The earth may not shake and rumble in Carthage like it does in other places in the world but that didn’t stop a Carthage native from making studying earthquakes a career.
And now, in the wake of the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that may have killed 200,000 people in Haiti, people in places more prone to shaking are evaluating how they might react to a big one.
“The earthquake in Haiti recently just kind of highlights some of the risk that some of the infrastructure would be in,” said Joe Gillman, Geology and Land Survey Division director with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. “In the United States in particular, we’re very aware of seismic risk in many places and even if we’re not, our infrastructure is built to higher standards than it is in many places in the world so our communities would inherently more resilient to an event like that.”
Gillman, who grew up in Carthage and graduated from CHS in 1988, was recently named coordinator for the Association of Central United States Earthquake Consortium (CUSEC) State Geologists.
In this position, he’s responsible for gathering information about the New Madrid Seismic Zone, an area of fault lines around the Missouri Bootheel that erupted into a series of some of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded in America in 1811 and 1812.
CUSEC is a multi-state partnership whose primary mission is to mitigate disasters and save lives. Since 1992, the CUSEC State Geologists from member states (Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee and Missouri) have worked closely with many different partners in federal government and within member states to increase awareness of the earthquake risk in the New Madrid Seismic Zone.
"In cooperation with the U.S. Geological Survey and the CUSEC Board of Directors, the CUSEC State Geologists provide scientific data about the New Madrid Seismic Zone, mapping for risk assessment, potential earthquake risk for citizens, as well as provide geologic information," Gillman said. "In addition to providing earthquake hazard maps and relevant scientific data for researchers and the public, our desire is to provide information so that all citizens are earthquake aware."
A love for the outdoors
Gillman said he was born and raised in Carthage and always had a love for the outdoors.
“I knew early on I was interested in some kind of career in the outdoor field and it was just a natural fit,” Gillman said. “My job here is director of both the geological survey and land survey programs and really our mission is a state-wide mission to bring good state-wide geo-science to bear for public policy issues related to energy production, natural hazards such as the sinkhole we’ve been discussing, earthquakes and issues related to environmental protection and natural resources.”
After graduating from CHS, Gillman went on to earn a bachelors degree in geology at Missouri State University in Springfield. He’s worked for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources for almost 15 years. His office is in Rolla but he still has a considerable number of family members in the Carthage area and makes it back here frequently.
The position with CUSEC is in addition to his regular duties with the DNR.
“CUSEC is actually located in Memphis, Tenn. and as part of that group the state geologists have an association,” Gillman said. “I’ve been asked to coordinate the efforts of the CUSEC state geologists for the next few years. It’s exciting but it’s going to entail a lot of work.”
The threat
The earthquake that hit the New Madrid, Mo., area in 1811 was huge, it was so powerful, it made the Mississippi River appear to run backwards for a time and was felt as far away as the east coast where it rocked church bells so hard they rang. Aftershocks continued to rock the area for another year.
“The New Madrid Seismic Zone has a fairly-well documented history,” Gillman said. “We can look back at events that have happened in the past based on some geologic features that we know to look for. An earthquake occurs on the New Madrid Seismic zone on a magnitude of a fairly large one, a magnitude of 7.0, about every 500 years.”
Gillman said casualties among people and damage to manmade property was slight because there weren’t very many people in the area and very few settlements.
Today, millions of people live in the same area and the cities of Memphis, Tenn., and St. Louis are vulnerable to severe damage and considerable casualties and loss of life if a quake that strong were to hit. The entire country would he affected by the damage to bridges crossing the Mississippi and damage to pipelines and other infrastructure.
“Today we have a considerable amount of populus that has built up in the region and a considerable infrastructure that has been built,” Gillman said. “There are certain areas of the community and the infrastructure that are at risk and those are the things that don’t stand up well to shaking, very rigid structures that aren’t seismically fitted to withstand that kind of shaking. Those can be things like tall towers, taller buildings, pipelines and of real concern are older, unreinforced masonry structures. They typically perform very poorly in a shaking event.”
Preparedness
While cities and officials in the U.S. would be much better prepared than those in the impoverished nation of Haiti were for the magnitude 7 quake that hit there on Jan. 12, that quake still holds lessons for people here.
“One of the things that I think is pretty obvious from the news footage and the reports that we’re seeing is that just getting the essentials to the affected populations can be a challenging thing,” Gillman said. “Just the basic necessities of food and water, just getting that necessity can really be a challenging thing. I think it would be wise for Missourians and others in the region to think about that, that a basic few days supplies of emergency food and water might be the difference in being able to survive any kind of catastrophic event, it doesn’t have to be earthquakes.”
Gillman said he’s looking forward to his new job with CUSEC and the responsibilities it brings.
“I’m pleased to get the opportunity to represent not only the state of Missouri but the citizens of Missouri to because I am a public servant and I do care about the mission of our department,” Gillman said. “It’s going to be a challenge and a lot of work but I think in the end, hopefully, we will be better prepared in the event of some kind of catastrophic earthquake.”
