# 3023
Credit: Chadwick, H. D.
Tomorrow (April 18th) is the 103rd anniversary of the great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 which struck at 5:12 A.M. on a Wednesday morning.
The magnitude of the earthquake has been estimated to be somewhere between 7.7 and 8.25, with 7.8 being the most widely accepted estimate.
The quake occurred about 2 miles offshore, near Mussel Rock, and ruptured along the San Andreas Fault both northward and southward for a total of nearly 300 miles.
The quake, and subsequent fires, claimed nearly 3,000 lives.
Credit: Chadwick, H. D. (US Gov War Department. Office of the Chief Signal Officer.)
The San Francisco Gate has a series of newly released photographs from the great quake available on their webpage.
Hundreds of photographers took thousands of pictures of the disaster, but some of the best were taken by John Henry Mentz, official photographer for United Railroads, the city's principal transit operator in those days.
Most of Mentz's pictures were locked away in files for years, and many have never been published before. They show the destruction of the city - and particularly of its cable car and electric streetcar system - together with work to rebuild public transit.
(click to view all pictures)
More than just a history lesson, these pictures should serve as a wakeup call that it can happen again.
If not in San Francisco, in Los Angeles, Memphis, Anchorage, Charleston, or Seattle.
Shake map showing high risk areas of the U.S.
For more information on the earthquake threat, and preparedness, check out:
