1906 San Francisco earthquake

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1906 San Francisco earthquake

Date

April 18, 1906

Magnitude

7.8 Mw[1]

Depth

8 kilometers (5.0 mi)[2]

Epicenter

37.75N 122.55WCoordinates:
122.55W[2]

Countries or

United States

regions

(San Francisco Bay Area)

Max. intensity

X - Intense

Casualties

3,000+ (Estimated 3425)

37.75N

Stockton Street from Union Square, looking toward Market Street

Arnold Genthe's famous photograph, looking toward the fire on Sacramento Street

The intensity of the earthquake.

The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was a major earthquake that struck San Francisco and the
coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, 1906.

[3]

Devastating fires broke out in

the city that lasted for several days. As a result of the quake and fires, about 3,000 people died and over
80% of San Francisco was destroyed.[4]
The earthquake and resulting fire are remembered as one of the worst natural disasters in the history of
the United States[5] alongside the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005.[6] The
death toll from the earthquake and resulting fire is the greatest loss of life from a natural disaster in
California's history.
Contents
[hide]

1 Impact

2 Magnitude and geology

3 Subsequent fires

4 U.S. Army

5 Relocation and housing

6 Aftermath and reconstruction

7 International assistance and insurance payments

8 Centennial commemorations

9 Analysis

10 In popular culture

11 See also

12 Panoramas

13 Notes

14 References

15 External links

Impact[edit]
At the time, 375 deaths were reported.[7] Partly because hundreds of fatalities inChinatown went ignored
and unrecorded, the total number of deaths is still uncertain today, and is estimated to be roughly 3,000
at minimum.[8] Most of the deaths occurred in San Francisco itself, but 189 were reported elsewhere in
the Bay Area;[3] nearby cities, such as Santa Rosa and San Jose, also suffered severe damage.
In Monterey County, the earthquake permanently shifted the course of the Salinas River near its mouth.

Where previously the river emptied into Monterey Bay between Moss Landing and Watsonville, it was
diverted 6 miles south to a new outlet just north of Marina.

Houses on Howard Street toppled and damaged by the earthquake

Between 227,000 and 300,000 people were left homeless out of a population of about 410,000; half of the
people who evacuated fled across the bay to Oakland and Berkeley. Newspapers at the time
described Golden Gate Park, the Presidio, the Panhandle and the beaches between Ingleside and North
Beach as being covered with makeshift tents. More than two years later, many of these refugee camps
were still in full operation.[9]

The coastal liner Columbia lying on her side at the Union Iron Works dry dock due to the earthquake.

The earthquake and fire left long-standing and significant pressures on the development of California. At
the time of the disaster, San Francisco had been the ninth-largest city in the United States and the largest
on the West Coast, with a population of about 410,000. Over a period of 60 years, the city had become
the financial, trade and cultural center of the West; operated the busiest port on the West Coast; and was
the "gateway to the Pacific", through which growing U.S. economic and military power was projected into
the Pacific and Asia. Over 80% of the city was destroyed by the earthquake and fire. Though San
Francisco rebuilt quickly, the disaster diverted trade, industry and population growth south to Los

Angeles, which during the 20th century became the largest and most important urban area in the West.
Many of the city's leading poets and writers retreated to Carmel-by-the-Sea where, as "The Barness",
they established the arts colony reputation that continues today.
The 1908 Lawson Report, a study of the 1906 quake led and edited by Professor Andrew Lawson of the
University of California, showed that the same San Andreas Fault which had caused the disaster in San
Francisco ran close to Los Angeles as well. The earthquake was the first natural disaster of its magnitude
to be documented by photography and motion picture footage and occurred at a time when the science
of seismology was blossoming. The overall cost of the damage from the earthquake was estimated at the
time to be around US$400 million ($8.2 billion in 2009 dollars).

Panoramic view of earthquake and fire damage from Stanford Mansion site, April 1821, 1906[10]

Damage to other towns

Although the impact of the earthquake on San Francisco was the most famous, the earthquake also
inflicted considerable damage on several other cities. These include San Jose and Santa Rosa, the entire
downtown of which was essentially destroyed.[11][12][13]

Magnitude and geology[edit]

The San Andreas Fault.

The most widely accepted estimate for the magnitude of the earthquake is a moment magnitude (Mw) of
7.8;

[1]

however, other values have been proposed, from 7.7 to as high as 8.25.

[14]

The main

shockepicenter occurred offshore about 2 miles (3.2 km) from the city, near Mussel Rock. Shaking was
felt from Oregon to Los Angeles, and inland as far as central Nevada.[15]
The earthquake was caused by a rupture on the San Andreas Fault, a continental transform fault that
forms part of the tectonic boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate. The fault is
characterized by mainly lateral motion in a dextral sense, where the western (Pacific) plate moves
northward relative to the eastern (North American) plate. The 1906 rupture propagated both northward
and southward for a total of 296 miles (476 km).[16] This fault runs the length of California from theSalton
Sea in the south to Cape Mendocino to the north, a distance of about 810 miles (1,300 km). The
earthquake ruptured the northern third of the fault for a distance of 296 miles (476 km). The maximum
observed surface displacement was about 20 feet (6 m); however, geodetic measurements show
displacements of up to 28 feet (8.5 m).[17]
A strong foreshock preceded the mainshock by about 20 to 25 seconds. The strong shaking of the main
shock lasted about 42 seconds. The shaking intensity as described on the Modified Mercalli intensity
scale reached VIII in San Francisco and up to IX in areas to the north like Santa Rosa where destruction
was devastating. There were decades of minor earthquakes more than at any other time in the
historical record for northern California before the 1906 quake. Widely interpreted previously as
precursory activity to the 1906 earthquake, they have been found to have a strong seasonal pattern and
have been postulated to be due to large seasonal sediment loads in coastal bays that overlie faults as a
result of the erosion caused by hydraulic mining in the later years of the California Gold Rush.[18]

Subsequent fires[edit]

Burning of San Francisco, Mission District

As damaging as the earthquake and its aftershocks were, the fires that burned out of control afterward
were even more destructive.
of the subsequent fires.

