The epicenter was Mineral Virginia in the district of Republican Congressman Eric Cantor. You may recall Cantor’s effort to slash the budget of the United States Geological Service (USGS).
It is well known that you don’t mess with seismologists who are known throughout the world as the bad boys of the geek world. Indeed, I recall that after Canter’s cuts, the lead USGS seismologist walked up and gave him the il colpo di grazia or the kiss of death. Being part Italian, I shuddered at the time but Cantor’s aides just assumed it was a pharmaceutical lobbyist.
My greatest concern is that Cantor also defended cuts in the National Weather Service and NOAA — and there is a hurricane approaching Washington.
In response to LottaKatz, I would like to point out the quake epicenter was a mere stone’s throw from hyrdrofracking sites in West VA. If I were the VA Atty Gen’l, I’d be taking a close look at the USGS data about that!
Hurricanes
FRIDAY, AUG 26, 2011 12:10 ET
WAR ROOM
Hurricane forecasting one of the many things GOP doesn’t want to spend money on
BY ALEX PAREENE
“Hurricane Irene is going to hit the United States’ east coast this weekend, as you have likely heard. It looks to be a pretty nasty storm, capable of causing billions of dollars of damage. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been carefully tracking Irene, forecasting its path up the coast and its intensity. Of course, America’s Republican-demanded White House-encouraged austerity budget includes cuts to the NOAA. Cuts that will delay — by years — the construction and launch of an extreme weather forecasting satellite. So let’s hope there aren’t any serious hurricanes in 2016, I guess?
http://www.salon.com/news/hurricanes/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2011/08/26/hurricane_funding
Posted on another thread re:Cracks in the Washington Monument:
eniobob
1, August 26, 2011 at 5:08 pm
At a time like this lets not forget:
“THU APR 28, 2011 AT 02:21 PM PDT
UPDATE: Ask GOP reps from devastated areas if they still back Ryan’s budget that guts FEMA, NWS
byBob Johnson”
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/28/971179/-UPDATE:-Ask-GOP-reps-from-devastated-areas-if-they-still-back-Ryans-budget-that-guts-FEMA,-NWS
BTW,nothing on MSM reminding people about this.
Karma’s a real bitch…. Rain storms can be ugly too…..
Did you actually read the link to virginia.gov site in the article? It disproves the article’s contentions! “Some of these instruments were stationed around the North Anna Nuclear Power plant, but in the 1990’s, due to budget cuts, most of the North Anna sensors were taken off line.” *Most* – not *all*. And those were VTSO’s sensors – an observatory’s seismographs, not the nuke plants safety seismic sensors. This is an irrational moral panic in action. The article conduced to it – it did not even actually state that there were any safety consequences to “all seismographs” being taken offline.
OMFG! I am not often at a loss for words, but I am speechless. The man has no shame, no conscience and no brain.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/08/cantor-spox-if-theres-hurricane-damage-costs-will-have-to-be-paid-for-with-spending-cuts.php?ref=fpb Cantor makes it official.
I like Ezra Klein; he is a brilliant writer with great insights. Good article. Thanks SwM.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/herbert-hoover-winning/2011/08/12/gIQALKEVbJ_blog.html
SwM, thanks for the video. The stupid….it burns. I want to know how cost cutting will solve this American earthquake problem? This video is Anchorage in 1964, a city I love and to which I have strong emotional ties. Just how will lowering taxes help when this happens again.
It is not a matter of IF it happens, but WHEN. All the west coast cities from Anchorage to the Baja Peninsula are at risk for an earthquake exactly like this or worse. Memphis is only a few miles from the epicenter of the strongest earthquake on record at the New Madrid Fault. As this week showed, the east coast is not immune either. What will be the next city to suffer the fate of San Francisco in 1906 or Anchorage in 1964? And how will tax cuts solve the problem? They need to spend MORE money on USGS scientific research and monitoring, not less.
This video was made by some science students as a class project. A bit dramatic, but an accurate and heartbreaking video. Eric Cantor can take his tax cut proposals and………never mind; I want to keep it clean for our host.
USGS findings are not favorable to the fracking industry, Maybe Cantor and his cronies that want to shut down government science funding are simply protecting their friends in the energy/oil business.
“5 things the media isn’t telling you about human activity and earthquakes”
“1. Human activity can cause earthquakes. No less an authority than the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) asserts this. And they offer as an illustration a series of atypical Colorado quakes in the 1960s, resulting from the Army’s injection of waste fluid produced by its Rocky Mountain Arsenal chemical weapons plant northeast of Denver”
“2. Seismic activity has been linked to the injection of waste water from the unconventional production of natural gas using hydraulic fracturing (also known as fracking). A southeastern New Mexico area that has been experiencing repeated earthquakes since the late 1990s are near the injection wells for oil production waste water, the New Mexico Tech Observatory has reported. In April 2011, in Arkansas, two natural gas wells were closed down until scientists can determine why over a thousand unexplained earthquakes occurred in areas near drilling sites and waste injection wells. Since the well’s closing, a supervisor at the Arkansas Geological Survey reports, incidence of earthquakes have declined dramatically, much as they did in Colorado fifty years ago.”
…# “5. Industry often seeks to keep information and historical data private.The epicenter of Virginia’s earthquake lies on the Marcellus Shale. Though no hydraulic fracturing permits have been issued due to a legal suit by the Southern Environmental Law Center, the Center considers the George Washington National Forest — much of which lies above the Marcellus — among the ten most endangered in the South due to hydraulic fracturing plans for the area. A half century of lessons from Colorado’s history with fluid injection and earthquakes will be essential to safeguard the integrity of Virginia’s fragile and ecologically essential Marcellus region. But while Virginia’s Marcellus has not been fracked yet, the commonwealth has been in the forefront of coal bed methane extraction, which — like shale bed extraction — depends on hydraulic fracturing, horizontal drilling, blasting, explosions and injection of waste water under the earth.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/08/24/5-things-the-media-isnt-telling-you-about-human-activity-and-earthquakes/
When is the US business community going to rein in the Tea Party kooks? The USGS, NOAA and the Census provide heaps of nation-wide and local data that are really, really valuable to big and small businesses AND would be extraordinarily expensive for individual businesses to buy from private sources.
The way to think about this data is that it’s a free, high-quality lubricant that keeps American businesses humming along efficiently. Take it away, and things will grind to a halt or run slow and rough.
Damn, here is that 4 letter word again….
Strong earthquake hits northern Peru
There are no immediate reports of damage or injury in the quake, which was felt mildly in the capital of Lima.
The Colorado-based USGS says the quake was centered just north of the jungle city of Pucallpa and struck at 12:46 p.m. local time. The quake occurred 90 miles underground. The deeper the quake, the less it is likely to be felt or to cause destruction.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/story/2011-08-24/Strong-earthquake-hits-northern-Peru/50121730/1
I heard it was a 6.8 ladies….