Stanford Report, September 14, 2005

Lecture series planned to commemorate 100th anniversary of 1906 earthquake

BY MARK SHWARTZ

Stillman Berry/Green Library Special Collections quake

The Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 caused widespread damage to buildings on the Stanford campus. Above, a view of the Quad and Memorial Church through a ruined wall.

Hurricane Katrina has been called the worst natural disaster to strike the United States since the Great San Francisco Earthquake of April 18, 1906—a powerful temblor that is estimated to have killed more than 3,000 people and left 225,000 homeless along California's San Andreas Fault.

To commemorate the centennial of that historic disaster, Stanford and the University of California-Berkeley will present a series of lectures on the history of the 1906 earthquake and how to cope with major seismic events in the future. The lecture series, which is free and open to the public, is one of several events planned by the 1906 Earthquake Centennial Alliance—a Bay Area-wide consortium that includes Stanford, UC-Berkeley and more than 100 other institutions, agencies and businesses, whose objective is to use the 100th anniversary of the quake to raise public awareness about current earthquake risks.

The series begins with a presentation by Kevin Starr, California State Librarian, Emeritus, and professor of history at the University of Southern California. Starr's lecture, titled "The Great Earthquake and Fire of April 1906—Lessons Learned," will take place at Kresge Auditorium on Thursday, Sept. 29, at 7:30 p.m., and will be repeated at UC-Berkeley's Dwinelle Hall, Room 155, on Thursday, Oct. 20, at 7:30 p.m.

Six other lectures will be held between October 2005 and March 2006. All of the presentations will begin at 7:30 p.m.

Historical and Social Perspectives of the 1906 Earthquake
  • Malcolm E. Barker, author of Three Fearful Days: San Francisco Memoirs of the 1906 Earthquake and Fire: "Through the Eyes of the Survivors," Oct. 25 (Stanford, Kresge Auditorium) and Oct. 26 (UC-Berkeley, Sibley Auditorium)
  • Stephen Tobriner, professor of architecture at UC-Berkeley and author of the forthcoming book Saving San Francisco: Nov. 15 (Stanford, Kresge Auditorium) and Nov. 16 (UC-Berkeley, Dwinelle Hall, Room 155)
    • Earth Science, Earthquake Engineering, Preparedness and Disaster Response
  • Chris D. Poland, president of Degenkolb Engineers: "A Story of Three Buildings: Memorial Church, Art Museum and Mitchell Building," a special lecture focusing on the unique structural repairs and retrofits on the Stanford campus, Jan. 17, 2006 (Stanford, Kresge Auditorium)
  • Mary Lou Zoback, senior research scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey: "The 1906 Earthquake: Lessons Learned, Lessons Forgotten and Future Directions," Jan. 31 (Stanford, Kresge Auditorium) and Feb. 1, 2006 (UC-Berkeley, Sibley Auditorium)
  • Eric Elsesser, founding principal of Forell/Elsesser Engineers Inc.: Feb. 15 (UC-Berkeley, Sibley Auditorium) and Feb. 16, 2006 (Stanford, Kresge Auditorium)
  • Kathleen Tierney, professor of sociology at the University of Colorado and co-author of Facing the Unexpected: Disaster Preparedness and Response in the United States: Feb. 28 (Stanford, Kresge Auditorium) and March 1, 2006 (UC-Berkeley, Sibley Auditorium)

    • Stanford students will receive credit for attending the series by enrolling in the course Geophysics/Civil and Environmental Engineering 40, The 1906 Earthquake Centennial Seminar, which will focus on the Great Earthquake, its effects on the Bay Area and ensuing advances in earthquake science, engineering and risk mitigation.

    Stanford sponsors of the lecture series are the John A. Blume Earthquake Engineering Center, the School of Earth Sciences and the President's Fund. For directions and more information about the lectures, contact Racquel Hagen at the Blume Earthquake Engineering Center at 723-4150 or racquelh@stanford.edu.

    Other centennial events planned for next spring include a walking tour of Stanford and an exhibition of historical photographs of the campus taken in the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake. Additional information is available online at http://quake06.stanford.edu.