Geology Commons^™

Review Of Curbing Catastrophe: Natural Hazards And Risk Reduction In The Modern World, Kira H. Hamman

Numeracy

Timothy H. Dixon. 2017. Curbing Catastrophe: Natural Hazards and Risk Reduction in the Modern World. (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press) 300 pp. ISBN 978-1108113663.

In Curbing Catastrophe, Timothy H. Dixon explores commonalities among natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina, the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, and the meltdown at Fukushima. He identifies communication failure between scientists and policy makers as a major culprit in the devastation that results from such events and offers strategies for improving that communication. He includes optional in-depth scientific and quantitative examinations of the events and the resulting devastation, making the book appropriate for use …

Sinkhole Vulnerability Mapping: Results From A Pilot Study In North Central Florida, Clint Kromhout, Alan E. Baker

Sinkhole Conference 2015

At the end of June in 2012, Tropical Storm Debby dropped a record amount of rainfall across Florida which triggered hundreds, if not thousands, of sinkholes to form which resulted in tremendous damage to property. The Florida Division of Emergency Management contracted with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Florida Geological Survey to produce a map depicting the state’s vulnerability to sinkhole formation. The three-year project began with a pilot study in three northern Florida counties: Columbia, Hamilton and Suwannee. Utilizing the statistical modeling method Weights of Evidence, results from the pilot study yielded a 93 percent success rate of …

Using Electrical Resistivity Imaging To Characterize Karst Hazards In Southeastern Minnesota Agricultural Settings, Toby Dogwiler, Blake Lea

Sinkhole Conference 2015

Much of the Driftless Area of southeastern Minnesota is underlain by karstified carbonate bedrock. Land use in this karst terrain is dominated by agriculture, including row crop and dairy operations. The karst in this region is often mantled with up to 15 m of soil and unconsolidated sediments. As a result, underlying karst hazards such as incipient sinkholes are often hidden until they are suddenly revealed by the collapse of subsurface voids. Regionally, the economics of the dairy industry is causing a trend toward the consolidation and expansion of existing operations. As concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO) or feedlots expand, …

Seeps And Springs At A Platteville “Observatory” On The River Bluffs, Bj Bonin, Greg Brick, Julia R. Steenberg

Sinkhole Conference 2015

Residential building construction along the Mississippi River bluffs in the 1970s created a unique enclosed outcrop of the Late Ordovician Platteville Formation at Lilydale, Minnesota. This outcrop was examined in early 2013 after a newly-formed spring flooded an elevator shaft the previous year, drawing attention to the foundation conditions. The Lexington Riverside property is a six story condominium complex constructed within the top of the bluff. A two-level underground parking garage was built into the bluff. Bedrock was mechanically excavated to accommodate the construction of the building, creating an unweathered rock surface. The space between the structure and the excavated …

Time, Money, And Melting Ice: Proposal For A Coopertive Study Of The World’S Cave Ice In A Race Against Climate Change, George Veni, Lewis Land, Aurel Perşoiu

The International Workshop on Ice Caves

Climate change is a global phenomenon that is melting and threatening to melt ice deposits in many of the world’s ice caves. The National Cave and Karst Research Institute of the USA is concerned that major and important paleoclimate and paleoenvironmental records stored in cave ice will soon be lost, and is proposing an international collaborative effort to overcome funding and logistical challenges to sample and analyze at least a representative collection of ice from several regions before further melting occurs.

Study Of Filled Dolines By Using 3d Stereo Image Processing And Electrical Resistivity Imaging, Mateja Breg Valjavec

International Journal of Speleology

This article deals with doline degradation due to uncontrolled waste dumping in the past in the Logatec Polje in Slovenia. It introduces a concept for determining 3D geometric characteristics (shape, depth, radius, area, and volume) of formerly concave landforms (i.e., recently filled dolines) by using a combination of two methods: (1) photogrammetric stereo processing of archival aerial photographs and (2) electrical resistivity imaging (ERI). To represent, visualize, and study the characteristics of the former surface morphology (i.e., the dolines before they were filled), a digital terrain model (DTM) for 1972 (DTM1972) was made using digital photogrammetry processing of five sequential …

Introducing Geoscience Students To Numerical Modeling Of Volcanic Hazards: The Example Of Tephra2 On Vhub.Org, Leah M. Courtland, Charles Connor, Laura Connor, Costanza Bonadonna

Numeracy

The Tephra2 numerical model for tephra fallout from explosive volcanic eruptions is specifically designed to enable students to probe ideas in model literacy, including code validation and verification, the role of simplifying assumptions, and the concepts of uncertainty and forecasting. This numerical model is implemented on the VHub.org website, a venture in cyberinfrastructure that brings together volcanological models and educational materials. The VHub.org resource provides students with the ability to explore and execute sophisticated numerical models like Tephra2. We present a strategy for using this model to introduce university students to key concepts in the use and evaluation of Tephra2 …

Distribution Patterns And Accumulation Rates Of Fine-Grained Sediments In Upper Tampa Bay, Florida, Gregg R. Brooks

Reports

Tampa Bay, a drowned river valley, is the largest estuary on Florida's west coast.

Surface sediments consist of a mixture of carbonate and terrigenous clastic sands and muds.

The objectives of this study are to determine accumulation rates and processes controlling the distribution patterns of fine grain sediments.

Surface Sediment Composition And Distribution In Hillsborough Bay, Florida 1986, City Of Tampa Department Of Sanitary Sewers Bay Study Group

Reports

Surface sediments were mapped to determine the approximate boundaries and percent areal coverage of "mud" in Hillsborough Bay. Depth recorder soundings along 29 transects were used in conjunction with sediment grain size analyses form 19 stations to produce a sediment map.