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Seismic St. Louis

Emily Sekine

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. 

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neemapatel128

The main point of the article was that EPA researchers input portable air sensors that monitor levels of particulate matter and nitrogen oxide- pollutants that cause short and long-term health effects and are regulated under Clean Air Act. The goal was to get good on-the-ground air quality data for our environmental justice community. Data that is collected, understood, and used by those being directly impacted by the pollution. This was supported by the input of EPA air sensors installed into the communities. 

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neemapatel128

The membership is comprised of the Passaic Valley Sewage Commission working in hands with New Jersey Future. The NJ future consist of students from their own communities so boht working together, the community and the commission help build and work better together towards creating better and quick solutions. 

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neemapatel128

The kind of technology and/or infrastructure that they rely on are one big road map. Having an eye on each area as a whole not only helps the organization aide in seeing where the problem relys, but also has the commuities be able to keep an eye out to pinpoint the exacy areas that have the problems. This also helps by not only the organizations but also the communities being able to come up with better and quicker solutions.

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neemapatel128

The numbers and totals on the damage done by the hurricane were given out by total occupied after the storm had hit. Most importantly then the numbers, the pictures of the storm before/after is what occupied the whole research. More then words the pictures spoke on how big this really was, and then the numbers of the damage were also given which made it complete on how big of a damge this had really caused.