No one living in the bustling city of San Francisco in early 1906 could have imagined the horror that was to befall them on the morning of April 18. At 5:12 A.M., a massive earthquake struck the large, sleeping city. This quake, which became known as the San Francisco earthquake, destroyed much of the city and ushered in a new era of earthquake study.

But the residents of San Francisco did not know that this earthquake would revolutionize science. To them, the world was ending. Author John H. Hodgson described the powerful and deadly events of that morning:

They [the people] were awakened by the most violent shaking imaginable-"like a terrier shaking a rat"-and by the frightful roar caused by the writhing and collapse of buildings. Over all this was the insane clanging of church bells as the belfries swayed in the violence of...