Magnitude 4.3 Earthquake in central Kansas.

The United States Geological Survey recorded a Magnitude 4.3 Earthquake at a depth of 3.0 km, about 5 km to the southwest of the city of Gypsum in Saline County in central Kansas, at about 7.45 am local time (about 1.45pm GMT) on Wednesday 8 December 2021. There are no reports of any damage or casualties associated with this event, but it was felt across much of Kansas, as well as southern Nebraska, western Missouri, and northern Oklahoma.

 

The approximate location of the 8 December 2021 Saline County Earthquake. Google Maps.

Earthquakes on southern Kansas are rare, and their causes poorly understood. There are two fault zones in the south of the state, The Humbolt Fault to the southeast of Wichita and the Crooked Creek Fault to the southwest of Dodge, though both of these are ancient structures not considered to be particularly active, and both lie a long way from this event. 

 

Small Earthquakes have also been attributed widely to the activities of hydrocarbons companies, notably the extraction of oil and gas, which is a major industry in Kansas, but not in the area affected by this quake. In particular the process of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in which water, sand and chemicals are forced into buried sediments at considerable pressure in order to shock them into releasing trapped hydrocarbons, is often linked to Earthquakes, but this is restricted to the east of Kansas. The practice of storing hydrocarbons in underground salt deposits that have previously been worked commercially has also been linked to seismic events, as it causes repeated inflation and deflation of the affected beds, which can trigger previously quiet and unnoticed faults.  

Witness accounts of quakes can help geologists to understand these events and the rock structures that cause them. If you felt this quake (or if you were in the area but did not, which is also useful information) you can report it to the USGS here.

 

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Hundreds of homes damaged as storms sweep across America's Midwest.

Hundreds of homes have been destroyed an a number of people have been injured as series of storms swept across the American Midwest on Monday 6 March 2017. The worst of the damage occurred around Oak Grove on the border between Jackson and Lafayette counties in Missouri where about 500 homes and commercial buildings were damaged or destroyed by a tornado that reached three on the Enhanced Fujita scale (or an EF-3 tornado), with winds peaking at 245 km per hour. 

The aftermath of the 6 March 2017 Oak Grove tornado outbreak. Kansas City News and Weather.

Elsewhere in Missouri between fifty and sixty homes were damaged or destroyed by an EF-2 tornado with peak winds of over 210 kilometres per hour in Smithville. 46 homes were damaged in the Kansas City suburb of Leaward, while twelve aircraft hangers were damaged and one destroyed at Johnson County Executive Airport. Two people were injured and a number of properties were damaged after an EF-1 tornado with winds of 140-175 kilometres per hour hit Wentzville. A water treatment plant was damaged in Odessa and tornadoes were also reported in Lee's Summit and Macks Creek.

 Overtuned mobile home in Wentzville, Missouri following the 7 March 2017 tornado outbreak. Robert Cohen/St Louis Post-Dispatch.

In Iowa an EF-2 tornado with winds peaking at 185 kilometres per hour hit the city of Muscatine leaving a trail of destruction 200 m wide and over three kilometres in length, with three people injured and over eighty homes damaged. A second tornado hit the city of Blue Grass, though this caused only minor damage. Tornadoes were also reported in Minnesota, the earliest in the year ever reported in the state, as well as in Kansas and Illinois, while major thunderstorms were reported in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

 Damage in Seymour, Iowa, following the 7 March 2017 tornado outbreak. Daily Iowegian.

Tornadoes are formed by winds within large thunder storms called super cells. Supercells are large masses of warm water-laden air formed by hot weather over the sea, when they encounter winds at high altitudes the air within them begins to rotate. The air pressure will drop within these zones of rotation, causing the air within them so rise, sucking the air beneath them up into the storm, this creates a zone of rotating rising air that appears to extend downwards as it grows; when it hits the ground it is called a tornado. 

Tornadoes can occur anywhere in the world, but are most common, and most severe, in the area of the American mid-west known as 'Tornado Ally', running from Texas to Minnisota, which is fuelled by moist air currents from over the warm enclosed waters of the Gulf of Mexico interacting with cool fast moving jet stream winds from the Rocky Mountains. Many climatologists are concerned that rising temperatures over the Gulf of Mexico will lead to more frequent and more severe tornado events.

Simplified diagram of the air currents that contribute to tornado formation in Tornado Alley. Dan Craggs/Wikimedia Commons/NOAA.

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Fireball over northern Texas.

The American Meteor Society has received reports of a bright fireball meteor being seen over parts of the the southwest United States slightly before 8.00 pm on Sunday 26 February local time (slightly before 3.00 am on Monday 27 February GMT). The majority of the reports came from the northern Texas, but sightings were also reported from Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas and Oklahoma. A fireball is defined as a meteor (shooting star) brighter than the planet Venus. These are typically caused by pieces of rock burning up in the atmosphere, but can be the result of man-made space-junk burning up on re-entry.

