Indonesia to Build Monumental Suspension Bridge in Ring of Fire
Geologic Hazards
Haiti Earthquake
The magnitude 7.0 earthquake in the impoverished nation of Haiti has clearly had devastating consequences. I don’t know what I can add in terms of useful information except perhaps to point interested readers to these additional sources of information. This is truly a heart-breaking situation. Click through for the links. (Photo by UNDP Global)
General
Geologists Recover Pieces of San Andreas Fault from 2 Miles Deep
As a follow up to a previous post, the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) team has announced that they have successfully completed their drilling and obtained cores of the San Andreas Fault at depths in excess of 2 miles below the surface. The zone of interest is approximately 135-ft in length. The core size is 4-in diameter. They have cemented in a 7-in casing and the next phase of the project will be to perforate the casing within the fault and install monitoring equipment consisting of seismometers, accelerometers, tiltmeters and a fluid pressure transducer. Read on for more info and links. (Image credit: EarthScope / NSF)
Geoarchaeology
Tectonics and Ancient Civilizations
A new study published in the current issue of Geoarchaeology claims that earthquake-prone areas along the edges of tectonic plates were far more likely to give birth to great ancient civilizations than less dynamic landscapes. The author of the paper, Eric Force, a (U of A Wildcat!) says that 13 of 15 ancient civilizations sites aren’t the product of chance. Instead, ancient people appear to have chosen to settle close to a tectonic plate boundary. The exceptions were in ancient China and Egypt. [Image Adapted from Eric R. Force, Geoarchaeology: An International Journal, 23 (2008)]