1906 San Francisco earthquake

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Extent and intensity of the earthquake
Burned-out ruins in San Francisco (1906)

The 1906 San Francisco earthquake struck the coast of Northern California on April 18, 1906, and is considered one of the worst natural disasters in United States history. In San Francisco and surrounding people came by the quake and the fires caused thereby and other consequences of more than 3,000 killed.

The widely accepted estimate of the magnitude of the quake is 7.8 on the moment magnitude scale . Other sources determine values ​​from 7.7 ( surface wave magnitude scale ) to 8.4 ( Richter scale ). The epicenter of the main quake was about 3 km from the city in the sea near "Mussel Rock". The quake shook the area along the San Andreas Fault and was felt from Oregon to Los Angeles and Nevada .

geology

The San Francisco earthquake was triggered by a rupture in the San Andreas Fault. This crevice runs through the whole of California, from the Salton Sea in the south to Cape Mendocino in the north with a length of 1100 km. The earthquake tore the northern third of the fault over a length of 477 km. The maximum displacement observed on the surface of the earth was 6 meters, but geological studies show changes of up to 8.5 meters in depth.

A strong foreshock preceded the main tremor by around 20 to 25 seconds. The strong tremors in the main quake lasted about 42 seconds. The intensity of the tremors was VIII in San Francisco and up to IX (measured on the Mercalli scale ) in more northern areas like Santa Rosa, where almost everything was destroyed.

course

San Francisco City Hall on April 20, 1906

The foreshocks, as well as the main quake at 5:12 a.m., occurred along the San Andreas Fault with an epicenter near the city. The earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale could be felt along the coast from Oregon to Los Angeles and inland to Nevada .

Just as destructive as the earthquake itself were the fires it caused, which broke out in many parts of the city. Most of them were caused by broken gas pipes, stoves and chimneys, but some were the result of arson, as many insurance policies only covered fire damage and not earthquake damage. In addition, those responsible wanted to prevent the fire from spreading through explosions. But because of ignorance, incompetence and the lack of suitable explosives, more fires were often started, making the disaster worse.

Most of the fatalities were in San Francisco, but many other parts of San Francisco Bay also lost their lives. Also, Santa Rosa , San Jose and Stanford University were severely damaged. More than half of San Francisco's 400,000 or so residents have been left homeless. Most of the homeless fled to the surrounding area, e.g. B. to Oakland .

Fires

Clouds of smoke from fires in the Mission District
View of Sacramento Street and massive clouds of smoke
The strong red border in the city map shows the extent of the fires. The map comes from a report by the USGS from 1907.

More destructive than the earthquake and aftershocks were the out-of-control fires. It is probably due to the great tremors and bad building regulations of the time that most of the buildings first collapsed and then fell victim to the flames. Fires broke out in many parts of the city, some of them fueled by natural gas that the earthquake had disrupted. Other fires were the result of arson and campfires by evacuated people. The fire raged for four days and nights. Some homeowners set their own houses on fire because they were only insured against fire, not earthquake damage. U.S. Army Signal Corps Captain Leonard D. Wildman reported that he was stopped by a firefighter who reported that people in the neighborhood were setting their homes on fire. They were told they would not get any insurance money if their house was not damaged by the fire.

When the main water supply collapsed, the San Francisco Fire Department had few options to fight the fires. Several fires in the city center together formed a gigantic inferno. A journalist from the period wrote that readers need to understand that this is not a fire in San Francisco, but "The Fire of San Francisco." The fire completely wiped out 500 blocks, from downtown via Van Ness Avenue, an artery that runs through the city center, to the docks on San Francisco Bay. It was erroneously reported that Mayor Eugene Schmitz and General Frederick Funston the state of emergency had proclaimed. Schmitz had issued a decree that allowed the police, vigilante groups and the military to shoot looters without warning, which resulted in around 500 people being killed. Funston tried to control the fire by blowing up city blocks to cut a path in the way of the fires. He used every means available to him, from black powder to dynamite to artillery strikes . Often the ruins caught fire or served as food for the fire. Even so, this method proved effective in preventing the fire from moving further west into the remaining half of the city.

