Earthquake Kathryn Schulz Summary

London begins his piece by reporting the facts and circumstances in which the disaster started, describing the damage caused by the earthquake’s fire to rapidly start the creation of his metaphorical approach of the event: the beginning of an impetuous invading force into the magnificent empire of San Francisco. In order to set up this image, London utilized specific connotative language such as “conflagration,” “modern

It’s 5:15 AM, and the streets are quiet. By 5:30, the streets are torn apart, and rubble is strewn everywhere. What happened in those fifteen minutes was the San Fransisco earthquake. When you look at “Comprehending the Calamity” by Emma Burke and Laurence Yep’s Dragonwings, you can truly imagine the extent of the damage and fear, even though Burke’s purpose is to inform, while Yep’s is to entertain.

The earthquake was located on the San Andreas fault which is a seismic zone between two of the earth’s tectonic plates. Seismic events which occur is caused as a result of the earth’s tectonic plates moving against each other and this can cause huge earthquakes and volcanoes (“Young”). The transform boundary passes through California and this is where the Pacific and North American plates move past each other without colliding. The event in which this occurred was the San Andreas fault (“Young”). When the plates move past each other and the resistance builds up, this causes an earthquake like the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. This earthquake caused a separation and displacement in the landscape which was seen over several kilometers

George Heinrich Crist, a resident of Kentucky, was settled with his family in a well-built house when the New Madrid Earthquake of 1811 came across their path, unlike a storm this “thing” had no warnings. He chose to share his account of this quake, or quakes. This was part of his life and also a part of history in the making so that is why I believe he shared his personal essay. It’s not an argumentative account but rather short entries from 5 months from his life. Kentucky wasn’t the only state that was hurt, 6 other states were involved. The term “New Madrid Earthquake” refers to portions of Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi. This was the biggest earthquake (series of earthquakes) as it changed the course of the Mississippi river.

The tectonic setting for the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake was in the outermost shell of earth consisting 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 Pacific Plate (on the west) slides horizontally northwestward relative to the North American Plate (on the east), causing earthquakes along the San Andreas and associated faults. The San Andreas fault is a transform plate boundary, accommodating horizontal relative motions (usgs.gov).

To fully understand the SAF, let’s look at what a fault actually is. A fault is a rupture where two blocks of the Earth 's crust have moved past one another. (Lange, 2016) “Faults are classified based on the direction of the slip between the blocks of earth. The faults in the San Andreas system are called strike-slip faults. Faults can occur anywhere on the Earth 's surface. The San Andreas Fault system is not just a simple strike-slip fault. It is actually a transform boundary separating the Pacific and North American tectonic plates.” (Lynch, 2013) “By definition, an earthquake is the shaking of the ground cause by seismic waves. Almost all earthquakes occur when unreleased stress in rocks along large, active faults (like the SAF) as the rock breaks it releases

The first few seconds of your first earthquake are disconcerting. You don’t know what’s happening. The undulation, the noise, the inability to focus -- it’s all disconcerting. But once you’ve been in a few, you know the feeling. You don’t relax, but you don’t panic, either.

This is one, but not the only way to make the phenomenon we know as earthquakes. This fault has not only caused trouble in the past but is likely to bring devastating destruction in the relatively near future. San Francisco had an earthquake, because of this fault, in April 1906 killing over 700 people and causing millions in damage (San). If a new earthquake were to happen it would kill thousands of American citizens along the west coast. Consequently, there would be a major drop in population over there which could reduce the amount of production created in this region all tying back into why the geological aspect of America is a main determining factor for seeing the importance of why America has the properties it has and will have in the future.

