Where is the nearest earthquake fault? When did it last move? Q16 of The Big Here Quiz

It appears that the closest fault to my home is the "Electric fault" and there has been some slight earthquake activity sometime within the last five years (I don't have the patience to look for more specific information from Natural Resources Canada's Earthquake Database).

It took me a while to find an article with a map as clear as the one above (with no thanks to you, Geoscan database). The world of earth science is not an easy one to navigate as a layperson. Even through I have a degree in Geography and Environmental Science, I have a very hard time with the language of geology.

Point to where the sun sets on the equinox. How about sunrise on the summer solstice? Q15 of The Big Here Quiz

This year's equinox is on March 20 but luckily there's this online tool that calculates solar position and this tool that tells you sunrise and sunset times so I don't have to wait until then to give the answer: 270 degrees clockwise from North (Equinox) and 87 degrees clockwise from North (Solstice).

addendum: Yes - the sun sets almost due West.

Who uses the paper/plastic you recycle from your neighborhood? Q14 of The Big Here Quiz

I think this question is a little unfair. I'm pretty sure that the Essex-Windsor Solid Waste Authority are under little obligation to disclose to whom they sell their recycled materials (although their most recent audit does reveal that they sold slightly over $3 millions dollars worth of such material [pdf]) Besides, its quite possible that every year or multi-year contract, new players would be involved. Not one my favourite questions from the quiz.

How many people live in your watershed? Q.13 of The Big Here Quiz

Having already established the boundaries of the watershed where I live in for Question 7 of The Big Here Quiz, this question is merely a matter of adding up the population of the cities in my watershed:

• Amherstburg, ON = 21,748
  
• Belle River, ON = 4,531
  
• Essex, ON = 20,032
  
• includes Harrow, ON
  
• Kingsville, ON = 20,908
  
• LaSalle, ON = 27,652
  
• Leamington, ON = 28,833
  
• Tecumseh, ON = 24,244
  
• Windsor, ON = 216,473
  

Total watershed population: 364,421

I used Statistics Canada's 2006 Community Profiles for most of these figures with the exception of Belle River, Ontario where I used 1996 data as the community amalgamated with the town of Lakeshore in 1999 which is outside of the watershed.

addendum:
This map illustrates some of the smaller watersheds of Windsor

Where does your garbage go? Q.12 of The Big Here Quiz

I didn't know this before: The Essex-Windsor Regional Landfill is located at 7700 County Road 18, Cottam in the Town of Essex.

From what direction do storms generally come? Q11 of The Big Here Quiz

This is answer I just know from living here. Winter storms almost always come from the north and west. Summer storms come from the southwest.

A long, long time ago, I wondered why the poorer sections of town always happened to be East or South. Then I realized that it had to do with wind and smell.

Name five native edible plants in your neighborhood and the season(s) they are available. Q10 of The Big Here Quiz

This is one my least favourite questions in The Big Here Quiz because its tries to do too much and in doing so, accomplishes very little.

One major problem is that question asks what is available in "your neigbourhood." Now my neighbourhood is a relatively small residential area that might have homes with gardens containing "native" (and even possibly edible) plants -- but I can't be expected to know what's in all these gardens. So I'm going to ignore the word "neighbourhood" in this question.

That leaves me with trying to find the intersection of what plants are native *and* edible in the place where I call "here".

Well, there are books like this one on native plants but generally the emphasis of these books is to encourage their growth to support local flora and fauna, not for their consumption. I browsed through this book on edible and medicinal plants of the Great Lakes region but was put off by author's qualifications and his medical advice.

With time and effort, I'm sure I would be able to draw up a proper list of what Carolinian plants are edible, but instead, I'm going to trust this more general guide by Sweet Grass Gardens to provide my answer:

• Nodding Wild Onion (Allium cernum)
• (young shoots of) Fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium)
• Wild Strawberry (Fragaria virginiana)
• Prickly pear cactus (Opuntia humifusa)
• White Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum)
  

Before your tribe lived here, what did the previous inhabitants eat and how did they sustain themselves? Q.9 of The Big Here Quiz

Our extensive research in Essex, Kent and Lambton counties has revealed that contrary to statements made by many historical writers, for whatever reasons, religious or political, the Native Indians of the contact period and those who preceded them as early as the year 406 A.D. did not live by hunting, fishing and gathering alone. There were only a few wandering bands, who in some manner perhaps contributed to cultural diffusion, that did not live in fixed habitations. The Indians of the Canadian Southwest indeed had summer campsites, but they were not unlike today's urbanites going to a cottage or campground for the summer months...

... As evidenced from the examination of the midden pits, probably subsisted on the local animals, fish, fowl, and vegtation. Their agriculture practice included the cultivation of corn... A variety was developed by the Indians of Southern Ontario to mature in less than 90 days...

[Petagwana to Pele (Point Edward to Point Pelee) : The Story of Great Lakes Prehistoric and Historic Sties and Their People by Al Plant).

Is the soil under your feet, more clay, sand, rock or silt? Q.8 of The Big Here Quiz

According to this map and accompanying Soil Survey of Essex County, the soil under my feet is Brookston clay or Brookston clay loam.

According to “The Physiography of Southern Ontario”, Essex County and the southwestern part of Chatham-Kent are situated within the physiographic sub-region referred to as the Essex Clay Plain – a broad till plain left after the recession of the glacial lakes - Lake Whittlesey and Lake Warren [pdf]

Judging by the very general answers given on Kevin Kelly's website to this question ("clay"), it would appear that most folks are generally unaware of the nuances of soil classification. Even Wikipedia is particularly thin on the topic of soil.

How far do you have to travel before you reach a different watershed? Can you draw the boundaries of yours? Q7 of The Big Here Quiz

Using Environment Canada's Know Your Watershed, I now know that I live in the Northern Lake Erie - St. Claire watershed (WSHED_ID=620)

I'm trying to figure out if there is a particular feature like a river that defines my watershed's Eastern border on the Thames River Watershed. I think it may be the Ruscom River which is approximately 30 km away.

What spring wildflower is consistently among the first to bloom here? Q6 of The Big Here Quiz

While other places celebrate the first bloom of the snowdrop, there isn't such a tradition in Carolinian Canada. Early last year, I went out on a spring walk with the Essex County Field Naturalists and asked the experts among me what wildflowers bloomed first in these parts. There was no clear consensus but the candidates for the first flowers to bloom in this area are trilliums, jack in the pulpit, and the wood rush.

I tried to look for external confirmation but unfortunately, the results of PlantWatch are largely impossible to retrieve.