How did the 1906 San Francisco earthquake occur?

The 1906 earthquake in San Francisco was of magnitude 8.3 and was the most destructive in the history of the United States. Because this part of California is now much more heavily populated, intense studies have been made of the 1906 earthquake in an effort to understand how it occurred and, more importantly, what likelihood there is of future large earthquakes near San Francisco. Great emphasis has been put on geodetic data- ground surveys of the region have been made frequently since 1853 (see "The California geodimeter network: measuring movement along the San Andreas fault" by J.C Savage, Earthquake Information Bulletin, vol. 6 no. 3, May-June 1974).