[20]

[19]

It has been estimated that up to 90% of the total destruction was the result

Within three days,

[21]

over 30 fires, caused by ruptured gas mains, destroyed

approximately 25,000 buildings on 490 city blocks. One of the largest of these fires was accidentally
started in a house on Hayes Street by a woman making breakfast for her family. This came to be known
as the "Ham and Eggs Fire". Some were started when firefighters, untrained in the use of dynamite,
attempted to demolish buildings to create firebreaks. The dynamited buildings themselves often caught
fire. The city's fire chief, Dennis T. Sullivan, who would have been responsible, had died from injuries
sustained in the initial quake.[22] In all, the fires burned for four days and nights.
Due to a widespread practice by insurers to indemnify San Francisco properties from fire, but not
earthquake damage, most of the destruction in the city was blamed on the fires. Some property owners
deliberately set fire to damaged properties, in order to claim them on their insurance. Capt. Leonard D.
Wildman of theU.S. Army Signal Corps[23] reported that he "was stopped by a fireman who told me that
people in that neighborhood were firing their housesthey were told that they would not get their
insurance on buildings damaged by the earthquake unless they were damaged by fire".[24]
As water mains were also broken, the city fire department had few resources with which to fight the fires.
Several fires in the downtown area merged to become one giant inferno. Brigadier General Frederick
Funston, commander of the Presidio of San Francisco and a resident of San Francisco, tried to bring the
fire under control by detonating blocks of buildings around the fire to create firebreaks with all sorts of
means, ranging from black powder and dynamite to even artillery barrages. Often the explosions set the
ruins on fire or helped spread it.
One landmark building lost in the fire was the Palace Hotel, subsequently rebuilt, which had many famous
visitors, including royalty and celebrated performers. It was constructed in 1875 primarily financed by
Bank of California co-founder William Ralston, the "man who built San Francisco". In April 1906, the
tenor Enrico Caruso and members of the Metropolitan Opera Company came to San Francisco to give a
series of performances at the Grand Opera House. The night after Caruso's performance in Carmen, the
tenor was awakened in the early morning in his Palace Hotel suite by a strong jolt. Clutching an
autographed photo of President Theodore Roosevelt, Caruso made an effort to get out of the city, first by
boat and then by train, and vowed never to return to San Francisco. Caruso died in 1921, having
remained true to his word. The Metropolitan Opera Company lost all of its traveling sets and costumes in
the earthquake and ensuing fires.[25]
Some of the greatest losses from fire were in scientific laboratories. Alice Eastwood, the curator
of botany at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, is credited with saving nearly 1,500
specimens, including the entire type specimen collection for a newly discovered and extremely rare
species, before the remainder of the largest botanical collection in the western United States was
consumed by fire.[26][27] The entire laboratory and all the records of Benjamin R. Jacobs, a biochemist who
was researching the nutrition of everyday foods, was lost.

[28]

Another treasure lost in the fires was the

original California flag used in the 1846 Bear Flag Revolt atSonoma, which at the time was being stored
in a state building in San Francisco.

[29]

U.S. Army[edit]

Thank God for the Soldiers, a period piece depicting U.S. Army soldiers bringing in critical supplies for the survivors.

Soldiers of the 22nd Infantry Regiment looting during the fire

Displaced victims of the earthquake, in front of a temporary tent shelter. Other tents can be seen in the background at right .

One of the eleven temporary housing camps in 1906

The city's fire chief, Dennis T. Sullivan, was seriously injured when the earthquake first struck and later
died from his injuries. The interim fire chief sent an urgent request to the Presidio, an army post on the
edge of the stricken city, for dynamite. General Funston had already decided the situation required the
use of troops. Collaring a policeman, he sent word to Mayor Eugene Schmitz of his decision to assist, and
then ordered army troops from nearby Angel Island to mobilize and come into the city. Explosives were
ferried across the bay from the California Powder Works in what is now Hercules.
During the first few days, soldiers provided valuable services like patrolling streets to discourage looting
and guarding buildings such as the U.S. Mint, post office, and county jail. They aided the fire department
in dynamiting to demolish buildings in the path of the fires. The army also became responsible for
feeding, sheltering, and clothing the tens of thousands of displaced residents of the city. Under the
command of Funston's superior, Major General Adolphus Greely, Commanding Officer, Pacific Division,
over 4,000 troops saw service during the emergency. On July 1, 1906, civil authorities assumed
responsibility for relief efforts, and the army withdrew from the city.
On April 18, in response to riots among evacuees and looting, Mayor Schmitz issued and ordered posted
a proclamation that "The Federal Troops, the members of the Regular Police Force and all Special Police
Officers have been authorized by me to kill any and all persons found engaged in Looting or in the
Commission of Any Other Crime".[30] In addition, accusations of soldiers themselves engaging in looting
also surfaced.[31]
Early on April 18, 1906, recently retired Captain Edward Ord of the 22nd Infantry Regiment was
appointed a Special Police Officer by Mayor Eugene Schmitz and liasioned with Major General Adolphus
Greely for relief work with the 22nd Infantry and other military units involved in the emergency. Ord later
wrote a long letter

[32]

to his mother on the April 20 regarding Schmitz' "Shoot-to-Kill" Order and some

"despicable" behavior of certain soldiers of the 22nd Infantry who were looting. He also made it clear that
the majority of soldiers served the community well.

