1906 San Francisco Earthquake Research Paper

The San Andreas fault line has caused constant development nightmares for large urban areas such as San Francisco as well as the other cities built on top of it. Fault lines are one of the side effects of the earth’s tectonic plates shifting that can result in devastating earthquakes. Some of the most devastating earthquakes in our modern era have occurred along the San Andreas fault line due to a dense population. The most notable and destructive earthquake on the San Andreas fault line occurred in San Francisco in 1906. The reason this earthquake was so deadly was because of its magnitude and the city’s poor planning. This earthquake was a wakeup call for San Francisco and force the city to revolutionize its knowledge on earthquakes and how to protect their city. Today San Francisco is one of the most well prepared cities for an earthquake and has made great discoveries in earthquake safety measures. The 1906 earthquake in San Francisco has drastically changed how the city has developed its zoning and building code policies, and its earthquake research.

These fires highlighted that there were not enough fire fighters and resources to combat such fires. They highlighted areas that lacked emergency service protection and showed a lack of preparedness (San Diego Fire Facts, 2016). Years after the fires, some changes that came about include: wood shake shingles being banned on new construction and could not be used as roof replacements (Mainar, 2013) and 100 feet became the new defensible space, an increase from 65, between the fuel, for example vegetation, of the fire and the structure (Mainar, 2013). There’s an increase in code compliance officers in the field from two to seven (Mainar, 2013). Evacuation procedures and notices were

The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake tectonic setting was in the outermost shell of earth known as the crust this is composed of rigid plates that have been moving for hundreds of millions of years. Two of these moving plates meet in western California; the boundary between them is a zone of faults, the principal one being the San Andreas fault. The horizontal sliding of the Pacific Plate relative to the North American Plate, causes earthquakes along the San Andreas fault and similar plates near the region. The San Andreas fault is a transform plate boundary, accommodating horizontal relative motions (usgs.gov).

The San Francisco Earthquake written by Jack London is journal of his events throughout the devastating acts of God that hit San Francisco in 1906. (461-466)

On April 18, 1906, an earthquake occurred in San Francisco with a magnitude of 7.9. The earthquake was caused by the San Andreas Fault since the San Andreas Fault slip over a segment. The earthquake could be felt from Oregon to southern California. Buildings in San Francisco was destroyed by earthquake and fires. Fires started after the earthquake occurred and firefighters were not able to stop the fire because the water mains were broken and because of this, firestorms started to develop around San Francisco. Then, the San Francisco Mayor E.E. Schmitz called the U.S. Army troops to shoot anyone that is found looting. While the army was doing that, firefighters and U.S. troops tried to fight the fire by dynamiting the city to create firewalls.

California, and thus San Francisco, lies on the San Andres fault. The earthquake was caused when this fault suddenly shifted, with the rupture spreading for a total of 476 kilometres in northward and southward direction. “This fault is a continental transform fault, which forms part of the tectonic boundary between the North American Plate and the Pacific Plate.” (1906 Earthquake: How long was the 1906 Crack? USGS Earthquake Hazards Program – Northern California, Accessed September 3, 2006). 1 The distance of the fault is of about 1300 kilometres, which runs the length of California from Cape Mendocino in the north to the Salton Sea in the south. Geologists have estimated that the fault moved as quickly as 2.74 kilometres per second. The San Andreas Fault, the source of this disaster, lies ten miles or deeper, at the meeting point of two tectonic plates, the Pacific and the North American. “The right-lateral strike-slip fault is characterized by mainly lateral motion in a dextral sense, where the western plate (Pacific plate) moves northward relative to the eastern plate (North American

Did you know in 1906 an earthquake with a 7.1 on the Richter scale hit San Francisco? Not only that the damages were huge, the fire resulted from the earthquake burned down twenty-eight thousand buildings alone! But, the earthquake made around two hundred and twenty-five thousand residents homeless which was more than half the amount of residents in San Francisco at the time. Also, if we presume that there were four people in a house then that’s fifty-six thousand two hundred and twenty-five housing that's been demolished, oh you might have noticed, but that is just a 7.1 earthquake which isn’t even the strongest earthquake to hit the world! Now here is an interesting question, what makes these earthquakes so dangerous? Or rather how does earthquake destroy things anyway because you know that earthquakes are just the shifting of the earth's crust.

