St. Louis residents are still dealing with the terrible devastation that last week's thunderstorm unleashed on the city. The frighteningly strong storm toppled semis and massive trees and left hundreds of thousands without power. But UMR experts say the kind of natural destruction the city saw last week is nothing to what is building up underground. KOLR-10 in Springfield caught up with DJ Belarbi and J. David Rogers to find out more about the looming major earthquake that threatens the New Madrid Seismic Zone.
“It would be a lot more grim than people realize,” explained Rogers. “We have tremendous vulnerability for transportation structures which passes through our state.”
While on campus, KOLR-10 stopped in to watch Belarbi test bridge piers. The tests are part of a larger project that have UMR and four other universities studying the complex loading -- twisting, pushing and bending -- that can occur all at the same time and in every direction in bridge structures during earthquakes. Take a sneak peek at the tests here (3.8 MB) and here (5.1 MB).
