After the great 1906 San Francisco earthquake , geophysicist Harry Fielding Reid examined the displacement of the ground surface along the San Andreas Fault in the 50 years before the earthquake . He found evidence for 3.2 m of bending during that period . He concluded that the quake must have been the result of the elastic rebound of the strain energy stored in the rocks on either side of the fault . Later measurements using the global positioning system largely support Reid 's theory as the basis of seismic movement
1906 San Francisco earthquake
1906 San Francisco earthquake
Elastic-rebound theory