Recently in Geology Category

In the wake of last month's major earthquake in Chile, media outlets worldwide have been citing the work of Missouri S&T geophysicist Stephen S. Gao.

Gao, whose work on measuring seismic activity has been reported here previously, has been quoted extensively in recent weeks about the increased seismic activity on planet Earth.

"[R]elative to the 20-year period from the mid 1970s to the mid 1990s, the Earth has been more active over the past 15 or so years," Gao told LiveScience. "We still do not know the reason for this yet. Could simply be the natural temporal variation of the stress field in the earth's lithosphere," which is the outer solid part of the Earth.

All of this media attention has landed Gao in the top spot of LiveScience's 13 crazy earthquake facts. But the publication includes this caveat: "Not all seismologists agree, however,"with Gao's assessment. Which leads us to wonder: Can something be a "fact" if there is not general agreement?

Stephen Gao's work on monitoring earthquakes in the Midwest (which we reported on previously) continues to attract attention. The latest media coverage comes from Voice of America, which dispatched a reporter to meet with Gao and his graduate students earlier this summer. The result is this news story: EarthScope Advances Quake Prediction.

Here's an excerpt:

EarthScope is part of a huge project to seismographically map the continental U.S. and Alaska. "The idea is to use 400 seismographs to cover the whole U.S. in about 14 years," Gao explains, adding that the information that will come from those monitors is designed to help scientists predict, not prevent, earthquakes. "[But if] you can predict one, then you can do something to lessen the damage caused by an earthquake," he points out. "People can come out of their house and camp outside. You can shut down the power, the natural gas lines. In that situation, you can reduce the damage a lot."

EarthScope began putting down seismometers on the U.S. west coast in 2002 and is moving its operations eastward across the country. The project is currently entering the area of the New Madrid fault zone, in Missouri and several nearby states. It's the site of one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded in North America.

Last month, Science Daily talked to Gao about what days -- and what times of days -- earthquakes are likely to happen. They seem to be more frequent on Sundays or late at night, but Gao says "that's just because it's quiet" during those times.

Researchers at Missouri S&T have figured out why earthquakes tend to be recorded more frequently in the late night hours -- and on Sundays.

Over the past five years, an array of 400 seismometers has been slowly moving across the United States, from west to east. The stations are in place for two years, then moved eastward. Now, Missouri S&T researcher Stephen Gao and some students are getting in on the action as the instruments continue their eastward migration.

Gao, a seismologist in Missouri S&T's geology and geophysics program, is working with four students from Missouri universities to conduct field surveys and identify locations for the stations. The effort is part of a National Science Foundation initiative called EarthScope. In 2010-2011, 43 earthquake recording stations will be placed in Missouri and southern Iowa as part of the program.

In addition to recording data on earthquakes, scientists can gather important information about the Earth's inner structure through this program, Gao explains. Seconds after a significant earthquake, geophysicists around the world can access the information recorded by each of the stations to learn more about that part of the Earth.

You can track the current status of the EarthScope seismonomers using this interactive map of the EarthScope website. You'll see that the west is covered with the instruments up until about midway through Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.

A Missouri S&T grad recently discovered a giant tropical snake that would have made an anaconda look like an earthworm.

Carlos Jaramillo, a staff scientist/ paleontologist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, found the fossilized remains of a super-sized snake skeleton while on an excavation in Colombia.

Jaramillo and colleagues reported their findings in the February 2009 issue of the journal Nature. The researchers named the gigantic snake Titanboa, which was probably the largest snake to ever slither the earth.

Dr. Jaramillo earned a master's degree in geology from S&T in 1995.

P.S. This isn't directly related, but does anyone remember that time when Jim wrestled the anaconda on Wild Kingdom?

P.P.S. We tried to find a photo of Jim wrestling the anaconda or of King Kong wrestling that giant fake snake in the original movie, but we didn't have any luck.

 

Dr. Francisca Oboh-Ikuenobe recently took two undergrads to Egypt, where they went fossil hunting near the pyramids. They were looking for evidence that this part of the desert was once under water, among other things. And, after spending some time in the field, they shared their findings with Egyptian scientists. Pictured from left to right are: Cassandra Browne, Kristen Arneson and Oboh-Ikuenobe.