[31]

Relocation and housing[edit]

The army built 5,610 redwood and fir "relief houses" to accommodate 20,000 displaced people. The
houses were designed by John McLaren, and were grouped in eleven camps, packed close to each other
and rented to people for two dollars per month until rebuilding was completed. They were painted olive
drab, partly to blend in with the site, and partly because the military had large quantities of olive drab paint
on hand. The camps had a peak population of 16,448 people, but by 1907 most people had moved out.
The camps were then re-used as garages, storage spaces or shops. The cottages cost on average $100
to put up. The $2 monthly rents went towards the full purchase price of $50. Most of the shacks have
been destroyed, but a small number survived. One of the modest 720 sq ft (67 m2) homes was recently
purchased for more than $600,000.[33] The last official refugee camp was closed on June 30, 1908.[34]

Aftermath and reconstruction[edit]

Property losses from the disaster have been estimated to be more than $400 million. [35][36] An insurance
industry source tallies insured losses at $235 million, the equivalent to $6.11 billion in 2013 dollars.[37][35]

People leaving the city in 1906

Political and business leaders strongly downplayed the effects of the earthquake, fearing loss of outside
investment in the city which was badly needed to rebuild.[35] In his first public statement, California
governor George C. Pardee emphasized the need to rebuild quickly: "This is not the first time that San
Francisco has been destroyed by fire, I have not the slightest doubt that the City by the Golden Gate will
be speedily rebuilt, and will, almost before we know it, resume her former great activity".[38] The
earthquake itself is not even mentioned in the statement. Fatality and monetary damage estimates were
[35][39]

manipulated.

In the rush to rebuild the city, building standards were first made much more stringent, but after about a
year, they were relaxed, instead of strengthened, "by upwards of 50%" according to historian Robert
Hansen. The History Channel International series Mega Disasters attributes the rollback of the strict

codes to complaints by contractors under duress from city fathers for the slow rate of reconstruction.

[35]

In

the report, the building codes were taken back off the books in only 13 months, while the official death toll
was placed at a mere 379[35]which estimates raised plenty of eyebrows even at the time, as it was
undoubtedly the most photographed disaster then known to mankind, and the damage suggests far more
would have been trapped as is backed by anecdotal stories of many being trapped in fallen buildings then
consumed by flames.[35] For over forty years now, research by a San Francisco librarian has amassed a
death toll well in excess of three thousand, and she has opined the effort will go on for years more. [35] Part
of the rush to rebuild was the desire to be ready for thePanama-Pacific International Exposition set to be
hosted in 1915, and indeed by that year there was almost no visible damage to be seen in the city. This
general disregard for earthquake safety still has effects for the city today, as a majority of buildings now
standing in the city were built in the first half of the 20th century to the lax codes. Building standards did
not reach even 1906 levels until the 1950s.[35] A detailed analysis of the city today estimates that an
earthquake less powerful than the 1906 quake would completely destroy many sections of the city and
result in thousands of deaths.[35]
Almost immediately after the quake (and even during the disaster), planning and reconstruction plans
were hatched to quickly rebuild the city. Rebuilding funds were immediately tied up by the fact that
virtually all the major banks had been sites of the conflagration, requiring a lengthy wait of seven-to-ten
days before their fire-proof vaults could cool sufficiently to be safely opened without risk of spontaneous
combustion. The Bank of Italy, however, had no vault and evacuated its funds to the country and was the
only bank able to provide liquidity in the immediate aftermath. Its president also immediately chartered
and financed the sending of two ships to return with shiploads of lumber from Washington and Oregon
mills which provided the initial reconstruction materials and surge. In 1929, Bank of Italy was renamed
and is now known as Bank of America.[35]
William James, the pioneering American psychologist, was teaching at Stanford at the time of the
earthquake and traveled into San Francisco to observe first-hand its aftermath. He was most impressed
by the positive attitude of the survivors and the speed with which they improvised services and created
order out of chaos.[40] This formed the basis of the chapter "On some Mental Effects of the Earthquake" in
his book Memories and Studies.[41]
H. G. Wells had just arrived in New York on his first visit to America when he learned, at lunch, of the San
Francisco earthquake. What struck him about the reaction of those around him was that "it does not seem
to have affected any one with a sense of final destruction, with any foreboding of irreparable disaster.
Every one is talking of it this afternoon, and no one is in the least degree dismayed. I have talked and
listened in two clubs, watched people in cars and in the street, and one man is glad that Chinatown will be
cleared out for good; another's chief solicitude is for Millet's 'Man with the Hoe.' 'They'll cut it out of the
frame,' he says, a little anxiously. 'Sure.' But there is no doubt anywhere that San Francisco can be

