SkepTalk Thursday

In far-flung parts of the United States, people share similar ghostly tales involving ghosts who wander along railroad tracks in remote areas, searching for the remains of a loved one who perished in a gruesome railroad accident. Enduring lore describes one such ghost in the Charleston, South Carolina, area. These ghost stories are clustered in the Summerville area, where the 1886 Charleston earthquake, estimated magnitude 7, was centered. A consideration of ghostly lore leads to the conclusion that the local Summerville Ghost — along with some of the ghosts in other areas — can be explained by earthquake phenomena including earthquake lights.

Susan Hough Ph.D. is Research Geophysicist with the United States Geological Survey, Pasadena, California field office, a position she has held since 1992. She received an AB degree with honors in geophysics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1982, and a PhD in Earth Sciences from Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 1987. Her research focuses on characterization of earthquakes and earthquake effects, including the triggering of earthquakes by both human activities and other earthquakes, the interplay between earthquakes and culture, and historical earthquakes. She has co-authored over 180 articles in the peer-reviewed literature, and five books for non-specialist readers. She was elected Fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 2009. Since 2009 she has led several international capacity-development efforts, including the USGS Earthquake Disaster Assistance Team missions following the 2010 Haiti and 2015 Gorkha, Nepal, earthquakes.

Join us! This is a free event brought to you by the Bay Area Skeptics. All are welcome.

WHEN: Thursday 9 April 7:30pm Pacific (GMT-7)

HOW: Online HERE.

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