One of the most significant earthquakes to hit the San Fernando Valley in the past was the 1971 San Fernando/ Sylmar earthquake. On February 9, 1971 at about 6 o’clock the cities of San Fernando and Sylmar experienced an earthquake that ruptured along the Sierra Madre Fault Zone (Oakeshott, Gordon B). The epicenter of this earthquake was reported to be in the San Gabriel Valley Mountains above the valley. The citizens of both cities felt tremendous shaking. The magnitude of the earthquake was measured as a 6.6 on the Richter scale and the shaking had the intensity of a level 11 (extreme) on the Modified Mercalli system (U.S. Geological Survey). The shaking of this 6.6 magnitude earthquake lasted about 12 seconds with a very strong ground motion. The source of this faulting was located about five miles to the north of the San Fernando valley. The surface faulting of this earthquake was reported to be seen along the surface of the San Fernando fault zone from a point south of Sylmar, the faulting stretched 6 miles more as far as east to the little Tujunga Canyon, also more surface faulting was reported more east as well. In total the maximum surface rupture was 12 miles and the amount of slip was about 6 feet (U.S. Geological Survey). The type of fault scientist label this earthquake to be was an oblique-slip or also known as a thrust. The depth of this earthquake was 13km (8.1 mi) and the peak acceleration was when it reached the Pacoima dam having the speed of 1.25g (U.S.

Hardin begins the article with his conclusion. He uses the example of the lifeboat to support his claim; the lifeboat cannot rescue everyone and there will be some who perish. Further, his examples of population increase and the tragedy of the commons support the first premise: the future world will be ruined. He buttresses this with examples of the food bank and immigration which support his claim that the environment will be ruined. Hardin relies on science and statistical trends as support for his premises; the facts he presents support his antecedent.

The novel, A Crack in The Edge of The World, by Simon Winchester is a book that educates readers on plate tectonics and how the pushing and pulling of those plates has shaped, and in some cases destroyed, various pieces of the American west. Winchester's focus is on the earthquake that devastated San Francisco in 1906, but he also incorporates his travels across the North American plate and describes how nature and society has fused as one. His book explores constant shifts in time and the reader may find difficulty fully delighting in the never-ending stream of words. Nevertheless, the lengthy descriptions, sentences the size of paragraphs, and an excessive use of parentheses combine to paint a vivid image of the impact the earthquake had

Mark Twain writes about the Earthquake with a vague sense of time, a first person point of view, descriptive language and copious amounts of humor. Throughout the article Mr. Twain never states what the exact date is he simply says “...just after noon on a bright October day.”(line 3) this is important because it shows that e is not writing to give a clear factual perspective as he has not given a direct fact. Using descriptive language Mark Twain gives the audience visuals of a building vomiting people, and a celing opening and shutting like a mouth. Mr. Twain also gives the audicen visuals of what the people in panic after the earthquake are doing such as a woman carrying her chikd around like a dressed turkey. Humor is used in the description

It was good for the story to see what happens through the city from the different points of views gives the reader insight on what happened on all levels. Using metaphors in this story London, gives you a clear picture of all of the devastation that this earthquake has caused around the city. You can imagine in your mind, the scene that he is describing and put it into motion as you are reading along. With fires raging, buildings collapsed, debris, and twisted metal railings you could picture this as a scene from World War 2 in the cities that were bombed during the war. If you could picture a shipwreck you can see people on land with de-bris scattered all over with people trying to figure out what happened, what they should do, and

“The Horrific Wreck of the City” says, “I was thrown on my back and the pavement pulsated like a living thing. Around me the huge buildings, looming up more terrible because of the odd dance they were performing wobbled and veered. Crash followed crash and resounded on all sides. Screeches rent the air as terrified humanity streamed out into the open in agony of despair.” Likewise, “The street beds heaved in frightful fashion. The earth rocked and then came the blow that wrecked San Francisco from the bay shore to the Ocean Beach and from the Golden Gate to the end of the peninsula.” These quotes show how destructive the earthquake was because the first one talks about how buildings were crashing down into the streets of San Francisco; and the second quote talks about how San Francisco was wrecked by the rocking of the earth. “Comprehending the Calamity” says, “The spirals of smoke now began to ascend from various places In the business section, and we realized how completely we were at the mercy of fire, with the broken water-mains, and reservoirs perhaps destroyed. The gas and water had been cut off immediately to most of our homes. The electricity was gone too.” Similarly, “Men, met, introduced one another; exchanged business cards of places consumed by the flames,

reach up to 100 feet in height. Tsunamis are very deadly and can kill many people, therefore,