Spring in Wisconsin:  In Like a Lamb, Out Like a Lion?

Badgers basketball was not the only “madness” that occupied conversation and thoughts during March, but Wisconsin heat waves and earthquakes as well.  Average temperatures in March ranged from 15-25+ degrees above normal, adding to thousands of heat records set throughout the U.S.  Records that stood for over a hundreds of years to be broken day after day is extremely rare, according to the National Weather Service.

To add to our meteorological anomalies, were geological events as well. With a 1.5 magnitude earthquake registered in Clintonville on March 20. USGS representatives described unexplained booming sounds heard by the residents as “several small earthquakes in a very short time.”  These extreme happenings get people talking and wondering, looking for explanations of the world around them. What better place to begin to search for information, but the library.

Do a keyword search in the Madison College Libraries catalog for weather and you will retrieve 244 results. These results contain books and videos in print and electronic form. “El Nino and La Nina: Weather in the Headlines,” “Climate Change: Causes, Effects and Solutions” and “Weather and Climate and Climate Change:  Hot Times in the City” are electronic resources you can view instantly on a computer on and off-campus with username and password.  You need not be in a physical library anymore to read and do research.

Author Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Fear always springs from ignorance.”

“Anything to do with earthquakes is going to freak people out,” said a Clintonville resident about their uneasiness about the earthquakes.

Knowledge can ease the fear of the unknown. Learn about the earth’s geology from books like “The Myth of Solid Ground: Earthquakes, Prediction and the Fault Line Between Reason and Faith,” “Richter’s Scale: Measure of an Earthquake, Measure of a Man and Earthquakes in Human History: The Far-Reaching Effects of Seismic Disruptions.” If books are not your thing try watching educational videos like “Earth Report:  State of the Planet” or “Crust, Mantle, and Core: Earth Inside and Out and Plate Tectonics: Secrets of the Deep” from the Films On Demand library database.

Becoming informed has never been so easy.

Madison College libraries are full of options to fulfill one’s curiosity of the world’s happenings.  Earthquakes and uncommon Wisconsin March temperatures are interesting topics to learn about from the libraries resources. Are you beginning to wonder what April will bring?