The Palace Hotel , built in 1875, is an example of those buildings that survived the earthquake thanks to their sturdy construction, but were nevertheless destroyed by the fire. In April 1906, the tenor Enrico Caruso was a guest at the luxury hotel to give performances in San Francisco with the ensemble of the Metropolitan Opera from New York. After a performance in the opera Carmen and a night in his hotel suite, Caruso was roused by the earthquake at dawn. He fled the city by boat and then train, vowing never to come back to San Francisco. In fact, he never returned to town. The Metropolitan Opera lost all of the props and costumes it brought to San Francisco in the earthquake and subsequent fires.

Some of the greatest losses from the fire were in scientific laboratories. Alice Eastwood , the curator of botany at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, rescued nearly 1,500 specimens, including specimens of a completely new and very rare species, before the largest botanical collection in the western United States was devoured by fire. The entire laboratory and the records of biochemist Benjamin R. Jacobs, who studied the nutritional values ​​of daily food, fell victim to the flames.

Extent of damage

Material damage

Damage to Grant Avenue
Video of the effects of the earthquake (1:40 min.)

More than 28,000 buildings were destroyed. This left around 225,000 people homeless - more than half of the around 400,000 inhabitants. The loss of property is estimated at more than $ 400 million (in today's purchasing power $ 11.7 billion).

Politicians and business people systematically downplayed the effect of the earthquake on the city, fearing a drop in land prices and a lack of investment and support. In order not to stir up the fear of the earthquake in the city, they exaggerated the role of the fires. Information about the financial damage and the extent of the destruction were manipulated.

Death toll

More than 3000 people died directly or indirectly as a result of the disaster. For a long time, however, the number of victims reported was much lower. A US Army officer reported only 498 fatalities in San Francisco in 1906, 64 fatalities in Santa Rosa and 102 fatalities in San Jose and the surrounding area. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration came in 1972 with an estimate of 700 to 800 deaths in total, still on the same order of magnitude. In 1990 Ellsworth came to the conclusion that the often-cited figure of 700 deaths was too low, the death toll was three to four times higher. The estimate of more than 3000 direct and indirect fatalities is based on extensive research by Gladys Hansen, who published their research results in 1989 together with Emmet Condon, the chief of the San Francisco fire department, as a book.

Gladys Hansen, who was appointed city archivist of San Francisco by Mayor Joseph Alioto in 1972, continued to work tirelessly on the subject even after her retirement in 1990. She pointed out that there must have been many victims in Chinatown, for example , as the area was very densely populated and was completely destroyed in the quake; but there are almost no Asian names in the official statistics. Hundreds of people were also not recorded as victims who had been shot as actual or alleged looters. In the run-up to the 100th anniversary, Hansen, together with the writer James Dalessandro, demanded that the outdated 1907 census of 478 San Francisco fatalities should finally be corrected in order to do justice to the victims. With success: In April 2006, the official memorial plaques in San Francisco read the number of 3,000 fatalities. Based on her further research, Hansen also considered this figure to be too low and an estimate of 5000 to 6000 direct and indirect fatalities to be more realistic.

Reactions

Intervention of the army

Contemporary illustration, soldiers unload a confiscated horse-drawn cart, in the background the burning city

The chief of the city fire department sent an urgent demand for dynamite to the Presidio , an army base on the outskirts of the battered city. Brigadier General Frederick Funston, commandant of California and a resident of San Francisco, had already decided the army's supportive mission. Funston sent a message to Mayor Schmitz informing him of his decision to help. Then he ordered troops to be mobilized as far as Angel Island and to make their way to San Francisco. Explosives were being transported into town across the bay from the California Powder Works. The state of emergency was never declared, and the soldiers also took instructions from civilian government officials in the city.

In the first few days, the soldiers deterred looters by showing a massive presence on the streets of the city. The soldiers also guarded buildings such as the US mint , the post office and the prison. They also helped the fire brigade to blow up firebreaks. The army also assumed responsibility for providing food, shelter and clothing for tens of thousands of homeless citizens. Under the command of Major General Adolphus Greely , Funston's superior, 4,000 soldiers served in the city during the time of the emergency. On July 1, 1906, civil authorities took over and the army withdrew from the city.

