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The struggle to understand why earthquakes happen in America's heartland

undark.org

41–50 of 68 posts

Re: The struggle to understand why earthquakes happen in America's heartland

#42

uh is it ? Doesn't america have an active super volcano?

Dr. Jacob Lowenstern, research geologist and Scientist-in-Charge at the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, says that Yellowstone is currently a dormant volcano, with low levels of unrest.

https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/when-sleep...

Re: The struggle to understand why earthquakes happen in America's heartland

#43

> In Tennessee, jurisdictions can decide whether to opt in to building codes with earthquake provisions, while other states — like Missouri — don’t have state-wide building codes at all, though there are efforts to change that. I live on the other side of the state from New Madrid and can tell you, there's a 0% chance the Missouri state legislature passes a bill requiring earthquake proofing of buildings. You'd have…

Building codes are usually not retroactive.

Re: The struggle to understand why earthquakes happen in America's heartland

#44

This stereotype of people in “flyover states” as being uneducated and dense really needs to stop. EDIT Reader heads experiencing flyover - read: "The struggle to understand why sunrises happen in America's heartland"

> stereotype of people in “flyover states” as being uneducated and dense really needs to stop

Was going to point out that this is in Missouri, but it turns out Missouri is smack in the middle of the pack when it comes to educational attainment [1]. T

he states and territories with the lowest rate of high-school diplomas are Puerto Rico, California, Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana. (Bachelor's: W. Virginia, Mississippi, Arkansas. Advanced: Puerto Rico, Mississippi, Arkansas.)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territ...

Re: The struggle to understand why earthquakes happen in America's heartland

#45

This stereotype of people in “flyover states” as being uneducated and dense really needs to stop. EDIT Reader heads experiencing flyover - read: "The struggle to understand why sunrises happen in America's heartland"

Nobel idea, never gonna happen. Media depicting the characteristics of life in various (types of) areas of the US are all simulacra.

A lot of writers have the self-awareness to know this, but delude themselves that they're able to act outside that system.

However, find yourself an LA writer who's never visited anywhere not called "the $FOO core metro area," and let them tell you how they think the world works. It's like staring into the abyss.

Re: The struggle to understand why earthquakes happen in America's heartland

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s true. Jefferson City’s favorite things are: 1) telling the two cities that are most of the state’s economy that they can’t have nice things, and 2) reversing successful ballot initiatives when the voters try to have nice things.

There is an interesting phenomenon where people desire to push their views on other people dont like it. When this is the case I wonder if the level of governance selected is too high, and people could achieve their end goal with more local action.

Blocking local action is precisely one of the two things Missouri loves to do.

Re: The struggle to understand why earthquakes happen in America's heartland

#47
I have relatives in West Tennessee, and they claim their area has "rolling hills"--gentle swells like the earth moved in waves before resettling (unlike the author's claim of "flat as Kansas"--though maybe hen only saw the farms and didn't realize the geoengineering).

Old folk there claim they use that metaphor because that's not metaphorical, but actual what happened in 1811/12.

The Arkansas side is flatter, but possibly because that's mostly in the Mississippi River's ambit (until you reach Crowley's Ridge. The article shows a picture of the mirror structure on the east side of the Mississippi called Chickasaw Bluffs which is very close to the current course of the river)

Re: The struggle to understand why earthquakes happen in America's heartland

#48

This stereotype of people in “flyover states” as being uneducated and dense really needs to stop. EDIT Reader heads experiencing flyover - read: "The struggle to understand why sunrises happen in America's heartland"

> This stereotype of people in “flyover states” as being uneducated and dense really needs to stop.

I live in Nebraska. We are fucking stupid.

Re: The struggle to understand why earthquakes happen in America's heartland

#49
post #3

What does it take to convince people to take risks like this seriously? The challenge is that hypothetical risks 'sometime in the next 50+ years' don't convince people to do things, at least in the US. The pacific northwest is at a much higher risk from an array of faults (not just the cascadia subduction zone) and volcanic hazards but even there, where the risks are very well understood, getting a large region to ta…

It's like everything else: it comes down to money. People who don't have much of it (which is to say, most of the area in the New Madrid seismic zone) don't want to spend it on something that might happen at some completely unpredictable time in the future. They don't want the government telling them to do it, either, because in their minds, that's the government telling them to spend money they don't have. More mone…

The economy isn't a zero sum game and infrastructure projects generally pay for themselves in the long run many times over. I think we are too interested in today's budget to pay attention to historically valuable things.

Re: The struggle to understand why earthquakes happen in America's heartland

#50

This stereotype of people in “flyover states” as being uneducated and dense really needs to stop. EDIT Reader heads experiencing flyover - read: "The struggle to understand why sunrises happen in America's heartland"

> stereotype of people in “flyover states” as being uneducated and dense really needs to stop Was going to point out that this is in Missouri, but it turns out Missouri is smack in the middle of the pack when it comes to educational attainment [1]. T he states and territories with the lowest rate of high-school diplomas are Puerto Rico, California, Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana. (Bachelor's: W. Virginia, Mississip…

Having Lived in the Midwest and CA, I strongly suspect this is some kind of artifact of CA doing something better.

Either schools in CA are harder as in teaching much more, CA is counting more kids, CA is failing kids who didn't academically succeed, or MO might not be tracking kids from certain areas, MO might be pushing kids along and passing them out when they don't know the material. It could be as simple as when schools lose track of a kid CA might default to "did not graduate" and MO defaults to "don't care not tracking".

Live in each place for a week and tell me the average education level in the lower midwest is on par. I know that one person isn't a statistical sample, but it is so easy to reproduce and so many people have done it seeing the same results.

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