Word: regional
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...program "could do irreparable damage to our water supply, to our communities, to our environment." State officials, local representatives of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Sierra Club and similar groups are allied to stop or at least to stall shale development. Water, a precious resource in the tri-state region, is one of their greatest concerns. Conservationists claim that shale extraction could use from one to five barrels of water for each barrel of oil, but company officials maintain much less would be required. Critics also argue that the underground marl-cooking process could release salts, and perhaps even arsenic...
Three times, between Dec, 16, 1811, and Feb. 7, 1812, such scenes were repeated as major earthquakes jolted the region around the small Mississippi River town of New Madrid, Mo. Because the region was sparsely inhabited, few lives were lost. Still, the shocks were so powerful that they caused church bells to ring as far away as Charleston, S.C., stopped pendulum clocks in Washington, D.C., and shook buildings in New York City. No seismographs existed at the time, but detailed descriptions by survivors indicate that the intensities of the three quakes would have ranged between...
...trio of quakes has another distinction. Most major quakes occur around the boundaries of the great moving plates that form the earth's outer layers. One such region lies along California's quake-prone San Andreas fault, where the North American plate and the adjacent Pacific plate are grinding horizontally against each other as they move in opposite directions. When friction causes these plates to stick, stresses build up that are eventually released in a quake when the rock suddenly fractures and the plates lurch ahead. Yet the New Madrid area lies in the very heart...
...discovery of these faults is of far-reaching significance. For the first time, scientists are linking earthquakes in the New Madrid region to specific features in the earth's crust. That means they should be able to measure these movements and perhaps ultimately even forecast future large quakes. Is another monster New Madrid quake likely? Seismologist Otto Nuttli of St. Louis University has no doubts. Says he: "Pressure is building up all along the fault. That's why we're having small earthquakes. The little ones are symptomatic of the stress. They are not relieving it. Everything...
...Midwest Research Institute in Kansas City estimates that a nighttime New Madrid-sized jolt during the next ten years could kill nearly 300 people, injure 27,000 others and cause damage totaling $3.2 billion. The survey also found little concern for building earthquake-resistant structures in the region and noted that only Memphis had any quake-preparedness plans. Explains Jimmy Cravens, the mayor of New Madrid (pop. 3,029): "All of us who grew up around here have felt earthquakes. It makes good coffee-shop conversation. That's about all." Still, Cravens is covering his bets. In his antique...