what does kudzu have to do with controlling erosion
Kudzu in the United States The kudzu plant was introduced to the United States from Japan in 1876 at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia.[6][7][13] Kudzu was introduced to the Southeast in 1883 at the New Orleans Exposition. The vine was widely marketed in the Southeast as an ornamental plant to be used to shade porches,[6][14] and in the first half of the 20th century, kudzu was distributed as a high-protein content cattle fodder and as a cover plant to prevent soil erosion. It was cultivated by Civilian Conservation Corps workers as a solution for the erosion during the Dust Bowl.[15] The Soil Erosion Service recommended the use of kudzu to help control erosion of slopes which led to the government-aided distribution of 85 million seedlings and government-funded plantings of kudzu which paid $19.75 per hectare.[6] By 1946, it was estimated that 1,200,000 hectares (3,000,000 acres) of kudzu had been planted.[6] When boll weevil infestations and the failure of cotton crops caused farmers to abandon their farms, kudzu plantings were left unattended.[6] The climate and environment of the Southeastern United States allowed the kudzu to grow virtually unchecked. In 1953 the United States Department of Agriculture removed kudzu from a list of suggested cover plants and listed it as a weed in 1970. By 1997, the vine was placed on the “Federal Noxious Weed List”.[4][6] Today, kudzu is estimated to cover 3,000,000 hectares (7,400,000 acres) of land in the southeastern United States, mostly in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina and Mississippi.[6][10] It has been recorded in Nova Scotia, Canada, in Columbus, Ohio, and in all five boroughs of New York City.[10]
2016 Kumamoto earthquakes The 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes (Japanese: 平成28年熊本地震, Hepburn: Heisei 28-nen Kumamoto jishin) are a series of earthquakes,[2] including a magnitude 7.0 mainshock which struck at 01:25 JST on April 16, 2016 (16:25 UTC on April 15) beneath Kumamoto City of Kumamoto Prefecture in Kyushu Region, Japan, at a depth of about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi),[11] and a foreshock earthquake with a magnitude 6.2 at 21:26 JST (12:26 UTC) on April 14, 2016, at a depth of about 11 kilometres (6.8 mi).[4]