1906 San Francisco Earthquake

The devastating 1906 San Francisco earthquake ruptured 477 kilometers of the San Andreas Fault, shaking the city violently for nearly a minute at 5:12 AM. The fires that followed burned for three days, destroying over 80% of the city and leaving more than half the population of 410,000 homeless. The disaster remains one of the most significant earthquakes in American history and led to major advances in seismology and earthquake engineering.