One month after a retaining wall collapsed at a Tennessee Valley Authority coal plant just before Christmas, sending 5.4 million cubic yards of fly ash into the Emory River, a group of researchers at Duke University released their analysis of what exactly the gray sludge contained. Radium and arsenic particulates embedded in it, they concluded, could pose health problems for the people living near the spill site. "When we published our data and had a press release of our report," said Avner Vengosh, a professor of earth and ocean sciences who led the study, "we received some calls from ... Read More
FEMA’s Nightmare: A Big Midwest Shaker
November 21, 2008 • By • Leave a Comment
The "Big One" assumed for California or other Pacific Rim states and provinces will almost certainly arrive some day, but FEMA said Thursday that the most catastrophic quake in the United States probably is destined for mid-America. The feds didn't say "biggest," as in magnitude, but catastrophic, as in social upheaval and economic disruption. Based on a study by the University of Illinois' Mid-America Earthquake Center, FEMA suggests "the total economic impact of a series of (New Madrid Seismic Zone) earthquakes is likely to constitute the highest economic losses due to a natural disaster ... Read More
Mass Evacuation Worked in Rehearsal, But …
September 16, 2008 • By • Leave a Comment
When the nation weighed the success of New Orleans’ evacuation for Hurricane Katrina, few looked to the more than 1 million citizens who drove vehicles or booked flights to flee the threat through their own means. The overwhelmingly negative reviews, rather, rested with local and state governments’ inability to assist tens of thousands of residents who either didn’t have transportation to get out or couldn’t afford the gas and lodging they would need on a multiday evacuation. An image of yellow school buses parked in neat rows while submerged in Katrina’s floodwaters epitomized ... Read More
The ‘Big One’ Might Not Be in California
May 8, 2008 • By • Leave a Comment
The April 18 earthquake in Illinois, measuring a 5.2 magnitude and felt in parts of 16 states, has piqued the curiosity of seismologists because it did not originate on the notorious and much-feared New Madrid fault in Missouri Bootheel region but rather along the Wabash Valley fault — comparatively overlooked but potentially more dangerous. It's just one of several "underlooked" faults in the United States that could pose greater risks than their better-known neighbors. A series of infamous earthquakes occurred along the New Madrid fault at the end of 1811 and the beginning of 1812 ... Read More
