After all of the research I did on the 1906 San Francisco quake for my novel Shaken, I am always fascinated when I hear about other earthquakes around the globe. The footage from Friday’s earthquake and tsunami in Japan has been absolutely heart-rending to watch.
Here’s how this new quake stands up against the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The 1906 quake happened before modern monitoring techniques, but scientists estimate it to have been a magnitude of 7.7. Just today, the USGS has updated the reporting of the earthquake near Honshu, Japan to a 9.0 magnitude quake, making it the fourth largest earthquake in the world since 1900.
As of a few days ago (when they were still calling this a 8.9 magnitude quake), the USGS reported that a quake of that size was 700 times the strength of Haiti’s 7.0 quake. That would be equivalent to 30 of the 1906 San Francisco quakes.
Of course, in 1906 people feared fire, looting and epidemics in the aftermath of the earthquake. Today in Japan, those fears are eclipsed by the looming threat of nuclear radiation. The people of Japan will continue to be in our thoughts and prayers in the days to come.
If you would like to read more comparisons between the Honshu, Haiti and San Francisco quakes, check out this CBS news report. If you would like more information on earthquakes in general, including lists of the world’s largest and most destructive quakes, I would encourage you to check out the USGS earthquake site. They even have a feature that can send immediate reports of earthquakes around the world to your email inbox.
prayer request at arise 2 write.
andrea