Tracking Extreme Weather in the US

The US Weather Service Current Weather Warnings can be seen in the AccuWeather  website or the Weather Channel website. The map below shows currently weather warnings in particular in the south and east of the US. Being informed with extreme weather events is the best strategy to be safe and prepare accordingly.

A new interactive extreme weather map shows weather-related disasters in the United States over the last five years and tells the stories of the people and communities who have endured some of those disasters and other extreme weather events. It is obvious a few areas get hit again and again…

These days most institutions have a twitter feed you can follow so you are alerted the moment a watch or warning is in effect.

Week 8-Mass Wasting Events Exploration

Landslides in the United States cause approximately $3.5 billion in damage, and kill between 25-50 people annually. The largest landslide in modern U.S. history (in terms of volume) was most likely one that occurred in 2013 in Bingham Canyon outside of Salt Lake City, Utah. It had a slide mass of 55 million cubic meters (compared to an estimated 10 million cubic meters during the Oso event in 2014, see image below). Fortunately, no one was injured or killed during the Utah slide. 

Landslides impact California’s terrain often. These are generally related to precipitation patterns, in particular if there has been previous months of drought conditions. Early this year, across Southern California, heavy rain was causing numerous mudslides and road closures in burn scar areas from recent wildfires. The image below clearly shows what type of enormous devastation we are talking about [the death toll was 20]. That area was previously burned by the Thomas fire, the biggest wildfire in CA’s recorded history, so it is not surprise that heavy rain provoked this mudslides, as the soil had no holding vegetation left. It is very possible this will repeat in the state later in the year after the big storms/rain hit.

This USGS page has information on how to identify landslides and what to do if one happens. If you want to know if you are living in a risk area, you can access maps like the USGS below that shows the Emergency Assessment of Post-Fire Debris-Flow Hazards.

Stay informed and safe-

Week 5- How to minimize Volcanic Hazards in the US: USGS Alert Codes

This week, at the same time everyone is following now-tropical storm Florence on the east coast, Geol9 is exploring the volcanic hazards in different countries and their warning systems. I’ll be focusing on the US.

There are several ways we minimize the danger of volcanic activity (apart from the obvious of ‘getting out of the way’…(J:

·         Forecasting (earthquakes as early warnings -although in 2014 a Japanese volcano erupted without any previous seismicity (livescience article), land swelling before eruption, gas emissions, etc.)

·         Volcanic Alert Codes (USGS): the levels of alert and the aviation code levels commonly change at the same time (chart on right). A non-erupting volcano will have a green icon, and a red one indicates an imminent eruption (see USGS Alert Codes).

Today the US hazards map shows 4 volcanoes as to be above normal background (elevated unrest):

Cleveland and Great Sitkin Alert Level=ADVISORY. Aviation Color Code=Yellow.

Kilauea and Veniaminof Alert Level=WATCH. Aviation Color Code=Orange.

Week 3-Earthquakes

This week we are exploring earthquakes and what countries do to prevent/mitigate the hazard. If I want to know something about earthquakes in a place, the first websites I go to are: the USGS Real Time Earthquakes Website or the IRIS monitoring website.

In the last month, there were 1,336 quakes of 1.5 M or larger.

Re: where quakes are located in the US, the 2014 US map of seismicity (see image below from USGS) shows the (obvious, in pink) ring of fire portion on the West coast but also a central area in the middle of the plate. I’d like to talk a bit more about this non-obvious one. This area, called the New MadridZone was shaken by a M8(!) in 1811. The reason for the activity is a very old intraplate rift placed below the area (see image from http://showme.net).

The San Andreas Fault System is responsible for most of California natural quakes...we had over 550 in the last month...up north, the Cascadia Subduction Zone will be responsible for next big one that area has. So, at least we start to know the 'why' of these quakes.

Re: the 'what to do about it', besides the obvious need for education, I want to focus on the USGS ShakeAlert system, developed for the West coast using some of the existing systems. Today, the technology exists to detect earthquakes, so quickly, that an alert can reach some areas before strong shaking arrives. The purpose of an EEW (Earthquake Early Warning) system is to identify and characterize an earthquake a few seconds after it begins, calculate the likely intensity of ground shaking that will result, and deliver warnings to people and infrastructure in harm’s way. Studies of earthquake early warning methods in California have shown that the warning time would range from a few seconds to a few tens of seconds, depending on the distance to the epicenter of the earthquake. 

Hazards and Plate Tectonics- USA

This week we are exploring plate tectonics and how the location of each country is affected by its position respect to plate boundaries.

The NOAA map below shows clearly how the Easter US is a passive margin and the Western side of the country is a very active one, with the Pacific Plate, Cocos, Juan de Fuca plates connecting to the North American plate. Not a surprise we are on the ‘Ring of Fire’, where a lot of the volcanic and seismic activity happens!

Of course, there are a few exceptions, like the current activity of Hawaii (hot spot) or the New Madrid area (ancient rift), both not at plate boundaries, but is for some other time.

We might not know when events like volcanic eruptions or big earthquakes will happen, but if you know your Tectonics, you definitely know where the do happen!

All for now-

Other Plate Maps found at USGS or Esri: interactive

Largest Wildfire in California's history-August 2018

A pair of wildfires in Northern California, the River Fire and the Ranch Fire, burned more than 454 square miles, becoming the largest in state history Monday evening. The so-called Mendocino Complex surpassed last December's Thomas Fire, which burned more than 440 square miles in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, claiming more than 1,000 structures and one life. Combined, the Mendocino Complex has burned an area nearly the size of Los Angeles. The Mendocino Complex has destroyed at least 75 homes, 68 other structures and threatens 11,300 buildings, Cal Fire said. A tenacious heat wave and relentless winds are not helping the firefighting efforts. Even with almost 3500 assigned personnel, it was 34 percent contained as August 7th.

For information about prevention and education, http://www.preventwildfireca.org/

and https://www.fs.fed.us/fire/prev_ed/index.html are good resources.

Also worth checking out is https://projects.sfchronicle.com/2018/fire-tracker/.

The 2018 Hurricane Season starts in May this year!

Subtropical Storm Alberto is located 65 miles  N-NW of the western tip of Cuba and is moving to the north-north at 13 mph (20 km/h). This means the storm has wind speeds of at least 38 mph (58 km/h). For it to be a hurricane, the storm has to reach 74 mph (119 km/h). More good information in this new Live science article.

Alberto will threaten the Gulf Coast, from Florida to Louisiana, with flooding, storm surge, and strong winds. Watches and Warnings have been issued. We’ll keep an eye on it. For now, Florida and Mississippi have declared 'states of emergency' ahead of the storm.

The National Hurricane Center website is a great place to get the latest information. Their last path prediction is below.