What is the Pacific Northwest?
What is the Pacific Northwest? And where is it?
The Pacific Northwest, also called Cascadia by some, is a region in the northwest of North America, bound by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It encompasses all of Washington, Oregon States and Northern California, British Columbia Canada, and Alaska. It is an area of vast beauty. Here you will find multiple climates and topography, from the highest mountains on the contintent, to many thousands of miles of coastline, and globally rare inland seas.
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See: The Pacific Northwest on Wikipedia | Scenic Edge on WordPress May be of interest: The Cascadia Independence Movement v SEE MUCH MORE BELOW v |
Cascadia Megathrust Earthquake, January 26, 1700
Evidence indicates a mega-earthquake occurred off the Pacific Northwest Coast at 9PM on January 26th, 1700. Information compiled from analyzing soils in the area, writings in Japan, and first inhabitants verbal storytelling, collarborate to tell of a major earthquake and resulting tsunami. Layers of soil along the coast include stratum from this event. It is estimated that the 1700 Cascadia earthquake was of at least 9.0 magnitude. Outer coastal regions subsided and drowned coastal marshlands and forests that were subsequently covered with younger sediments (1). The most important clue linking a tsunami in Japan and the earthquake in the Pacific Northwest comes from studies of tree rings (dendrochronology) which show that red cedar trees killed by lowering of coastal forests into the tidal zone by the earthquake have outermost growth rings that formed in 1699, the last growing season before the tsunami (2).
For more information about future Cascadia megathrust earthquake potential, visit: Cascade Region Earthquake Workgroup (crew.org)
(1) Source: Natural Resources, Canada website”
(2) Source: Wikipedia
Volcanic Glacier Peak
Glacier Peak
Glacier Peak is a primary volcano that is positioned deep in the central Cascades of Washington about 70 miles from Seattle. It is the highest Cascade peak north of Mount Rainier and south of Mount Baker. Since Glacier Peak is not as visible from the larger nearby metropolitan areas as the other major volcanoes (i.e., Baker, Rainier, St. Helens), it is less publicly known. However, Glacier Peak has been more violent since after the time of the last great ice age than Mount St. Helens.
Violent Past
Glacier Peak was formed around a million years ago during the Pleistocene period. Then, for a period of a few hundred years around 13,000 years ago, Glacier Peak violently erupted approximately nine times. The largest of these eruptions ejected more than five times as much rock and ash as the May 18, 1980, eruption of Mount St. Helens. Deposits from these eruptions left more than a foot of rock and ash near Chelan, Washington, and as much as an inch of ash in western Montana. In contrast, by the time Mount St. Helen’s ash completely settled after the May 18, 1980 eruption, only a light dusting made it as far as Montana.
Glacier Peak Lahars
Westward lahars (see Lahar post) off Glacier Peak flowed as far as down the North Fork Stillaguamish and Skagit Rivers into the sea. Near Arlington, seven feet of sediment are attributable to Glacier Peak eruptions, though these have been overshadowed by the greater lahars from Mount Baker.
Information source: U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 058-00 Online Version 1.0
All-time Lows Hit the Pacific Northwest
The region’s Sea-Tac Airport reported a record-breaking low temperature today at 18 degrees F. Olympia also was reporting a low of 6 degrees F and another broken record beating the prior record by 4 degrees. Source: Seattle Times
KIRO-TV was reporting Ice on part of the Thea Foss Waterway. Source: KIROTV.COM
May be of interest: Alien-Earth.org Forum
We Mourn the Loss of Four Officers
We mourn the loss of four police officers who were shot to death this morning in Lakewood, Washington, south of Tacoma. Such a senseless act doubtless carried out by a criminally ill person. Let us all hope the perpetrator be found and brough to justice. God rest the souls of these victims, and be with their families and fellow officers in their time of grief.
Giving Thanks
To all -
May the bounty of our homelands provide for us all. Let’s give thanks to our Maker for what all that we have. Let’s open our hearts to share with those less fortunate. May you be blessed on this wonderful holiday – Thanksgiving!
- J. R.
“Alaska Blues, A Fisherman’s Journal” – Joe Upton, 1977
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“So we came to Alaska, on a wild and lost afternoon, caught in a tide race off a nameless point, in failing light, far from any help . .” Excerpt from “Alaska Blues, A Fisherman’s Journal” by Joe Upton, Author, published by Alaska Northwest Publishing Company, Anchorage, Alaska. Copyright by Joe Upton 1977. Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award Winner |
I received my copy of “Alaska Blues, A Fisherman’s Journal” by Joe Upton as a gift from my father, Floyd “Buz” Hudson*. Joe Upton’s Alaska Blues is replete with dazzling photography. The black and white images in his book compliment well the wilderness known as The Inside Passage. Mr. Upton’s prose is superb, evoking the vastness, loneliness, adventure, and danger that is inherent in this remote part of Alaska. A suitable accompaniment is included the back, a glossary of the language of fishermen. If you have ever fantasized about cruising the Inside Passage of Alaska, even a little bit, you must read “Alaska Blues, A Fisherman’s Journal”. – J. R. Hudson
To preview this book and find out how to obtain copy go to G o o g l e B o o k s .
(Pacific Northwest | J R Hudson is in no way affiliated with Google Books, the author, nor with the publisher.)
