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Geology News
Mississippi 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.

This image shows estimates of rainfall for the southeastern United States from September 14–21 produced by the near-real-time, multi-satellite precipitation analysis at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. The highest rainfall amounts—more than 300 millimeters —appear in blue. The lightest amounts appear in pale green. Especially intense rainfall occurred in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and northern Florida. Quoted from the Earth Observatory image release.

Stormwater runoff and sewage contaminate many US beaches. A study done by the Natural Resources Defense Council sampled, tested and rated 200 of the most popular beaches in the United States – both ocean and freshwater beaches were included in the study. Some of them had consistently high water quality and some had consistently low. You can view the report and a listing of the beaches on their website.

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.

“Severe thunderstorms swept through the southeastern United States on March 26, 2009. The storms dropped heavy rain and hail and spawned tornadoes.” Earth Observatory has a precipitation map and an interesting three-dimensional view of towering clouds produced by precipitation radar.

A tornado with wind speeds of up to 150 miles per hour cut through Simpson County in central Mississippi early Thursday morning. The New York Times reports that at least 60 buildings were damaged and 20 people were injured. Several other tornadoes caused damage in various parts of the state.

A tow of barges loaded with crushed stone rammed into the Popp’s Ferry Bridge in Biloxi, Mississippi, causing part of the bridge to collapse into the water. Fortunately, no one was killed.

Last month the Department of Interior failed to honor exploration leases on Utah oil and gas parcels that were won in a December lease sale. Many natural resource companies spent a lot of time preparing to bid in that sale. On March 18th important Gulf of Mexico leases will be up for bid in another DOI sale. A lot more than oil and gas properties are at stake in this sale.

Earth Observatory has a high resolution satellite image of snow cover from last week’s snowstorm in the deep south. Several inches of wet snow fell across parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama on Thursday, December 11, closing schools and businesses in a part of the country where accumulating snow is a rare event.

Hurricane Gustav hit this morning as a Category 2 storm. Fortunately the intensity fell from the previous level of Category 4. Early news reports say that levees in New Orleans are holding up.

The National Hurricane Center maintains a map of the predicted path of Hurricane Gustav at http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/graphics_at2.shtml?5day. It is expected to make landfall on the Louisiana coast at about 8:00 AM Monday.

The National Hurricane Center has a storm surge probability map for Hurricane Gustav. This map shows color-coded probability areas where surges could be greater than 5 feet above normal tide levels during the next 3 days.

Tropical Storm Fay stalled today over the east coast of Florida, dumping heavy rain on many coastal cities. Fay is expected to make a third landfall with the state and track west over Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi.

Congress approved an expansion of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and now new storage capacity must be built. Some people in Mississippi point to environmental issues related to building a new storage site in a salt dome.

The largest flood on the lower Mississippi River since 1973 was measured on April 22 in Vicksburg, Mississippi by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The flow measured 1.8 million cubic feet per second. That is enough water to fill more than 20 Olympic size swimming pools in one second, or more than 1.75 million pools in a day.

NOAA Image

Heavy rains on saturated ground have produced a lot of run-off in the Mississippi River Basin. The Chief of the Watershed Division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says that they might need to open some of the emergency channels.

Paleontologists have discovered what is thought to be the oldest primate fossil in North America. The creature, named Teilhardina magnoliana, is a distant relative of the modern-day tarsier. The finding has sparked debate on the geographic origin of the primates.

“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.

USGS has a new section on the website titled “Differences in Phosphorus and Nitrogen Delivery to the Gulf of Mexico from the Mississippi River Basin”. From the article: “Nine states in the Mississippi River Basin contribute the majority of nutrients to the Northern Gulf of Mexico, threatening the economic and ecological health of one of the nation’s largest and most productive fisheries.”

Midwestern farming increases the amount of water flowing into the Mississippi River and increases the amount of carbon dioxide carried in the water. How farming is done can significantly change the hydrology and chemistry of the Mississippi.

A Newsweek article suggests that the thousands of miles of oil canals that cut through the Mississippi Delta contributed to the impact of Hurricane Katrina.

Take a look at this swatch from a county map of Mississippi. Is Leake County square? A letter to the staff of the Clarion Ledger in Mississippi asked this very question and after asking around they finally got a good answer from a GIS guy.

NASA Image

John Wilkerson lived in Bay St Louis, Mississippi before Katrina arrived. He travelled his community taking photos before the impact of the storm. Then he photographed the same areas immediately after, and now two years later. A lot of surprising photos of loss and some of recovery.

USGS Image

The Mississippi River and its delta have been heavily modified by human activity. This has long been understood but made more obvious by the impact of Hurricane Katrina. Now, people are starting to think about the river, how they have modified it, and what should be done to bring a balance between human activity and the river’s natural system.