Sunday marks the 150th anniversary of the other Big One.
Known as the “Great Quake,” that 1868 temblor leveled Hayward, much of San Leandro and parts of San Francisco, and significantly damaged Mission San Jose in Fremont.
To commemorate that event, a special quake exhibit will take place Sunday in Fremont, where part of the Hayward Fault that caused the big temblor runs.
The Fremont Earthquake Exhibit and Tour, which runs from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. at Central Park, will feature several interactive activities for adults and kids alike, including a 60-foot trailer that simulates what it’s like to be shaken by a magnitude 7.0 quake.
About 30 geologists will be on hand to answer questions, followed by guided tours of six areas in the park from noon until 3 p.m., organizers said.
The event is being put on by the educational nonprofit Math Science Nucleus, as well as the U.S. Geological Survey, California Geological Survey and the city of Fremont.
Joyce Blueford, a geologist and board president of the nonprofit, said the event will be a fun way for people to learn about the massive quake caused by the Hayward Fault, well before the more famous 1906 San Francisco earthquake caused by the San Andreas Fault.
“It’s like the first quake in the Bay Area when it was settled,” she said. “It was a six-foot offset. That’s a huge amount of movement,” she said of the 1868 shaker, which was thought to be similar in size to the 1989 Loma Prieta quake.
Because Hayward was the most populous city in the East Bay at the time, it sustained the most damage. “Hayward was leveled,” Blueford said.
But since 1868, the slow creep of the fault line has also shifted the landscape in Fremont, creating a massive crack in the floor of a room inside an old city building in Central Park.
Blueford’s organization spearheaded an effort to renovate that room, which was unknowingly built right on top of the fault in 1962. People can get up close to the crack Sunday as part of the tours.
Following the event, the crack will only be visible from behind plexiglass doors, as part of self-guided walking tours.
Blueford’s organization headed a 10-year effort to renovate the room and get signs designed for six areas around the park.
“Scientists are convinced that the Hayward Fault has reached the point where a powerful, damaging earthquake can be expected at any time,” the U.S. Geological Survey said in a recent publication.
Blueford said people living in the Bay Area shouldn’t be scared of the possibility of a massive quake but should learn what they need to do to be safer.
“We live in earthquake country, and knowledge saves lives,” she said.
The Fremont Earthquake Walk will be held at several locations in Fremont’s Central Park. The main parking lots can be accessed along Paseo Padre Parkway at Sailway Drive. Tours will begin at the Central Park Visitor Center, located on the shore of Lake Elizabeth.
The Fremont Firefighters association will provide free hot dogs while they last.
For more information, visit msnucleus.org/haywardfault.
