San Francisco was a very opulent city during the 19th century due to the gold rush, the city was thriving and booming and more than 400,000 people residing in this area but the dynamics of this change when at 5:12 am April 1906.1 Powerful devastation ultimately gripped California in April 1906. The Great San Francisco Earthquake is number as one the most powerful devastation in the United Sates.2 On this despondent day many lives were taken and the costs of damages were very exorbitant. The implications were very profound and tumultuous. A forceful seismic shock ripple through San Francisco at the magnitude of 7.8. Some researchers claim that the magnitude of this earthquake could possibly up to 8.3. 3 There were two earthquakes that occurred on this day, the first one was not as potent as second one causing unprecedented damages. This earthquake was one never seen before one and people were indeed flabbergasted by its power.
More profoundly people tabulated the first earthquake as: "it hurled my bed against an opposite wall," wrote Emma Burke, the wife of a local attorney. "It grew constantly worse, the noise deafening; the crash of dishes, falling pictures, the rattle of the flat tin roof, bookcases being overturned, the piano hurled across the parlor, the groaning and straining of the building itself, broken glass and falling plaster, made such a roar that no one noise could be distinguished."1 The first seismic shock also resulted in wooden houses being severely damaged, and decrepit brick buildings felled to the ground. The earthquake impacted the San Andreas Fault engendering buildings to crumble into pieces such as hotels. Hotels that were impacted included the Valencia Street Hotel.The powerful earthquake annihilated ...
... middle of paper ...
....popularmechanics.com/science/environment/natural-disasters/4219864-3
2. (n.d.). The Great 1906 San Francisco. Retrieved from USGS Science for a changing world website: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/nca/1906/18april/index.php 3. (n.d.). The Great 1906 Earthquake & Fires of San Francisco. website: http://mceer.buffalo.edu/1906_Earthquake/additional_information/bibliography.asp 4. (n.d.). Casualities and damage after the 1906 earthquake. Retrieved from USGS Science for a changing world website: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/nca/1906/18april/casualties.php 5. Fradkin, P. (2005). The great earthquake and firestorms of 1906. Retrieved from
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Q_71JLwlmkC&oi=fnd&pg=PP17&dq=Great+San+Francisco+and+Earthquake&ots=Dnw2BUFtiK&sig=eu29vO6gKe3bpUxqvjBpAZaB8Q4#v=onepage&q=Great%20San%20Francisco%20and%20Earthquake&f=false
Page 1 paragraph 2 of Fred Hewitt’s account states,“I was within a stone’s throw of that city hall when the hand of an avenging God fell upon San Francisco.” This is quote also relates to Emma Burke’s account, which on page 1 paragraph 2 states,”No one can comprehend the calamity to San Francisco in its entirety. The individual experience can probably give the general public the clearest idea.” These quotes show that Emma Burke and Fred Hewitt both experienced the San Francisco earthquake and were majorly affected by it because Emma Burke says that her individual experience can help people understand the earth quake, which means that she experienced the earthquake. Emma’s experience relates to Fred’s because he says that he was in San Fransisco when the earthquake hit. Page 1 paragraph 10 of the,”Horrific Wreck of the City,” states,”The first portion of that shock was just a mild forerunning of what was to follow. The pause in the action of the earth’s surface couldn’t have been more than a
In 1910 a series of fifty-two earthquakes struck Arizona between September 10th-23rd and it caused much of the Flagstaff residents to flee the area as even strong households cracked and chimneys crumbled. The fifty-two earthquakes were all light-shock earthquakes with magnitudes between 4.0-4.2 that came right after another. If only one earthquake occurred in that timespan then it is likely that only objects would be knocked from shelves but no damage would be done to infrastructure, but the earthquakes happened right after another causing significant slight
For example, on October 1, 1987, at 7:42 a.m. the residents of the Los Angeles basin got a jolting reminder of the perils of "living on the fault line." This was due to the so-called Whittier Narrows earthquake. Hardest hit by the quake, was Whittier (pop. 72,000). Whittier is twelve miles from downtown Los Angeles and was the community closest to the epicenter.
