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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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Zackery.White
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One of the things that I was going to follow up on was the Campaign to Shut Down Rikers, but unfortunately the website has been shut down, and currently holds no content. There is currently no explanation as to why the website was taken down; at least that I could find.

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Zackery.White

This article has a very lengthy bibliography which contains a variety of government resources for data collection. Many of other papers cited focus on Katrina response, this shows the ideals this article are widley supported by other researchers and scholars.

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Zackery.White

The article addresses emergency response in two ways by addressing emergency medicine in a long and short-term fashion. It talks about first responder contamination, and whether or not the containment was well handled. The review of the past emphasizes a greater need to prepare for the future. Another part of the article discusses the severe number of individuals that were affected, and thus the problems arising from such a large number of individuals. 

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Zackery.White
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The Waiting Room, being a documentary, uses a plethora of personal annecdotes in order to support the argument emotionally. The arguement is supported from more than one direction which, in my opinion, makes this such an empowering film. The film combats the problem from both the patient and clinical side showing frustrations on both sides.