Hi All. Over the past year or so I have gotten some e-mail from people I don’t know telling me about an odor somewhat like rotten eggs in an around the Bay Area. When checking with the weather burial I found that most of the odors could be traced to the various refineries in the area.

My Uncle Nataline lived in Daly City at the time of the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco and I remember him telling me that a couple of days before the quake he could smell the odor of hydrogen sulphide and saw a lot of dead fish in the Bay where he worked. At the time he told me this I was stationed at Travis AFB and would drive through the Martinez area where there are some refineries. I too smelled the odor of hydrogen sulphide and of course I thought that was what he was smelling. Of course that didn’t account for the dead fish.

Tonight while looking for some data on past earthquakes in and around the Bay Area I came across an article written by Thomas Gold about large underground gas explosions causing major earthquakes. What caught my attention was some of the reports about the odor of hydrogen sulphide and dead fish that were reported seen in the Bay. This was the same thing my Uncle told more then 35 years ago. Hope you enjoy. Take Care…Don in creepy town

The earthquake that destroyed parts of San Francisco and virtually all of Santa Rosa occurred at 5:12 a.m. on 18 April 1906. It was most intense perhaps a hundred kilometers north of San Francisco. We will here list some excerpts from the numerous reports, all indicating violent gas emission from the ground, gases that contained the poisonous hydrogen sulphide and gases that were frequently flammable. It is the earthquake for with the most detailed reports exist, and which shows every type of phenomenon that we have noted in other cases.

(a) Effects in Air

An extensive list of noises heard at the time of the shock, compiled from witnesses by Lawson and others (1908), includes the following: From Santa Rosa, "Heard noises in SW; then felt breeze; then felt shock". From Cotati, "Sound as of a strong wind before the shock". From Point Reyes Station, "Heard roar, then felt wind on my face". From Calistoga, "A rushing noise before the shock came". From Pescadero, "Noise as of wind preceded the shock". And from Mount Hamilton, "Sound as of flight of birds simultaneously with shock".

Other clear evidence for gas is given by a report published on 23 April in the Santa Rosa Democrat-Republican (the first newspaper to appear after the devastation). It said:

J.B. Doda, who came over from Fort Ross on Monday, reports that the earthquake caused immense cracks in the earth there, from which strong gases are emitted which make men and cattle sick.

Also, according to Edgar Larkin (1906), who collected a great many accounts, the odor of hydrogen sulphide was noted in the area of Sausalito. He also reported that sulfurous odors were pungent in Napa County during the night of the 17th and 18th before the upheaval, and lasted all day . . .. From many of the letters it is clear that the entire region north and east of San Francisco is saturated with gases of sulfur origin . . ..

In Santa Rosa, according to Lawson and others (1908), a strong smell of sulphur had been noticed two days before the earthquake by one Charles Kobes. Since during an earthquake eight years previously, "sulfur fumes came up from under his house which almost drove his family from home", the recurrence of this phenomenon on 16 April 1906 caused Kobes to tell his family that there would be another earthquake.

(b) Effects in Water

Numerous indications of hydrogen sulphide in bodies of water were reported. According to Larkin (1906), "creeks became milky in several places as if gas escaped from the water". Hydrogen sulfide bubbling through water is known to give it a milky appearance. Another report in the San Jose Herald of 2 May 1906 states that in Monterey Bay, on the day of the quake, there were thousands of strange fish floating on the water a few miles offshore, none of which were known to old fishermen on the boat. Similar reports of massive fish kills at times of earthquakes, especially of bottom-dwelling fish, are known from Japan, in some cases also associated with the description of milkiness of the water. Again, hydrogen sulphide, which is highly toxic to fish, seems a likely explanation, and in each case it is bottom dwelling fish, which are not normally caught that are the chief victims.

• Odors