The 1906 San Francisco earthquake was one of the largest earthquakes in the United States. Even though it only lasted less than a minute, the damages and aftermath of the earthquake were disastrous. These damages were not just from the earthquake, but also from other hazards that occurred because of it. It also had a huge effect on the people living in San Francisco. Many people, the government, and other countries helped the city of San Francisco with relief goods like food and clothing. The city used up their resources in order to rebuild the city and spent a lot of money. This earthquake also started a scientific revolution about earthquakes and its effects.
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 ...
The San Francisco Earthquake commenced at five thirteen o’clock in the morning, with the epicenter offshore of San Francisco. The city carried more than 400,000 people during this event (Earthquake of 1906, 1). Most of the
At 5:12 in the morning of Wednesday, April 18, 1906 an earthquake struck the City of San Francisco according to seismograph records. People remembered this event as especially violent and everyone within the vicinity woke up to white dust in the air from fallen debris. As remembered by a bystander of the event, “I was awakened by a very severe shock of earthquake. The shaking was so violent that it nearly threw me out of bed... As soon as it was over, I got up and went to the window, and saw the street filled with a white dust” (Stetson, 21). The strong shaking lasted from 45 to 60 seconds, which people felt from as far north as southern Oregon and as far south as Los Angeles. The earthquake caused the water supply to shut off. As a result of the lack of water supply, firefighters cou...
The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake hit the Northern California coastline. The San Andreas fault shook 296 miles of the coast causing major damage throughout San Francisco, destroying about 80% of the city. Fires broke out throughout the city that lasted for several days. This was one of the worst Earthquakes recorded in history, killing 3,000 people.("The Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake")
October 17, 1989. Damage for this San Francisco Bay Area quake are close to 4 billion. The
There was a massive earthquake in San Francisco during the year of 1906. The country of United States went through great loss because of this massacre. Nearly 250,000 people had become homeless as the result of this great earthquake. Winchester pointed out the question: How unprepared was America when this disaster hit? He compared the San Francisco earthquake to the Katrina hurricane in 2005.
Smith, Kerry. "A Brief History of the Disaster." The Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 Materials from the Dana and Vera Reynolds Collection. Brown University, n.d. Web. 6 Apr. 2011. .
"The Great Quake: 1906-2006 / Rising from the Ashes." SFGate. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2014.
In the early morning hours on January 17th, 1994 a very violent tremble took place across Los Angeles, California area that left fifty-seven people dead, more than 7,000 injured, more than 20,000 homeless and left over 40,000 buildings damaged. Around 4:30 a.m. a horrific 6.7 magnitude earthquake, that tested building codes and earthquake-resistant construction, shook Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Ventura, and Orange Counties with the most intense damage occurring in Sherman Oaks and Northridge. The earthquake caused several bridges and overpasses to collapse closing sections of the Santa Monica Freeway, Simi Valley Freeway, Golden State Freeway, and the Antelope Valley Freeway. There were also several fire outbreaks throughout the San Fernando Valley, Malibu, and Venice area because of underground gas lines that had been ruptured during the earthquake that caused additional damage.
Earthquakes are vibrations felt at the surface of the earth which are caused by disturbances of the energy in the earth's interior. These vibrations are known as seismic waves. (Skinner Robinson McVerry 1) There are different type sof seisimc waves such as Primary (P) waves, whcih travel the fastest, Secondary (S) waves which cause the earth to vibrate vertically, Surface (L) waves. P and S waves are "affected by changes in the density and the rigidity of the materials through which they pass." (Columbia Encyclopedia) Earthquakes vary in their intensity and duration. Often times they are strong enough to cause massive destriction. Tall buildings often suffer as a result of these natural disasters. In recent years this has become a larger and larger threat with both the number of large buildings, and their number of occupants increasing. In an effort to try to minimize the damage caused by earthquakes many some engineers focus primarily on designing and constructing earthquake resistant buildings. Earthquake engineers have gathered much of their information from analyzing past earthquakes, and learning which buildings can and can't withstand the tremors. The goals of these engineers is to design buildings that can withstand moderate earthquakes and obtain minimal damage, and that the buildings will not collapse lowering the probability of human deaths.
Earthquakes belong to the class of most disastrous natural hazards. They result in unexpected and tremendous earth movements. These movements results from dissemination of an enormous amount of intense energy in form of seismic waves which are detected by use of seismograms. The impact of earthquakes leaves behind several landmarks including: destruction of property, extensive disruption of services like sewer and water lines, loss of life, and causes instability in both economic and social components of the affected nation (Webcache 2).