The Geography of Certified Trade‐Induced Manufacturing Job Loss in New England*

The article analyzes patterns in the distribution of manufacturing job losses that have been certified as trade‐induced by the U.S. Department of Labor. Spatial patterns in the likelihood of job loss are examined in the United States for the period from 1994 to 2002, with particular emphasis on county‐level patterns in New England. The findings demonstrate that the pattern of losses was correlated with measures of economic vitality and competitiveness including per capita income, educational attainment, occupational structure, and inventiveness. These results suggest that trade‐induced deindustrialization is borne most heavily by places ill‐equipped to compete in a more open, integrated international economy.     

Food Deserts in the Prairies? Supermarket Accessibility and Neighborhood Need in Edmonton,Canada*

The U.S. and U.K. literatures have discussed “food deserts,” reflecting populated, typically urban, low‐income areas with limited access to full‐service supermarkets. Less is known about supermarket accessibility within Canadian cities. This article uses the minimum distance and coverage methods to determine supermarket accessibility within the city of Edmonton, Canada, with a focus on high‐need and inner‐city neighborhoods. The results show that for 1999 both of these areas generally had higher accessibility than the remainder of the city, but six high‐need neighborhoods had poor supermarket accessibility. We conclude by examining potential reasons for differences in supermarket accessibility between Canadian, U.S., and U.K. cities.     

The Record of an Extreme Flood in the Sediments of Montane Lillooet Lake, British Columbia: Implications for Paleoenvironmental Assessment

Severe rainfall in mid October, 2003 produced the largest floods in almost a century of record on rivers in the Cordillera of southwestern British Columbia. Sediment deposited in Lillooet Lake as a result of this event is clearly distinguished by stratigraphy, colour, texture, magnetic properties, and organic content. Each of these physical properties is related to the lacustrine processes, especially turbid underflow, that distributed the sediment through the lake. The flood, which lasted less than a week, delivered 8–12 times the amount of sediment that accumulates in most entire years in the deepest, central parts of the lake. Recognition of events of this type in the stratigraphic record offers a means of assessing the changing nature of extreme hydroclimatic events, and their relation to more ubiquitous, lower-energy processes.     

The effects of hazard zone information on judgements about earthquake damage

This study investigates the extent to which people's views on the causes and preventability of earthquake damage might be influenced by their degree of exposure to hazard as well as what information they have been given about the hazard. The results show that the provision of hazard zoning information influences judgements on preventability and causes of damage, but this effect depends on the degree of hazard faced by residents. In low hazard zones, information leads to the view that causes are manageable, whereas in high hazard zones information may induce a degree of fatalism. The use of public information in risk management needs to take into account the degree of risk faced by the recipients.     

Crustal structure across the Grand Banks–Newfoundland Basin Continental Margin – II. Results from a seismic reflection profile

New multichannel seismic reflection data were collected over a 565 km transect covering the non-volcanic rifted margin of the central eastern Grand Banks and the Newfoundland Basin in the northwestern Atlantic. Three major crustal zones are interpreted from west to east over the seaward 350 km of the profile: (1) continental crust; (2) transitional basement and (3) oceanic crust. Continental crust thins over a wide zone (∼160 km) by forming a large rift basin (Carson Basin) and seaward fault block, together with a series of smaller fault blocks eastwards beneath the Salar and Newfoundland basins. Analysis of selected previous reflection profiles (Lithoprobe 85-4, 85-2 and Conrad NB-1) indicates that prominent landward-dipping reflections observed under the continental slope are a regional phenomenon. They define the landward edge of a deep serpentinized mantle layer, which underlies both extended continental crust and transitional basement. The 80-km-wide transitional basement is defined landwards by a basement high that may consist of serpentinized peridotite and seawards by a pair of basement highs of unknown crustal origin. Flat and unreflective transitional basement most likely is exhumed, serpentinized mantle, although our results do not exclude the possibility of anomalously thinned oceanic crust. A Moho reflection below interpreted oceanic crust is first observed landwards of magnetic anomaly M4, 230 km from the shelf break. Extrapolation of ages from chron M0 to the edge of interpreted oceanic crust suggests that the onset of seafloor spreading was ∼138 Ma (Valanginian) in the south (southern Newfoundland Basin) to ∼125 Ma (Barremian–Aptian boundary) in the north (Flemish Cap), comparable to those proposed for the conjugate margins.