Search

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. 

In the College of New Jersey Hurrican Sandy oral history, The oral collected some information about residents affected by Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey. All the stories about the effects of such a hazard include all groups and classes of people, such as poor or rich, young and old, and families and single people. Hurrican Sandy's damages were distributed among all groups of people, by destroying houses, drowning people, and lost of electricity and water for days and months. This oral history shows the different stories and events of all the different groups that were affected really bad in the Hurrican 

the vulnerabilities of Hurricane that are affecting community are destroying homes and landscape, which impacted the whole community, included children who need to feel safe and have homes to stay in. Providing any event of arts for the Hurricane victims will help them recover from such a terrible experience.