1906 Earthquakes

The damages were catastrophic as houses lay in ruin and debris littered the roads. There were mudslides and fallen rocks that paved the roads and made them impassible for vehicles to get through. Ultimately by the roads being clogged up the response time by rescue workers and essential personal were hampered. This also made it exceptionally difficult for supplies to be rushed to the locations for the earthquake survivors. As some were digging and excavating for survivors they were being halted by aftershocks and falling debris from above. Approximately 8000 people were killed either by their houses caving in or by the other disasters this earthquake triggered. It was a real life tragedy that

On April, 18 1906, San Francisco would be divested by several disasters. That morning at five, the San Andreas Fault shifted, resulting in an earthquake with a strength of 7.8 on the Richter Scale. It shocked San Francisco and the surrounding areas. The quake lasted 45 seconds to one minute only, and caused major damage and loss of life. The buildings in San Francisco during the time were largely made of wood and some of the newly built ones were made of brick and stone. City officials worked with builders for this change in response to six fires that occurred closely together before the earthquake, (Gunn, 2008). The new brick buildings could survive a fire, but it was

About 4000 people were killed over 9000 that were injured that was this famous event you might ask? It was the loma prieta earthquake, also known as the world series earthquake. Taking place in san francisco 1898 this was one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded in the bay area. This earthquake caused an estimate of 5.6 billion dollars for the total damage it had done .The person the was interviewed for this event was Mr.Demichel.he was about 10 when he felt the earthquake.

On page two of horrific wreck in the city it says “ Strong men bellowed like babies in their furor. All humanity within eyesight was suffering. No one knew

On April 18, 1906, an earthquake occurred in San Francisco with a magnitude of 7.9. The earthquake was caused by the San Andreas Fault since the San Andreas Fault slip over a segment. The earthquake could be felt from Oregon to southern California. Buildings in San Francisco was destroyed by earthquake and fires. Fires started after the earthquake occurred and firefighters were not able to stop the fire because the water mains were broken and because of this, firestorms started to develop around San Francisco. Then, the San Francisco Mayor E.E. Schmitz called the U.S. Army troops to shoot anyone that is found looting. While the army was doing that, firefighters and U.S. troops tried to fight the fire by dynamiting the city to create firewalls.

The great San Francisco Earthquake was a very deadly earthquake that occurred on April 18, 1906 at 5:12 a.m. The quake was so big that it could be felt from South Oregon to LA, as well as central Nevada. It broke the San Andreas fault, both north and south, 296 miles total. Fires occurred right after the quake, and because the earthquake had broken most of the water pipes, the fires burned for three days, causing around 28,000 buildings to burn down and more than 3,000 deaths. This caused $500,000,000 ($500 million) in damages in 1906 - currency. In our currency as of last year, this would have costed them a little over $12.6 billion dollars, $12,640,444,679.72 to be exact, in damages.

1960, the first tremor of a series hits Valdivia, Chile. By the time they end, the quakes and their aftereffects kill 5,000 people and leave another 2 million homeless. Registering a magnitude of 7.6, the first earthquake was powerful and killed several people. It turned out to be only a foreshock, however, to one of the most powerful tremors ever recorded.

The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, was one of the largest quakes ever recorded. It happened on April 18th, at 5:15AM. “The quake lasted only a minute, but caused the worst natural disaster in the nation’s history.”( Eyewitness History.) The quake caused an enormous amount of damage that affected hundreds of thousands of people’s lives.

It is unknown and intriguing to see how people and countries come together when a natural disaster occurs. Earthquakes are one of the most deadly and complex of all the natural disaster, it can cause more consequences than the other natural disasters. Tsunami, Landslides and horror in the streets. In Peru 2007 one of the greatest earthquake ever recorded in South America, with a 7.9 in scale causing many people be homeless, death and injured.

As we have seen so far, Earthquakes can cause massive damage and they are Earths most natural disaster. In 1906, along the San Andreas Fault, the city of San Francisco suffered from an Earthquake that registered an 8.2 on the Richter scale. The significance of this Earthquake was not just the magnitude of the quake but also the damage it caused as the city caught on fire. For 48 seconds the ground trembled as buildings collapsed and communities were destroyed. Thousands were left homeless as the town was virtually destroyed from crumbling buildings and spreading fires. The situation was so bad that martial law took place for the first time ever in that city and the damage caused a total in excess of $150,000,000.

The Kobe earthquake left a devastating effect in recent Japanese history, the earthquake measured a 7.3 on the Richter scale leading to over 1oo fires in Kobe (2012: 76). The destruction lead to over 110,000 buildings being destroyed, about 6,400 dead, injuring about 15,000 people, leaving about 320,000 people homeless, but also killing mostly women and elderly due to physical vulnerability and mobility issues (2012: 76).

The earthquake hit on January 12, 2010 at 7:16 p.m. local time. With a magnitude of 7.1, and a depth just five miles just below the surface, the earthquake caused some serious damage. “Haiti sits on the boundary of two tectonic plates- the Caribbean plate and the North American plate- creating a system known as the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault.” (Wishnia, 11). It also had a transform boundary, where the two plates grind past each other, causing stress, which eventually erupted in an earthquake. Lastly, an earthquake struck Japan on March 11, 2011, at 2:46 p.m. local time. With a magnitude of 9.0 and a depth of 24 kilometres, this earthquake was the largest to ever hit Japan. “Japan is situated near a subduction zone where the Pacific plate is thrusting beneath the North American plate on which part of the country lies.” (Crean, Cody and Karina Hamalainen, 16). Since the earthquake had such a massive magnitude, and the epicenter of the earthquake was 130 kilometres off of Japan’s coast, the movement of the earth generated a tsunami. The tsunami waves moved at a speed of 805 kilometres per hour, and as they approached the shore, the waves grew in height, and in amplitude. Conclusively, the kind of earthquake a country experience connects to the factors that contributed to the earthquake, such as the tectonic plate movement, and magnitude; and to how well the country is prepared for it.

1906 marked six years after the turn of the century where the world was experiencing technological breakthroughs throughout all disciplines of science. Earthquakes, up until that time were a phenomenon that many didn’t know much about. Scientists didn’t know the causes and hadn’t experienced an event as drastic as the earthquake caused by the San Andreas fault’s shifting. The severity of the earthquake is recognized in history due to the human toll which left nearly a thousand dead. The aftermath left fires burning due to damage to public buildings and residences left in the debris. It is thought that many

In 14 countries, this disaster killed approximately 280 thousand people with waves up to 100 feet high, having the longest duration between 8 and 10 minutes of faulting ever recorded. This became one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history, with an estimated death toll of 280,000 people, it is ranked second on the “Top ten deadliest disasters since 1900”, and even triggered earthquakes as far away as Alaska.

The geographic phenomenon causes a mysterious shaking and even will cause structures to collapse. The shaking from them is very destructive and a threat to human life if strong enough. Occurring every day, but some are not powerful enough to be felt because they contrast from being harmless to deadly. They are natural disasters that happen unexpectedly while destroying almost everything in just under a few minutes and extremely harmful and more powerful than a nuclear object would be. Earthquakes are incidents when the rocks under the earth move, freeing energy that later causes shaking. The plates move in many different ways and occur just as frequently as in the past (Wells). An earthquake is the most deadly disaster with many leading factors and disputes (Stock).