2013-12-16 | in Where on Google Earth? | 5 responses
It’s more than a year that I haven’t solved a WoGE (Where on GoogleEarth?), but I came across Ron’s latest quiz and found it quite fast to my own surprise. He had a very unusual location – a seamount off the island of Oahu that turned out to be no volcano but part of a giant landslide instead. Beautiful spot, great story.
Now I have the honour of hosting WoGE #414, and here it is:
Find the spot!
The rules are simple: Find the location on GoogleEarth, publish the coordinates and the geological story behind the image in the comments. I have included a subtle hint this time.
No Schott rule invoked. If you want to know more, read Felix’ summary.
Good luck!
Brian | 2013-12-18|09:00 (UTC)
I looked at this shortly after it was first posted, but I didn’t have time to look around.
Now, as I started to earnestly look at it, it started looking awfully familiar. The patterns in the fields at first, then the canal. A second later it suddenly hit me…. though not quite like a magnitude 8. whew… 🙂
Hot diggity!! I may be an amateur, but this is one my areas of interest.
36.586, -89.524
We are looking at the town of New Madrid on the Mississippi River, Missouri, USA.
This is the epicenter of the last of four major earthquakes which struck the region in 1811-1812.
December 16, 1811, 0815 UTC (2:15 a.m.); (M ~7.2–8.1)
December 16, 1811, 1415 UTC (8:15 a.m.); (M ~7.2–8.1)
January 23, 1812, 1500 UTC (9 a.m.); (M ~7.0–7.8)
February 7, 1812, 0945 UTC (4:45 a.m.); (M ~7.4–8.0)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1811%E2%80%931812_New_Madrid_earthquakes
The town was destroyed by that last quake.
The general area is known as the New Madrid Seismic Zone, which underlays deep sediment layers of the Mississippi River, and continues to have minor quakes to this day. The faults are believed to be a reactivation of the Reelfoot Rift which tried to start splitting North America apart 750mya.
Susan E. Hough (now scientist in charge of the Pasadena, CA office of the USGS) has done studies of these historic quakes, which were felt throughout eastern North America, infamously ringing church bells in Boston.
http://pasadena.wr.usgs.gov/office/hough/
http://pasadena.wr.usgs.gov/office/hough/Mueller_etal_04_Nature.pdf
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2010JB007783/abstract
In part I mention Hough as she has written several books for the public on earthquakes, including one on prediction, “Predicting the Unpredictable: The Tumultuous Science of Earthquake Prediction” in which I get a whole paragraph briefly describing some ‘prediction’ work I did (to debunk a particular predictor), which can be found on my website at:
http://www.skywise711.com/quakes/EQDB/index.html
WOO HOO!!! 🙂
Brian
Brian | 2013-12-18|23:15 (UTC)
wow…. I claimed this last night and wrote a big write up. Now it’s gone?
Brian
Brian | 2013-12-18|23:16 (UTC)
whoa….now that I posted that, it’s showing. Strange.
Brian
Christoph Grützner | 2013-12-19|07:29 (UTC)
Brian, sorry that the SPAM-filter caught your comment.
Perfectly found and described! These mysterious events happened 202 years ago and still puzzle us. The next WOGE is yours!
Brian | 2013-12-20|22:41 (UTC)
No worries. Spam happens. 🙂
It was probably all the links I posted. My blog does the same to help control spam. I totally understand and should have realized before I complained.
Anyway, I have WoGE #415 up on my own blog:
http://www.skywise711.com/blog/2013/12/20/where-on-google-earth-415/
Good luck everyone!
Brian