rebuilt, larger, better, and soon. Just as there would be none at all if all this New York that has so
obsessed me with its limitless bigness was itself a blazing ruin. I believe these people would more than
half like the situation."[42]
The grander of citywide reconstruction schemes required investment from Eastern monetary sources,
hence the spin and de-emphasis of the earthquake, the promulgation of the tough new building codes,
and subsequent reputation sensitive actions such as the official low death toll. [35] One of the more famous
and ambitious plans came from famed urban planner Daniel Burnham. His bold plan called for, among
other proposals, Haussmann-style avenues, boulevards, arterial thoroughfares that radiated across the
city, a massive civic center complex with classical structures, and what would have been the largest
urban park in the world, stretching from Twin Peaks to Lake Merced with a large atheneum at its peak.
But this plan was dismissed at the time as impractical and unrealistic.
For example, real estate investors and other land owners were against the idea due to the large amount
of land the city would have to purchase to realize such proposals. City fathers likewise attempted at the
time to eliminate the Chinese population and export Chinatown(and other poor populations) to the edge of
the county where the Chinese could still contribute to the local taxbase. [35] The Chinese occupants had
other ideas and prevailed instead. Chinatown was rebuilt in the newer, modern, Western form that exists
today. The destruction of City Hall and the Hall of Records enabled thousands of Chinese immigrants to
claim residency and citizenship, creating a backdoor to the Chinese Exclusion Act, and bring in their
relatives from China.

[43][44][45]

View from the Ferry Building tower, looking southwest on Market Street.

While the original street grid was restored, many of Burnham's proposals inadvertently saw the light of
day, such as a neoclassical civic center complex, wider streets, a preference of arterial thoroughfares,
a subway under Market Street, a more people-friendly Fisherman's Wharf, and a monument to the city
on Telegraph Hill, Coit Tower.
The earthquake was also responsible for the development of the Pacific Heights neighborhood. The
immense power of the earthquake had destroyed almost all of the mansions on Nob Hillexcept for the

Flood Mansion. Others that hadn't been destroyed were dynamited by the Army forces aiding the
firefighting efforts in attempts to create firebreaks. As one indirect result, the wealthy looked westward
where the land was cheap and relatively undeveloped, and where there were better views and a
consistently warmer climate. Constructing new mansions without reclaiming and clearing old rubble
simply sped attaining new homes in the tent city during the reconstruction.[35] In the years after the first
world war, the "money" on Nob Hill migrated to Pacific Heights, where it has remained to this day.
Reconstruction was swift, and largely completed by 1915, in time for the Panama-Pacific Exposition
which celebrated the reconstruction of the city and its "rise from the ashes".
Since 1915, the city has officially commemorated the disaster each year by gathering the remaining
survivors at Lotta's Fountain, a fountain in the city's financial district that served as a meeting point during
the disaster for people to look for loved ones and exchange information.

Panorama of San Francisco in ruins, taken via kite photography approx. 2,000 ft (600 m) above San Francisco Bay
overlooking water front. Sun over Golden Gate. May 28, 1906 by George R. Lawrence

International assistance and insurance payments[edit]

During the first few days after news of the disaster reached the rest of the world, relief efforts reached
over $5,000,000.[35] London, England, raised hundreds of thousands of dollars. Individual citizens and
businesses donated large sums of money for the relief effort:Standard Oil gave $100,000; Andrew
Carnegie gave $100,000; the Dominion of Canada made a special appropriation of $100,000 and even
the Bank of Canada in Toronto gave $25,000. The U.S. government quickly voted for one million dollars

in relief supplies which were immediately rushed to the area, including supplies for food kitchens and
many thousands of tents that city dwellers would occupy the next several years.

[35]

These relief efforts,

however, were not nearly enough to get families on their feet again, and consequently the burden was
placed on wealthier members of the city, who were reluctant to assist in the rebuilding of homes they
were not responsible for. All residents were eligible for daily meals served from a number of communal
soup kitchens and citizens as far away as Idaho and Utah were known to send daily loaves of bread to
San Francisco as relief supplies were coordinated by the railroads. [35]
Insurance companies, faced with staggering claims of $250 million,[46] paid out between $235 million and
$265 million on policyholders' claims, often for fire damage only, since shake damage from earthquakes
was excluded from coverage under most policies.[47][48] At least 137 insurance companies were directly
involved and another 17 as reinsurers.
[48]

damage claims.

[49]

Twenty companies went bankrupt, and most excluded shake

However, Lloyds of London reports having paid all claims in full, more than $50

million[50] and the insurance companies in Hartford, Connecticut report also paying every claim in full, with
the Hartford Fire Insurance Company paying over $11 million and Aetna Insurance Company almost $3
[48]

million.

The earthquake was the worst single incident for the insurance industry before the September 11, 2001
attacks, and the largest U.S. relief effort ever, to this day, including even Hurricane Katrina.[35] After the
1906 earthquake, a global discussion arose concerning a legally flawless exclusion of the earthquake
hazard from fire insurance contracts. It was pressed ahead mainly by re-insurers. Their aim was the
globally uniform solution of the problem of earthquake hazard in fire insurance contracts. Until 1910, a
few countries, especially in Europe, followed the call for an exclusion of the earthquake hazard from all
fire insurance contracts. In the U.S., however, the question was discussed differently. But the traumatized
public reacted with fierce opposition. On August 1, 1909, the California Senate enacted the California
Standard Form of Fire Insurance Policy, which did not contain any earthquake clause. Thus the state
decided that insurers would have to pay again if another earthquake was followed by fires. Other
earthquake-endangered countries followed the California example.[51] The insurance payments heavily
affected the international financial system. Gold transfers from European insurance companies to
policyholders in San Francisco led to a rise in interest rates, subsequently to a lack of available loans and
finally to theKnickerbocker Trust Company crisis of October 1907 which led to the Panic of 1907.[52]

