Page A6 | Thursday, January 21, 2010
Daily Kent Stater
Experts say another major earthquake in Haiti unlikely
From Page A1
CENTENNIAL ‘Kent, Home of the Hump and Hustle’ “If Kent wants a state normal school, there’s no use being bashful about it,” Paxton wrote. “Let’s go after it.” Halem said education was the most stable “industry” Kent could invest in. “Education is not subject to fire and unemployment and depression,” she said. “There was the idea that the school would continue.” Professor Emeritus William Hildebrand, author of “A Most Noble Enterprise: Kent State University, 1910-2010,” wrote in his book that the new school’s site should have sufficient infrastructure and a good public health system among a few other things but “perhaps most important, a large parcel of suitable land available for the campus.” William S. Kent, son of Marvin Kent for whom the city was named, offered more than 50 acres of his farmland as the site, but the commissioners couldn’t see it through the fog that afternoon in September. They made it to the site, but muddy, wet and eager to make their noon appointment in Ravenna, the commissioners were unimpressed by the view. Sensing their discomfort, the Board of Trade members convinced them to stop for a prepared lunch in Twin Lakes, which they claimed was on the way to Ravenna. Vazzano wrote that it had been a boldfaced lie. But it was over that fresh fish fry and cigars — and untold amounts of spirits — the Kent men wined and
Fred Tasker
McClatchy Newspapers
A Kent Normal School Subscription form for $25.00 used to raise money for the establishment of the college. This subscription was signed by Abel Christensen. Photograph appears between pages 24 and 25 of The Years of Youth. dined the commissioners from the state, who showed up late for their meeting in Ravenna and refused the cold meal that had been waiting for them there since noon. “They actually got drunk here (in Twin Lakes),” Gressard said. “But no one likes to talk about that.” Regardless, it was a fish fry, Hildebrand said, that likely sealed the fate of the struggling city. “I think it was definitely a turning point, because it gave the men who took them to lunch a chance to talk about (Kent) and make their case in a happy frame of mind,” Hildebrand said. “They were much more receptive than they would have been otherwise and it delayed Ravenna. There were lingering feelings of resentment over that.” But the bluegill luncheon was not the only reason Kent won the bid for the normal school. Fog had obscured the commissioners’ view of the town, and so they planned a second trip to see the land. The commissioners had narrowed their search to Kent, Wads-
Photos courtesy of Department of Special Collections and Archives
A Davey Tree crew clearing trees on the hill where Merrill Hall, Kent State’s first building, would eventually be constructed. A similar photograph appears on Page 23 of A Book of Memories. From Page A1
SIDEWALKS Snow removal: your civil duty City council has been working with Dean of Students Greg Jarvie to build a program that would pair students with residents who physically aren’t able to shovel sidewalks and driveways to press the importance of the issue. Because sidewalk clearing will be
left in the hands of Kent residents, the city’s focus this winter will be on snow pileups that obstruct views or cover sidewalks. Loomis said he has given warnings to numerous businesses so far, but no citations. Those businesses or residents who fail to heed warnings will face a first-time fee of $100, which escalates with each offense. As for those who are concerned about sidewalk snow pileup from city plows clearing the road, Kent has hired a private contractor.