David Rogers is one of our most prolific experts here at Missouri S&T. He knows as much as anyone about things relating to levees, floods, hurricanes, and so on. So, after pumping out the ex-wife's flooded basement for the fourth time in four months last week (this is in Springfield), I sent Dr. Rogers an email to ask him some questions about basements and water. I'm passing his response on as a sort of public service announcement:

In regards to your basement:

1) We have had record rainfall this year, even greater than in 1993, so it should be no surprise that you are experiencing some seepage
2) seepage always occurs "bottom-up", just as you describe, because of hydraulic pressure increasing with depth, at rate of 62.4 pounds per cubic foot per foot of depth. The more hydraulic pressure you get against the basement wall, the more seepage that can pass through a hairline crack at the base of the wall stem, where it joins the foundation footing. There is usually a "cold pour" joint at that location which develops a shrinkage crack, and that's where the moisture typically seeps in. So, seepage is all about hydraulic pressure (depth of water on opposite side of the wall), more than any other factor. We've had a really wet year, so all the pores in the soil become saturated, incapable of accepting additional moisture. When it rains the water presure increases very quickly. The other problem is anteceedant mositure. When the ground is near-saturated, rain can't be absorbed by the soil, so runoff increases, dramatically. That's why it floods with a so-called "normal storm (about 1.5 hrs duration), that never previiously caused problems. In the Midwest all of the flooding is intimately tied to anteceedant moisture levels, looking at the past 72 hrs, 1 week, 2 months, and even past 3 months, depending on the size of the watershed.

The bad news is it took months to get into the predicament we find ourselves in right now, and it will take another 6 months or so for us to get out of the "flood danger window," because the anteceedant moisture levels are so high. For example, the Gasconade River experienced its highest recorded flow this past spring, greater than 1983 (the previous record) or even 1993. So from here on everything devolves down to the rainfall patterns that develop this summer, with the most important factors being the duration of dry spells between storms.

Hope that info helps you understand what's going on.

Dr. Curt Elmore and some graduate students (Will Granich, Matt Vitello and Andrea Orlando) are testing a wind and solar power device near Missouri S&T's Stone Henge. Ultimately, they hope to take the tripod to Guatemala, where it will be used to power a groundwater well. This is part of an international effort to tackle water quality issues in Guatemala.

Also, Elmore and colleagues (including Dr. Mariesa Crow) are working on an emergency drinking water system that will be powered by wind and solar energy. This research effort was mentioned in an editorial by Chancellor Carney that appeared recently in the Springfield News-Leader.

If Curt Elmore's portable drinking water system would have been available a few years ago, there might have been plenty of good water to drink after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. Dr. Elmore is working on a prototype of an emergency drinking water system that is powered by wind and solar energy and employs UV light to disinfect contaminated water. Water from rivers or ponds can be pumped into the system, which is small enough to fit in the back of a pick-up truck. The contaminated water is treated under a UV lamp -- which looks a lot like a fluorescent light bulb but is powerful enough to kill bad bacteria -- and then the cleansed water is held in a storage tank that has a spigot. The system would allow people at emergency shelters (or soldiers in combat zones) to fill up personal water bottles. Elmore says commercial versions of the emergency drinking water system may some day be available to municipalities...

P.S. Bonus points to anyone who can tell us where the headline of this post comes from.

UMR civil engineering student Adedotun Moronkeji studied up a storm this summer at Oregon State University, where he took part in research to better understand how tsunami waves affect the earth beneath the ocean.

Moronkeji worked with some Princeton University researchers to create mini-tsunamis at Oregon State's Tsunami Wave Basin, the largest experimental facility dedicated to the study of tsunamis in North America. The research was discussed recently at the sci-tech website Science Daily.

Moronkeji worked with Yin Lu “Julie” Young, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Princeton University’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, to conduct studies that could lead to guidelines for building structures that will withstand tsunamis. Moronkeji's participation was funded through the National Science Foundation's Research Experience for Undergraduates program.