G7-TSFE – Plate Tectonics at Work-700-800L-02

“Heck of a town, heck of a town,” he muttered. The famous singer wandered the streets, looking for a way out of the city. Enrique Caruso had just performed the opera ‘Carmen’ the prior night at the Grand Opera House in San Francisco, California. Early the next morning, he was awakened by a violent shaking. He opened his eyes, shocked and surprised. What was going on? He sat up and stared around his hotel room. Everything was shaking and falling to the floor! He realized that the entire hotel was being shaken by the earth itself.

Wearing only his nightshirt, he ran for safety. Clutching his precious signed photograph of Theodore Roosevelt, he ran to the nearest doorframe. He had never been in an earthquake before. He did know that if it happened, the safest thing to do was to brace his body inside a doorframe. The world-renowned singer vowed to never return to San Francisco.

This story captures the events that surround one of the world’s greatest recorded disasters, the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906.

The date was April 18, 1906 when the estimated 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck the area. Many people, like the great opera singer Caruso, were still in bed. Others were just starting their day. A strong foreshock preceded the main earthquake by about half a minute. The main earthquake shook the ground with tremendous force. The shaking lasted for almost 45 seconds. The earthquake could be felt as far north as Oregon and as far south as Los Angeles. For the residents of the city, the earthquake and its immediate damage to structures was just the beginning. As the ground buckled, gas lines broke. This caused numerous fires to break out all around the heavily populated city. Actually, most of the damage associated with the San Francisco earthquake was due more to the fire. The fire swept through the city. Over 25,000 buildings were lost to fire alone.