Tuesday

San Francisco Quake Optical Illusion

I lived in San Francisco area from 1983-87 and have many fond memories. I learned to drive a manual shift automobile, I met my wife, and I got married. My wife and I spent many a weekend in the city enjoying what this great city had to offer. While living in the Bay area we only experienced a minor quake or two, barely a rumble.

But on October 17th 1989 a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck the Bay area just before the third game of the World Series at Candlestick Park. This was the worst earthquake since 1906, many buildings collapsed and many others shifted off of their foundations. This picture was taken after the quake.

How is it that this building is leaning so far over yet there is no apparent damage?

San Francisco Quake optical illusions image

© 2002 Erwin Purucker
www.panoptikum.net
Used w/permission

This is actually Erwin's daughter, thankfully she seems to have survived the shake in one piece.
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5 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:39 PM EST

    :)

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  2. Anonymous1:33 PM EST

    well duh its obvious that the buildings not on a slant but the road is.....the camera im guessing has been turned to make it look like the ground is straight

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  3. Walt4:10 PM EST

    Daria,

    Your very sweet not to expose the obvious too early.

    Floyd,

    Bravo your absolutely correct. I live for the verbal illusion, the setup that might get people to hesitate for 10 or 15 seconds before realizing and accepting the truth.

    Cheers!

    Walt

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous4:54 PM EST

    It is a shame there were trees in the background, without which the illusion would have been even more convincing.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous7:15 PM EST

    its quite obvious
    theres almost no point in posting it

    ReplyDelete