Steve's blog

 Switzerland.

 What do you think of when you hear, Switzerland? 

 Swiss Chocolate?  Swiss Cheese? Swiss Steak? Swiss Army Knives?

 How about Swiss Earthquakes?  or Swiss Tsunami? 

I recently attended a scientific meeting and listened to a well-known geologist discuss new findings about earthquakes near Ventura, California. He suggested that several faults buried under the mountains north of town might "link up" to make an earthquake far larger than would separate quakes on the individual faults. Turns out, the uppermost arm of the link lies under the Santa Barbara Channel parallel to the coast west of Ventura. As visualized, an earthquake on this multi-fault monster could uplift the sea floor and coast north of the fault by

Okeechobee’28.     No,      it’s not a classic car by Oldsmobile.

Okeechobee’28.     Nope,  it’s not a pricey French Burgundy.

 Most everyone can recall the names of some recent hurricanes -- say, Katrina or Andrew. Being from Pennsylvania, I remember Hurricane Agnes way back in 1972. She still ranks as the State's worst natural disaster. Weighed in terms of casualties however, no storm compares with the Galveston Hurricane of September 8, 1900. 

As I blogged last time, Tropical Storm Debby defied catalog odds. She broke apart and, after buckets of rain, faded away. Suppose however, that things turned out differently.  

Update--   Below is my current (6/26  1500 GMT ) wind forecast for Debby. 

Clearly the (6/24 2100 GMT)  prediction further down did not pan out so well. Anyone who's ever made a less than stellar forecast would prefer the evidence of it to just fade away, but this deserves a word. 

FACT: The 100+ year hurricane catalog says that ON AVERAGE storms over Debby's part of the Gulf of Mexico  should strenthen with time and accelerate toward the north or northeast.

I hear that the Mayor of New York wants to ban Super Size sodas in the City.  Seems silly to me, but just maybe he will get his way. When it comes to Super Size natural disasters however, even the Mayor of the Big Apple can’t dictate terms.

I’ve blogged about dam break floods several times now --  What do you say if we Super Size That?

I’ve blogged before about dam break disasters.  If you have interest in ‘natural’ hazards like I do, dam break floods always draw because:

(1) There are so many potential candidates out there.  Something like 80,000 dams exist in the USA.  Go worldwide and the number multiplies to 850,000. Untold millions of people live and work under the influence of one of those things. Often the culprits are far from mind, lurking out of sight in distant hills.

I’m not from the “Show Me” state, but like those folks, I tend to believe it when I see it. Earth scientists like myself have some advantage in seeing because we “dig in the dirt”. From what we find there we can envision geological happenings over scales of space and time that others can’t fathom. 

Have you ever watched one of those television shows about Pompeii? Pompeii and its neighbor Herculaneum were Roman-era towns at the foot of Mt. Vesuvius, an active volcano adjacent to the now Italian city of Naples. In 79 AD, Vesuvius erupted and quickly buried the two places. The old towns lie forgotten for nearly two millennia. It wasn’t until the 18-century that a farmer digging a water well discovered, at the bottom of the hole, a Herculaneum house with finely tiled walls. Not long after, diggers encountered