100th Anniversary of the Great San Francisco Earthquake

[Brent88]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1906_San_Francisco_earthquake

http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/info/1906/

Study calculates impact of 1906 quake

Monday, April 17, 2006; Posted: 10:42 a.m. EDT (14:42 GMT)

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- If an earthquake like the one that devastated the city in 1906 struck today, the toll would be staggering: tens of thousands of buildings damaged and hundreds of people dead, according to a new study.

The report released Monday calculated that a repeat of that 7.9-magnitude temblor would cause 1,800 to 3,400 deaths, damage more than 90,000 buildings, displace as many as 250,000 households and result in $150 billion in damage.

"We already witnessed the effect of the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people from last year's hurricanes," said Bill Ellsworth, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park. "It would have huge social and economic effects on the entire country."

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science....ap/index.html