Centennial commemorations[edit]

The earthquake also affected the campus of Stanford University in Palo Alto. The image of the fallen statue of
geologistLouis Agassiz outside the Zoology building has since become one of the iconic images of the earthquake.
[53]

The 1906 Centennial Alliance

was set up as a clearing-house for various centennial events

commemorating the earthquake. Award presentations, religious services, a National Geographic TV

movie,[54] a projection of fire onto the Coit Tower,[55] memorials, and lectures were part of the
commemorations. The USGS Earthquake Hazards Program issued a series of Internet documents,[56] and
the tourism industry promoted the 100th anniversary as well.[57]
Eleven survivors of the 1906 earthquake attended the centennial commemorations in 2006, including
Irma Mae Weule, who was the oldest survivor of the quake at the time of her death in 2008 at the age of
109.[58] Vivian Illing (December 25, 1900 January 22, 2009) was believed to be the second-oldest
survivor at the time of her death, leaving Herbert Hamrol (January 10, 1903 February 4, 2009) as the
last known remaining survivor at the time of his death.
Shortly after Hamrol's death, however, two additional survivors were discovered. William Del Monte, 103,
and Jeanette Scola Trapani (April 21, 1902 December 28, 2009),[59] 106, stated that they stopped
attending events commemorating the earthquake when it became too much trouble for them. The
discovery has opened up the possibility that there may still be more living survivors left that have not
become public knowledge.

[60]

Del Monte and another survivor, Rose Cliver, then 106, attended the

earthquake reunion celebration on April 18, 2009, the 103rd anniversary of the earthquake.[61] Cliver died
in 2012 at the age of 109. Nancy Stoner Sage died at the age of 105 in Colorado just three days short of
the 104th anniversary of the earthquake on April 18, 2010. Del Monte attended the event at Lotta's
Fountain on April 18, 2010 and the dinner at John's Restaurant the night before.

[62]

Pebble Beach, California resident Ruth Newman, 112, is thought to be the oldest survivor

[63]

and Bill Del

Monte, 108, is thought to be the last male survivor following the death of 107-year-old George Quilici on
May 31, 2012.

[64]

Another survivor, Libra Armstrong (1903-), attended the 2006 anniversary, but was not

heard from since.

The death of Winnie Hook on 11 June 2013 at the age of 107 leaves only two survivors of the 1906 San
Francisco earthquake: Ruth Newman, 112, and William del Monte, 108.

Analysis[edit]

The San Andreas Fault runs in a northwest-southeast line along the coast. The numbers on the fault line indicate how far the
ground surface slipped (in feet) at that location as a result of the 1906 earthquake.

For years, the epicenter of the quake was assumed to be near the town of Olema, in the Point
Reyes area of Marin County, because of evidence of the degree of local earth displacement. In the
1960s, a seismologist at UC Berkeley proposed that the epicenter was more likely offshore of San
Francisco, to the northwest of the Golden Gate. However, the most recent analysis by the United States
Geological Survey (USGS) shows that the most likely epicenter was very near Mussel Rock on the coast
of Daly City, an adjacent suburb just south of San Francisco.[65] An offshore epicenter is supported by the
occurrence of a local tsunamirecorded by a tidal gauge at the San Francisco Presidio; the wave had an
amplitude of approximately 3 in (8 cm) and an approximate period of 4045 minutes.[66]
The most important characteristic of the shaking intensity noted in Lawson's (1908) report was the
clear correlation of intensity with underlying geologic conditions. Areas situated insediment-filled valleys
sustained stronger shaking than nearby bedrock sites, and the strongest shaking occurred in areas of
Bay where landfill failed in the earthquake (earthquake liquefaction). Modern seismic-zonation practice
accounts for the differences in seismic hazard posed by varying geologic conditions.[67]
The USGS estimates that the earthquake measured a powerful 7.9 on the moment magnitude
scale.

[1]

The earthquake caused ruptures visible on the surface for a length of 470 kilometers

(290 mi). Modified Mercalli Intensities of VII to IX paralleled the length of the rupture, extending as far as
80 kilometers inland from the fault trace.[68]

In popular culture[edit]
The earthquake was the basis of the 1936 MGM film San Francisco, which starred Clark Gable, Jeanette
MacDonald, and Spencer Tracy.

In 1938, a Warner Brothers movie entitled The Sisters, starring Bette Davis and Errol Flynn, featured a
sequence portraying the earthquake, partly using footage from the 1927 Warners' film Old San Francisco.
In the 1932 Ruth Chatterton[69] Pre-Code[69] drama film Frisco Jenny[69] the title character (Ruth
Chatterton) loses both her father and lover in the 1906 San Francisco at the start of the film
In 1945, Flame of Barbary Coast, starring John Wayne, included the disaster.
The National Film Registry added a documentary of the footage of the earthquake, entitled San Francisco
Earthquake and Fire, April 18, 1906 to its list of American films for preservation. The film was selected
along with 24 other films in 2005.[70]
The earthquake features in the Hugo Award-nominated novella, "Son, Observe the Time" in the Company
series by science fiction writerKage Baker. On the evening before the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake,
an immortal cyborg named Victor heads Company operations to remove valuable artifacts before the
earthquake the following day and which will be presumed destroyed until they are "discovered" in the 24th
century. Victor also befriends a family of poor Irish immigrants that he knows will die in the earthquake
and he rescues Donal, one of their young children who has the mental and physical propensities required
to be converted into an immortal cyborg like himself.

