Earthquake Intensity

Activity

Agassiz was great in the abstract but not in the concrete.

Zoology Building, Stanford University, April 18, 1906

Directions:
Use the modified Mercalli scale of earthquake intensity
[MMI] to evaluate felt reports, damage surveys, and
personal narratives collected after the April 18, 1906
Great San Francisco earthquake. The student should select
the intensity [a Roman numeral from the MMI] that best fits each
selected felt report, damage survey, or personal narrative. If the
student feels that there is not enough information in a felt report,
damage survey, or personal narrative to assign a single intensity,
a narrow range of intensities may be selected. The student

should be prepared to justify their answer with specific

information from each selection.

Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale

from FEMA

I. People do not feel any Earth movement.

II. A few people might notice movement if they are at rest and/or
on the upper floors of tall buildings.
III. Many people indoors feel movement. Hanging objects swing
back and forth. People outdoors might not realize that an
earthquake is occurring.
IV. Most people indoors feel movement. Hanging objects swing.
Dishes, windows, and doors rattle. The earthquake feels like a
heavy truck hitting the walls. A few people outdoors may feel
movement. Parked cars rock.
V. Almost everyone feels movement. Sleeping people are
awakened. Doors swing open or close. Dishes are broken. Pictures
on the wall move. Small objects move or are turned over. Trees
might shake. Liquids might spill out of open containers.
VI. Everyone feels movement. People have trouble walking.
Objects fall from shelves. Pictures fall off walls. Furniture moves.
Plaster in walls might crack. Trees and bushes shake. Damage is
slight in poorly built buildings. No structural damage.
VII. People have difficulty standing. Drivers feel their cars shaking.
Some furniture breaks. Loose bricks fall from buildings. Damage is
slight to moderate in well-built buildings; considerable in poorly
built buildings.
VIII. Drivers have trouble steering. Houses that are not bolted
down might shift on their foundations. Tall structures such as
towers and chimneys might twist and fall. Well-built buildings
suffer slight damage. Poorly built structures suffer severe
damage. Tree branches break. Hillsides might crack if the ground
is wet. Water levels in wells might change.

IX. Well-built buildings suffer considerable damage. Houses that

are not bolted down move off their foundations. Some
underground pipes are broken. The ground cracks. Reservoirs
suffer serious damage.
X. Most buildings and their foundations are destroyed. Some
bridges are destroyed. Dams are seriously damaged. Large
landslides occur. Water is thrown on the banks of canals, rivers,
lakes. The ground cracks in large areas. Railroad tracks are bent
slightly.
XI. Most buildings collapse. Some bridges are destroyed. Large
cracks appear in the ground. Underground pipelines are
destroyed. Railroad tracks are badly bent.
XII. Almost everything is destroyed. Objects are thrown into the
air. The ground moves in waves or ripples. Large amounts of rock
may move.

Postcard sent from Los Angeles to Ontario, Canada on April 19th, 1906

Sources:
The felt reports, damage surveys, and personal narratives in this
activity are all excerpted from the following three sources:
Barker, Malcolm E., editor. Three Fearful Days: San Francisco
Memoirs of the 1906 Earthquake and Fire. San Francisco:
Londonborn, 2006
Jordan, David Starr, editor. The California Earthquake of 1906. San
Francisco: A.M. Robertson, 1907
Lawson, Andrew C., chairman. The California Earthquake of April
18, 1906. Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Institution, 1908 [reprinted
1969]

Examples:
Example 1: Alturas, California reported by C.B. Towle [Lawson]
The hanging lamps in a saloon were found at 5 h 20m to be
swinging east and west. A tub leaning against the house on the
porch was thrown down. Some men camped near the town felt a
tremble of the earth. Others in camp several miles from the town
were up and heard the low sound of the earthquake, but did not
feel the shock.
The fact that a lamp was seen swinging and that not everyone
outdoors in the vicinity felt the earthquake suggests that this
should be rated a III on the MMI.
Example 2: Willits, California reported by R.S. Holway [Lawson]
Brick chimneys were quite generally wrecked. The Buckner Hotel
was completely demolished.The structure was largely frame,
with some brick veneer. The stores of the Irvine Muir Company
were badly wrecked. Fire-walls fell; plaster, shelving, and goods
were thrown to the floor. Brick walls fell in several other stores,
and frame buildings were in some cases thrown from their
foundations. Small cracks across some of the streets were
reported, but they are now not visible. All brick buildings were
damaged to some extent.
Chimneys collapsing and some frame buildings [which were
generally NOT bolted to their foundations in 1906] shifting

suggest that the lowest that this could be rated is an VIII on the
MMI. If the small cracks in the street did form, then a IX on the
MMI would be the upper limit.

