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How EARTHQUAKES affect the environment…. Standard 2.3. Use information about the impact of human actions or natural disasters on the environment to support a simple hypothesis, make a prediction , or draw a conclusion . First: The Question.
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Standard 2.3 • Use information about the impact of human actions or natural disasters on the environment to support a simple hypothesis, make a prediction, or draw a conclusion.
First: The Question • How does an Earthquake affect the environment of living things? • Second: Research and Observation……
Earthquake A sudden movement of the earth's crust caused by the release of stress collected along faults or by volcanic activity Earthquake Statistics http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eqlists/eqstats.html Earthquake Video http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/environment/environment-natural-disasters/earthquakes/earthquake-101.html
4 of the10 'Worst' Natural Disasters • October 8, 2005 magnitude 7.6 earthquake in Pakistan • 1976 earthquake magnitude 8 China • New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-12 in southern Missouri • Mass extinction 65 million years ago – We are unsure of what caused this
The New Madrid Earthquakes of 1811-1812 • During the strongest of the quakes, great cracks opened and spewed out sand and water. Gaping crevices formed, some twelve feet wide and deep and more than twenty feet in length. • Low waterfalls developed at points along the Mississippi in the vicinity of New Madrid. • The quakes caused waves to rush over river banks. Return currents washed countless limbs and even whole trees into the main channels.
Many boats capsized, and cargoes and crews were never seen again. Seasoned riverboat pilots had to deal with whole new rivers. Cracks and fissures, downed trees, and other obstacles made roads and trails impassable. • Massive landslides occurred along the Mississippi and Ohio River bluffs from Memphis to Indiana. • Some ground areas rose or fell as much as twenty feet relative to the surrounding landscape.
An eighteen- to twenty-acre area near Piney River in Tennessee sank so low that the tops of the trees were at the same level as the surrounding ground. • Whole forests sank below their original level and filled with water to form swamps and shallow lakes.
Reelfoot Lake was naturally formed through a series of earthquakes in 1811-1812, which caused the Mississippi River to run backwards and fill the area with water. • In other areas, lakes and swamps rose to higher elevations. • Soon their waters drained away or evaporated. In time they evolved into prairies and upland forests. • Much of this land now supports Tennessee cotton and soybeans.
A first person point of view of these earthquakes…John Bradbury was on the Mississippi River on Dec. 15th, 1811 • After supper. we went to sleep as usual: about ten o'clock, and in the night I was awakened by the most tremendous noise, accompanied by an agitation of the boat so violent, that it appeared in danger of upsetting...I could distinctly see the river as if agitated by a storm; and although the noise was inconceivably loud and terrific, I could distinctly hear the crash of falling trees, and the screaming of the wild fowl on the river, but found that the boat was still safe at her moorings...By the time we could get to our fire. which was on a large flag, in the stern of the boat, the shock had ceased; but immediately the perpendicular banks, both above and below us, began to fall into the river in such vast masses, as to nearly sink our boat by the swell they occasioned . . . At day-light we had counted twenty-seven shocks . . .
They say we could have another massive Earthquake soon….we have small ones all the time. • http://folkworm.ceri.memphis.edu/recenteqs/Quakes/quakes0.html
Now…. • Use your new “Dry Erase Board” to answer the next question. • I will come see what you came up with…
How Earthquakes Impact the Environment • collapsing buildings • property damage • mud slides • fires • floods • tsunamis • loss of power
