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Interview With Dr. Tim Long of Georgia Tech

Aired April 29, 2003 - 13:51   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it was a mild earthquake, and certainly by left coast terms, nobody would be really rattled. But here in Atlanta this morning, 5:00 a.m. local time, many of us were awakened by a fairly long and pronounced rattling. Four and change on the scale, considered mild, but nevertheless, something that has caught our attention.
Joining us to talk a little bit more about earthquakes on the East coast, which is an unusual thing in and of itself, we think, is Dr. Tim Long, Georgia Tech University -- Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia Tech, we call it. Good to have you with us, Dr. Long.

DR. TIM LONG, GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: Good morning.

O'BRIEN: First of all, let's talk about the site. I am going to zoom you in, using our keyhole satellite imagery to give you a sense of where this occurred. It was basically on the Alabama-Georgia border. Is that a common site for seismic activity, Dr. Long?

LONG: Yes, it is. It's on the southwestern end of a seismic zone we call the Southeast Tennessee seismic zone.

O'BRIEN: How frequently do you see seismic activity in this part of the world?

LONG: We actually get around 10 to 12 events that we actually document on seismometers. This event -- events of this size occur every 20 to 40 years.

O'BRIEN: Twenty to 40 years. All right.

Let's look at our Web site, a couple of Web sites we found, the United States Geological Survey. This map -- I hope you can see it well. What it shows, those little dots there, if you look at these little dots over in this area, and this one right here, it shows recent seismic activity in the United States. Not many people would know, I think, Dr. Long, that there are 271 earthquakes that occurred in the past week alone.

LONG: Two hundred and seventy-one, yes...

O'BRIEN: That's not an unusual week?

LONG: No.

O'BRIEN: All right. And this one, by standards for this region, still considered mild, or is this considered a big one for this part of the world?

LONG: It's an unusually large earthquake -- well, not unusually large. It is an earthquake of substantial size. I call it a reminder, a reminder that major earthquakes do occur, and can occur in the Eastern United States.

O'BRIEN: A reminder quake. OK. That sounds good to us. Now, here we have an area that predicts the relative risk of rapid movement of the earth as a result of seismic activity. And I'll just point out for you the location of this epicenter, which is right in that yellow region there, which matches what you just said. This is an area where you would predict seismic activity to be more likely.

LONG: That's right. The map you're seeing there is a hazard map. It's based on historical seismic activity. Of course, the big hot spot on the right is Charleston, and the Southeast Tennessee seismic zone is the one where our earthquake today occurred.

O'BRIEN: And, of course, we know back in the mid-1800s, Charleston had a very devastating earthquake, which if you've been there, you still see sort of evidence -- buttressing the buildings there. This is global seismic activity, the high risk places. Many of them you would predict. But what I will call your attention to is this idea of ringing the Pacific with areas of high seismic activity, all down the pacific on the East coast, if you will, of the Pacific. And then all along the west, you see high seismic activity. Why is that?

LONG: These are the boundaries of major plates. The Pacific is noted for the convergent zones on the side subductions under the Aleutian Islands, the northwest coast, and under South America on the western coast.

O'BRIEN: All right. Here is a map also from the United States Geological Survey that shows seismicity in the United States for the past 20 years. And it shows, once again, what you would predict, lots more activity out in the western part of the United States. But you just mentioned the Aleutian Islands. I want to show you this graph. Look at that, look at the Aleutian Islands and the number of events that have occurred there. Dr. Long, we don't hear so much about that, but there's a lot going on up there, isn't there?

LONG: There are major earthquakes up there. This is an area, though, of very sparse population, so no, you don't hear about it often.

O'BRIEN: All right. Let's do one more thing we saw on the Web here. This is an interesting one. Whenever there's an earthquake, the USGS invites people to log on, or call in, if you will, and tell them what it felt like to them relatively. Now, admittedly, this is subjective. And what that shows in light blue indicates that people felt it was sort of a light earthquake. Is this reliable in any way, given the fact that people here aren't very used to feeling earthquakes, Dr. Long?

LONG: Well, they use a modified Mercalli testing (ph) scale, which is subjective in itself. This is the only way we really have of comparing contemporary earthquakes, which are instrumentally recorded with those that go back in history, so this is very important data.

O'BRIEN: I just want to point out, Atlanta -- that's the epicenter right there and Atlanta is right there. Dr. Tim Long, Georgia Institute of Technology, thanks for coming in. We appreciate you shedding some light on the world of earthquakes for those of us who don't study this like you do. We appreciate your time.

