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Researchers Complete Seismic Borehole In Kentucky (New Madrid Seismic Zone)
Science Daily ^ | 12-14-2006 | University Of Kentucky

Posted on 12/15/2006 5:27:29 PM PST by blam

Source: University of Kentucky
Date: December 14, 2006

Researchers Complete Seismic Borehole In Kentucky

Drilling has been completed on the deepest borehole for seismic instruments in the eastern U.S. The four-inch diameter hole for the Central U.S. Seismic Observatory (CUSSO), located at Sassafras Ridge in Fulton County, Kentucky, reached a depth of 1,948 feet, where bedrock was encountered.

The location is near the most active part of the New Madrid Seismic Zone, the source of at least three major earthquakes in the winter of 1811-12, before the region was heavily populated and developed. This location will allow instruments in the seismic hole to gather the maximum amount of data from the region's earthquakes for thorough evaluation of their effects on bedrock and soil and the resulting ground motions.

"Now that the well has been completed, our focus will be on getting instruments installed and collecting data vital to the region," says Jim Cobb, director of the Kentucky Geological Survey (KGS) and state geologist

The partners in the project, including the University of Kentucky, KGS, and several federal agencies, will now determine the type and number of instruments to place in the shaft and at what depths to place them.

Five partners involved in the project committed nearly $300,000 to the drilling project. Much of the funding came from the U.S. Department of Energy through the Kentucky Research Consortium for Energy and Environment. The Department of Energy has an interest in the region's earthquakes due to uranium enrichment operations at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant.

Edward W. Woolery of UK's Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Zhenming Wang of KGS led the effort to plan and secure funding for the project. The next step in the process of completing the project will involve a workshop sponsored by the partners to gather input about the instruments to be placed in the observatory. The partners will apply to agencies such as the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and other sources of funding for the purchase and installation of the instruments.

When instrumentation is completed, the observatory will be added to the Kentucky Seismic and Strong-motion Network, a series of monitoring stations operated by KGS and the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences.

It will add new data on the origin, location, magnitude, and depth of earthquakes in this region to the information currently gathered by the network's 26 instruments.

Data collected will help geologists and engineers better define the earthquake hazard in the region. Knowing the hazard has implications for economic development in the region as well as specific applications for ongoing activities at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: borehole; earthquake; eq; madrid; newmadrid; researchers; seismic
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To: Dog Gone
You believed the MSM report that these fine gentlemen who've been drilling this hole had no plan for it.

Anyone who reads Discover, Science, Science News, New Scientist or Scientific American, or even the Science column in the New York Times on Sundays knows everything there is to know about this hole from the day it was first proposed, to the detailed planning, to this completion of the bore itself.

I recall the boreholes drilled in California along the San Andreas and Hayward Fault zones were also subject to criticism on the same basis as this one.

21 posted on 12/15/2006 6:12:23 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: cripplecreek

I think the church bell story involves the Charleston quake not the San Andreas. Remember, the New Madrid fault zone is West of the Appalachians and the vast number of faults in that area attentuate the waves to the East of the Appalachians.


22 posted on 12/15/2006 6:14:17 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: muawiyah

Is Science Daily the MSM?

Where can I get the real scoop on this project that refutes the reporting here? I'd love the link.


23 posted on 12/15/2006 6:14:54 PM PST by Dog Gone
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To: dandelion

"A question - will this soil "liquify" during an earthquake event? If so, St. Louis and any effected cities are in for a world of hurt."

Have you ever read an account of the 1811 New Madrid earthquake? There are accounts online where they talk about sand spouts hundreds of feets high. They say Memphis will be toast (sunken toast) if they have another.


24 posted on 12/15/2006 6:18:13 PM PST by dljordan
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To: muawiyah
It's a pretty active zone.

Image Hosted by ImageShack.us
25 posted on 12/15/2006 6:19:21 PM PST by cripplecreek (Peace without victory is a temporary illusion.)
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To: blam

The New Madrid Fault could go at any time, or, not for 20,000 years.

Is it as big a fault as San Andreas?
Or bigger?


26 posted on 12/15/2006 6:20:53 PM PST by fanfan ("We don't start fights my friends, but we finish them, and never leave until our work is done."PMSH)
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To: muawiyah

It could not have been the 1811-1812 New Madrid quakes that broke windowpanes in Chicago; the city wasn't founded until 1833.


27 posted on 12/15/2006 6:21:37 PM PST by RegulatorCountry
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To: Strategerist
Really, I mean....what is up with the rabid hatred of and contempt for scientists on FR? I mean the desperate search for any way to take potshots at ANY scientist, even when they're not doing or saying anything having to do with politics, amazes me.

Well, it shouldn't.
40 years ago scientists were.. well, scientists, and they kept their mouths shut outside of their field of expertise.
Now, the phrase "some scientists say" is meaningless; literally. A joke.

