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1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire
5:12 AM
April 18, 1906
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The Basics
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The California earthquake of April 18, 1906 ranks as one of the most significant earthquakes of all time. Today, its importance comes more from the wealth of scientific knowledge derived from it than from its sheer size
--The Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake
Deaths: > 3,000
- Injuries: ~225,000
- Property Damage: $ 400,000,000 in 1906 $$$
--FAQ @UC Berkeley Seismographic Station
The ground had broken open for more than 270 miles along a great fault - the San Andreas rift. The country on the east side of the rift had moved southward relative to the country on the west side of the rift. The greatest displacement had been 21 feet about 30 miles northwest of San Francisco
--Introduction from the Carnegie Report
The quake lasted only a minute but caused
the worst natural disaster in the nation's
history. Modern analysis estimates it registered
8.25 on the Richter scale (By comparison,
the quake that hit San Francisco on October
17, 1989 registered 6.7). -The San Francisco Earthquake, 1906 -EyeWitness from Ibis Communications - note: a writer pointed out that a hurricane
on Galveston Island, Texas, in 1900 killed
more than 6,000 people and is also claimed
to be "The worst natural disaster in
U.S. history." |
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The Fire
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Area destroyed by fire of April 18-21, 1906 |
From the San Francsico Examiner, May 13, 1906
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| Chinatown |
In 1906, the destruction of Chinatown by
fire was considered a great blessing of the
Earthquake. Many felt it should have burned
long before. Said the Overland Monthly, "Fire has reclaimed to civilization
and cleanliness the Chinese ghetto, and no
Chinatown will be permitted in the borders
of the city.... it seems as though a divine
wisdom directed the range of the seismic
horror and the range of the fire god. Wisely,
the worst was cleared away with the best."
Chinatown in Hunters Point? by Ralph Henn
See also, Earthquake and Fire Newspaper Clippings at sfmuseum |
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View of the destruction brought about by the San Francisco Earthquake, 1906
This is a composite panorama, meaning that it is pieced together from four separate images to give a panoramic effect. The photographer is unknown, though it may have been taken by the Army Signal Corps. It is printed on silver gelatin paper. The entire size of the image is 37" x 8".
Records of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer (Army) (111-AGF-1-A>D)
[source]
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San Francisco City Hall [big image]
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Third and Market Street
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EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE by Arnold Genthe
Images ...
References:
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The Earth Shook, the Sky Burned : A Photographic Record of the
1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, by William Bronson (1997)
[amazon]
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Denial of Disaster: The Untold Story and Photographs of the San
Francisco Earthquake and Fire or 1906, by Gladys Hansen, Emmet
Condon, David Fowler Cameron and Co., San Francisco, 160 p. (1989)
[amazon]
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Wald,
D.J., Kanamori, Hiroo, Helmberger, D.V., and Heaton, T.H., Source
study of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake: Bulletin of the Seismological
Society of America, vol.83, no. 4, p. 981-1019, August 1993
- Bay Area
Shaking Hazard Maps [ABAG]
- The
San Andreas Fault and the San Francisco Bay Area
- 1906
References @USGS
- The Great 1906 Earthquake
And Fire - Table of Contents of sfmuseum pages
- Before and
After the Great Earthquake and Fire: - Early Films of San Francisco,
1897-1916 - Library of Congress
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