“Fixing the Italian Problem”: Archbishop of New Orleans John W. Shaw and the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, 1918-1933

In 1918, Archbishop Shaw invited the Texas Catholic religious order, Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, to New Orleans to manage the St. Louis Cathedral and its filial parish for Southern Italians, St. Mary’s Church. This thesis will look at the personalities and preferentialism that affected this early 20th century transfer of religious power from secular priests to a religious order. Comparing the language used by Archbishop Shaw in correspondence with Oblate Fathers with the language he used with his secular priests will determine that Shaw displayed favoritism in his decision to invite the Oblates. This decision was affected by four primary factors: Shaw’s prior relationship with the Oblates as Bishop of San Antonio, his concerns with archdiocesan finances, his perceived threat of encroaching Protestantism, and politics of discontent amongst his secular clergy. Shaw’s distinct idealistic pragmatism shows the dynamic nature of the institution of the Catholic Church in Louisiana

“Fixing the Italian Problem”: Archbishop of New Orleans John W. Shaw and the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, 1918-1933

In 1918, Archbishop Shaw invited the Texas Catholic religious order, Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, to New Orleans to manage the St. Louis Cathedral and its filial parish for Southern Italians, St. Mary’s Church. This thesis will look at the personalities and preferentialism that affected this early 20th century transfer of religious power from secular priests to a religious order. Comparing the language used by Archbishop Shaw in correspondence with Oblate Fathers with the language he used with his secular priests will determine that Shaw displayed favoritism in his decision to invite the Oblates. This decision was affected by four primary factors: Shaw’s prior relationship with the Oblates as Bishop of San Antonio, his concerns with archdiocesan finances, his perceived threat of encroaching Protestantism, and politics of discontent amongst his secular clergy. Shaw’s distinct idealistic pragmatism shows the dynamic nature of the institution of the Catholic Church in Louisiana

A Comparison of Methods of Estimating the Attenuation of Earthquake Strong Ground Motion

Strong ground-motion attenuation relations take on a variety of forms, depending upon the parameters used to express the relations and upon the geographic area for which the equations are developed. In general the strong ground-motion parameters, namely acceleration, velocity, displacement and response spectra ordinates, are taken to be proportional to the distance from the earthquake source to the site, to the magnitude or some measure of the strength of the earthquake source, and to loss factors resulting from transmission of energy through the inelastic earth. In certain areas of the world, where strong-motion data are abundant, empirical relations can be developed to express these relations. In other areas of the world, where strong-motion data are few or are entirely lacking, more attention must be given to theoretical considerations. In this paper we give case histories of two such types of regions, namely western North America with an abundance of data and eastern North America with a paucity of data

Seismic hazard and risk in Shanghai and estimation of expected building damage

The People's Republic of China is in the process of rapid demographic, economic and urban change including nationwide engineering and building construction at an unprecedented scale. The mega-city of Shanghai is at the centre of China's modernisation. Rapid urbanisation and building growth have increased the exposure of people and property to natural disasters. The seismic hazard of Shanghai and its vicinity is presented from a seismogenic free-zone methodology. A PGA value of 49 cm s-2 and a maximum intensity value of VII for the Chinese Seismic Intensity Scale (a scale similar to the Modified Mercalli) for a 99% probability of non-exceedance in 50 years are determined for Shanghai city. The potential building damage for three independent districts of the city centre named Putuo, Nanjing Road and Pudong are calculated using damage vulnerability matrices. It is found that old civil houses of brick and timber are the most vulnerable buildings with potentially a mean probability value of 7.4% of this building structure type exhibiting the highest damage grade at intensity VII

The tailings dam failure of 5 November 2015 in SE Brazil and its preceding seismic sequence

The collapse of a mine tailings dam and subsequent flood in SE Brazil on 5 November 2015 was preceded by a small-magnitude seismic sequence. In this report, we explore the spatiotemporal associations between the seismic events and the accident and discuss their possible connection. We also analyze the signals generated by the turbulent mudflow, as recorded by the Brazilian Seismographic Network (RSBR). In light of our observations, we propose as possible contributing factor for the dam collapse either ground shaking and/or soil liquefaction triggered by the earthquakes. The possibility of such a small-magnitude earthquake contributing to the collapse of a tailings dam raises important concerns regarding safety and related legislation of dams in Brazil and the world. ©2016. American Geophysical Union.H.A.D. and M.A. acknowledge support from Sao Paulo Research Foundation FAPESP grant 2014/09455-3 and CNPq grant 30.6547/2013-9.Peer reviewe

Regional seismic wave propagation (Lg and Sn) and Pn attenuation in the Arabian Plate and surrounding regions

An edited version of this paper was published by Blackwell Publishing. Copyright 2004, Blackwell Publishing. See also: http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-246X.2004.02246.x; http://atlas.geo.cornell.edu/MiddleEastNorthAfrica/publications/Al-Damegh2004.htmContinuous recordings of 17 broadband and short period digital seismic stations from a newly established seismological network in Saudi Arabia, along with digital recordings from the broadband stations of the GSN, MEDNET, GEOFON, a temporary array in Saudi Arabia, and a temporary short period stations in Oman, were analyzed to study the lithospheric structure of the Arabian plate and surrounding regions. The Arabian plate is surrounded by a variety of types of plate boundaries: continental collision (Zagros belt and Bitlis suture), continental transform (Dead Sea fault system), young sea floor spreading (Red Sea and Gulf of Aden), and oceanic transform (Owen fracture zone). Also, there are many intraplate Cenozoic processes such as volcanic eruptions, faulting, and folding that are taking place. We used this massive waveform database of more than 6200 regional seismogram to map zones of blockage, inefficient, and efficient propagation of the Lg and Sn phases in the Middle East and East Africa. We observed Lg blockage across the Bitlis suture and Zagros fold and thrust belt, corresponding to the boundary between the Arabian and Eurasian plates. This is probably due to a major lateral change in the Lg crustal wave-guide. We also observed inefficient Lg propagation along the Oman mountains. Blockage and inefficient Sn propagation is observed along and for a considerable distance to the east of the Dead Sea fault system and in the northern portion of the Arabian plate (south of the Bitlis suture). These mapped zones of high Sn attenuation, moreover, closely coincide with extensive Neogene and Quaternary volcanic activity. We have also carefully mapped the boundaries of the Sn blockage within the Turkish and Iranian plateaus. Furthermore, we observed Sn blockage across the Owen fracture zone and across some segments of the Red Sea. These regions of high Sn attenuation most probably have anomalously hot and possibly thin lithospheric mantle (i.e., mantle lid). A surprising result is the efficient propagation of Sn across a segment of the Red Sea; an indication that active sea floor spreading is not continuous along the axis of the Red Sea. We also investigated the attenuation of Pn phase (QPn) for 1-2 Hz along the Red Sea, Dead Sea fault system, within the Arabian shield, and in the Arabian platform. Consistent with the Sn attenuation, we observed low QPn values of 22 and 15 along the western coast of the Arabian plate and along the Dead Sea fault system, respectively, for a frequency of 1.5 Hz. Higher QPn values on the order of 400 were observed within the Arabian shield and platform for the same frequency. Our results based on Sn and Pn observations along the western and northern portions of the Arabian plate imply the presence of a major anomalously hot and thinned lithosphere in these regions that may be caused by the extensive upper mantle anomaly that appears to span most of east Africa and western Arabia