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On this day in 1989, the 6.9 magnitude Loma Prieta earthquake hit the San Francisco Bay Area, killing 63 people, injuring more than 3,700 and causing more than $6 billion in damage. The Bay Area was brimming with excitement Oct. 17, as the San Francisco Giants were set to host the Oakland A’s in Game 3 of the World Series. The game was scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m., but at 5:04, the earthquake hit. San Francisco’s Candlestick Park withstood the shaking from the quake, which lasted about 15 seconds, but other parts of the Bay Area weren’t as lucky....

I was living on the eastern US at the time, when this tragedy happened and I am sorry for the souls lost.

Early inhabitants fertilized the soil with charcoal from fire remains and food waste. Areas with this "dark earth" have a different set of species than the surrounding landscape, contributing to a more diverse ecosystem with a richer collection of plant species, researchers from the State University of Mato Grosso in Brazil and the University of Exeter have found. The legacy of this land management thousands of years ago means there are thousands of these patches of dark earth dotted around the region, most around the size of a small field. This is the first study to measure the difference in...

Jim Berkland, a former US Geological Survey scientist, who once famously predicted the Loma Prieta quake, said mega quakes usually strike at a new moon or full moon because of the gravitation effect on the Earth…and the next full moon is on FRIDAY. The maverick, now retired, scientist spoke out after eight powerful earthquakes struck across south Asia and the pacific in the past 80 hours, claiming hundreds of lives in Japan and Ecuador. Mr Berkland predicted on October 13, 1989, an earthquake of magnitude 3.5 to 6.0 would strike San Francisco within the next week. Four days later on...

On October 17, 1989, at 5:04:15 p.m. (PDT), a magnitude 6.9 earthquake severely shook the San Francisco and Monterey Bay regions. The epicenter was located near Loma Prieta peak in the Santa Cruz Mountains, approximately 14 km (9 mi) northeast of Santa Cruz and 96 km (60 mi) south-southeast of San Francisco.