Too many "scientists" have become like movie stars. They feel that their little niche makes them experts in everything.

From my perspective, it is time to tell the loudest ones, "Shut up and do science; Discover something beneficial; invent something useful. Figure out how to control the sun".

< /sarc >

28 posted on 12/15/2006 6:27:50 PM PST by Publius6961 (MSM: Israelis are killed by rockets; Lebanese are killed by Israelis.)
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To: muawiyah
not the San Andreas

Keep us Californians out of this thread! We've got enough headaches as it is!!

(I can see the San Andreas fault line from where I live - about 15 miles across the valley, and the percolation from it allows a "greenbelt" line of native palm trees)

29 posted on 12/15/2006 6:30:09 PM PST by ErnBatavia (recent nightmare: Googled up "Helen Thomas nude"....)
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To: Publius6961

Climatologists have made a real mockery of science.

A few weeks back there was a debate about global warming on FOX. The non believer spoke of ice cores, the little ice age and other assorted evidence. When it was the believers turn to talk he launched into a rant about a GOP controlled congress, fringe scientists, and extremist congressmen.


30 posted on 12/15/2006 6:34:31 PM PST by cripplecreek (Peace without victory is a temporary illusion.)
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To: muawiyah

17 MILES deep ? That can't be possible, that's beyond the upper depth of the Earth's mantle.


31 posted on 12/15/2006 6:37:45 PM PST by fieldmarshaldj (Cheney X -- Destroying the Liberal Democrat Traitors By Any Means Necessary -- Ya Dig ? Sho 'Nuff.)
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To: cripplecreek
The New Madrid Earthquake

This earthquake was preceded by three other major quakes: two on December 16, 1811, and one on January 23, 1812.

When it happens again......*shudder*

It won't be pretty.

32 posted on 12/15/2006 6:41:49 PM PST by fanfan ("We don't start fights my friends, but we finish them, and never leave until our work is done."PMSH)
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To: billhilly

I know, I was freepmailing you when I heard the "ding" noise and checked my email, from you.

I actually mentioned what a small world it is in my freepmail, and quit typing the FM to answer your email, and you said the same thing.

Next week should be very interesting, thanks in large part to your input.


33 posted on 12/15/2006 6:46:06 PM PST by girlangler (Fish Fear Me)
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To: muawiyah; blam

Wow.

34 posted on 12/15/2006 6:46:46 PM PST by fanfan ("We don't start fights my friends, but we finish them, and never leave until our work is done."PMSH)
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To: Strategerist
I don't know about rabid hatred for scientists, but research grants are made by colleges and governmental departments, that generally end up costing us citizens more money.

Our taxes seem to be thrown at every wonderful proposal that could help "save" us from ourselves. Then these "pseudo" scientists cost us billions in new ways to build our homes, furnishings, appliances, cars and food.

After all the research, we haven't saved a penny for the citizens. In fact, we have to pay each wonderful new state and federal law supporting new standards.

We also get new restrictions caused by the great global warming science, restrictions on our breathing by the anti-smoking nazis, etc., etc., etc.

Worst of all are those wonderful scientists that spend their lives trying to disprove, and thus try to eliminate, the Bible. To me, those people run a close second to the jihadis.

I'm not against measuring earthquakes, but if those scientists could eliminate earthquakes, it would be more helpful. But, that is about as likely as stopping "global warming".
35 posted on 12/15/2006 6:48:55 PM PST by wizr (Live life with a Passion!)
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To: fieldmarshaldj

So, how deep is North America? (Just going from memory on that depth ~ may even be 7 miles ~ but you have to remember the continents do not have an even depth ~ maybe you can look it up for us)


36 posted on 12/15/2006 6:50:29 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: cripplecreek; RightWhale
"The discovery channel ran a show about the New Madrid earthquakes a while back. They were showing spots where sand had risen to the surface in sand boils or blows. There were some pretty drastic changes to the landscpe not to mention changing the course of the Mississippi in a matter of minutes."

That was an interesting program. I noticed that they claimed the New Madrid quake was the largest to ever strike the US. Then, a few weeks later I saw a documentary about the Alaska quake and they said it was the largest. So...

37 posted on 12/15/2006 6:52:33 PM PST by blam
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To: blam
Shoot, we already got a seismic borehole in Tennessee.


38 posted on 12/15/2006 6:54:01 PM PST by AndrewB
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To: blam

Alaska was still Russian territory when the New Madrid quake happened.


39 posted on 12/15/2006 6:56:32 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: muawiyah
"Alaska was still Russian territory when the New Madrid quake happened."

I know. The Alaska quake was in 1964, my oldest brother (bless his soul)was there when it occurred.

40 posted on 12/15/2006 6:59:22 PM PST by blam
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