St. Louis is a DANGEROUS place.

One thing that most people don't know is New Madrid, Missouri, which is 20 miles away from St. Louis, has earthquakes occur here. When most people think of earthquakes, they think of areas on the West Coast near the Ring of Fire. One of the most deadly fault lines, however, lies within the Midwest... The English Hills Fault, or today known as the New Madrid Fault Line.

Why are these faults more dangerous than the ones around the Pacific Ocean?

The answer lies within the crust. In area, such as California, the crust is used to constant movement. The rock has already been broken up, and huge devistation will not occur from a earthquake. Now look where St. Louis is located. The rock is solid and unconsolidated, and even if a small earthquake would occur, massive amounts of damage will occur. On the picture to the right, it shows the effect of equivalent earthquakes in different regions.

The last time that an earthquake has occurred was in 1811-1812. Three of the most powerful earthquakes that the nation has ever experienced occured within these years. By the amount of displacement of sedimentary layers, scientists have concluded that the eruptions measured to be a magnitude 8.

Scientists estimate that there is a 90% change that there will be an earthquake of at least a 6 magnitude within the next 50 years. That means that most of us will live to see this phenomenal event.

What's so catastrophic about an earthquake? California experiences them all the time!

This is true, but California has building codes. They reinforce all the homes, businesses, and pipes so they can withstand an earthquake. The St. Loius area, however, has just started reinforcing buildings. All the building made out of brick will collapse almost instantaneously. Bridges over the Ohio river will be destroyed, and all the pipes underground will be broken. Not to mention, fires will likely start from the earthquake, and there will be no water lines to put them out. The phone and electricity lines will be destroyed, and huge devistation in this area, along with neighboring states, will occur.

Moral of the story: DO NOT BUY A HOUSE IN THE ST. LOUIS AREA!

Secrets beneath Yellowstone

Millions of tourists travel to Yellowstone each year. Many of the travelers leisurly take photos and hike, but they are unaware of the danger that resides thousands of miles beneath their shoes.

The source that makes yellowstone geysers and hot springs alive is a massive pool of magma residing in earth's mantle. This huge amount of magma is enough to drive a Super Volcano.

A super volcano is the largest and most deadly type of volcano. This type of eruption is a mangnitude 8 on the VEI scale which means that 1,000,000,000,000 cubic kilometers of magma will be errupted.

Just how bad would things get if one occurred?

First, anyone at ground zero would instantly become incinerated. Pyroclastic flows, which are gigantic flows of ash (that will turn into cement in your lungs), will cause any town within hundreds of miles to become decimated. [An example is shown in the bottom video on the video bar on the right.] Ash will fall almost everywhere across the nation. Indiana will have about 2 inches of ash on the ground.

But things get worse... All of the ash in the air will emcompass the entire globe, and the thick soot in the stratosphere will block out the sun for several months, even years. Twenty million tons of sulfur dioxide gas will be given off from the volcano, and when it combines with water in the atmosphere, sulfuric rain will occur. The planet will also have a global cooling of 1 degree Celcius for a year, and most of Earth's plants will die out and the water supply will be contaminated with massive amounts of soot.

Sure. You can guess what will happen, but how do we know that for sure?

The answer is simple... It's already happened before! If you look at Yellowstone, you will see gigantic ridges and rifts, almost like a huge wall that goes up a few hundred feet. A person might not think anything about it until he or she sees an aerial shot. There is an entire rim that goes around Yellowstone, and there is only one thing that couldv'e caused it... a previous super eruption.

You see, the magma pool underneath the ground takes up a lot of space. Actually, it's almost the entire size of Yellowstone. Once an eruption has occurred, and the magma empties, there is nothing left to support the land above the pool, and it all just collapses. It leaves the high ridges and rifts from where the elevation of the land used to be. Scientist refer to these areas as "calderas".

Are we in danger?

Scientists have estimated that a super eruption occurs every 600,000 years, but that's not a good thing. The last eruption hasn't occurred since 640,000 years ago! We are over due for a super eruption, but that doesn't mean that we should fret over it today. It could occur tomorrow, or it can occur another 100,000 years from now. One things for sure. We will know ahead of time if an eruption is about to occur. The ground will rise, small earthquakes will occur, and trees will die from the massive amounts of gas given off. So you shouldn't worry about it until then!

Could global warming send Earth into an ice age?

The earth is a very complex place. It is constantly moving and changing, without remorse for exterminating entire species. In today's society, could global warming throw us into an ice age? The answer is No, but if someone asked these questions hundreds of years ago, the answer would be Yes. Today, we have too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and there would be no possible way to throw the plant into an ice age.

But how does the warming of the earth make the planet dramatically colder?

The key to the consistent climate in on Earth is the ocean currents. It carries the warm water up from the southern hemisphere to north, and keeps countries like the United States warm.

Ocean currents are driven by the Thermohaline Circulation (THC), which is just a big word for how the currents move. The constant flowing of the warm water floating up and the cold water sinking down, along with the salinity (amount of salt) in the water, keep the currents moving.

With Global Warming, the glaciers will eventually melt. The cold water with no salinity with combine with the warmer water in the ocean, and greatly disturb the currents. This will throw the planet into an ice age if the carbon dioxide levels are high, but not excessively high, as they are today.