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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 Francisco Bay Area. Extensive fires soon broke out in San Francisco and lasted for several days. More than 3,000 people died and over 80% of the city was destroyed.

In 2019, using an old photograph and a recorded eyewitness account, researchers were able to refine the location of the hypocenter of the earthquake as offshore from San Francisco or near San Juan Bautista, confirming previous estimates.

Remotely triggered events included an earthquake swarm in the Imperial Valley area, which culminated in an earthquake of about 6.1 MI at 16:30 PST on April 18, 1906.

Most of the deaths occurred within San Francisco, but 189 were reported elsewhere in the Bay Area; nearby cities such as Santa Rosa and San Jose also suffered severe damage. At the time of the disaster, San Francisco had been the ninth-largest city in the United States and the largest on the West Coast. Over 80% of the city was destroyed by the earthquake and fire. The 1908 Lawson Report, a study of the 1906 quake led and edited by Professor Andrew Lawson of the University of California, showed that the same San Andreas Fault which had caused the disaster in San Francisco ran close to Los Angeles as well.

Writing from San Francisco on April 23, five days after the earthquake, resident John W. A traveler passing through San Francisco ten days after the earthquake, Mrs.

Although the impact of the earthquake on San Francisco was the most famous, the earthquake also inflicted considerable damage on several other cities.

Most of the destruction in the city was attributed to the fires, since widespread practice by insurers was to indemnify San Francisco properties from fire but not from earthquake damage. It was constructed in 1875 primarily financed by Bank of California co-founder William Ralston, the "man who built San Francisco." In April 1906, the tenor Enrico Caruso and members of the Metropolitan Opera Company came to San Francisco to give a series of performances at the Grand Opera House.

William James, the pioneering American psychologist, was teaching at Stanford at the time of the earthquake and traveled into San Francisco to observe first-hand its aftermath. Wells had just arrived in New York on his first visit to America when he learned of the San Francisco earthquake.

The earthquake was crucial in the development of the University of California, San Francisco and its medical facilities. Until 1906, the school faculty had provided care at the City-County Hospital (now the San Francisco General Hospital), but did not have a hospital of its own. Following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, more than 40,000 people were relocated to a makeshift tent city in Golden Gate Park and were treated by the faculty of the Affiliated Colleges.

After the 1906 earthquake, global discussion arose concerning a legally flawless exclusion of the earthquake hazard from fire insurance contracts.

In 2005 the National Film Registry added San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, April 18, 1906, a newsreel documentary made soon after the earthquake, to its list of American films worthy of preservation.

Following the earthquake, San Francisco is rebuilt and later renamed San Fransokyo in Disney's 2014 animated film Big Hero 6.

Timeline of the San Francisco Earthquake April 18 – 23, 1906; Archived March 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine – The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco Tsunami Record from the Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake – USGS

Quick Facts

• Timeline of the San Francisco Earthquake April 18 – 23, 1906; Archived March 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine – The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco
• In 2005 the National Film Registry added San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, April 18, 1906, a newsreel documentary made soon after the earthquake, to its list of American films worthy of preservation.
• 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 Francisco Bay Area.
• Following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, more than 40,000 people were relocated to a makeshift tent city in Golden Gate Park and were treated by the faculty of the Affiliated Colleges.
• Tsunami Record from the Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake – USGS

Source material: Wikipedia - "1906 San Francisco earthquake". Adapted and summarized for DiscoverScroll. Original contributors are credited through the linked Wikipedia article. Read original on Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes were made from the original.