OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY CORVALLIS, OREGON 97331
The Summer Barometer
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DAILYBAROMETER
WEDNESDAY AUGUST 5, 2015 VOL. CXVIII, NO. 7
@DAILYBARO, @BAROSPORTS
Experts speculate how Corvallis may be affected by Cascadia earthquake
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By Lindsay Free
Experts urge Oregon residents to prepare for Cascadia earthquake, give tips on how By Lindsay Free
THE SUMMER BAROMETER
THE SUMMER BAROMETER
When the New Yorker published its now-viral article about the Cascadia subduction zone, people began to panic about the impending earthquake and tsunami. Entitled “The Really Big One”, the article painted a dismal picture of what life will be like after the quake, estimating that everything west of Interstate 5 would be ‘toast.’ But how worried should we really be? “It will not be pretty,” said Chris Higgins, a civil and construction engineering professor at OSU whose work includes researching the performance of structures during earthquakes. “But, I’m not willing to say it’s as bad as what was projected.” The Cascadia subduction zone separates the Juan de Fuca plate and the North American plate and is about 1,000 kilometers long, running from Cape Mendocino, California all the way up to Northern Vancouver Island. Tension is slowly building as the Juan de Fuca plate moves forward and wedges beneath the North American plate. At some unknowable moment, the tension will exceed the fault’s frictional strength and the fault will slip, resulting in a massive earthquake. Oregon has a lot to do to be prepared for a natural disaster of this magnitude. Unlike Japan, where earthquakes are a common occurrence, much of Oregon’s infrastructure isn’t
When the big one hits, how we’ll fare in the aftermath may be determined more by human nature than Mother Nature. “We are aggressively naïve when we want to be,” said Patrick Corcoran, a faculty member in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, as well as the Coastal Hazards Outreach Specialist through the OSU extension office in Clatsop County. Corcoran’s job is to educate people about coastal hazards, and how to adapt their lifestyles and behavior to become more resilient to these risks. A key part of this is getting OSU’s research into the hands of community leaders and helping them utilize it to benefit their areas. Essentially, Corcoran works to align people’s behavior with the risks of living in an area where large scale earthquakes and tsunamis can occur. This, as it turns out, is much easier said than done. Because the ground hasn’t severely shaken here since the last Cascadia earthquake struck in 1700, generations upon generations of people in the Pacific Northwest have never experienced an earthquake. This has led to a complete lack of what Corcoran calls ‘earthquake culture,’ or a culture in which earthquakes are expected and conversations about them have been normalized. This is perhaps why so many people are finding it difficult to think about the
See Aftermath | page 3
Graphic by eric Winkler | THE SUMMER BAROMETER
As the threat of a large earthquake from the Cascadian subduction zone gets increased press and attention, Oregon State researchers respond to how Corvallis might be affected and comment on how to prepare.
See Prepare | page 3
Oregon State University aids farmers, hires slug researcher Oregon farmers facing a surge of cropconsuming slugs will get help finding solutions from Oregon State research n
By Julianna Cooper
THE SUMMER BAROMETER
Courtesy of Robin Rosetta
An Arion species of slugs dine on garden greens in a Tigard garden in May 2005.
New technologies emerge from OSU
News, page 4
Plans are underway at Oregon State University to appoint an entomologist specializing in slug research to study and control growing slug populations in order to lessen their damage to Oregon crops. This new position was made possible by a recently approved $14 million in added funding from Oregon legislature. The money is to be distributed to OSU’s agricultural experiment stations, extension service and forest laboratory over the next two years. While farmers have been familiar with slug-caused damage for decades, it has become puzzlingly prevalent in recent years. To address the issue, Sujaya Rao, associate department head for crop and soil sciences, organized a “Slug Summit” in Salem earlier this year, where farmers and researchers gathered to discuss possible causes and solutions to this persistent issue. Summit attendees determined reduced tillage and constraints on field burning as feasible contributing factors to the increased prevalence
Five questions for upcoming volleyball Sports, page 6
of slugs. Additionally, Rao said that the increase can be attributed in part to recent changes in weather. This year’s mild winter had little effect on slugs, whereas Oregon’s multiple snowfalls last winter left far fewer survivors. “The slugs have been a problem, but their numbers are higher now,” Rao said. Oregon farmers are perplexed by the recent rise in damage by this pesky mollusk. Some of the most common forms of slug control include nematodes which infect and kill slugs, natural predators and pellet baits containing the pesticide metaldehyde. However, current methods of eliminating slugs seem to be less successful than in previous years. Though the reasons for the pest increase are debatable, the Slug Summit made at least one thing clear: Not enough research has been done to effectively resolve this issue. For this reason, many OSU faculty members feel that the creation of the new research position will be of great value. Jay Noller, department head of crop and soil sciences, expressed his support. “This was a clear case where our stakeholders were heard, the Oregon legislature See SLUG | page 2
Saying goodbye to the best of “Late Night” A&E, page 7