The seismic activity of the New Madrid Zone, the recent seismicity of north central Arkansas, and this summer’s earthquake in the Washington, D.C. area will be a focus of the 83rd annual meeting of the Eastern Section of Seismological Society of America from Sunday to Tuesday, Oct. 16 to 18 at the Peabody Hotel in Little Rock.

The meeting is being hosted by UALR and chaired by Dr. Haydar Al-Shukri, professor of applied science in the College of Science and Mathematics, and co-chaired by Dr. Hanan Mahdi, research associate professor in the Graduate Institute of Technology.

The meeting will include presentations and poster session that will cover the relative frequency and distribution of earthquakes of New Madrid Seismic Zone, the recent seismic activity in north central Arkansas, and a special session on the recent 5.8 Virginia earthquake.

A field trip to eastern Arkansas is being planned for Sunday, Oct. 16, to examine a large and very weathered sand blow that was formed 5,000 to 10,000 years ago in the Marianna area.

Al-Shukri and Mahdi will demonstrate field techniques such as mapping of sand blows and related sand dikes with ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and resistivity as well as discuss observations and interpretations of features.

For more information about the meeting, visit quake.ualr.edu.