The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, was one of the largest quakes ever recorded. It happened on April 18th, at 5:15AM. “The quake lasted only a minute, but caused the worst natural disaster in the nation’s history.”( Eyewitness History.) The quake caused an enormous amount of damage that affected hundreds of thousands of people’s lives.

At 5:04 PM on October 17, 1989 night a huge earthquake shook Northern California. The Earthquake was officially named the Loma Prieta Earthquake. The quake’s epicenter, which was a 6.9 on the richter scale, was 60 miles from Southeast San Francisco. The earthquake was eerily similar to the 1906 tremor that killed over 3,000 (although the resulting fire was responsible for over half the deaths). The official death total of this earthquake was only 63. 42 of those deaths came from the collapsed highway in Oakland. One thing that was threatened was the ongoing World Series. The World Series was taking place in San Francisco and Oakland, the two major cities where the earthquake

The earthquake on April 18, 1906, in San Francisco is considered one of the most important earthquakes ever. Ultimately, its main significance comes from the knowledge gained from it, not just the size of it. It was the first large natural disaster captured with photographs. The geologists of the time didn’t know what could have caused such a large earthquake as plate tectonics wasn’t a very popular theory back then. Studying the movement and crust near the fault, Reid developed a theory called Elastic-Rebound theory, which is still used to this day to explain earthquakes (The Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake). Foreshocks began at approximately 5:12 AM California time. Then, not half a minute later, the main earthquake occurred. The epicenter wasn’t actually in San Francisco, but it was close.  Most of the damage in San Francisco was caused by fire which burned the town for three consecutive days and nights. In areas along the fault line, most of the damage was caused by shaking.

Large earthquakes can majorly damage roads, bridges, buildings, and utilities that we use everyday. Small fires are also known to be common during and after earthquakes. Not only are there the hazards from the earthquake itself, but there is also many things triggered by the event. The shaking from the earthquake would result in landslides, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and so much more. Roadways and homes are most likely to be affected by landslides, and tsunamis flood and scatter debri throughout the affected areas.

San Francisco is a mountainous city in northern California with a population of approximately 805,000 people, who are under the constant threat of tectonic natural disasters [1]. An estimated 10,000 earthquakes, holding a magnitude of 1.5 or above occur annually in California, with 387 of them centered in the northern region of San Francisco [2]. The Californian earthquake of April 18, 1906 was one of the deadliest natural disasters of all time, carrying an estimated moment magnitude of 7.8 and an extreme Mercalli Intensity of XI [3]. The quake struck many regions along the coast of northern Californian, heavily impacting the San Francisco Bay Area. It claimed over an estimated 3,000 lives and left between 227,000 to 300,000 people homeless from San Francisco’s small population at the time of 410,000 [4]. As damaging as the earthquake and its aftershocks were, the devastating fires that followed were more destructive, lasting for several days. Within 3 days, over 30 fires, caused by ruptured gas mains demolished approximately 25,000 buildings [3]. An estimated $400 million 1906 dollars were required to redevelop the demolished regions [4]. This proposal hopes to assist the people in the earthquake prone area of San Francisco, California.

Most of the buildings, schools, political buildings, statues, office buildings that were supposed to be earthquake proof, were all destroyed and after the incident and lay in pieces on the ground. It is calculated that approximately 400 buildings collapsed.

The San Francisco Earthquake had a highly significant impact on the surrounding environment. The overwhelming total death count for the earthquake and fires is estimated to be 3 thousand people. In addition, the earthquake left 250 thousand residents homeless and destroyed 28 thousand building.3 The tremors of the earthquake destroyed San Francisco’s water mains, resulting in the

The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 devastated citizens from San Francisco. After the disaster, new technology advanced when detecting earthquakes. Different theories grew from the elastic rebound theory to the theory that the soil determines the severity of the earthquake. Building developed new plans to keep buildings from being destroyed by fires.