Austin Rhetoric Field Team
This essay will serve as the workspace for the Austin Anthropocene Campus Rhetoric Field Team.
Seismic St. Louis
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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.
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Richard.OppongManuA new 'switching site' was build to ensure less people would lose power in a disasterous storm like Hurricane Sandy.
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Richard.OppongManuAnnotation of
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The Jersey shore especially was vulnerable to a storm of this capcity, and showed how unprepared for the storm they were after the clouds settled. The boardwalk itself was obliterated and homes and roads were floodded. In New York, most train tranporttaion was halted as many of the lines had to undergo maintenance to bring it back to operating status.
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They have worked to improve the city of Newark in their resilience to server storms.
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The communities of New Jersey was not ready for this powerful stomr that knocked power out widespread across the state. They were vulnerable to all things as no agency took the natural steps to protect its people who were hit by the storm.
Hurricane Vulnerability/Resilience in Newark
In this PECE essay, there are numerous articles that discuss New Jersey's, mainly Newark's, vulnerabilities and resilience to hurricanes.
Ian Ferris describes the methods and focus of the Rhetoric Field Team of the Austin Anthropocene Field Campus.