The 26 February 2017 Texas Fireball seen from Hawley in Texas. Kevin Palivec/American Meteor Society.

Objects of this size probably enter the Earth's atmosphere several times a year, though unless they do so over populated areas they are unlikely to be noticed. They are officially described as fireballs if they produce a light brighter than the planet Venus. It is possible that this object will have produced meteorites that reached the surface (an object visible in the sky is a meteor, a rock that falls from the sky and can be physically held and examined is a meteorite).

Witness reports can help astronomers to understand these events. If you witnessed this fireball you can report it to the American Meteor Society here. 

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Motorcycle crash causes major sinkhole in Wichita, Kansas.

Local authorities are warning drivers to expect several days of disruption after a motorcycle struck a fire hydrant, leading to a water leak that washed away sediments beneath a major interchange, leading to a sinkhole that closed both roads. The motorcycle was reportedly being chased y the police when it hit the hydrant, having failed to stop after a traffic violation. The rider was taken to hospital with injuries described as ;serious but not life-threatening'.

Sinkhole in Wichita, Kansas, caused by a motorcycle crash. KSN.

Sinkholes are generally caused by water eroding soft limestone or unconsolidated deposits from beneath, causing a hole that works its way upwards and eventually opening spectacularly at the surface. Where there are unconsolidated deposits at the surface they can infill from the sides, apparently swallowing objects at the surface, including people, without trace. Potash, a potassium salt, is readily soluble and can be dissolved quickly if water gains access to deposits, leading to the rapid formation of sinkholes.

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Milnesium swansoni: A new species of Tardigrade from the Kansas tree canopy.

Tardigrades, or Water Bears, are minute (generally less than 1 mm and always less than 3 mm) aquatic animals related to Arthropods and Nematodes. They are noted for their remarkable toughness, able to enter a dormant state in which they can survive freezing, high temperatures, dehydration and even exposure to vacuum, becoming active again when normal conditions return. This means that Tardigrades are able to colonize a remarkable variety of environments, from the deepest of marine trenches to arid mountain ranges at the heart of continents. Members of the genus Milnesium are predatory Tardigrades favouring limno-terrestrial environments (environments that are seasonally wet, but which are also desicated for part of the year) and consuming animals such as Rotifers, Nematodes and other, smaller, Tardigrades. The genus was first described in 1840, and was for a long while thought to be monospecific, comprising a single species, Milnesium tardigradum, with a near-global distribution, but improvements in both microscopic imaging techiniques and genetic sampling methods have led to a revision of this view, with a number of new species being described in the species since 1990, and many Tardigrade experts now considering all records of Milnesium tardigradum outside Europe as probably eroneous.

In a paper published in the journal Zootaxa on 4 February 2016, Alexander Young of the Department of Biology at Lewis & Clark College, Benjamin Chappell of the Department of Biology at the University of Kansas, William Miller of the Department of Biology at Baker University and Margaret Lowman of the California Academy of Sciences describe a new species of Milnesium from the tree canopy at several sites in Kansas.

The new species is named Milnesium swansoni in honour of Kent Swanson whose family established the Swanson Family Scholarship, of which Alexander Young was a beneficiary. The species is described from five male and five female specimens, out of a total of 115 individuals collected from Lichen and Moss growning in the canopy of a variety of trees. The specimens range from 329 to 404 μm in length, and show slight sexual dimorphism, the males having thickened secondary claws lacking sub-branches on their forelimbs, while the females have thinner, branching secondary claws on this limb.

Milnesium swansoni. (A) Body of holotype showing smooth cuticle. (B) Mouth showing holotype with narrow buccal tube and four peribuccal lamellae. (C) Secondary characteristic of male. (D) Claw I of male showing [3-3] claw formation. (E) Claw IV with [3-3] claw formation. Young et al. (2016).

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Quisarctus yasumurai: A new species of Tardigrade from a submarine cave in the Okinawa Islands.                                                Tardigrades, or Water Bears, are minute (generally less than 1 mm and always less than 3 mm) aquatic animals related to Arthropods, Nematodes and...

A new species of Tardigrade from Latvia. Tardigrades are small animals (adult sizes of 0.1-1.5 mm) distantly related to Arthropods and Onychophorans (Velvet Worms). They are plump...

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Flooding and winter storms thought to have killed at least fouteen in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.

At least fourteen people are thought to have died as flooding and winter storms battered Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas on Friday 27 November 2015. Eight deaths have been reported in flooding in northern Texas, while four have died in road accidents associated with wet conditions in Kansas and two in Oklahoma.At least three people are thought to have died in flash floods that swept vehicles from roads in Dallas, with two further deaths in Johnson County and one in Tarrant County. All four deaths in Kansas have been described as 'single vehicle incidents'. Details of other fatalities are not available at this time.