On April 18, Mayor Schmitz responded to the riots and looting with the following decree: "The army, members of the regular police and all special police officers were authorized to kill everyone and every person who is caught looting or any other crime."

Use of automobiles

The earthquake was an unexpected test for the young automobile, which until now had only been seen in broad circles as a toy for the rich. Walter C. White of the White Motor Company organized a truck convoy with relief supplies into town. The authorities requisitioned 200 motor vehicles as staff and liaison vehicles for civil and military positions and for emergency operations. There were times when the hot asphalt burst tires; then we continued on the rims. Automobiles were harnessed to moving vehicles and wagons when the horses were at the end of their tether. A total of 15,000 gallons (over 68,000 liters) of fuel were used, provided by Standard Oil . Fire Commander John Dougherty telegraphed April 24th to the Electric Vehicle Company in Hartford, Connecticut , then maker of Columbia automobiles , to thank them for the reliability of their 45 horsepower fire engines . Three of them were in continuous use from April 18th to after April 24th, which they mastered without any problems. The San Francisco Chronicle quoted ten days after the onset of the disaster official sources to the effect that automobiles were instrumental in the rescue of districts, the treatment of victims and the maintenance of law and order. All in all, there were only a few technical problems with the motor vehicles used in the disaster.

Donations and insurance benefits

The US government decided to send one million US dollars in emergency aid to the region (in today's purchasing power, 29 million US dollars). After the misfortune became known in the world, the grants soon exceeded the mark of 5 million US dollars. London has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, and citizens and businesses have donated large sums to support. Andrew Carnegie , Standard Oil, and the Government of Canada each donated $ 100,000. The Bank of Canada in Toronto donated $ 25,000.

Claims to insurance companies were estimated at $ 250 million a few days after the accident (in today's purchasing power $ 7.3 billion). In fact, the insurance companies made payments on this scale. Lloyd's of London insurance alone paid more than $ 50 million (in today's purchasing power $ 1.5 billion). A total of at least 137 insurance companies were directly affected and a further 17 as reinsurers . The earthquake led to global changes in insurance law.

Housing the homeless

One of the eleven camps with emergency shelters

In the period that followed, the army built 5,600 barracks in a total of eleven camps to accommodate the approximately 20,000 homeless people. The emergency shelters were built from wood from sequoias and firs and built close together. The average cost of building such a single hut was $ 100. The homeless could rent a barrack for two dollars a month or buy it for 50 dollars. The facades were painted olive-gray. The occupancy rate of the camps grew to 16,448 residents, and in 1907 most people moved out again. The barracks were later used as garages, storage rooms, workshops or shops. Much of it has since been demolished, but some houses have been preserved to this day. One of the 67 square feet of living space sold in 2006 for $ 600,000.

reconstruction

View from the tower of the Ferry Building on Market Street . Work on foundations for new buildings can be seen in the top right of the picture.

While the city was on fire, plans were already being made to rebuild it quickly. In his first public address after the quake, California Governor George C. Pardee emphasized the importance of rebuilding the city quickly. “This is not the first time the fire has destroyed San Francisco. I have no doubt in the slightest that the city at the ' Golden Gate ' will be rebuilt quickly and, almost before we know it, will resume its former great vitality. "

One of the most ambitious plans came from landscape architect Daniel Burnham . Among other things, he proposed Haussmann Avenues , boulevards, drive-through axes that cut through the city, a huge townhouse complex with classic structures and a city park that would have become the largest in the world, extending from Twin Peaks to Lake Merced . But this plan was then rejected as unrealistic and unrealistic. Real estate investors and other landowners opposed the plan as the city would have had to buy a lot of land to make the proposal a reality.

While the original road network was retained, some of Burnham's proposals were implemented. Including the neoclassical town house, wider streets, a subway under Market Street, a more humane Fisherman's Wharf and a city monument on Telegraph Hill , the Coit Tower . Plans to move Chinatown and the downtown poor failed as Chinatown was rebuilt in its newer, more modern appearance today. The destruction of the City Hall and the city archives enabled thousands of Chinese immigrants to obtain residency permits, citizenship and their relatives to catch up with them.

