100 years since the 1906 Earthquake and Fire

Submitted by HighMaintenanceMom on April 18, 2006 - 09:40.

(image from 1906 Earthquake Centennial Alliance site of train thrown down by the earthquake at Point Reyes Station where it was standing on a siding. Photo by G.K. Gilbert from the USGS Library).

At 5:12 AM on April 18, 1906 there was a M 7.8 earthquake along the San Andreas fault in northern California. The earth broke along 296 miles between San Juan Bautista and Cape Mendocino with some areas moving more than 18 feet. Below are links to more information about the earthquake and fire...

The 1906 Earthquake Centennial Alliance site is nicely done and provides a calendar of events in the Bay Area using Google Maps and a clearinghouse of artifacts, articles, mementos, and documentation. If you are not in the Bay Area, you can still see lots of images from the exhibits online. Check out the Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco, the Western Mining History Photo galleries, the list of sites on the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory, and the Bancroft Library.

I also highly recommend checking out the U.S. Geological Survey Earthquake team's 1906 pages. They include a Virtual tour of the 1906 Earthquake using Google Earth (TM) which includes images, 1906 ground motion simulations, several publications including Where's the San Andreas Fault?, and How the Men and Women of the U.S. Geological Survey Responded to the 1906 “San Francisco Earthquake”. The USGS Library also has a collection of pictures from 43 different large earthquakes.

( categories: Science )