The San Francisco Earthquake

San Francisco, April 1906

A little after five in the morning on April 18, 1906, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck San Francisco. It severely shook an area from Eureka in the north to the Salinas Valley, a farm area to the south of San Francisco. The infamous San Andreas Fault was the culprit. The rupture in the fault ran for almost 300 miles. Although it came before the Richter scale, most scientists think 7.8 is close to accurate, although calculations have gone from 7.7 to 8.3. The epicenter was two miles offshore near Mussell Rock. A broad area from Los Angles to Oregon to Nevada felt it.

Looting

There was a foreshock and then aftershocks followed by minor earthquakes which lasted for decades. Some believe that the hydraulic mining in the later years of the California Gold Rush also help weaken the fault line in California. The earthquake was bad enough, but the fires which broke out from it continued to devastate the city for days. Then, looting followed.

Displaced people

San Francisco was the 9th largest city in the United States at the time with a population of 410,000. Although the city rebuilt quickly, much of its trade was diverted to Los Angles for a time, and all of it never returned. Almost 300,000 people were left homeless. In Monterey County, the course of the Salinas River even shifted. The disaster left around 3,000 people dead and over 80% of San Francisco destroyed. The death toll from it remains the worst from any natural disaster in California history and also ranks high nationally.  

The earthquake caused fires to break out

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