1906 Earthquake Research Paper

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San Francisco 1906 Earthquake The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake was a huge earthquake caused by the San Andreas Fault. The San Andreas Fault consists of the Pacific plate and the North American plate. The Pacific plate is an oceanic plate which subducted under the continental North American plate. It is a right-lateral strike slip fault that has a slip rate of about 1.5 inches per year. The 1906 Earthquake on the San Andreas Fault had an estimated magnitude of 8.3 on the Richter scale. A foreshock was felt and 20-25 seconds later the earthquake occurred and it lasted from 45-60 seconds and it is known for its severe damage on the famous city of San Francisco. The epicenter of this earthquake was located just 2 miles east of Mussel Rock, near…show more content…
At about noon two more earthquakes had struck Los Angeles ten minutes apart. Many small fires did result from the earthquake, but there were some arsonists and some people who set fire on their house intentionally. Telephone lines were down; it was hard to get help from the firefighters. When the fire fighters arrived the broken pipelines only made things worst. There was no accessible water to set out the fire. People set their house on fire to claim insurance because they only bought fire insurance and not earthquake insurance. With no water available to set out the fires, small fires spread and soon over one-third of the city had caught on fire. The damage of the earthquake was quite severe, but those greedy civilians that wanted to claim insurance had caused many more families to lose their…show more content…
The experience of such a destructive earthquake in such a highly populated city has caused the governments awareness to make changes in their regulations. The first integrated, government-commissioned scientific investigation into earthquakes in the U.S was launched and funding was provided by the Carnegie Institution of Washington (Ellsworth, 2012). More advanced monitoring was also set up to capture seismic waves throughout California. Scientists have been able to use this data and make up the system of the San Andreas Fault. It was also concluded that areas with softer bedrock experienced more severe damage and new regulations were set up to prevent a disaster in the future. The Structural Association of San Francisco was founded a month after the earthquake. Wooden buildings were concluded to be able to handle the 1906 earthquake. However many wooden buildings were damaged by fires. During the process of rebuilding San Francisco, wooden buildings were to be secured to their foundations and need to have internal bracings. New building codes also required a wind load requirement of 30 pounds, which later on was reduced to 10 pounds. However, the use of concrete is no longer prohibited, but the use of steel framing was a must in all new brick buildings (N/A,

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