 Car caught in a flash flood at Garland in Dallas, Texas. USA Today.

Many areas of Texas are facing severe disruption to transport networks as roads are closed due to flooding and many rail services have been cancelled. Flooding has also caused many businesses to close in the area; schools and government services are not reporting closures at this time, but this is largely because most are closed for the Thanksgiving Holiday anyway. Many areas are also reporting overflowing sewage systems due to the floods, which will add to clean-up costs and may lead to public health problems. In Oklahoma around 83 000 people are reported to be without power after high winds toppled trees onto power lines.

 Flooding at Deer Creek in Fort Worth, Texas, on 27 November 2015. AP.

The flooding has been widely linked to the El Niño weather system currently affecting the Pacific Ocean, a phenomenon that typically brings high levels of rainfall to the southwest United States, starting around the beginning of December, although this year the area has been suffering floods since the middle of October. More specifically the flooding is likely to have been directly caused by moisture associated with Hurricane Sandra, a tropical storm which largely petered out before making landfall on the Pacific coast of Mexico, bein downgraded to a Tropical Depression on Saturday 28 November 2015, but which will nevertheless have raised the atmospheric water content severely. The relationship between the two events is difficult to determine; more tropical storms would be expected in the east Pacific late in the year during El Niño periods, but it is not possible to say that any particular storm was directly caused by the weather pattern.

Downed power lines in Yukon, Oklahoma, on Saturday 28 November 2015. News 9.

The El Niño is the warm phase of a long-term climatic oscillation affecting the southern Pacific, which can influence the climate around the world. The onset of El Niño conditions is marked by a sharp rise in temperature and pressure over the southern Indian Ocean, which then moves eastward over the southern Pacific. This pulls rainfall with it, leading to higher rainfall over the Pacific and lower rainfall over South Asia. This reduced rainfall during the already hot and dry summer leads to soaring temperatures in southern Asia, followed by a rise in rainfall that often causes flooding in the Americas and sometimes Africa. Worryingly climatic predictions for the next century suggest that global warming could lead to more frequent and severe El Niño conditions, extreme weather conditions a common occurrence.

 Predicted changes to North American weather patterns during an El Niño event. NWS/NCEP Climate Prediction Center/NOAA.

Tropical storms are caused by the warming effect of the Sun over tropical seas. As the air warms it expands, causing a drop in air pressure, and rises, causing air from outside the area to rush in to replace it. If this happens over a sufficiently wide area then the inrushing winds will be affected by centrifugal forces caused by the Earth's rotation (the Coriolis effect). This means that winds will be deflected clockwise in the northern hemisphere and anti-clockwise in the southern hemisphere, eventually creating a large, rotating Tropical Storm. They have different names in different parts of the world, with those in the northwest Atlantic and northeast Pacific being referred to as hurricanes.

 The path and strength of Hurricane Sandra. Thick line indicates the past path of the storm (till 3.00 pm GMT on Saturday 28 November 2015), while the thin line indicates the predicted future path of the storm, and the dotted circles the margin of error at six and twelve hours ahead. Colour indicated the severity of the storm. Tropical Storm Risk.

Despite the obvious danger of winds of this speed, which can physically blow people, and other large objects, away as well as damaging buildings and uprooting trees, the real danger from these storms comes from the flooding they bring. Each drop millibar drop in air-pressure leads to an approximate 1 cm rise in sea level, with big tropical storms capable of causing a storm serge of several meters. This is always accompanied by heavy rainfall, since warm air over the ocean leads to evaporation of sea water, which is then carried with the storm. These combined often lead to catastrophic flooding in areas hit by tropical storms.

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Hurricane Patricia: The most severe storm ever recorded causes widespread flooding but relatively few casualties.                   Hurricane Patricia formed as a tropical depression over the eastern Pacific Basin in mid-October 2015, before increasing rapidly in intensity on 22 October... 

Flash flooding brings chaos to South California.                                                     Many areas of southern California are recovering after a series of thunderstorms caused flash flooding across parts of Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo, Santa...

Tropical Storm Erika kills at least 25 in the Caribbean.                                                     At least 36 people are known to have died and over 50 more are...

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Fumicollis hoffmani: A new species of Hesperornithiform Bird from the Late Cretaceous Niobrara Chalk of Kansas.

The Hesperornithiforms were a distinctive group of toothed Birds that appeared in the Early Cretaceous and persisted till the end of that period. They are thought to have been among the first Birds to adapt to an aquatic lifestyle, apparently having been powerful swimmers with proportion driven by the enlarged hind legs, though like other Cretaceous toothed Bird groups they are not thought to have any living descendants.

