MCCHESNEY: Nearly half the pre-1906 headstones here are damaged. BOATWRIGHT: It tells me that it shook really strongly here. Everywhere you look, you can see broken headstones and they all predate the 1906 earthquake. And the headstone's broken in three parts. BOATWRIGHT: We're looking at one of my favorites, which is Thaddeus Ames (ph), who died in, what is this, 1876. Not the work of vandals, says Boatwright. First thing you notice here, many of the gravestones are lying broken on the ground. MCCHESNEY: On a tiny hill, almost hidden by dark green, live oaks, the graveyard is silent except for a strutting rooster. This is a very small, rural cemetery that apparently got damaged quite severely in the 1906 earthquake. BOATWRIGHT: We're a little bit to the west of a town called Graton. That's right, graveyards, where he finds not only a record of death, but also a dramatic demonstration of the shattering force of 1906. MCCHESNEY: As a result, Boatwright has become on expert of graveyards. He visited dozens of sites mentioned in the report, to see what evidence of shaking still remained. Geological Survey asked John Boatwright to find out where the ground shook the most and the least in 1906, the Lawson Report became his guidebook. Treetops snapped off by whiplash, even higher. MCCHESNEY: The report loosely assigned shaking ratings to different areas, and Boatwright refined and expanded on those. BOATWRIGHT: In many places in Lawson, you have areas where the only effect recorded is the milk that was poured into a shallow pan, you know, every morning before dawn, by your milkman, is sloshed out of the pan. But this tall tale is a rarity in the hefty, two-volume tome, the largest set of seismic effects ever compiled in a single report.Įarly seismometers were unable to register the strength of such a powerful earthquake, so instead, the scientists interviewed witnesses, examined damages to buildings, landslides. A farmer later admitted that he squeezed a dead cow into that crevasse. MCCHESNEY: Well, it never happened like that. At the time of my visit, the tail had disappeared, being eaten by dogs. BOATWRIGHT: (reading from the Lawson Report) During the earthquake, a cow fell into the fault crack, and the earth closed in on her so that only the tail remained visible. That's known as the Lawson report, after Andrew Lawson, the geologist who sent 25 scientists out just after the quake.īoatwright reads from the report about a legendary incident recorded close to this sight. The offset fence here was noted in an important scientific report written a century ago by John Boatwright's predecessors. MCCHESNEY: And Boatwright would be standing on the Pacific plate, and I on the North American plate. BOATWRIGHT: Basically, if the earthquake occurred now, and you were on the other side of the Fault, I would go to the north and you would go to the south. Our guide, geophysicist John Boatwright, puts his palms together and slides one forward, the other back. In 1906, the two gigantic, tectonic plates that rub against each other at the San Andreas Fault, shifted. MCCHESNEY: The fence lies at right angles across the fault, and it is split: one section 18 feet to the north of the other. This area is one of the places where the slip is the largest. Geological Survey): Well we're looking at a fence which appears to have been torn in half. It's preserved at the Point Reyes National Seashore on what's called The Earthquake Trail. But 30 miles north of San Francisco you can still see dramatic evidence of how the San Andreas ruptured back then. NPR's John McChesney reports their information is still being used by scientists today.Ī hundred years of erosion and human development have made traces of the 1906 quake hard to find. They produced a report that gave birth to modern earthquake science in this country. And they mapped what had been a little-known fault. It was felt as far north as Oregon and as far east as Nevada.Īlmost immediately, scientists fanned out across the landscape to record what happened. Its slippage created one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded in the continental United States: a magnitude 7.8. INSKEEP: That earthquake, 100 years ago today, was blamed on the mighty San Andreas Fault, which slices along 800 miles of coastal California. There was a moment of silence, then fire stations throughout the city sounded their sirens in tribute. I'm Steve Inskeep.īefore sunrise in San Francisco, this morning, thousands of people remembered the great earthquake and fires of 1906, which destroyed the city and killed three thousand people.Ī wreath was laid in a downtown plaza at 5:12 AM, Pacific time-the minute the quake is believed to have started.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |