[123] Earth Science Week Highlights Floods, Spills, Development

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Sept. 29, 2010
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Gina Logue, 615-898-5081

EARTH SCIENCE WEEK HIGHLIGHTS FLOODS, SPILLS, DEVELOPMENT
MTSU, Army Corps of Engineers Experts Put Recent Events in Scientific Perspective

(MURFREESBORO) – An explanation of the 2010 Cumberland River Basin flood and its impact on the midstate area will be one of the highlights of this year’s Earth Science Week 2010, which is scheduled for Oct. 10-16 at MTSU.
Bob Sneed, Chief of the Water Management Section, Nashville District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, will talk about the May 1-2 flood from 6-7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 14, in Room 452 of the Kirksey Old Main (KOM) building on campus.
Twenty-one deaths were recorded in Tennessee, 10 of them in Davidson County. The heaviest rainfall occurred in an area encompassing parts of Davidson, Williamson, Dickson, Hickman, Benton, Perry and Humphreys counties. According to the National Weather Service, an average of 14 to 15 inches of rain fell in that area. That’s the equivalent of 420 billion gallons of water in two days.
Following Sneed’s lecture, the MTSU Mineral, Gem and Fossil Museum, 122 Ezell Hall, will host a catered barbeque dinner at 7:30 p.m. The museum is on the northeast side of campus, about a 15-minute walk away from the lecture venue.
On Tuesday, Oct. 12, Dr. Clay Harris, associate professor of geosciences, will discuss “BP’s Crude Oil Disaster: Ancient Origins, Uncertain Future” from 4:20-5:15 p.m. in KOM Room 452.
Harris’ colleague, Dr. Mark Abolins, associate professor of geosciences, will tackle the subject of “Urban Growth near Mobile Bay, Alabama: The ‘Other’ Threat to Gulf Coast Wetlands” from 3:30-4:15 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 13, in KOM Room 452. Abolins will discuss ongoing undergraduate remote sensing and field research funded in large part by NASA.
All Earth Science Week 2010 events, including the cookout, are free and open to the public. For more information, contact Abolins at 615-594-4210 or mabolins@mtsu.edu.

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Founded in 1911, Middle Tennessee State University is a Tennessee Board of Regents institution located in Murfreesboro and is the state’s largest public undergraduate institution. MTSU now boasts one of the nation’s first master’s degree programs in horse science, and the Council of Graduate Schools in Washington, D.C., acclaims MTSU’s Master of Science in Professional Science degree—the only one in Tennessee—as a model program. This fall, MTSU unveiled three new doctoral degrees in the sciences.