For much of Arkansas, earthquake threat looms large.
What causes earthquakes in Arkansas? How common are they? Do they cause much damage? What is Arkansas’ risk for a major earthquake?
Dr. Randal Cox will answer those questions and more in “Past and Future Earthquakes in Arkansas” at the Spring River Gem & Mineral Club (SRGMC), at 10 a.m. May 3 at Thunderbird Center, 62 N. Lakeshore Road in Cherokee Village, Ark.
Cox serves as professor of geology in the Earth Sciences Department at the University of Memphis in Tennessee.
“My primary research interests involve active faulting, earthquake hazard, and tectonic and climatic landscape evolution,” he explains. His current research is supported in part by the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. It involves documentation of prehistoric earthquakes in the central U.S. and Central America, landscape evolution of the Mississippi Valley and the surrounding region, and the effect of volcanic hotspots on moving coastal plains. Dr. Cox states that “excavations reveal abundant evidence of large prehistoric earthquakes throughout the Mississippi Valley of Arkansas. Such large quakes could cause serious damage today.”
The Spring River Gem and Mineral Club meets monthly. Programs are consistently given by experts in their fields. SRGMC is well respected by professional educators. “If SRGMC asks you to give a program, do it,” recommended one speaker to a colleague. Speakers have come from St. Louis, Springfield, Memphis and Little Rock, Fayetteville and Jonesboro, Ark. The speakers not only put in hours of preparation and formatting on PowerPoint, they also travel substantial hours to present a one-hour program to the SRGMC. And we truly appreciate them.
SRGMC is the only educational club in the area.
Visitors are welcome; the meeting is free.