LONG: My pleasure.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired April 29, 2003 - 13:51   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it was a mild earthquake, and certainly by left coast terms, nobody would be really rattled. But here in Atlanta this morning, 5:00 a.m. local time, many of us were awakened by a fairly long and pronounced rattling. Four and change on the scale, considered mild, but nevertheless, something that has caught our attention.
Joining us to talk a little bit more about earthquakes on the East coast, which is an unusual thing in and of itself, we think, is Dr. Tim Long, Georgia Tech University -- Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia Tech, we call it. Good to have you with us, Dr. Long.

DR. TIM LONG, GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: Good morning.

O'BRIEN: First of all, let's talk about the site. I am going to zoom you in, using our keyhole satellite imagery to give you a sense of where this occurred. It was basically on the Alabama-Georgia border. Is that a common site for seismic activity, Dr. Long?

LONG: Yes, it is. It's on the southwestern end of a seismic zone we call the Southeast Tennessee seismic zone.

O'BRIEN: How frequently do you see seismic activity in this part of the world?

LONG: We actually get around 10 to 12 events that we actually document on seismometers. This event -- events of this size occur every 20 to 40 years.

O'BRIEN: Twenty to 40 years. All right.

Let's look at our Web site, a couple of Web sites we found, the United States Geological Survey. This map -- I hope you can see it well. What it shows, those little dots there, if you look at these little dots over in this area, and this one right here, it shows recent seismic activity in the United States. Not many people would know, I think, Dr. Long, that there are 271 earthquakes that occurred in the past week alone.

LONG: Two hundred and seventy-one, yes...

O'BRIEN: That's not an unusual week?

LONG: No.

O'BRIEN: All right. And this one, by standards for this region, still considered mild, or is this considered a big one for this part of the world?

LONG: It's an unusually large earthquake -- well, not unusually large. It is an earthquake of substantial size. I call it a reminder, a reminder that major earthquakes do occur, and can occur in the Eastern United States.

O'BRIEN: A reminder quake. OK. That sounds good to us. Now, here we have an area that predicts the relative risk of rapid movement of the earth as a result of seismic activity. And I'll just point out for you the location of this epicenter, which is right in that yellow region there, which matches what you just said. This is an area where you would predict seismic activity to be more likely.

LONG: That's right. The map you're seeing there is a hazard map. It's based on historical seismic activity. Of course, the big hot spot on the right is Charleston, and the Southeast Tennessee seismic zone is the one where our earthquake today occurred.

O'BRIEN: And, of course, we know back in the mid-1800s, Charleston had a very devastating earthquake, which if you've been there, you still see sort of evidence -- buttressing the buildings there. This is global seismic activity, the high risk places. Many of them you would predict. But what I will call your attention to is this idea of ringing the Pacific with areas of high seismic activity, all down the pacific on the East coast, if you will, of the Pacific. And then all along the west, you see high seismic activity. Why is that?

LONG: These are the boundaries of major plates. The Pacific is noted for the convergent zones on the side subductions under the Aleutian Islands, the northwest coast, and under South America on the western coast.

O'BRIEN: All right. Here is a map also from the United States Geological Survey that shows seismicity in the United States for the past 20 years. And it shows, once again, what you would predict, lots more activity out in the western part of the United States. But you just mentioned the Aleutian Islands. I want to show you this graph. Look at that, look at the Aleutian Islands and the number of events that have occurred there. Dr. Long, we don't hear so much about that, but there's a lot going on up there, isn't there?

LONG: There are major earthquakes up there. This is an area, though, of very sparse population, so no, you don't hear about it often.

O'BRIEN: All right. Let's do one more thing we saw on the Web here. This is an interesting one. Whenever there's an earthquake, the USGS invites people to log on, or call in, if you will, and tell them what it felt like to them relatively. Now, admittedly, this is subjective. And what that shows in light blue indicates that people felt it was sort of a light earthquake. Is this reliable in any way, given the fact that people here aren't very used to feeling earthquakes, Dr. Long?

LONG: Well, they use a modified Mercalli testing (ph) scale, which is subjective in itself. This is the only way we really have of comparing contemporary earthquakes, which are instrumentally recorded with those that go back in history, so this is very important data.

O'BRIEN: I just want to point out, Atlanta -- that's the epicenter right there and Atlanta is right there. Dr. Tim Long, Georgia Institute of Technology, thanks for coming in. We appreciate you shedding some light on the world of earthquakes for those of us who don't study this like you do. We appreciate your time.

LONG: My pleasure.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com