (Whaples). Buildings were quickly and constantly constructed and many areas were sold in order to support this mass amount of
According to the writers of Encyclopedia Britannica, the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and fire caused 28,000 buildings to be destroyed, causing $350,000,000 in damage. This earthquake was one of the most devastating earthquakes ever. There are many views on this earthquake, and even some footage of it. The earthquake caused the fire, which was even more devastating than the earthquake itself, but they both still did a substantial amount of damage. Over 3000 people were killed, 250,000 left homeless, and the survivors camped in Golden Gate Park or Dunes West, and some fled to neighboring towns. (Encyclopedia Britannica). The eyewitness accounts “Comprehending the Calamity” by Emma Burke and “The Horrific Wreck of the City” by Fred Hewitt are both about the 1906 San
More than 170,000 acres have been destroyed and an estimated 7,000 buildings destroyed or damaged, these numbers are still increasing. The deadly wildfires have caused over one billions dollars in property damage.
That’s not all either, more that three hundred thousand people were injured by the quake and because houses were destroyed and more than 1 million people were left homeless. In fact, some people were so frightened by the earthquake that they started moving away from the city and went to live in other places. It wasn’t just a few hundreds who moved, it was about 600,00 people who moved away. Some went to live with families and others went wherever they could call home. Some of the people who became homeless also went and found families or a place they could call home but not all were lucky. Some of them haven't even found homes which shows how devastating the quake
These previous events, while also helping state and local communities plan and prepare for the next earthquake, demonstrated the need for a fast response. As the text notes, inspectors and Caltrans staff were out inspecting freeways the same day the earthquake hit. Within three weeks, reconstruction had begun and repairs to I-10 were completed within three months. All remaining repairs to the highway system were completed by November 4, 1994 (U.S. Department of Transportation, 2002). While the response was quick and public infrastructure was quickly repaired, many heavily damaged neighborhoods “had a slow recovery” (Edwards, 2013). Many homeowners did not have earthquake insurance and/or could not find financing to make repairs. Homes were abandoned and businesses closed. Negative effects lingered for years (Edwards,
On January 17, 1994 at approximately 4:31 a.m. a magnitude 6.7 earthquake shook Los Angeles, resulting in major destruction throughout the city. On that day, 57 people lost their lives, “more than 7,000 [were] injured, 20,000 were [left] homeless, and more than 40,000 buildings [were] damaged in Los Angeles, Ventura, Orange and San Bernardino Counties” (USGS). The Los Angeles County had a population of 9.097 million in 1994, but there were not as many deaths because most people were in their homes at the time of the earthquake. In fact, of those 57 deaths only 33 were attributable to the earthquake, most of which were caused by structural failure and events such as “a couple who died when [they were] buried under hundreds of pounds
People were not aware the earthquake was going to happen. To predict an earthquake is very expensive. People were not prepared for the earthquake, however it is more worth it to pay for new buildings destroyed in earthquakes than to save for years just to find out when the next one will be.
The earthquake did not cause much damage, due to the setting of the earthquake being Japan, they were prepared. Japan is right in the middle of The Ring Of Fire, so their buildings were more than able to withstand the powerful magnitude 9.0 earthquake that took place and lasted 6 minutes. The earthquake could be felt as far away as Tokyo which is 250 miles from Sendai. Following the main earthquake followed thousands of aftershocks way more than usual (He et al., 2013). Few if any died from the earthquake itself. What caused most of the damage, if not all was the huge tsunami that followed. It only took about an hour after the earthquake to reach Miyagi, Japan. The fast moving tsunami was estimated at about 128 feet high in some places. Destroying everything in its way almost 16,000 people were killed in the tsunami and 2500 are still missing as of March, 2015. As if the tsunami itself did not cause enough damage, it got worse for the Japanese people. Over 4 million people were left without power. Fires were started at oil refineries by the earthquake and continued for more than 7 days. In many places the tsunami hit, most phone signals were down so there were no way to communicate. There were also no ways to travel in cars, with boats and debris on the roads it was made impossible. But the biggest problem earthquake and tsunami caused was the melting of the