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I'm interested in better understanding the ongoing geological processes that shape St. Louis and the Mississippi Valley region. So far, I've been looking into the history of seismicity in the region, focusing on the fascinating but little known history of the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811 and 1812 -- the most devastating earthquakes to have hit the US east of the Rockies. I've also been exploring how St. Louis and surrounding areas are dealing with the possibility of another earthquake occurring in the future. According to one article I read, one of the biggest uncertainties is what would happen to the heavily engineered Mississippi River in the case of another major tremblor. The shaking could break the levees, flooding wide areas along the river and creating cascading effects. The flow of the river might also reverse completely, as occurred during the New Madrid earthquakes.

On these possibilities and the lack of scientific consensus surrounding intraplate seismicity in this zone, see this article in The Atlantic.

On current efforts to create earthquake hazard maps in St. Louis, see this overview on the US Geological Survey site.

For a deeper dive into the history of the New Madrid earthquakes, see this book by historian of science Conevery Bolton Valencius. 

this graph is a perfect representation of the affects any thing can have on communities.  this graph can be correlated with things like natural disasters and their would be an increase in numbers.

children were tested for lead poisoning and their was a correlation between those who had lead poisoning and those who were homeless or a victim to poverty.

charts like this only show how any are in poverty.  whats not shown is how these people and families got to this point and what the common theme is between them

this diagram represents poverty rates from 15 years ago.  this is the history of newarks poverty rates towards families children and more.  

this diagram shows how different age groups suffer from povert.  as the years in age grow larger, the higher the numbers in poverty.