The earthquake was also responsible for the development of the Pacific Heights neighborhood. The tremendous force of the earthquake destroyed almost all of the houses on Nob Hill except for the Flood Estate. That is why the wealthy turned to the west of the city, as there the land prices were low, the view was better and the climate was warmer. In the years after the First World War, more and more money moved to the Pacific Heights, where it has remained to this day. One reason for the hurry to rebuild was the desire to host an international fair that was to take place in 1915. In fact, at the time of the opening of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, hardly any remains of the damage could be seen, instead the rebuilding of the city was celebrated.

Every year since 1915, the city has commemorated the disaster by gathering survivors at Lotta's Fountain , the meeting place during the disaster to search for loved ones and share information.

Building and fire safety regulations

At the rapid pace with which the city was being rebuilt, building regulations were relaxed, instead of tightened, "by up to 50 percent" according to the historian Robert Hansen. The complete disregard of earthquake safety regulations plagues the city to this day, as many buildings that were built in the first half of the 20th century are still standing today. In 1950 the building standards were still below the level of 1906. A recent analysis suggests that even a weaker earthquake than that of 1906 would devastate many parts of the city and result in thousands of deaths.

One consequence of the collective trauma was the - even by American standards - very restrictive fire protection regulations that were subsequently issued in San Francisco and are still recognizable in the streetscape today: In addition to the conspicuous fire stairs, this includes the fire service risers for extinguishing water, the are visible on practically all multi-story buildings.

and display information about the image
Panoramic view of the destroyed San Francisco from the Lawrence Captive Zeppelin , 610 m above the San Francisco Bay. Sunset over Golden Gate. May 1906 by George R. Lawrence .

reception

reporting

The San Francisco earthquake was one of the first major natural disasters that modern technology could record and convey to a global audience. Numerous photographs and film recordings document the event. Telegraphy was used to spread the news quickly.

Research history

The progress in the then still young science of seismology was accelerated by the earthquake. The State of California set up a scientific commission, chaired by geologist Andrew C. Lawson , to study the earthquake. The commission presented the results in 1908 in a report known as the Lawson Report . A second volume followed in 1910 on the geological mechanisms of the earthquake, written by Harry Fielding Reid . Both volumes together have a total of 1643 pages.

Lawson had already in 1895 in the San Francisco Bay Area a northern section of the San Andreas Fault discovered, its name him back (English San Andreas Fault ). After the 1906 earthquake, he saw the full extent of the San Andreas Fault to the south. An important finding in his report (1908) was the relationship between the intensity of the quake and the respective geological subsurface. Valleys filled with sedimentary rocks suffered more tremors than areas on solid ground. The strongest tremors took place where the bottom of the San Francisco Bay had given way. Analyzes of the shifts in the earth's mass and the stresses in the earth's crust led Reid (1910) to his theory of elastic-rebound theory , which is still recognized today.

The epicenter was initially suspected near the town of Olema near Point Reyes in Marin County , based on the extent of the earth's displacement in this area. In the 1960s, a University of California, Berkeley seismologist theorized that the epicenter was in the ocean northwest of the Golden Gate . However, analyzes by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) indicate that the epicenter was likely near Mussel Rock on the Daly City coast on the southern edge of San Francisco.

motion pictures

The Clark Gable film San Francisco (1936) is set at the time of the Great Earthquake.

Centenary commemoration

A hundred years after the earthquake, the media remembered the event. TV documentaries were shown, for example, The Great Quake of National Geographic and the docudrama The Big One - Earthquake in San Francisco .

The 1906 Earthquake Centennial Alliance was founded to plan the various earthquake commemorative events. 288 organizations (including universities, companies, publishers and museums) took part in it. Events included trade shows, film screenings, a fire projection onto the Coit Tower, inaugurations of monuments and lectures. The tourism industry in San Francisco had prepared in advance for an influx of curious visitors and offered special tours of the earthquake.

