One of the most devastating and well known earth quakes in American history was the Great San Francisco Earthquake that happened on April 18th, 1906. Early in the morning there was a 296 miles long rupture along the San Andreas Fault and extensive fires followed after. This earthquake remains as one of the most important studies of a single earth quake because of what scientists were able to study and learn from it. This earthquake affected earth, caused severe damage, a large death toll, as well as created an economic impact. Studying this earthquake we are able to determine the type of plate boundary that occurred and if this was expected from this type of boundary. The Great San Francisco earthquake of 1906 remains as one of the most important
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The earthquake itself affected earth in several ways whether that be environmentally, or even by providing knowledge and concepts that are still relevant and important today. During this time in 1906 a seismograph was recently invented but there were very few at that time. One seismograph was put in an underground room beneath the Weather Bureaus main office in order to be removed from the noise and movements of the streets. It only took eight minutes for the initial waves to travel over 2,500 miles to where the seismograph was held in Washington DC (Potter,2008). At this time this was faster than a telegraph could send a message of the disaster. The massive damage caused extreme death tolls and created an economic impact in the millions. Damage that was done was not only from the fault rupture and shaking effects that lasted from about 45 to 60 seconds long, but is also remembered for the fires that came from it as well. Areas that were situated in sediment filled valleys had both stronger, and longer shaking than areas that were on bedrock sites. According to the Modified Mercalli Intensity scale values of 8 and 9 occurred along the rupture and extended as far as 60 miles to the east of the San Andreas Fault. An offset occurred that was nearly about 20 feet long only taking …show more content…
The depth of the slip of the San Andreas earthquake was most likely even larger measuring from anywhere between 24-28 feet (USGS, n.d.). Due to the advancements of knowledge of earthquakes now the known magnitude of this earthquake varies between studies. It is noted at the lowest as 7.7 and the highest based off the Richter scale as 8.3, but since the Richter magnitude scale was developed for local earthquakes that were recorded this may not be accurate. First initial reports stated that the number of death casualties was as high as 1,000 however, that number was later changed to 478 due to fears of residents and prospective visitors being kept away. A century later there were new estimates that the earthquake and fires together put loss of life at more than three thousand people (Potter, 2008). It also left about 225,000 people homeless, over 28,000 buildings destroyed, and cost a monetary loss of over 400 million (USGS, n.d.). Environmentally, west coasts forests to include redwood forests were completely wiped out due to the fires. However, this earthquake is not only going to be memorable due to the severe damage it caused in several ways,
The earthquake itself affected earth in several ways whether that be environmentally, or even by providing knowledge and concepts that are still relevant and important today. During this time in 1906 a seismograph was recently invented but there were very few at that time. One seismograph was put in an underground room beneath the Weather Bureaus main office in order to be removed from the noise and movements of the streets. It only took eight minutes for the initial waves to travel over 2,500 miles to where the seismograph was held in Washington DC (Potter,2008). At this time this was faster than a telegraph could send a message of the disaster. The massive damage caused extreme death tolls and created an economic impact in the millions. Damage that was done was not only from the fault rupture and shaking effects that lasted from about 45 to 60 seconds long, but is also remembered for the fires that came from it as well. Areas that were situated in sediment filled valleys had both stronger, and longer shaking than areas that were on bedrock sites. According to the Modified Mercalli Intensity scale values of 8 and 9 occurred along the rupture and extended as far as 60 miles to the east of the San Andreas Fault. An offset occurred that was nearly about 20 feet long only taking …show more content…
The depth of the slip of the San Andreas earthquake was most likely even larger measuring from anywhere between 24-28 feet (USGS, n.d.). Due to the advancements of knowledge of earthquakes now the known magnitude of this earthquake varies between studies. It is noted at the lowest as 7.7 and the highest based off the Richter scale as 8.3, but since the Richter magnitude scale was developed for local earthquakes that were recorded this may not be accurate. First initial reports stated that the number of death casualties was as high as 1,000 however, that number was later changed to 478 due to fears of residents and prospective visitors being kept away. A century later there were new estimates that the earthquake and fires together put loss of life at more than three thousand people (Potter, 2008). It also left about 225,000 people homeless, over 28,000 buildings destroyed, and cost a monetary loss of over 400 million (USGS, n.d.). Environmentally, west coasts forests to include redwood forests were completely wiped out due to the fires. However, this earthquake is not only going to be memorable due to the severe damage it caused in several ways,