See also[edit]
San Francisco Bay Area portal
Disasters portal

1989 Loma Prieta earthquake

Andrew Lawson, editor of the 1908 report on the earthquake
Arnold Genthe and George R. Lawrence, photographers of the
earthquake
Committee of Fifty (1906)
Earthquake engineering
Earthquakes in California
List of earthquakes in the United States

Panoramas[edit]

San Francisco burning in 1906.

San Francisco fire 1906

Notes[edit]
1.

^ Jump up to:a b c Where can I learn more about the 1906

Earthquake?, Berkeley Seismological Laboratory.

2.

^ Jump up to:a b Location of the Focal Region and Hypocenter of the

California Earthquake of April 18, 1906

3.

^ Jump up to:a b USGS The Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake

4.

Jump up^ Timeline of the San Francisco Earthquake April 18 23,

1906, The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco

5.

Jump up^ John Dvorak "San Francisco Then and Now," American
Heritage, April/May 2006.

6.

Jump up^ John A. Kilpatrick and Sofia Dermisi, Aftermath of Katrina:

Recommendations for Real Estate Research, Journal of Real Estate
Literature, Spring, 2007

7.

Jump up^ William Bronson, The Earth Shook, The Sky Burned (San
Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1996)

8.

Jump up^ Casualties and Damage after the 1906 earthquake USGS
Earthquake Hazards Program Northern California, Accessed
September 4, 2006

9.

Jump up^ Displays at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Museum in

Sausalito, California

10. Jump up^ Library of Congress P&P Online Catalog Panoramic

Photographs <http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/panabt.html>
11. Jump up^ A dreadful catastrophe visits Santa Rosa. Press Democrat,
Santa Rosa, Calif
12. Jump up^ Sta. Rosa [i.e. Santa Rosa] Courthouse
13. Jump up^ The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire
14. Jump up^ 1906 Earthquake: What was the magnitude? USGS
Earthquake Hazards Program Northern California, Accessed
September 19, 2006
15. Jump up^ Christine Gibson "Our 10 Greatest Natural
Disasters,"American Heritage, Aug./Sept. 2006.
16. Jump up^ 1906 Earthquake: How long was the 1906 Crack? USGS
Earthquake Hazards Program Northern California, Accessed
September 3, 2006
17. Jump up^ 1906 San Francisco Quake: How large was the
offset?USGS Earthquake Hazards Program Northern California.
Accessed September 3, 2006
18. Jump up^ Seasonal Seismicity of Northern California Before the
Great 1906 Earthquake, (Journal) Pure and Applied Geophysics, ISSN
0033-4553 (Print) 1420-9136 (Online), volume 159, Numbers 13 /
January, 2002, Pages 762.
19. Jump up^ "Over 500 Dead, $200,000,000 Lost in San Francisco
Earthquake.". The New York Times. April 18, 1906. Retrieved April 19,

2008. "Earthquake and fire today have put nearly half of San
Francisco in ruins. About 500 persons have been killed, a thousand
injured, and the property loss will exceed $200,000,000."
20. Jump up^ Stephen Sobriner, What really happened in San Francisco
in the earthquake of 1906. 100th Anniversary 1906 San Francisco
Earthquake Conference, 2006
21. Jump up^ http://mceer.buffalo.edu/1906_Earthquake/san-franciscoearthquake.asp. Missing or empty |title= (help)
22. Jump up^ Charles Scawthorn, John Eidinger, Anshel Schiff, ed.
(2005).Fire Following Earthquake. Reston, VA: ASCE,
NFPA.ISBN 9780784407394.
23. Jump up^ NPS Signal Corps History
24. Jump up^ San Francisco Museum
25. Jump up^ NY Times Obituary for Heinrich Conrad, April 27, 1909
26. Jump up^ Alice Eastwood, The Coniferae of the Santa Lucia
Mountains
27. Jump up^ Double Cone Quarterly, Fall Equinox, volume VII, Number
3 (2004)
28. Jump up^ The Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry
29. Jump up^ The Bear Flag, The Virtual Museum of the City of San
Francisco
30. Jump up^ "Mayor Eugene Schmitz' Famed "Shoot-to-Kill" Order".
Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco. Archived from the
original on August 23, 2006. Retrieved September 3, 2006.
31. ^ Jump up to:a b "Looting Claims Against the U.S. Army Following the
1906 Earthquake". Virtual Museum of the City of San
Francisco.Archived from the original on March 28, 2008. Retrieved
March 26, 2008.
32. Jump up^ Various (2006). "Ord Family Papers". Georgetown
University Libraries Special Collections. Georgetown University
Library, 37th and N Streets, N.W., Washington, D.C., 20057. Retrieved
October 7, 2009.
33. Jump up^ Reality Times: 1906 San Francisco Earthquake Housing Is
Valuable Piece Of History by Blanche Evans

