Earthquakes in 19th-Century Marin
By Robert L. Harrison
48052:151. The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
The 1906 earthquake in San Francisco is remembered by many as the “Big One,” but throughout the 19th century the Bay Area experienced several large earthquakes. Large earthquakes are defined arbitrarily in this article as those with M (magnitude) 6.5 or greater on the Richter scale. According to the California Department of Conservation, earthquakes of M 6.5 or greater are expected to cause loss of life or more than $200,000 in damage. Large earthquake magnitude classes are generally defined as: Strong 6.0 to 6.9; Major 7.0 to 7.9; and Great 8.0 or more.
The scale for measuring the severity of earthquakes was developed by Charles Francis Richter (1900–1985). Richter, born in Ohio and graduate of Stanford University and the California Institute of Technology, gained fame as the creator of the logarithmic scale for measuring the intensity of the earth’s movement. In 1935 Richter, with his collaborator Beno Gutenberg, published their proposed scale. It was promptly adopted by seismologists around the world.
Before the Richter scale was developed, estimates of a quake’s magnitude were made using two methods. During the period 1890 to 1935, the invention of modern seismographs enabled the seismographic patterns of early quakes to be compared to the Richter scale measurement of more current quakes. Prior to 1890, magnitudes were estimated by looking at the effects of earth shaking on such physical features as landslides, sand blows, or river channels and also by examining damage to man-made structures.
In 1838 an approximately M 7.4 earthquake was likely the first to be felt by Marin’s European settlers. According to a 1998 Bulletin issued by the Seismological Society of America, “There is no evidence for any major historical earthquakes in the San Francisco Bay area before the 1838 earthquake, back to the founding of Mission San Francisco Dolores in 1776.”
The 1838 major quake was on the San Andreas Fault well south of the Bay Area. In San Francisco Mission Dolores suffered some damage. In San Rafael there is no record of damage done at Mission San Rafael Archangel but the resident clergy and Native Americans probably felt at least some earth movement. The fact that no written record exists is not unusual as earthquakes were often not recorded in mission histories.
On January 9, 1857 a Major Southern California quake at Fort Tejon, M 7.9, was felt in the Bay Area including Marin County. Marin experienced several small Bay Area earthquakes in the 1840s, 1850s and early 1860s. The Marin Journal (which began publication in March 1861) noted lesser earthquakes felt in San Rafael in December 1862, December 1863, May 1864, June 1864 and May 1865.
On October 8, 1865 the Bay Area sustained its first large quake since 1838. The M 6.5 shaker apparently did little damage in Marin but several brick buildings were destroyed in San Francisco. It was described by Mark Twain who had moved to the City just a month before : “It was one which was long called the ‘great’ earthquake….there came a really terrific shock; the ground seemed to roll under me in waves….I reeled about on the pavement trying to keep my footing, I saw a sight! The entire front of a tall four-story brick building in Third street sprung outward like a door and fell sprawling across the street, raising dust like a great volume of smoke! And here came the buggy — overboard went the man, and in less time than I can tell it the vehicle was distributed in small fragments along three hundred yards of street.”
As an example of unusual behavior during the quake, Twain offered, “A prominent editor flew down stairs, in the principal hotel, with nothing on but one brief undergarment — met a chambermaid, and exclaimed: ‘Ow, what shall I do! Where shall I go!’ She responded with naïve serenity: ‘If you have no choice, you might try a clothing-store!’”
The Marin Journal described serious quake damage in San Francisco and suggested: “We have no doubt that the recent earthquake is an indication of the power of an offended Creator over the sinners of San Francisco in order to arouse them to a sense of their wickedness in electing Copperheads [Democrats opposed to the Civil War and in favor of an immediate peace settlement] to the legislature.”
On October 21, 1868 the large 1865 quake was followed just three years later by the largest earthquake to be felt in Marin since early European settlement. The quake, classified as Major, was centered on the Hayward Fault with an estimated magnitude of M 7.0. According to the October 24, 1868 Marin Journal, damage was significant in San Rafael: “The Court House was considerably cracked….the ground opened in several places with clouds of dust ejected therefrom….Nearly all the chimneys in the place were either thrown down or shattered….Clocks were stopped, stoves overturned, furniture thrown around in several houses.”
The 1868 quake caused even greater devastation in San Francisco. The Journal summarized it this way: “The damage in San Francisco is said to be immense. Several lives were lost by falling walls. The principal damage is on Front up as far as California Street, extending through the Southern portion of the city to Mission Dolores — The Bank of California building is badly cracked….The Custom House is terribly damaged, and it is questionable whether it will admit to repairs…” In the East Bay the Alameda County Court House was destroyed and the Deputy Clerk killed. The old Mission Church in Mission San Jose was destroyed.
The October 23, 1868 Chicago Tribune commented on the quake: “The earthquake in California which continues to terrify San Francisco and the adjacent region, is exceptional in its character, if it is a wave from the great South American disturbance, an afterclap (sic) of that terrible catastrophe….These movements probably mark the final action, and subsequent subsidence, of the forces which have been at work so widely in the recent shaking and rending of the earth’s surface. We may hope, therefore, that they will be followed by a long period of quiet….”
Aftershocks to the 1868 quake were felt on October 23rd, November 4th and November 24th. A relatively quiet period with just six smaller quakes was noted in the following decade. Increasing earthquake activity began in the 1880s and into the 1890s averaging more than one event per year. On April 19, 1892 a large M 6.6 quake centered in Vacaville was felt but did no serious damage in Marin County.
A second large earthquake, M 6.5, centered at Mare Island struck on March 31, 1898 and rendered considerable local damage. As headlined in the Sausalito News of April 2, 1898: “More or Less Damage Done in Every Part of the County by the Tremblor.” The report included dozens of examples of the damage including: “A great crack appears in the big stone vault at Hotaling’s Bank [San Rafael]….At San Quentin a big crack appears in the hospital building….The convicts were quiet during the shake, except a few, who yelled for more….Great fissures in the road between Novato and Nicasio have been found….Captain Leon’s saloon at Novato was greatly damaged….Over $100 damage was done.”
There have been just three large earthquakes in the Bay Area since 1898: The really big one in San Francisco, M 7.8 in 1906; Morgan Hill, M 6.6 in 1911; and Loma Prieta, M 6.9 in 1989. History cautions the Bay Area is in for a shaky future and yet there is no accurate way to predict the next large quake. So we must rely on personal preparation knowing that the 21st century will undoubtedly continue the pattern of periodic large earthquakes.