Selections:
Rate each of the following selections on the sheet provided.
Selection 1: Anaheim, California reported by J.F. Walker
[Lawson]
Very few people in Anaheim report having felt a shock at all. It
was very slight. No clocks were [stopped].
Selection 2: Coalinga, California reported by G.F. Zoffman
[Lawson]
The tops of a few of the walls of brick buildings were slightly
damaged.A few dishes and bottles were thrown from the
shelves, and water was [slopped] out of the tanks, but none
capsized.
Selection 3: Hollister, California reported by James Davis
[Lawson]
Two shocks were felt, of which the second was stronger.A
rumble preceded the shock by a second or so. In my house a
piano and other heavy objects were moved on a polished floor so
that the north ends moved 2 or 3 feet farther out into the room
than the south ends. I was standing at the time of the heaviest
shock, and was thrown from side to side in a north and south
direction. People here all agree as to the north and south
direction of the movement. Most chimneys fell north, but some
fell east and west. Pictures on east and west walls, hanging by
single wires 4 to 6 feet long, swung from 3 to 8 feet along the
walls, leaving distinct scratches. Pictures similarly hung on north
and south walls simply pounded back and forth, leaving
puncturing in the plastering. Water-tanks seem to have fallen to
the north always. Three brick buildings, each 2-story, 1 old and 2
new, went down flat, and 2 others were badly damaged. Wooden
buildings in general were not damaged except [through] the fall of
chimneys.
Selection 4: Merced, California [Lawson]

Clocks generally were [stopped], and hanging objects were

caused to swing. One chandelier was observed to swing north
and south, and then in a circle.

Selection 5: San Jose, California reported by G.F. Zoffman

[Lawson]
The earthquake threw down many brick and stone buildings, and
with the exception of 4 or 5, damaged all the rest of the brick
buildings, more or less. The damage done to frame houses was
proportionately far less. Forty buildings were counted, however,
that were thrown off their foundations and damaged to a greater
or less extent. In many instances these buildings were
completely demolished. Numerous wind-mills and tanks capsized,
while at least 95 per cent of the brick chimneys [throughout] the
town fell. Movable objects, such as pianos, were in most cases
wheeled out into the roomWater and mud in many instances are
reported as having spurted from the artesian wellsThe plateglass windows on the south side of First Street were cracked much
more than those on the north side. This phenomenon was not
noticeable on the other streets.

San Jose High School after the earthquake.

Selection 6: Millbrae, California reported by Roderic Crandall

[Lawson]
At Millbrae there are but few buildings that could be affected by
the shock, but the brick power-house of the San Mateo electric
line was partially wrecked. The north and south walls fell, while
the east and west ones remained standing. The latter stood
because they were held by the steel trusses which spanned east
and west.
Selection 7: Yosemite Valley, California [Lawson]
A slight shock was felt.

Selection 8: near the beach on the west side of San Francisco,

California reported by W.D. Valentine [Lawson]
We were residing on Forty-eighth Avenue, between K and L
Streets, within a few hundred feet of the oceanIn our section the
shock was violent. It awakened me instantly, and for a few
seconds I was unable to rise, as I was thrown back in the effort.
Meanwhile I was carefully watching the movements of an
extremely tall and heavy oaken wardrobe which stood almost in
the middle of the floor. The top first swung to the west, then to

the north, then to the east, and fell directly to the south with such
force that it went to pieces. Our heavy upright piano and various
heavy articles of furniture were thrown completely over.Our lot,
, was shortened at least a foot, which was shown by the folding
of the fence. Electric-light poles in the street in front of us, which
were in the sand, were thrown down. There was a fissure for
about a block, between Forty-seventh and Forty-eighth Avenues,
about 3 feet wide and 6 or 8 inches deep, which was of course in
the sand. There were also other blow-holes in the sand, which
emitted water and sulfurous odors.
Selection 9: the Valencia Street Hotel in the Mission district of San
Francisco, California reported by Police Lt. Henry N. Powell
[Barker]
I just peeped in and walked out again through the lobby. Then, as
I was going out of the door, the earthquake came and I hurried
my paces. The first quiver was strong enough, but it was not
terrifying. As I stepped out to reach the middle of the street and
safety from the falling glass and stuff that accompanies all
earthquakes, the twister came, and for a few moments it baffled
me.
Valencia Street not only began to dance and rear and roll in waves
like a rough sea in a squall; but it sank in places and then vomited
up its [cable] car tracks and the tunnels that carried the cables.
These lifted themselves out of the pavement, and bent and
snapped. It was impossible for a man to stand, or to realize just
where he was trying to keep standing. Houses were cracking and
bending and breaking the same as the street itself and the car
tracks. In my wake, out of the Valencia Hotel, the night clerk
came scampering and tripping over the waves and iron obstacles
of the pavement. Close behind him followed the remittance man.
I caught the remittance man, who was unsteady on his legs, and
ran with him toward Nineteenth Street. As we ran we heard the
hotel creak and roar and crash. I turned to look at it. It was then
daylight and the dust of the falling buildings had not had time to
rise. The hotel lurched forward as if the foundation were dragged
backward from under it, and crumpled down over Valencia Street.
It did not fall to pieces and spray itself all over the place, but
telescoped down on itself like a concertina. This took only a few
seconds.

The four-story Valencia Street Hotel, on Valencia between 18th and 19th street, after the
earthquake, but before the fire.