34. Jump up^ Fradkin, Philip L. The Great Earthquake and Firestorms of
1906: How San Francisco Nearly Destroyed Itself. Berkeley: University
of California, 2005. Print. p.225
35. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i j k

l m n o p q r

History Channel International

series Mega Disasters, "San Francisco Earthquake", (2006),

rebroadcast 02:0003:00, November 8, 2008 (UTC)
36. Jump up^ Casualties and damage after the 1906 Earthquake. United
States Geological Survey. Accessed December 6, 2006
37. Jump up^ Consumer Price Index (estimate) 18002013. Federal
Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Retrieved March 31, 2013.
38. Jump up^ San Francisco History The New San Francisco Magazine
May 1906
39. Jump up^ The Great Earthquake and Firestorms of 1906 Philip L.
Fradkin
40. Jump up^ Johann Hari (March 18, 2011). "The Myth of the Panicking
Disaster Victim". Huffington Post. Retrieved April 3, 2011.
41. Jump up^ William James (1911). Memories and studies. Longmans,
Green. pp. 209. Retrieved April 3, 2011.
42. Jump up^ H.G. Wells, The Future in America: A Search after
Realities(New York and London: Harper and Brothers, 1906), pp. 4142.
43. Jump up^ Christoph Strupp, Dealing with Disaster: The San
Francisco Earthquake of
1906,http://repositories.cdlib.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1066&con
text=ies.
44. Jump up^ Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906: Its Effects on
ChinatownChinese Historical Society of America, Accessed December
2, 2006
45. Jump up^ The Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and
FireNiderost, Eric, American History, April 2006, Accessed December
2, 2006
46. Jump up^ The New York Herald (European Edition) of April 21, 1906,
p. 2.
47. Jump up^ R. K. Mackenzie, The San Francisco earthquake &
conflagration. Typoscript, Bancroft Library, Berkeley, 1907.

48. ^ Jump up to:a b c "Aetna At-A-Glance: Aetna History", Aetna company

information
49. Jump up^ For a list of these companies see Tilmann Rder, From
Industrial to Legal Standardization, 18711914: Transnational
Insurance Law and the Great San Francisco Earthquake (Brill
Academic Publishers, 2011).
50. Jump up^ The role of Lloyd's in the reconstruction Lloyd's of London,
Accessed December 6, 2006
51. Jump up^ See T. Rder, From Industrial to Legal Standardization,
18711914: Transnational Insurance Law and the Great San
Francisco Earthquake (Brill Academic Publishers, 2011) and The
Roots of the "New Law Merchant": How the international
standardization of contracts and clauses changed business
law, http://www.rewi.hu-berlin.de/FHI/articles/0610roeder.htm.
52. Jump up^ Kerry A. Odell and Marc D. Weidenmier, Real Shock,
Monetary Aftershock: The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and the
Panic of 1907, The Journal of Economic History, 2005, vol. 64, issue
04, p. 10021027.
53. Jump up^ 1906 Centennial Alliance
54. Jump up^ National Geographic TV movie
55. Jump up^ projection of fire onto the Coit Tower
56. Jump up^ series of Internet documents
57. Jump up^ 100th anniversary
58. Jump up^ Nolte (August 16, 2008). "1906 earthquake survivor Irma
Mae Weule dies". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original
on September 20, 2008. Retrieved August 17, 2008.
59. Jump up^ "Jeanette Trapani obituary". December 31, 2009. Retrieved
January 2, 2010.
60. Jump up^ San Francisco Chronicle, 2009-02-07, Calling any '06 San
Francisco quake survivors
61. Jump up^ "SF remembers great quake on 103rd anniversary". The
San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on July 20, 2009.
Retrieved June 24, 2009.
62. Jump up^ Carl Nolte, Hundreds gather to honor victims of '06
quake, San Francisco Chronicle (April 18, 2010)

63. Jump up^ 'Quake Survivor Dies Three Days Short of

Anniversary', San Francisco Chronicle (April 16, 2010)
64. Jump up^ http://www.registerpajaronian.com/v2_news_articles.php?heading=0&page=75&story_id
=12603
65. Jump up^ Officials unmoved by quake notoriety Daly City
66. Jump up^ Tsunami Record from the Great 1906 San Francisco
Earthquake, United States Geological Survey, 2008
67. Jump up^ California Geological Survey Seismic Hazards Zonation
Program Seismic Hazards Mapping regulations
68. Jump up^ MMI ShakeMap of California for the 1906 San Francisco
earthquake inferred from Lawson (1908) by Boatwright and Bundock
(2005)
69. ^ Jump up to:a b c Wikipedia
70. Jump up^ "Librarian of Congress Adds 25 Films to National Film
Registry". Library of Congress. December 20, 2005.Archived from the
original on August 9, 2009. Retrieved July 22, 2009.

References[edit]
Double Cone Quarterly, Fall Equinox, volume VII, Number 3 (2004).
American Society of Civil Engineers (1907). Transactions. Paper No. 1056.
The Effects Of The San Francisco Earthquake of April 18th, 1906, on
Engineering Constructions: Reports Of A General Committee And Of Six
Special Committees Of The San Francisco Association Of Members Of
The American Society Of Civil Engineers. Retrieved August 15, 2009.

Greely, Adolphus W. (1906). Earthquake In California, April 18, 1906.

Special Report On The Relief Operations Conducted By The Military
Authorities. Washington: Government Printing Office. Retrieved August 15,
2009.

Gilbert, Grove Karl; Richard Lewis Humphrey, John Stephen Sewell and
Frank Soule (1907). The San Francisco Earthquake And Fire of April 18th,
1906 And Their Effects On Structures And Structural Materials.
Washington: Government Printing Office. Retrieved August 15, 2009.

 The San Francisco Earthquake And Fire: A Presentation of Facts And

Resulting. New York: The Roebling Construction Company. Retrieved
August 15, 2009.

Jordan, David Starr; John Casper Branner, Charles Derleth, Jr., Stephen
Taber, F. Omari, Harold W. Fairbanks, Mary Hunter Austin (1907). The
California Earthquake of 1906. San Francisco: A. M. Robertson. Retrieved
August 15, 2009.

