1906 San Francisco Earthquake Research Paper
The 1906 San Francisco earthquake is widely believed to be the most significant earthquake of all time with regards to destruction, loss of life, and subsequent learnings. On the 110th anniversary of the April 18th, 1906 earthquake, we delve into how our understanding of earthquakes has developed and how this particular earthquake helped further our understanding.
In 1906 San Francisco was a thriving city of 400,000 and an important economic and trading center of the U.S. west coast. On April 18th in the early morning a M7.8 earthquake struck offshore the California coast, violently shaking San Francisco and producing widespread fires throughout the city.
The earthquake, despite its tragic destruction, birthed our modern understanding of earthquakes …show more content…
Over time plate movement or subduction causes increasing strain on "sticking points" within the crust. Similar to if you rub two pieces of sand paper together, they will initially resist sliding until enough strain is built up. At that point, the "sticking point" is weakened and releases the built up strain. Before this theory was developed, scientists were unsure whether earthquakes caused faulting (plate movement) of faulting caused earthquakes.
Today, over 1000 seismographs measure minute shaking over California, much of which goes unnoticed by human detection. This array of seismographs helped to develop a subsurface model of fault systems and an understanding of which faults potentially hold higher strain. This helps us understand which faults would be more likely to produce strong earthquakes, the relative probability of earthquake occurrence, and expected shaking. Unfortunately, the occurrence of earthquake detection is probabilistic in nature and therefore is limited to long-term predictions. This is similar to the 100-year flood. Scientists determine a 100-year flood based on historical records of flooding, but this doesn't stop two 100-year floods from happening back to back and then none for several hundred
In 1906 San Francisco was a thriving city of 400,000 and an important economic and trading center of the U.S. west coast. On April 18th in the early morning a M7.8 earthquake struck offshore the California coast, violently shaking San Francisco and producing widespread fires throughout the city.
The earthquake, despite its tragic destruction, birthed our modern understanding of earthquakes …show more content…
Over time plate movement or subduction causes increasing strain on "sticking points" within the crust. Similar to if you rub two pieces of sand paper together, they will initially resist sliding until enough strain is built up. At that point, the "sticking point" is weakened and releases the built up strain. Before this theory was developed, scientists were unsure whether earthquakes caused faulting (plate movement) of faulting caused earthquakes.
Today, over 1000 seismographs measure minute shaking over California, much of which goes unnoticed by human detection. This array of seismographs helped to develop a subsurface model of fault systems and an understanding of which faults potentially hold higher strain. This helps us understand which faults would be more likely to produce strong earthquakes, the relative probability of earthquake occurrence, and expected shaking. Unfortunately, the occurrence of earthquake detection is probabilistic in nature and therefore is limited to long-term predictions. This is similar to the 100-year flood. Scientists determine a 100-year flood based on historical records of flooding, but this doesn't stop two 100-year floods from happening back to back and then none for several hundred