[Esip-scicomm] How'd I do?

[Denise Hills]

I’m submitting this for “Friendly Feedback”!

http://www.wbrc.com/clip/13121344/geologist-explains-why-earthquake-isnt-likely-to-have-caused-tuscaloosa-co-road-damage?autostart=true

A bit of background info: there were two very small EQs in Alabama last week (events here: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us20008ke4#executive and here: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us20008ke8#executive ) in the middle of nowhere, really. Actually, it’s possible that they aren’t even EQs, but related to small mine collapses or landslides or similar - the signature isn’t typical of the small EQs we get here, but it’s not widely different. With them being so shallow (1.1 and 1.5 km estimated depth) the signals can get messy from the highly variable surficial material.

Why the news wanted to talk to me is that in nearby Berry, AL, (about 15-20 miles away), officials heard about the EQs and noticed some road damage, that they thought was related to the earthquakes. It’s pretty clear that they aren’t related, and it’s more likely that the road damage is related to ground changes (we’ve had a lot of rain) or nearby mining activity or just poor road construction (note, I didn’t give that as a possibility :) ).

Anyway, I would really appreciate any friendly feedback on this. It’s short, but hopefully I can get better the next time I have to do this. Even if the topic isn’t my area of expertise, I’m often nominated to speak to reporters, because I’m more comfortable doing it.

Thanks!!
Denise

Denise Hills
Director, Energy Investigations
Geological Survey of Alabama
+1-205-247-3694 (office)
+1-205-239-8191 (cell)
dhills at gsa.state.al.us<mailto:dhills at gsa.state.al.us>



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.esipfed.org/pipermail/esip-scicomm/attachments/20170222/630835b2/attachment.html>