worth and Warren by then. As Hildebrand wrote in his book, it was the second visit that brought Kent its school. On Nov. 25, 1910, Ohio Gov. Judson Harmon announced Kent as the location for the eastern school and Bowling Green for the location of the western school. “The best evidence points to the Kent farm itself as having made the decisive impression: its proximity to the village, its spaciousness, its rich forest of virgin timber, its freeflowing spring, and, preeminently, its sheer natural beauty ...,” Hildebrand wrote. “Although what (the commissioners) heard at the bluegill feast may have persuaded them to give Kent a second look, it was the magnificent land itself that won the normal school.” The feelings of resentment Hildebrand mentioned from neighboring towns and competing universities would last well into the 1920s, but for now, the city had reason to celebrate. A few hundred Kentites gathered on Normal Hill days after the governor’s announcement to take a look at what would become the school’s campus — Normal Hill, they called it. “I enjoyed writing that part of the book very much,” Hildebrand said. “I enjoyed bringing out the beauty of that hillside. It was really the reason why the city got that school and the townspeople knew it. It was a day of thanksgiving.” Kent Normal School was named after William S. Kent, not the town, for his donation of land. The first building would be constructed a few years later and named after the couple who prepared the bluegill that afternoon in September. Merrill Hall still sits atop the semicircle of buildings at the front of campus. Contact enterprise reporter Kristine Gill at kgill2@kent.edu. React to this story and more at
Kentwired.com The contractor is using a new plowing system to ensure the snow is pushed down the road and into corners instead of intersections. So far this winter, the city plows have cleared 151 intersections to avoid obstructive snow piles. Contact public affairs reporter Melissa Dilley at mdilley2@kent.edu.
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Kentwired.com
MIAMI — Does another “Big One” loom over Haiti? The question came up Wednesday after a magnitude 5.9 aftershock struck 35 miles outside of Port-au-Prince — eight days after a major earthquake shattered the city. Another major quake is unlikely but possible, experts say. “It’s really hard to predict,” said Brady Cox, assistant professor of civil engineering at University of Arkansas. “Any time there’s a large quake it causes significant stress redistribution along earthquake fault lines. It relieves stress in some areas and increases it in others.” “There’s a natural progression of aftershocks,” says Dr. Paul Mann, a geologist with the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas. “The general trend is for them to become smaller over time.” On the Richter scale, a magnitude 5.9 quake like Wednesday’s is considered “strong,” with light damage expected. Still, on the mathematically complex scale that measures earthquakes, even a 6.0-magnitude quake would have only 1/30th the destructive power of a 7.0 quake. Wednesday’s aftershock was centered 6.2 miles below the Earth’s surface; the big quake a week ago was centered 8.1
miles down. Quakes closer to the surface do more damage, experts say. “To a building already damaged by the earlier quake, it could be a very serious thing,” said Tim Dixon, professor of geophysics at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science in Miami. Wednesday’s tremor wasn’t the first strong aftershock. Since the big quake, the area around Haiti has had 44 aftershocks measuring 4.1 to 5.9, according to the United States Geological Survey. Wednesday’s 5.9-magnitude aftershock was bigger than expected, but not too far out of line, Dixon said. In Haiti and the Caribbean, the original earthquake and the aftershocks are taking place along the Enriquillo Fault Zone that starts in Jamaica in the west and goes through Haiti and into the Enriquillo Valley in the Dominican Republic. It’s part of the ever-shifting boundary between the massive North American and Caribbean tectonic plates. The Enriquillo zone is 600 miles long. Last week’s earthquake near Port-au-Prince ruptured only about 50 miles of that fault line, increasing the stress on the portions remaining unruptured, Dixon said. Still, most of the current aftershocks are in the part of the Enriquillo line that slipped in last week’s big quake, not in areas outside it.
“They’re just stress being redistributed along the line that already slipped,” he said. Most of the 44 aftershocks have taken place to the west of the original earthquake, he said, because the original quake was created by a slipping of the plates in a westerly direction. The aftershocks may continue, but they’re unlikely to be as big as Wednesday’s, Dixon said. He said the 5.8-magnitude quake that rattled the Cayman Islands on Tuesday was not directly related to the Port-auPrince quake. It’s on the same North American/Caribbean tectonic plate boundary, but not on the same fault line, he said. Still, another big quake is possible, Cox said. He said two major separate quakes struck Turkey, both within 100 miles of Istanbul, within three months of each other in 1999. A 7.4-magnitude quake hit near Istanbul on Aug. 17, 1999, killing 17,000, followed by a 7.2-magnitude quake on Nov. 12 that killed 1,000. Geologists said the second quake was not an aftershock, but a separate seismic event on the same Anatolian Fault Line. “These things are unpredictable” Cox said.
This article originally appeared in The Miami Herald and was distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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