Selection 10a: top floor of the Palace Hotel on Market Street in

San Francisco, California reported by James W. Byrne [Barker]
I got out of bed and found that the rocking floor made walking
rather wobbly; but I was able to get into my overcoat and
slippers, and run out into the corridor to go to my mothers room.
When I reached her door she was in the act of opening it; her
intention being to go to my room to find me. She had hurriedly
thrown on a wrapper, but was scarcely better clad than I was in
my overcoat and pajamas. Some other guests of the hotel were
popping out of their rooms at this time, and most of them were
attired more airily than we were. But the earthquake seemed to
have ceased, and my mother decided to remain in her room and
complete her toilette before going downstairs.
Selection 10b: courtyard of the Palace Hotel on Market Street in
San Francisco, California reported by Frank Louis Ames [Barker]
Inside the Palace, the office lights were bright and inviting. Even
as I was looking in at them the tall palms in the courtyard that
was part of the hotel lobby began to sway. At first I thought it was
an optical delusion. But then the ground felt as if it were sinking
under my feet.I turned instinctively to the tall buildings of the
Chronicle and Call. The clock in the Chronicle tower seemed to
waver, and the Calls skyscraper, anchored as it was hundreds of
feet in the ground, simply rocked. Cornices and bricks came
tumbling around me.I stepped into an alcove for safety. It
seemed as if the very earth were reeling.As I stepped from the
alcove, the pavement simply went in waves under my feet. I ran
for the Chronicle building because, judging from the way the
bricks were falling from the Palace I believed that it was about to
fall. The quake ran from east to west and the cobblestones of

market Street seemed alive. Every one of them was moving and
the street car rails were twisted from their places.
Selection 11: a room at the Faculty Club at the University of
California in Berkeley, California reported by G.K. Gilbert
[Jordan]
It is the natural and legitimate ambition of a properly constituted
geologist to see a glacier, witness an eruption and feel an
earthquake.When, therefore, I was awakened in Berkeley on the
eighteenth of April last by a tumult of motions and noises, it was
with unalloyed pleasure that I became aware that a vigorous
earthquake was in progress. The creaking of the building, which
has a heavy frame of redwood, and the rattling of various articles
of furniture so occupied my attention that I did not fully
differentiate the noises peculiar to the earthquake itself. The
motions I was able to analyze more successfully, perceiving that,
while they had many directions, the dominant factor was a
swaying in the north-south direction, which caused me to roll
slightly as I lay with my head toward the east. Afterward I found a
suspended electric lamp swinging in the north-south direction,
and observed that water had been splashed southward from a
pitcher.In my immediate vicinity the destructive effects were
trivial
Selection 12: Point Reyes Station, California reported by G.K.
Gilbert [Lawson]
The village at the railroad station of Point Reyes is about 0.5 mile
northeast of the fault-trace, and stands on a low bench of
apparently firm ground.The schoolhouse, a 2-story building
standing on a brick foundation wall, was shifted 2.5 feet to the
south. A stone building used as a store was thrown downThe
hotel barn was shifted 20 inches toward the south and a few other
buildings were shiftedBrick chimneys were generally thrown
down. A large shed was wrecked. In all buildings furniture was
shifted, objects on shelves were thrown down, dishes were
brokenAn engine and three cars standing on the track were
overturned to the southwest. A long wood-pile was thrown down
toward the southwest.

An engine and three cars standing on the track were overturned

Selection 13: Bodie, California reported by E.B. Brooks [Lawson]

The shock was perceptible; some clocks [stopped]. It was noticed
by occupants in some 2-story buildings, but was not generally felt.
Selection 14: Point Arena, California reported by E.S. Larson
[Lawson]
All brick buildings in the place had completely collapsed, and in
the opinion of the residents it was deemed wisest to replace them
by frame structures. All brick chimneys had fallen; plaster had
cracked and fallen wholesale fashion, especially on the lower
floors, and many shop windows and smaller panes were broken.
A few wooden buildings suffered from the collapse of their
underpinning.
Selection 15a: Redding, California reported by L.F. Bassett
[Lawson]
Mr. Bassett was indoors, squatted on his toes in front of a stove
lighting the fire when the shock came. He felt no tremulous
motion and only one principle disturbance, which lasted several
seconds. There was a slight swaying motion of the house for
perhaps 10 seconds, and this was strongest at the beginning. The
motion tended to throw one to the north. No objects were
overturned, but the windows rattled a little. A rumbling noise
preceded and followed the shock, which he ascribed at the time
to a passing train; but there was no train due at that time.
Selection 15b: Redding, California reported by B. Macomber
[Lawson]
The shock was not intense enough at Redding to move loose
objects. In a few cases clocks were [stopped]. The shock was felt

violently and many people were awakened by it. It was preceded

at a very slight interval by a roar. Up to the moment that the
most violent part of the shock struck the house, I was under the
impression that the sound and vibration were both caused by a
train passing.

Name _______________________
Period ______
Answer Sheet for Earthquake Intensity Activity
Selection Intensity

1 ______

2 ______

3 ______

4 ______

Reasons you gave the selection that intensity

5 ______

6 ______

7 ______

8 ______

9 ______
10a and b ______

11

______

12

______

13

______

14

______

15a and b ______