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Seismic St. Louis

Emily Sekine
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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. 

EthnoSketch: Peopling a Project

On the "peopling" sketch, "catalysts" are things (money, honorable reputation, etc) that enable that group of people to get what they want.

EthnoSketch: Historicizing a Project

This sketch should include at least ten events that had significance in the historical build up to your project space -- from your perspective, and from the perspective of people in your various “d

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ciera.williams
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Aside from being discussed on the Disaster STS Network, this reading has been mentioned other places. For starters, it is a chapter of a larger book, “Nuclear Disaster at Fukushima Daiichi: Social, Political and Environmental Issues.” This book is a collection of writings by international STS scholars. Additionally, this piece has been referenced in several other writings, including the book “The Fukushima Effect: A New Geopolitical Terrain” and the article “Nuclear disaster in Taiwan: a multidimensional security challenge.” 

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ciera.williams
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There have been a number of controversial events and policies that have affected ARC policy. One of the most notable ones is the controversy in blood donation from gay men. The FDA requires that no blood can be taken from a man who has had sex with anohter man since 1977. The ARC petitioned the FDA in 2006 for the removal of the policy, though nothing has been done to address it yet. 

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ciera.williams
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The artice cites WHO preparadness plans and Doctors without Borders as sources of policy on emergency response, in the context of global health. With the rise in infectious disease, there is a risk for "global threat" that is not directly targeted at a group, but rather engineered through social and economic factors. This means that emrgency preparadness is key. However, the article metions the use of Emergency repsonse as a bit of a cop-out. It is much easier to plan for the worst than prevent it from happening. The author states "... measures focused on mitigating potential emergencies are easier to implement rhan longer-term structural interventions."