The 1906 earthquake and a century of progress in understanding earthquakes and their hazards

2006/01/01 by Mary Lou Zoback · 3 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Engineering · #earthquake and tectonic studies #Seismic Waves and Analysis #Seismic Performance and Analysis #Seismology #Geology #Urban seismic risk #Seismic hazard

paper · doi:10.1130/gsat01604.1

openalex publication_date 2006/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/11

Abstract

Our knowledge of the earliest historic earthquakes in the San Francisco Bay area comes from Spanish mission records, dating back to the founding of Mission Dolores in San Francisco in 1776. The Padres reported on earthquakes damaging their missions, but this record becomes spotty with secularization beginning in the 1830s. After the Gold Rush, numerous newspapers around the region provided excellent coverage. The historical records indicate that the latter two-thirds of the nineteenth century was a period of intense seismic activity throughout the greater San Francisco Bay area (Fig. 1). In fact, 18 magnitude 6.0 or larger earthquakes occurred in the

Citations

• Seismicity of California's North Coast

Cited by

• Heading down early on? Start of subduction on Earth
• A paleogeographical review of the peri-Gondwanan realm of the Appalachian orogen1This article is one of a series of papers published in this CJES Special Issue: In honour of Ward Neale on the theme of Appalachian and Grenvillian geology.
• Earthquake prediction [wikipedia]