There's not a whole lot of shakin' goin' on up on the Hill.
Or anywhere else in the state for that matter, if geophysics professor Don Steeples is right. Steeples knows about earthquakes, and the risk is slight for a big one here like those in Taiwan, Greece and Turkey.
The worst Kansas would face is a quake in the magnitude 6.5 range. That would still be bad, depending on how close you are to its epicenter. Steeples gets that number from measurements of the longest length of continuous fault in the Humboldt Fault Zone, which runs from near Omaha, Neb., to near Oklahoma City.
Unlike California's San Andreas Fault, the Humboldt Fault Zone is not one continuous fault marking the division between two tectonic plates. The Humboldt is a series of faults formed 1.1 billion years ago when the earth's crust split 40 miles wide between the present-day locations of Manhattan and Concordia. The breach was filled in over time. Lots of time.
The longest continuous faults in the Humboldt are only 30 miles long. If such a fault slipped, at most it could only generate a magnitude 6.5 earthquake. For perspective, the earthquake in Taiwan has been estimated at between magnitude 7.3 and 7.6. For each increase in number, say from 6.5 to 7.5, the intensity of the quake increases 10 times.
Steeples estimates a magnitude 6.5 quake occurs in Kansas once every 2,000 years. That means this year there is a 1-in-2,000 chance of such a quake in Kansas.
"I'm willing to be comfortable with that," he said.
The worst quake in Kansas history occurred in the 1860s near Junction City. It is estimated to have been a magnitude 5.5. Newspaper reports at the time said the Kansas River ran backwards, chimneys fell over and horses fell down.
There are other earthquakes in Kansas. About one a month. Most are in the magnitude 2 range.
A break in the New Madrid (which is not pronounced like the city in Spain) fault would not generate much damage here, Steeples said. Earthquakes in 1811 and 1812 around the New Madrid, Mo., area were the worst in American history. Fortunately, the area was sparsely populated so the loss of life was slight.
We're just too far away for a New Madrid quake to shake us much, Steeples said.
However, if you think the recent quakes in Turkey, Greece and Taiwan are proof that the level of earthquake activity is increasing in the last year of this millennium, you're wrong, Steeples said.
The number of earthquakes is pretty much constant. What has changed is the number of people on the Earth.
"More people are injured as population increases," Steeples said. ''Population centers tend to be around oceans. As time goes on, more people are at risk."
Any other shaking felt this week on the Hill had its epicenter in Topeka and was political in nature. Such a trembler cannot be measured on the Richter scale.
Like a Phoenix,
the KU jet flies again
In fact, that plane's been airworthy for about 12 days, says Jim Stogsdill, assistant director for administration in the chancellor's office. Contrary to popular rumor, the Cessna Citation Bravo jet was not damaged in air-to-air combat with the K-State jet.
Here's what really happened. The wing tip on Kansas University's plane was clipped by a truck. There was no structural damage to the wing, but those little blinky lights on the end were all broken and the piece that holds them in place wasn't looking too good either.
To repair it, KU had to get the plane down to the Cessna plant in Wichita. The university called the Federal Aviation Administration and got permission for a one-time flight to the Air Capital.
The $10,000 piece was replaced, the university's subsonic jet capability was restored and there was no chance of a jet gap developing between KU and KSU.
KU will get the 10 grand back from the insurance settlement with the driver of the truck. And no, the jet is not called Jayhawk One.
All kidding aside, it's most often used by doctors at Kansas University Medical Center to visit patients around the state, Stogsdill said. You can use that fact to one-up your friends who think the jet is only used to give KU air superiority over the Kaw River Valley.
-- Erwin Seba's phone message number is 832-7144. His e-mail address is eseba@ljworld.com.
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