San Francisco Earthquake
 Eureka
Chico
Truckee
Santa Rosa
Salinas
Fresno
Paso Robles
 |
|
| Date | April 18, 1906 |
|---|---|
| Origin time | 05:12 local time |
| Magnitude | 7.8 Mw |
| Depth | 5 mi (8.0 km) |
| Epicenter | 37°45′N 122°33′W / 37.75°N 122.55°WCoordinates: 37°45′N 122°33′W / 37.75°N 122.55°W |
| Type | Strike-slip |
| Areas affected |
North Coast San Francisco Bay Area Central Coast United States |
| Max. intensity | XI (Extreme) |
| Tsunami | Yes |
| Casualties | 3,000+ |
The 1906 San Francisco earthquake struck the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on April 18 with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.8 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme). Severe shaking was felt from Eureka on the North Coast to the Salinas Valley, an agricultural region to the south of the San Francisco Bay Area. Devastating fires soon broke out in the city and lasted for several days. As a result, about 3,000 people died and over 80% of the city of San Francisco was destroyed. The events are remembered as one of the worst and deadliest natural disasters in the history of the United States. The death toll remains the greatest loss of life from a natural disaster in California's history and high in the lists of American urban disasters.
The San Andreas Fault is a continental transform fault that forms part of the tectonic boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate. The strike-slip 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). This fault runs the length of California from the Salton Sea in the south to Cape Mendocino in the north, a distance of about 810 miles (1,300 km). The maximum observed surface displacement was about 20 feet (6 m); geodetic measurements show displacements of up to 28 feet (8.5 m).
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