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An insightful lecture by Dru Germanoski, Van Artsdalen ’35 Professor and head of geology and environmental geosciences, on Reunion Weekend provided a comprehensive look at one of the major issues of the day — whether natural disasters are more frequent and catastrophic.
In presenting “The Challenge of Living on a Deadly Planet — Placing Natural Disasters in Geologic Perspective” during Reunion College, Germanoski gave an overview of the dynamic nature of Earth; detailed explanation of the causes of earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, volcanoes, hurricanes, and coastal erosion; the size and scope of these natural disasters; and how development ignores the natural consequences of these occurrences.
“The Earth is more dynamic than we might think. There is active volcanic activity all the time,” he said, illustrating his point with a list of more than a dozen sites around the world and in the U.S.
Showing before-and-after slides of a California mountain greatly reduced in height 100 years ago by an eruption magnitudes greater than that of Mt. St. Helens, and historic earthquake and flood damage in the U.S., Germanoski said that there are geologic records of “much bigger tsunamis than the tsunami of December 26th, 2004. Geologic history records bigger earthquakes than the 1906 earthquake that devastated San Francisco.”
“It’s business as usual for planet Earth,” he pointed out.
But
“We do suffer more than we need to,” he said, as he showed slide after slide of the natural effects of these disasters – volcanic lava flow fields, runoff areas around rivers, the fault lines throughout the Los Angeles basin – and the development that continues unabated, and flying in the face of geological sense.
Showing a satellite image of one of the more rapidly growing areas in Hawaii, he pointed out that homes are being built closer and closer to the base of a mountain with geologically recent eruptions.
“When this volcano erupts, the streets are going to channel the lava to some extent and it’s going to cut off entire neighborhoods. So if people haven’t evacuated in advance, they are going to be trapped,” Germanoski said.
“We understand the hazard but we don’t necessarily respond to it in the best way.”
He gave case histories of significant flood damage followed by development, and development on flood plains, debris fields, landslide areas, and coastal barrier islands.
“We know it’s a bad idea, but it’s nice real estate,” Germanoski said of the “blind optimism, ignorance, and greed” that leads people to “get in the way” of Earth’s natural dynamics, and the problem facing policy makers.
He devoted considerable time to addressing flooding in general (where increased development decreases run-off areas by replacing land with impervious areas) and Hurricane Katrina, showing the complexity of the event and the problematic location of New Orleans and the effects of development on the Mississippi River delta.
Recognizing that development is inevitable, and that “The Big One,” whether it is an earthquake in California or floods along the coast, isn’t likely in the near term, he stressed listening to earth scientists to “restrain development of sensitive landscapes.”
In analyzing Hurricane Katrina, he illustrated how the cumulative effect of the disaster had engineering, sociological, government and law, public policy, and scientific issues — an endorsement of the value of the liberal arts background to solve challenging geological problems.