:: Monday, April 18, 2005
Rockin' all over the world
Today, April 18th is the 99th anniversary of the San Francisco earthquake. Recorded eye witness acounts at that link describe a scene of sheer terror and helplessness, broken and shattered buildings raining debris from the skies and vast chasms opening up in the ground, swallowing all that stood upon it at the time. The estimated 8.25 San Francisco rock and roll began at 5:15am and lasted one minute.
What a minute that must have been!
By the time the fires were all put out and mopping up was completed, 25,000 buildings had been destroyed, over 250,000 people were homeless, between 450 and 700 were dead and the damage estimates topped $350,000,000.
"The San Francisco Earthquake, 1906,
" EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (1997)
And while San Francisco has survived many, many quakes since then, none have caused the loss of life and damage that one did in 1906.
June 13th 1929, Murchison in New Zealand was hit by a quake measuring 7.8 which killed 17 people. This occurred in a year that registered 678 quakes in all. Earthquakes on 9 March (Arthur's Pass) and 8 May (Central North Island) that year were felt across large areas of the country.
They don't call us the Shaky Isles for nothing, you know.
February 3 1931, Napier in Hawkes Bay, NZ was flattened by a quake measuring 7.8 on the Richter Scale. It occurred mid morning on a bright summer's day, the sort of day my mother (who spent her childhood in Hastings) always called "earthquake weather.
Damage was severe, the loss of life large - 256 were killed, 2 missing, over 400 hospitalised with serious injuries.
On March 2nd 1987, Edgecumbe in the Bay of Plenty was rocked by a quake measuring 6.3. I can remember this quake; 1.42 in the afternoon, standing on our front lawn watching the whole 2-storey house sway end for end like it was made from jelly and being carried on a plate.
Last Boxing Day brought a huge quake on the sea bed of the Indian Ocean - and the resulting loss of life is huge in comparison. I would think there are few people who have not seen the pictures of the tsunami that was generated by it, or heard of the estimated 350,000 people who died in the aftermath. Compared with some earthquakes in the past, though, this was not the worst - in 1556 an estimated 850,000 died in China, according to this site which lists the 10 worst quakes known. By no means did the majority of these quakes occur right on the Ring of Fire, but half did devastate China (and a little bit of China IS on the Pacific Ring).
Maybe quakes are just Nature's way of letting off steam as She matures into her shell - I think we forget that we live on a dynamic, changing planet with an estimated 4.5 Billion years of growth and change under its belt; we forget how truly ineffectual, microscopic and meaningless Mankind and his issues really are in the Great Scheme.
Happy Birthday, San Francisco - the foundations of your new city are 99 today. 
What a minute that must have been!
By the time the fires were all put out and mopping up was completed, 25,000 buildings had been destroyed, over 250,000 people were homeless, between 450 and 700 were dead and the damage estimates topped $350,000,000.
"The San Francisco Earthquake, 1906,
" EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (1997)
And while San Francisco has survived many, many quakes since then, none have caused the loss of life and damage that one did in 1906.
June 13th 1929, Murchison in New Zealand was hit by a quake measuring 7.8 which killed 17 people. This occurred in a year that registered 678 quakes in all. Earthquakes on 9 March (Arthur's Pass) and 8 May (Central North Island) that year were felt across large areas of the country.
They don't call us the Shaky Isles for nothing, you know.
February 3 1931, Napier in Hawkes Bay, NZ was flattened by a quake measuring 7.8 on the Richter Scale. It occurred mid morning on a bright summer's day, the sort of day my mother (who spent her childhood in Hastings) always called "earthquake weather.
Damage was severe, the loss of life large - 256 were killed, 2 missing, over 400 hospitalised with serious injuries.
On March 2nd 1987, Edgecumbe in the Bay of Plenty was rocked by a quake measuring 6.3. I can remember this quake; 1.42 in the afternoon, standing on our front lawn watching the whole 2-storey house sway end for end like it was made from jelly and being carried on a plate.
Last Boxing Day brought a huge quake on the sea bed of the Indian Ocean - and the resulting loss of life is huge in comparison. I would think there are few people who have not seen the pictures of the tsunami that was generated by it, or heard of the estimated 350,000 people who died in the aftermath. Compared with some earthquakes in the past, though, this was not the worst - in 1556 an estimated 850,000 died in China, according to this site which lists the 10 worst quakes known. By no means did the majority of these quakes occur right on the Ring of Fire, but half did devastate China (and a little bit of China IS on the Pacific Ring).
Maybe quakes are just Nature's way of letting off steam as She matures into her shell - I think we forget that we live on a dynamic, changing planet with an estimated 4.5 Billion years of growth and change under its belt; we forget how truly ineffectual, microscopic and meaningless Mankind and his issues really are in the Great Scheme.
Happy Birthday, San Francisco - the foundations of your new city are 99 today.
Some content included in this site has been liberated at (and from) great peril from the internet. Where possible, credit or a link has been given or is marked as "Unknown", except for jokes - I don't make up jokes. All other content comes straight from the Brain of Moi. I reserve the right to retain ownership of my own drivel :-)
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