San Francisco seems to be on trial for tragedy left and right these days. Recent landslides in North beach have displaced over 120 residents and caused four buildings to crumble, entirely destroyed. And now, a heart breaking calamity in our own U.S.F. community, the death of Paula Gmelch is a fresh wound. However, as a hectic day winds down to a somber evening, San Francisco is once again, quite literally, shaken up.
At approximately 8:40 this evening the bay area experienced a tremor, the epicenter was located a mile northeast of Lafayette. It was measured to be a 4.2 quake and the majority of descriptions made it out to be two halting jolts. A minute amount of damage was rendered on the bay area community but it was enough to remind us of past earthquakes and those predicted for the future.
In the past week there have been around 200 small earthquakes in the California Nevada area, which scientists have begun to speculate, COULD signify a larger quake to come. San Francisco is one of those rare cities perched directly atop a massive fault line that has a massive eruption every 100 years.
We have already surpassed that anniversary and can expect a quake measuring anywhere from a 7.5-10.5 in the near future. Can you picture a 10.5 earthquake? To put it into perspective, the devastating quake in 1906 (which destroyed the city) was placed to be around 7.7 based on seismic waves. An earthquake of 10.5 magnitude could potentially decimate our city and its surrounding area. Another addition to the collection of catastrophes we have unwillingly born witness to.
4 comments:
I can't imagine how crazy it will be to have a 10.5 magnitude earthquake! Especially in SF with all our old buildings. :/
on another note.......I think I'm addicted to this thing. I checked this site so many times today!
I love the intro and thanks for letting us know about this stuff. Most of the damage in the 1906 quake was from the fire, but I read that a 10 pointer could potentially kill 300,000 people! That's an unbelievable number.
"San Francisco seems to be on trial for tragedy left and right these days." - isn't that the truth!
as a native californian, i'm used to earthquakes but it sure feels like we're having more than our regular share lately, eh?
I ran into this interesting blog as it was linked to a google alert I have set up.
Just to correct a popular misconception - There is no earthquake fault in San Francisco. The San Andreas runs out to Sea just south of The City and returns to land in West Marin. The epicenter of the '06 quake is still disputed. It was originally thought to be in Olema, then Daly City and most recently speculated to have been two miles off-shore of San Francisco.
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