*Buz Hudson and the M/V Chinook: Floyd “Buz” Hudson was the Ship’s Purser (a ship’s accountant) aboard the steamer ferry Chinook sometime around 1948. The Chinook steamed regularly between Port Angeles, Washington and Victoria, Canada. See Postcard: View of the sharp-prowed ferry boat (Chinook) from above. Publisher: Smith’s Scenic Views Tacoma, Washington | Postcard: M/V Chinook | Chinook: Her end of life as the Sechelt Queen
Lahar
Cascade Eruptions in the last 4000 years
Lahar Definition
A Lahar is a thick slurry flow formed when volcanic ash and debris mix with water, either in rivers or from rain or melting snow and ice on the flank of a volcano. More than 60 post-glacial period mudflows have been discerned to have occured around Mount Rainier. See: Lahar on Wise Geek
Osceola Mudflow
The Osceola Mudflow is the largest known Lahar event. It occurred about 5,600 years ago when up to one cubic mile of rock, ice, and debris slid down off Mount Rainier. Mount Rainier’s summit and northeast slope slipped away creating a mile-wide horseshoe-shaped crater open to the northeast. This crater has since been filled in by subsequent magma flows. The Osceola Mudflow traveled through the site of present-day Enumclaw, broadening and extending at least as far as the Seattle suburb of Kent, and extened into Commencement Bay, now the site of the Port of Tacoma. The communities of Orting, Buckley, Sumner, Puyallup, Enumclaw, and Auburn are also wholly or partly located on top of deposits of the Osceola Mudflow. Resulting sedimentation from the Osceola Mudflow pushed the shoreline into Puget Sound adding more than 200 square miles of new land surface.
National Lahar
Somewhere between 2,200 and 500 years ago, a large chunk of the south flank of Mount Rainier calved off and a resulting lahar flowed down the Nisqually River. Other smaller flows evident during this time, one which temporarily filled the upper South Puyallup and Tahoma Creek valleys to a depth of at least 1,000 feet.
Electron Mudflow
The Electron Mudflow buried Orting about 500 years ago and it continued to flow a total distance of about 60 miles. This lahar occured without an apparent eruption from Mount Rainier. A trigger may have been an earthquake or simply that some of the rock near the surface of the mountain had become weak and fractured, calving off.
Summary
Mount Rainier has built up so high that it currently supports the largest system of glaciers in the lower contiguous United States. Scientists understand that Mount Rainier is still an active volcano. The reasons for this are; Mount Rainier stands atop the Cascadia Subduction zone, it has current geo-thermal activity, it has seismicity, and it has erupted in as late as the 19th century. Because Mount Rainier is an active volcano, it must be respected for its potential to cause destruction in what is now a highly populous area known as the Puget Sound region (including the major cities of Tacoma, Seattle, and Olympia).
Sources cited:
Cascades Volcano Observatory, USGS | GeoTimes | HistoryLink.org, A Short History of Mount Rainier, USGS
Earthquake: April 29, 1965, 7:28am
Earthquake
Revisiting history when on Thursday Morning, April 29, 1965 at 7:28am, a 6.5 magnitude earthquake occured between Seattle and Tacoma. This earthquake was among the largest and most damaging earthquakes of the past 100 years in the Pacific Northwest. The quake was felt over nearly 200,000 square miles covering Washington, much of Oregon, Southwest British Columbia, and the Idaho panhandle.
My Account – The Setting
I was in 8th grade at East Junior High School in Puyallup, Washington. I had just finished my last lap in a mile run at the track that was located near the east end of the large field east of the school buildings. Exhausted from my run, I huffed over to the bleachers at the edge of the track to sit and catch my breath.
Short Shockwaves
Just as I was about to relax I heard the loudest noise I had ever heard. It sounded as if a dozen Boeing 707 jet engines were ignited with continuing thunderclaps imbedded in the din. Puyallup is in the Seattle flight line and I feared a jet was crashing near me. I looked around and was suprised to see nothing visible that should cause such a loud roar. Almost simultaneous with the noise, the ground was rapidly and violently shaking. I felt I should flee, but where? I just reasoned that the ground was going to crack open and I would get swallowed into the dirt so I began to run once again.
Medium Shockwaves
Though still exhausted from the mile run, I was running, this time towards the school for I felt I would be safer there. The field I was on was several acres large, and the school was a long way away. I believed I was running for my life. I could not run straight because I was being buffeted back and forth by the rocking ground. It was a frantic run.
Longer Waves
Still running, I witnessed the telephone poles rocking back and forth several yards away from me, and I observed waves underneath moving through the field I was on. The power and phone lines were swinging like jumpropes. The field was looking as if it was liquid; as if it was on top a wavy ocean. I could actually see the direction the waves were moving, west to east.
Quake’s End
Soon I realized that the ground was not going to swallow me up, nor was I going to be called upon to rescue survivors from a catastrophic plane crash and I stopped my run. It was later documented that the quake lasted 45 seconds, but to me it felt as if it shook for minutes. The quake was the only focus of our conversations that day and for some time.
Aftermath
The quake’s epicenter was near Des Moines, Washington, only 15 miles away. Four people lost their lives in Seattle, and there were a fair amount of injuries as a result of the quake. Damage was estimated at over $12 million.
Sources cited: SeismoArchives
1965 Puget Sound (USA) Earthquake Archive | HistoryLink.org
