2/9/23 AEG Event: Geohazards: Natural Disaster Threats in New Jersey

  • 9 Feb 2023
  • 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM
  • 60 Cottontail Lane, Somerset, NJ 08873

Registration

  • Payment is accepted at the door via cash, check, or credit card. $35 for AEG members / $45 for non-members / $5 for students.

Registration is closed


DINNER MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT

Geohazards:  Natural Disaster Threats in New Jersey

Thursday, February 9, 2023

At the Clarion Hotel in Somerset, New Jersey

Alexander Gates, Professor, Rutgers University-Newark

 

  
 Jet Star Roller Coaster in the Atlantic Ocean after Hurricane Sandy, 2012 (Shutterstock)
 

Time:


Social Hour 6:00 pm – 6:45 pm    /    Dinner 6:45 pm – 7:45 pm   
Presentation begins at 8:00 pm   

 

Place:


Clarion Hotel     /     60 Cottontail Lane, Somerset, NJ 08873     /     (732) 560-9880
 

RSVP:


End of Business, Wednesday, February 8, 2023.  A timely RSVP is appreciated!

Please register for this meeting on our events webpage.
http://www.aegnyp.org/aeg_events (check back if event is not yet posted)

Please note, you can register more than one individual at a time!
Don't forget to add the event to your calendar from our website!
 

Cost:


$35 for AEG members  /  $45 non-members  /  $5 for students with RSVP  /
Professors attend as our guests at no charge

 Non-members always welcome!  Pay at the door by check, cash, or credit card. 
Make check payable to AEG.

To celebrate our return to in-person meetings, bring a guest who is new to AEG, and they pay half-price!

 

CECs:


One professional development hour (pdh) for continuing education credit (CEC) will be awarded for attending the presentation.
 

 

ABSTRACT
     New Jersey is generally protected from natural disasters but certainly not immune. This talk will examine the range of rock-based and weather-based Geohazards, and focus on the ones that could do the most damage in New Jersey. 
     The area most vulnerable to weather impact in New Jersey is the Atlantic coast. The cold ocean water at this latitude usually weakens hurricanes enough that impacts with New Jersey are not catastrophic but increasing surface water temperatures may change that. Commonly storms move parallel to the coast and the headwinds drive moisture inland. Orographic precipitation from air driven into the highlands can cause significant inland flooding like Cat 1 Hurricane Irene in 2011. A slow moving, more powerful storm could be catastrophic causing tens to hundreds of deaths or more.
     The greatest potential danger to New Jersey is with unusual track storms like 2012 Superstorm Sandy. The funnel-shaped coastline between New Jersey and New York will focus the energy of any slightly west moving storm into the highly populated, low-lying area of northeast New Jersey. The storm surge from a large hurricane could kill more than 10,000 people there.
     Earthquakes, although rare, do pose a threat in New Jersey. The last sizeable earthquake was a M~5.3 in 1884 in Jamaica Bay. NYC modeled a M=7 earthquake in the area and projected a death toll of about 10,000. Additionally, there are unstable sediments off the New Jersey coast. If an earthquake shakes them loose, an underwater landslide could produce a tsunami that would be funneled into a killer wave that followed the path of the deadly hurricane track. Otherwise, the coast is remotely vulnerable to long-distance teletsunamis from the Caribbean.
     Disaster movie scenarios, although unlikely, might include the collapse of the Cumbre de Vieja volcano in the Canary Islands or the impact of an asteroid in the Atlantic Ocean that could cause extreme disasters from tsunamis in New Jersey.
     There are other Geological hazards in New Jersey that can be serious  and cause damage but which are unlikely to cause true natural disasters. These include slope failures, indoor radon, saltwater incursion in coastal areas and arsenic in soil and water in central New Jersey among many others.


BIOGRAPHY
   Dr. Alexander Gates is a Distinguished Service Professor at Rutgers University, Newark. He is a structural/tectonic geologist but has worked extensively in geoscience education and diversity initiatives. He has done extensive research on faults and fault processes which led him to interest in natural disasters. He has written several books on earthquakes and volcanoes. He recently published a textbook, Earth’s Fury: Science of Natural Disasters.
 



 


 

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