In a paper published in the journal PLoS One on 18 November 2015, Alyssa Bell and Luis Chiappe of the Dinosaur Institute at the Natural History Museum ofLos Angeles County, describe a new species of Hesperornithiform Bird from the Late Cretaceous Smoky Hill Member of the Niobrara Chalk of Kansas.

The species is named Fumicollis hoffmani, where 'Fumicollis' means 'Smoke Hill' in Latin and 'hoffmani' honours Karen and Jim Hoffman for their generous support of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and in particular the Dinosaur Institute. The species is described from a single specimen, which was initially discovered in 1937 and thought to be a specimen of Baptornis advenus, but which has now been shown to be a separate species. The specimen comprises eight vertebrae, numerous fragments of ribs, plus most of the ilium, ischium, and pubis, some of the left half of the pelvis, part of the pygostyle (tailbone made from fused vertebrae), most of the left hindlimb and part of the right.

Reconstruction of Fumicollis hoffmani. Bell & Chiappe (2015).

Fumicollis hoffmani shows a mixture of traits seen in other Late Cretaceous Hesperornithiforms and more 'primitive' traits seen in earlier members of the group. However Bell and Chiappe believe that the 'primitive' traits of Fumicollis hoffmani relate to its size; most known Late Cretaceous Hesperornithiforms were quite large, while earlier members of the group were generally small.

The Smokey Hills Member is thought to have been laid down over a period of about five million years, but has produced a rich and diverse assemblage of Hesperornithiforms. This does not necessarily mean that all the species were present at the same time, though it leaves a very limited period for different species to replace one-another. Bell and Chiappe suggest that the diverse assemblage potentially represents an assemblage of Birds with different ecological requirements living in the same area. This can be seen today in Penguins around the Antarctic Peninsula and nearby islands, where up to six different species can be found living in the same area. While the Penguins are all essentially similar, being aquatic Birds feeding on Fish, the different species are all different sizes, and therefore feed at different depths, allowing the different species to live in the same area without directly competing with one-another.

See also...

Preserved feathers in an Enantiornithine Bird from the Early Cretaceous Crato Formation of Brazil.                                                                               While feathers have been known in fossil Birds from...

Preserved stomach contents in Early Cretaceous Ornithuromorph Birds.                     The Early Cretaceous Jehol Group of China has produced a remarkable number of well-preserved fossils of Mesozoic Birds, adding greatly to our understanding of the early history of this group...

Bird eggs from a Late Cretaceous colonial nesting site in Argentinean Patagonia.                In the 1980s a large collection of Avian eggs were uncovered at the campus of the National University of Comahue at Neuquén City in Argentinean Patagonia. These ages were located on a single bedding...

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Sinkhole opens up at Kansas golf course.

Part of the fairway at the Canyon Farms Golf Course in Lenexa, Kansas has had to be closed after a large sinkhole opened up on the course on Friday 19 June 2015. Nobody was injured by the event, however the hole, which is about 3 m deep, presents a major obstacle to golfers, and it is not clear at the current time what can be done to repair the course.

Aerial photograph of the Canyon Farms Golf Course sinkhole. KCTV5.

Sinkholes are generally caused by water eroding soft limestone or unconsolidated deposits from beneath, causing a hole that works its way upwards and eventually opening spectacularly at the surface. Where there are unconsolidated deposits at the surface they can infill from the sides, apparently swallowing objects at the surface, including people, without trace. Potash, a potassium salt, is readily soluble and can be dissolved quickly if water gains access to deposits, leading to the rapid formation of sinkholes.

The approximate location of the Canyon Farms Golf Course sinkhole. Google Maps.

The Canyon Farms Golf Course is known to have been partially constructed over an old limestone mine, and this appears to have been the cause of the sinkhole. It is likely that heavy rain in the past weeks has led both to water-logging of surface sediments (increasing their weight) and weakening of buried limestone deposits from which extraction previously occurred. Rainfall can be acidified by carbon dioxide, which dissolves in the water to form carbonic acid, which presents no immediate health threat to humans but which attacks limestone vigorously. 

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Police vehicle swallowed by sinkhole in Sheridan, Colorado.

A Sheridan Police Department SUV was swallowed by a sinkhole that opened up beneath it unexpectedly at about 2.15 am local time on Friday 5 June 2015. The single occupant of the vehicle, police sergeant Greg Miller, was able to craw out of the hole, which was...

Giant sinkholes appear at Missouri golf course.

A pair of giant sinkholes have appeared at the Top of the Rock Golf Course in Taney County, Missouri, on Friday 22 May 2014. The larger of the two sinkholes measures 25 m across by 10 m deep, while the...

US Marine killed by Missouri Sinkhole.

A US Marine has died after falling into a 20 m sinkhole while hunting deer in near Buckthorn in Pulaski County, Missouri, on the evening of Monday 16 September 2013. It is thought that the sinkhole opened up in...

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