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Geology News
Kentucky Current Events

There is broad agreement in the scientific community that a continuing concern exists for a major destructive earthquake in the New Madrid seismic zone. Many structures in Memphis, Tenn., St. Louis, Mo., and other communities in the central Mississippi River Valley region are vulnerable and at risk from severe ground shaking.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is holding 79 coal-mining permits that use the controversial mining method of “mountaintop removal”. EPA is considering their potential impact on water quality.

The Benld Elementary School in Benld, Illinois has been damaged by mine subsidence. An article on the Boston.com website tells several stories about mine subsidence in Illinois, Kentucky, Pennsylvania states.

CNN has a few photos of the flooding in Kentucky. Storms there dumped up to six inches of rain in the Louisville area.

Heavy rains of up to six inches in one hour caused flash flooding in the Louisville area. Cars were stranded in the streets, schools were closed and the National Guard was sent out to rescue people trapped in flooded homes and vehicles.

The U.S. Global Change Research Program released a report that explains how climate change might impact Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Stronger hurricanes, drought, heat waves and crop losses are a few of the featured problems.

Raven Maps are the most beautiful state wall maps that I have ever seen. They show the elevation and relief of a complete state through a skillful use of vibrant colors and topographic shading. Maps are available for individual states, the Conterminous United States, North America, Mexico and the world.

The-Vug.com has a comprehensive listing of mineral and lapidary clubs from across the United States. It could be the most complete and up-to-date listing on the web. Included are hundreds of clubs and organizations located in all 50 states.

The-Vug.com has a list of mineral shows being held across the United States in late May and June. Included are shows in Virginia, Nebraska, Montana, Ohio, California, Colorado, Alabama, Idaho, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Connecticut, Oregon, Indiana and other states.

Researchers at Purdue University have been analyzing motion within the New Madrid Fault System and find that it is much less than expected for the frequency of major earthquakes produced.

A satellite image of the heavy blanket of ice and snow in the central United States. Power and other services are still not restored to hundreds of thousands of people. Steve Beshear, Governor of Kentucky says the storm was “the biggest natural disaster that this state has ever experienced in modern history.”

The Kentucky Geological Survey has published Kentucky Terrain, a 43″ x 33″ illustrated map that features the topography and landforms of Kentucky and describes them with maps, photos, diagrams and text. You can download one from the Kentucky Geological Survey website or order a paper copy for only $10.

The high price of oil is causing some consumers to switch to coal for their energy needs. This is increasing the demand for Kentucky coal. The state has plenty of coal but there is now a shortage of qualified mine workers.

The Sierra Club is not satisfied with the environmental protection measures of coal-fired power plants in seven states. The Club’s most recent effort targets plants in Arizona, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Texas, Missouri and Wyoming for failing to include adequate pollution controls for mercury and other toxics.

“A major wintertime tornado outbreak ripped through Arkansas, western Tennessee, northern Mississippi, northern Alabama, and western Kentucky on February 5, 2008.” Earth Observatory has a precipitation map for the storms and details on why they happened.

Dozens of people have been killed by tornadoes that ripped across Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Alabama late Tuesday.

USGS Image

Cave extremeophiles (microbes that live in very difficult environments) have been the object of Hazel Barton’s research for a long time. Barton, a professor of microbiology at Northern Kentucky University has visited more than 1000 caves in the United States, Britain, Greenland, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Venezuela, Greece, and New Zealand to study these organisms.

USGS Image

USGS has completed an assessment of the undiscovered oil and gas potential of the Illinois Basin which includes parts of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, and Tennessee. The assessment is based on the geologic elements of each total petroleum system defined in the basin and includes: hydrocarbon source rocks, reservoir rocks, and hydrocarbon traps.

KGS Image

The Kentucky Geological Survey has published generalized geologic maps for 92 counties and has 22 more in progress. These maps are being prepared with land-use planning in mind. One sentence from their website: “The maps provide information on how the underlying rock in an area affects excavation and foundations, on-site wastewater treatment systems, residential and industrial developments, highway and street development, and pond and reservoir construction.” The maps are available on their website as PDF documents.

Stay Out of Abandoned Mines!

An average of 30 people per year die in abandoned mines. Causes of death include: drownings, falls, asphyxiation, ATV accidents and being shot by a security guard. Pennsylvania leads the nation in abandoned mine deaths for 2000 – 2006. Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky each had ten or more deaths in that time interval. Contact information is provided so that you can report dangerous abandoned mines in your area.