Earthquake
Earthquake What is an Earthquake? ... The presence of the San Andreas Fault was brought dramatically to world attention on April 18, 1906, when sudden displacement along the fault caused the great San Francisco earthquake and fire. ... The ¡§Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake¡¨ is one of the strongest ever recorded on the North American continent. ... In these trenches, they have identified soil layers disrupted by a great earthquake before 1906. ... All this evidence suggests that another shock as powerful as the 1906 earthquake is not likely to strike Northern California soon, probably not for at least 100 years. In summary, plate tectonics is a blunt, but, nevertheless, strong tool in earthquake prediction. ... Perhaps the most important role of plate tectonics is that it is a guide to the use of finer techniques for earthquake prediction.