Professional Concerns: English for Despisers

Do some of your students view the book as enemy? Are some of your students completely turned off by English? Do you have trouble getting some of your students to read

Baldcypress tree ring elemental concentrations at Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee from AD 1795 to AD 1820

Many two hundred year old baldcypress trees in Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee, lived through the great New Madrid earthquakes of 1811--1812. This study was undertaken to determine if the elemental composition of baldcypress tree rings showed any systematic variation through the earthquake period of AD 1795 through AD 1820. Multiple cores were collected from two Reelfoot Lake baldcypress trees and analyzed using Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). Individual yearly rings and five-year ring segments were analyzed to determine their elemental compositions. The cores were analyzed for Li through U but only Ba, Ce, Cs, Cu, I, La, Mg, Mn, Nd, Rb, Sm, Sr, and Zn were found to be in appropriate concentrations for this study. Of these elements only Ce, I, La, Nd, Rb, and Sm showed any systematic changes within individual cores. Comparison of three cores taken from one tree reveal that tree-ring elemental concentrations and changes in tree-ring elemental concentration through time are very different among the cores. When comparing the elemental concentrations of tree rings for the same years in the two different trees neither elemental concentrations nor changes in elemental concentration through time were similar. We conclude that the elemental concentrations in the tree rings of the two baldcypress trees analyzed in this study show no systematic change through the earthquake period of AD 1795 through AD 1820

The Health Status and Unique Health Challenges of Rural Older Adults in California

Examines the demographics, health, and levels of physical activity and food insecurity of rural seniors compared with those of urban and suburban seniors. Outlines environmental and social risk factors that require context-specific policies and programs

Hotspot origin of the Mississippi embayment and its possible impact on contemporary seismicity

Previous authors have related the Late Cretaceous/early Tertiary subsidence of the Mississippi embayment to the opening of the Gulf of Mexico, but the Gulf opened earlier in Triassic/Jurassic time. We offer an alternative hypothesis that development of the embayment was coeval with the passage of the Mississippi Valley graben system over the Bermuda hotspot about 90 Ma. Several lines of evidence of significant uplift of the embayment axis accompanying mid-Cretaceous magmatism and prior to Late Cretaceous subsidence support this proposal. First, reactivation of the Pascola arch in the northern embayment is recorded by flanking deposits of basal Upper Cretaceous gravel. Second, beneath a regional mid-Cretaceous unconformity, subcrops of Jurassic and Early Cretaceous strata define a pronounced southwest-plunging arch in the southern embayment. This arch is collinear with an arch revealed in Paleozoic rocks after restoration to mid-Cretaceous structural geometries. Third, a deep weathering profile on mid-Cretaceous alkalic plutons along the western embayment margin is nonconformably overlain by Paleocene sediments, and rapid mid-Cretaceous cooling of these intrusions has been interpreted from apatite fission tracks. Moreover, exploratory holes along the embayment axis encountered similar weathered alkalic intrusions nonconformably overlain by basal Upper Cretaceous strata. Fourth, there was an anomalous influx of clastic sediment into the northern Gulf of Mexico during mid-Cretaceous time, and subsequent clastic facies patterns suggest the Mississippi River drainage began to enter the Gulf in the Late Cretaceous. Passage of the Mississippi Valley graben over the Bermuda hotspot during elevated hotspot activity of Cretaceous time may have significantly weakened the previously rifted lithosphere. Rifted continental margin at Charleston, South Carolina, also passed over this hotspot in latest Cretaceous time. Similarly, the St. Lawrence rift system passed over the Great Meteor hotspot during the Cretaceous. It is important to note that these rift systems are the principal loci of strong seismicity in eastern North America, and thus weakening by increased Cretaceous hotspot activity may be an important common factor for these seismic rift zones

Identification of possible Quaternary deformation in the Northeastern Mississippi embayment using quantitative geomorphic analysis of drainage-basin asymmetry

To investigate neotectonism in the Mississippi Embayment east of the New Madrid seismic zone, we identified geomorphic domains that show evidence of ground tilting during Quaternary time. Transverse basin profiles were converted to two-dimensional vectors that denote channel position with respect to basin divides. These basin-asymmetry vectors record the net direction and degree of lateral migration of trunk streams. More than 2500 vectors were measured and spatially averaged within 400 km2 bins. This field of 300 mean vectors delineates several domains that show preferred directions of stream migrations possibly driven by ground tilting. The timing of stream migration was interpreted using across-valley distributions of Quaternary alluvial terraces. Comparison of our mean vector field with subsurface structures suggests that some domain boundaries may be related to reactivated faults. Late Quaternary activity is suggested for two northeast-striking faults of the southeastern Reelfoot Rift margin. We acquired two seismic profiles showing near-surface faulting beneath scarps that follow the domain boundary associated with one of these northeast-striking faults (Big Creek fault zone). Reelfoot thrust seismicity ends on the south against this fault, suggesting that the rift margin has dextral slip accommodating northeastward movement of the thrust hanging wall. Our vector field also suggests late Quaternary movement on the Reelfoot thrust and on two other northwest-striking faults, here termed the Hatchie River fault and the Wolf River fault. Several other weak domains may imply minor elements of neotectonism. Our results demonstrate that morphometric analysis of drainage-basin asymmetry can be an effective reconnaissance tool within neotectonic settings

Space geodetic evidence for rapid strain rates in the New Madrid seismic zone of central USA

In the winter of 1811-1812, near the town of New Madrid in the central United States and more than 2,000 km from the nearest plate boundary, three earthquakes within three months shook the entire eastern half of the country and liquefied the ground over distances far greater than any historic earthquake in North America. The origin and modern significance of these earthquakes, however, is highly contentious. Geological evidence, demonstrates that liquefaction due to strong ground shaking, similar in scale to that generated by the New Madrid earthquakes, has occurred at least three and possibly four times in the past 2,000 years (refs 4-6), consistent with recurrence statistics derived from regional seismicity. Here we show direct evidence for rapid strain rates in the area determined from a continuously operated global positioning system (GPS) network. Rates of strain are of the order of 10-7 per year, comparable in magnitude to those across active plate boundaries, and are consistent with known active faults within the region. These results have significant implications for the definition of seismic hazard and for processes that drive intraplate seismicity

Applications of Landsat-5 TM imagery in assessing and mapping water quality in Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee

Water quality in Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee, was investigated in the field over 15 years ago. However, the spatial variations of water quality were not studied. The remote sensing technique has been proved a powerful tool in mapping spatial distributions of some water quality parameters such as chlorophyll-a concentration. Additionally, different regression methods and various independent variables have been used to establish relationships between water quality parameters and spectral reflectance. The results from this study indicate that Landsat TM2 and TM3, as a set of independent variables in multivariate regression analysis, are good predictors of water quality in Reelfoot Lake. TM2 is positively correlated to water quality, and TM3 is negatively correlated to water quality. Poor water quality, or a high algae load, results in a high reflectance measured by TM2 and a low reflectance measured by TM3. Maps of spatial distribution of Secchi disk depth, turbidity, chlorophyll-a, and total suspended solids present apparent spatial variations of water quality in the lake