Mining And Scientific Press; T. A. Rickard, G. K. Gilbert, S. B. Christy (and

others) (1907). After Earthquake And Fire: A Reprint Of The Articles And
Editorial Comment Appearing In The Mining And Scientific Press. San
Francisco: Mining And Scientific Press. Retrieved August 15, 2009.

Russell Sage Foundation; Charles J. O'Connor, Francis H. McLean, Helen

Swett Artieda, James Marvin Motley, Jessica Peixotto, Mary Roberts
Coolidge (1907). San Francisco Relief Survey: The Organization And
Methods Of Relief Used After The Earthquake And Fire Of April 18, 1906.
Survey Associates, Inc. (New York), Wm. F. Fell Co. (Philadelphia).
Retrieved August 15, 2009.

Schussler, Hermann (1907). The Water Supply Of San Francisco, California

Before, During And After The Earthquake of April 18, 1906 And The
Subsequent Conflagration. New York: Martin B. Brown Press. Retrieved
August 15, 2009.

Tyler, Sydney; Harry Fielding Reid (1908, 1910). The California Earthquake
of April 18, 1906: Report Of The State Earthquake Investigation
Commission, Volumes I and II. Washington, D.C.: The Carnegie Institution
of Washington.

Wald, David J.; Kanamori, Hiroo; Helmberger, Donald V.; Heaton, Thomas
H. (1993), "Source study of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake",Bulletin of
the Seismological Society of America (Seismological Society of
America) 83 (4): 9811019

Winchester, Simon, A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the
Great California Earthquake of 1906. HarperCollins Publishers, New York,
2005. ISBN 0-06-057199-3

Bronson, William (1959). The Earth Shook, the Sky Burned. Doubleday.
Contemporary disaster accounts

 Aitken, Frank W.; Edward Hilton (1906). A History Of The Earthquake And
Fire In San Francisco. San Francisco: The Edward Hilton Co. Retrieved
August 15, 2009.

Banks, Charles Eugene; Opie Percival Read (1906). The History Of The San
Francisco Disaster And Mount Vesuvius Horror. C. E. Thomas. Retrieved
August 15, 2009.

Givens, John David; Opie Percival Read (1906). San Francisco In Ruins: A
Pictorial History. San Francisco: Leon C. Osteyee. Retrieved August 15,
2009.

Keeler, Charles (1906). San Francisco Through Earthquake And Fire. San
Francisco: Paul Elder And Company. Retrieved August 15, 2009.

London, Jack. "The Story of An Eyewitness". London's report from the

scene. Originally published in Collier's Magazine, May 5, 1906.

Morris, Charles (1906). The San Francisco Calamity By Earthquake And

Fire. Retrieved August 15, 2009.

Tyler, Sydney; Ralph Stockman Tarr (1908). San Francisco's Great Disaster.
Philadelphia: P. W. Ziegler Co. Retrieved August 15, 2009.

White, Trumbull; Richard Linthicum (1906). Complete Story of the San

Francisco Horror. Retrieved August 15, 2009.

External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media
related to San Francisco
earthquake of 1906.

1906 San Francisco earthquake on the Open Directory Project

The 1906 Earthquake and Fire from the National Archives
Before and After the Great Earthquake and Fire: Early Films of San
Francisco, 18971916 From American Memory at the Library of
Congress. Retrieved on August 25, 2009.
A geologic tour of the San Francisco earthquake, 100 years
later from American Geological Institute
The Great 1906 Earthquake and Fire from the Museum of the City of San
Francisco website

 The Great 1906 Earthquake and Fire from the Bancroft Library, includes
interactive maps and panoramas
Mark Twain and the San Francisco Earthquake Shapell Manuscript
Foundation
1906 San Francisco Quake and Intensity Maps for that earthquake, from
the U.S. Geological Survey site
Several videos of the aftermath, from the Internet Archive website
San Francisco in Ruins, Aerial Photographs of George R. Lawrence,
reprinted from Landscape, Vol. 30, No. 2
[hide]

Significant California earthquakes

1857 Fort Tejon (7.9)

1872 Lone Pine (7.8)

1906 San Francisco (7.8)

Very Large

(7.0 or greater)

1952 Kern County (7.3)

1992 Cape Mendocino (7.2)

1992 Landers (7.3)

1999 Hector Mine (7.1)

2010 Baja California (7.2)

1812 Wrightwood (6.9)

1868 Hayward (6.8)

1925 Santa Barbara (6.8)

1933 Long Beach (6.4)

1940 El Centro (6.9)

Large

1948 Desert Hot Springs (6.0)

(6.0-6.9)

1971 San Fernando (6.6)

1979 Imperial Valley (6.4)

1983 Coalinga (6.5)

1984 Morgan Hill (6.2)

1986 Chalfant Valley (6.4)

1989 Loma Prieta (6.9)

1992 Big Bear (6.5)

1994 Northridge (6.7)

2003 San Simeon (6.5)

2004 Parkfield(6.0)

2010 Eureka (6.5)

1969 Santa Rosa (5.6, 5.7)

Moderate

1987 Whittier Narrows (5.9)

(less than 6.0)

2007 Alum Rock (5.6)

2008 Chino Hills (5.5)

Categories:

1906 San Francisco earthquake

History of the San Francisco Bay Area

Earthquakes in California

Urban fires in the United States

Fires in California

1906 in California

Barbary Coast, San Francisco

20th century in San Francisco, California

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