News & Announcements
Stay informed with the latest news and announcements from the Kentucky Geological Survey.
Kentucky Geological Survey Landslides and Engineering Geology Team monitors landslides in the Commonwealth with an eye towards developing a weather-driven landslide forecasting model
Landslides have a significant impact on Kentucky, causing an estimated $10 to $20 million in damage annually and affecting roads, infrastructure, buildings, property, and private residences. In order to expand our research and get that information to interested stakeholders, the Kentucky Geological Survey (KGS) Landslide and Engineering Geology Team (1) supports state and local officials' responses to landslides, (2) learns from landslide events to inform landslide investigations and improve mitigation efforts, (3) evaluates hazard and reduces landslide risk, and (4) monitors and assesses slope response to a changing climate, working towards developing a weather-driven landslide forecasting model for the Commonwealth.
Sarah Arpin Elected to National Speleological Society Board of Governors
We are proud to announce that Sarah Arpin, Geologist at the Kentucky Geological Survey (KGS), has been elected to the Board of Governors of the National Speleological Society (NSS). Founded in 1941, the NSS is the world's largest organization dedicated to the exploration, study, and conservation of caves and karst environments, with more than 10,000 members and over 250 local chapters, known as grottos, across the United States.
UK’s Meredith Swallom Wins Top Honors for Flood Research
Meredith Swallom, a 4th year PhD student supported under Project 2 of CLIMBS’ Paleo-Perspectives initiative, won top honors in the Lightning Talk competition at the 2025 John P. Wyatt, M.D. Environment and Health Symposium on April 22nd. Her talk, “Drainages, Dams, and Downpours: What Makes a Flood?”, explored how past and present landscape changes may have shaped the severity of flooding in Eastern Kentucky in July 2022. Swallom specifically examined the North Fork watershed of the Kentucky River, where natural topography and human infrastructure collide in complex ways. Her models incorporate legacy modifications such as mountaintop removal and channel narrowing, and contemporary interventions like bridges and road culverts, interact with extreme precipitation.
SP&M Lab Updates: Exciting Developments in Landslide Research and Flood Modelling
The Surface Processes & Modelling Laboratory (SP&M) at the Kentucky Geological Survey (KGS) is making significant strides in research and collaboration, including welcoming an esteemed international scholar, publishing research, and securing new funding. The SP&M Lab is funded by the NSF EPSCoR 'Climate Resilience through Multidisciplinary Big Data Learning, Prediction & Building Response Systems (CLIMBS)' award, which aims to advance Kentucky's climate resiliency through hazard assessment based on Kentucky-specific scientific research.
KGS Unveils State-of-the-Art Lab for Flood Modeling Research
The Kentucky Geological Survey (KGS) opened a new computational lab on the third floor of the Mining and Mineral Resources Building in January 2025. The Surface Processes and Modelling Laboratory (SP&M Lab) was funded by the NSF EPSCoR ‘Climate Resilience through Multidisciplinary Big Data Learning, Prediction & Building Response Systems (CLIMBS)’ award, which aims to advance Kentucky’s climate resiliency through hazard assessment based on Kentucky-specific scientific research.
KGS Monitoring Seismic Activity Across Kentucky and Surrounding States
Earthquakes affecting Kentucky are in the news again, following an uptick in activity in November and December in the New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ) and another event in southeast Ohio. The NMSZ is a zone of seismic activity on a fault system which extends into four states, including the western part of Kentucky. Normally, there are two to four magnitude 3.0 earthquakes per year in the NMSZ. However, between November 3 and December 9, there were three magnitude 3.0 and greater events. Just afterward, on December 16, a magnitude 3.4 earthquake occurred in southeastern Ohio, a region that rarely experiences events of this size. Each of these recent earthquakes was felt near the epicenters, including in Kentucky.