Abstract
THE accounts which are reaching this country enable us to form a better idea of the character of the Californian earthquake of April 15 last than could be done from the telegraphic reports of the daily papers, and one of the most striking facts which stand out is `the wonderfully small amount of damage done in San Francisco by the earthquake proper. This does not seem to have exceeded the sixth or seventh degree of the Rossi-Forel scale, and the damage to buildings was practically confined to the overthrow of chimneys `and of buildings which were either old and badly constructed, or of a design which rendered them especially liable to earthquake damage. The Scientifi American of May 12 contains a view of the business part of the city, taken after the earthquake, but before the spread of the fire, in which the buildings show little signs of damage, beyond the overthrow of some of the chimney stacks. Where the city was built on made ground settlements and disturbances of ground level led to fractures of the water-mains, but it is not clear from the accounts which have reached us whether there was not also an interruption, of the main conduit at some point between the city and the source of supply. Whatever the cause, the consequences of the failure of water were disastrous, and the fire, started by the earthquake, was able to spread unchecked.
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The Californian Earthquake of April 18. Nature 74, 178–179 (1906). https://doi.org/10.1038/074178a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/074178a0