The USGS Earthquake Hazards Program published a number of documents on the Internet.

literature

  • Charles Morris: The San Francisco Calamity by Earthquake and Fire. World Bible House, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1906.
  • Simon Winchester: A Rift Through the World: America and the San Francisco Earthquake 1906. Knaus, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-8135-0240-6 .

Web links

Commons : San Francisco Earthquake of 1906  - Album of Pictures, Videos, and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Casualties and damage after the 1906 Earthquake. on: earthquake.usgs.gov
  2. ↑ The USGS gives a slightly different magnitude of 7.9 on the moment magnitude scale.
  3. ↑ What was the magnitude? on: earthquake.usgs.gov
  4. ↑ How long was the 1906 rupture? on: earthquake.usgs.gov
  5. ↑ How large was the offset? on: earthquake.usgs.gov
  6. ^ NPS Signal Corps History
  7. ^ San Francisco Museum
  8. ^ Alice Eastwood : The Coniferae of the Santa Lucia Mountains. In: Equinox case. volume VII, Number 3, 2004.
  9. ↑ Personal Notes. In: Journal of Industrial & Engineering Chemistry. 12, 1920, pp. 1136-1137, doi: 10.1021 / ie50131a038 .
  10. ^ A b Gladys Hansen, Emmet Condon: Denial of Disaster: The Untold Story and Photographs of the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. Cameron & Co., 1989, ISBN 0-918684-33-1 .
  11. ^ Philip L. Fradkin: The Great Earthquake and Firestorms of 1906 ( Memento June 9, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) University of California Press, 2006.
  12. ↑ Ellsworth, 1990, quoted in excerpts in: The Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake earthquake.usgs.gov
  13. ↑ Obituary for Gladys Hansen SFGate, March 11, 2017 (English)
  14. ^ San Francisco / 1906 quake toll disputed / Supervisors asked to recognize higher number who perished. SFGate, January 15, 2005.
  15. ↑ 100 years later, quake's dead still being counted. In: NBC News. April 14, 2006.
  16. ^ How the Army Worked to Save San Francisco, by Brigadier General Frederick Funston (USA). (PDF; 28 kB) In: Cosmopolitan Magazine. July 1906, Retrieved March 29, 2007 .
  17. ^ Mayor Eugene Schmitz 'Famed "Shoot-to-Kill" Order. Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco, accessed September 3, 2006 .
  18. ^ The New York Herald. (European Edition), April 21, 1906, p. 2.
  19. ↑ San Francisco 1906 earthquake: Lloyd's role ( Memento of September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) lloyds.com, status 2007 (archived website)
  20. ↑ a b Tilmann J. Röder: Legal education in economic 'world traffic'. The San Francisco earthquake and the international standardization of contract terms. Klostermann Verlag, 2006, ISBN 3-465-04000-7 .
  21. ↑ Blanche Evans: 1906 San Francisco Earthquake Housing Is Valuable Piece Of History. ( Memento of April 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) In: Reality Times.
  22. ^ San Francisco History In: The New San Francisco Magazine. May 1906.
  23. ↑ Andrew C. Lawson: The California Earthquake of April 18, 1906. Report of the State Earthquake Investigation Commission. Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1908.
  24. ↑ Harry Fielding Reid: The California Earthquake of April 18, 1906. Report of the State Earthquake Investigation Commission. Volume 2: The Mechanics of the Earthquake. Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1910.
  25. ↑ PDF of both volumes of the commission report (1643 pages; 29.2 MB).
  26. ↑ Officials unmoved by quake notoriety Daly City
  27. ^ See review in the New York Times, April 15, 2006.
  28. ↑ 1906 Earthquake Centennial Alliance: Members 1906centennial.org
  29. ^ TV Shows, Films, Music & Radio 1906centennial.org
  30. ↑ 1906 Dismantled: A Projection Re-Enacting The Great Fire onto Coit Tower. 1906centennial.org
  31. ↑ Earthquake Centennial Draws Curious to San Francisco ( Memento from April 26, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) consumeraffairs.com, February 25, 2006 (archived website)
  32. ^ M 7.9 April 18, 1906 San Francisco Earthquake earthquake.usgs.gov