America and the great California earthquake of 1906 Simon Winchester has fashioned an enthralling and informative look at the tumultuous subterranean world that produces earthquakes, the planets most sudden and destructive force. In the early morning hours of April 18, 1906, San Francisco and a string of towns to its north-northeast and south-southwest were overcome by an enormous shaking that was compounded by the violent shocks of an earthquake, registering 8.25 on the Richter scale that caused major destruction