The San Francisco Earthquake

At 5:12 AM on April 18, 1906, a faint tremor shook the coast of Northern California. This foreshock, lasting 20 to 25 seconds, was just a prelude. The main event was a magnitude 7.9 earthquake, its epicenter just 2 miles offshore. For 45 to 60 seconds, the ground convulsed violently. The San Andreas Fault tore open along a 296-mile stretch, a wound running down the state. In some places, the ground west of the fault lurched sideways by as much as 21 feet. High-intensity seismic waves traveled as far inland as central Nevada and north into Oregon. In San Francisco, the immediate consequence was catastrophic, but not from the shaking alone. Below the streets, the city’s veins snapped. Underground gas and water lines were completely fractured. As the shaking subsided and dust filled the morning air, fires began to spark across the ruined city. With the water mains broken, firefighters would find themselves holding useless hoses, watching as a new disaster began to unfold, a disaster they were powerless to stop. The earthquake was over, but the city's destruction had just begun.