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Phenomena

1906 San Francisco Earthquake

Seismology

Struck at 5:12 in the morning on April 18, 1906, and the fires it ignited destroyed over 80 percent of the city, with property losses exceeding 400 million 1906 dollars. It remains one of the most significant earthquakes in United States history and a formative case study for American seismology. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Event Date
1906-04-18 1
Magnitude or Scale
Estimated moment magnitude 7.9 (estimates range 7.7 to 8.3) 1
Location
San Francisco, California, United States, on the San Andreas Fault 1
Disputed
Death Toll
Estimated between 700 and over 3,000 1
Contemporary official counts undercounted deaths, especially in Chinatown; modern historians' estimates vary widely across this range.
Connections

Associated With

Earthquake, Phenomena

The 1906 San Francisco earthquake is one of the most consequential earthquakes in United States history.

Caused By

Plate Tectonics, Processes

Rupture along the San Andreas Fault, the boundary between the Pacific and North American plates.

Source 1906 San Francisco Earthquake (Wikipedia)

In Discipline

Seismology, Disciplines
Source 1906 San Francisco Earthquake (Wikipedia)
In the Other Atlases

Found In

United States

Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.

Sources
1. 1906 San Francisco Earthquake (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Lead section
    A magnitude 7.9 earthquake struck the coast of Northern California at 05:12 am Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906.
  • In Group: Great Historical Earthquakes, Lead sentence
    A magnitude 7.9 earthquake struck the coast of Northern California at 05:12 am Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906. With a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), it created high-intensity shaking from Eureka on the North Coast to the Salinas Valley, an agricultural region to the south of the San
View the Source
Wikidata: 1906 San Francisco Earthquake
Wikidata Q211386, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)View the Source
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