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Earthquakes in the Midwest
Posted on Tuesday, April 22, 2008 @ 10:29 am by Dave Schumaker
In response to last week’s M5.2 earthquake in Illinois, the University of Cincinnati has published an interview with Professor Attila Kilinc, a geologist in the school’s Department of Geology. The interview tackles questions relating to the risk and history of earthquakes in the Midwest. It also tackles the very important question of whether or not California will fall into the ocean.
Q: How common are earthquakes in the Midwest and was the severity of this tremor a first for this area”
A: Between 1776 and the present, 170 earthquakes have been charted in Ohio of magnitude 2.0 or greater. There have been at least 150 below magnitude 2.0, which averages out to approximately 1½ earthquakes a year. This latest was not a first, severity-wise: Several others measured inbetween 5.3 and 5.4; in 1980, for example, an earthquake in Sharpsburg, Ky., measured 5.2.
[Via Eurekalert]
Floodplain Development in the Midwest
Posted on Tuesday, April 1, 2008 @ 11:20 am by Dave Schumaker
Dr. Robert E. Criss, a professor of earth and planetary sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, says that patterns from this winter’s storms are eerily similar to those that preceded the Great Flood of 1993 in the Midwest. The Great Flood of 1993 was responsible for $20 billion in economic losses and destroyed 50,000 homes.
Parallels this year include abnormally high levels of precipitation in late winter and early spring and early flooding in various regions, such as the floods of late March in Missouri, Arkansas and Illinois and the Ohio River watershed. An unknown factor is the effect of the snow melt – Wisconsin, for instance, had record amounts of snow this winter – on river systems this spring and summer.
Despite the similarity in conditions, and periods of flooding nearly every year after those flood years more than a decade ago, one thing Midwesterners have not learned is “geologic reality.”
Criss’ arguments come across as harsh, but he raises completely valid points against development in floodplains and the consequences of levee systems.
[Via Eurekalert]