Category: Locations of Interest

12-7-2019 Peter Ward — The Coming Great Simplification?

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We are living in a time of unprecedented and rapid technological, economic, social, and environmental change.  I will argue that, in spite of what seems to be ever greater technological complexity, the largest scale natural “operations” of Earth are actually undergoing an unnoticed simplification, one that is already affecting geological landscapes, biodiversity, global economy, and human population.  I will make predictions about specific “simplifications” that will accrue from sea-level rise, climate instability, diminishing petroleum output, increasing population, and dwindling global food supply.  Whether these simplifications happen fast enough to allay an actual mass extinction (of our species) rather than “just” the current and expanding “mass depletion” over the next century, remains to be observed.

Dr. Peter Ward is a paleontologist and astrobiologist at the University of Washington and a world-renowned authority on mass extinctions, climate change, evolution, and astrobiology.  His research examines the history of life on Earth over billions of years, focusing in particular on mass extinction events.  That work gives him unique ‘deep time’ perspectives on the future of life on this planet, as well as the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe.  Dr. Ward has appeared on NOVA and Ted Talks and written over a dozen popular science books including “Rivers in Time: the Search for Clues to Earth’s Mass Extinctions” and “The Flooded Earth: Our Future In a World Without Ice Caps”.

 

2020-11-14 Pat Pringle — Buried and Submerged Forests of the Pacific Northwest

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How much we know about the Pacific Northwest’s post-Ice Age geologic events has grown rapidly in recent decades. The discovery and study of buried and submerged forests-Victims of past catastrophes, has opened the door to new understanding. Testing techniques such as Carbon 14 wiggle matching and dendrochronology (tree-ring dating) now allow more precise dating of the geological past as well. These capabilities are revolutionizing our understanding of the history, behavior, and effects of past volcanic eruptions, regional earthquakes, major landslides, and (to a limited extent) regional climate history and fluctuations.

We will take a snapshot tour of some of the many locations of buried and submerged forests around Washington State and other Pacific Northwest locations to observe trees that were submerged by postglacial tectonic forces, or killed by a flow of hot volcanic fragments (pyroclastic surge) or buried in landslides, or drowned in lakes dammed by landslides. On our tour we’ll get a picture of the scale of some of the dramatic postglacial landscape changes, such as the episodic disturbances caused by volcanism- changes that the pre-Euro-American settlement peoples experienced and adapted to, and that early explorers, like Lewis and Clark, described vividly in their journals.

We’ll see how samples of “subfossil” trees are collected and prepared for tree ring analysis, and learn about what tree rings in these “time capsules” can tell us. Some of the scenic areas we will visit include the Washington Coast, the Olympic and Cascade Mountains, the Puget Lowland, and the Columbia Gorge, with a special focus on the Bonneville landslide, and Mount Rainier and Mount Hood volcanoes (rescheduled from Oct. 26, 2019).

Pat Pringle is Professor Emeritus of Earth Sciences at Centralia College, Washington. He taught at Centralia College from 2005-2017 and was a Research Geologist at DNR Geological Survey of Washington from 1990-2005 and at US Geological Survey Cascades Volcano Observatory from 1982-1990. Pat studies volcanoes, earthquakes, landslides, and debris flows using radiocarbon and tree-ring analysis to establish the history of past geologic events. He is the author of books on the roadside geology of Mounts St. Helens and Rainier as well as many published papers and reports; the Mount Rainier book won the Geoscience Information Society’s “Best Guidebook Award” for 2009, presented at the Geological Society of America’s Annual Meeting that year.

2019-09-20 Pat Pringle: Geology of Mt. Rainier Field Trip

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Sept. 20-22, 2019:  Mt. Rainier Field Trip

Professor Emeritus Pat Pringle of Centralia College and colleagues led a 3-day trip to the Mount Rainer area to see the geology of this fantastic mountain and its geologic and environmental effects on the surrounding region.  Participants provided their own transportation and lodging (in Ashford and Packwood); we provided field trip log, a published guidebooks, experts on specific aspects of the geology and geomorphology, and a chance to see one of Washington’s three active volcanoes.

The trip started at 11 am Friday at Mud Mountain Dam Park south of Enumclaw.  We made a CCW circumnavigation of Mt. Rainer and ended up on the northeast side on Sunday afternoon, east of Enumclaw. Rain and socked in that day, but good wx for the first two days. Many of the stops were roadside, but we took several 1-2 mile hikes with 300-500  feet of elevation change.  A good time was had by all, and a true value at $50 each.

Pat Pringle

For more info, you can download the preliminary field trip route and schedule by clicking here. In addition, Pat published a guide to this area that will serve as a more comprehensive resource. Pdfs of the various chapters of the Roadside Geology of Mount Rainier National Park and vicinity, Information Circular 107 (IC-107) as well as pdfs of other publications can be downloaded via links in the Washington Geological Survey’s online catalog.

Go to this link, and then go down to the WGS publications catalog link. This catalog gets updated regularly. Suggestion, it may be easier to download the book as individual chapers, because the entire book is >300 MB.