Wild Geology of the Pacific Northwest
August 15, 2017 11:35 AM   Subscribe

Nick Zentner, of Central Washington University, lectures entertainingly on the rather exciting geology of the Pacific Northwest in the US. Great Earthquakes of the Pacific Northwest discusses the infamous "everything west of I-5 is toast" New Yorker article. Flood Basalts of the Pacific Northwest explains how the Yellowstone hot spot came to dominate the landscape of the Northwest. Ice Age Floods, Lake Missoula, Bonneville Flood and the Columbia River Basalts describes the catastrophic ice age floods that roared down the Columbia river gorge.
posted by Bee'sWing (19 comments total) 49 users marked this as a favorite
 
I'm 30 minutes in to the Great Earthquakes lecture and I've never missed college more.
posted by saladin at 12:52 PM on August 15, 2017 [5 favorites]


i cannot wait to dig into these later!!!! stupid work
posted by supermedusa at 1:01 PM on August 15, 2017 [1 favorite]


And the zeitgeist freakouts about the last public mention of a Great PNW Earthquake were just fading away. As a survivor of the Loma Prieta (just a few miles from the epicenter), y'all are adorable.
posted by humboldt32 at 1:25 PM on August 15, 2017


As a Puget sound inhabitant, this is a really easy to understand explanation and I love how he's filling in the details on the various types of quakes we experience - some which are signifiers, and some are just "crust noise." Hoping he gets into lahars and what impact that will have.
posted by SoundInhabitant at 1:27 PM on August 15, 2017


As a survivor of the Loma Prieta (just a few miles from the epicenter), y'all are adorable

Lots of new people moving to town every day, who don't know the story. And when the shit does hit the fan, it's liable to be about 1000x bigger than Loma Prieta.
posted by wotsac at 1:41 PM on August 15, 2017 [5 favorites]


His website has a good index of all his videos. I think the Downtown Geology Lectures might have something about lahars (I haven't watched them all).
posted by Bee'sWing at 1:43 PM on August 15, 2017 [2 favorites]


just fading away

It's not controversial that there will be a large, very impactful earthquake in the PNW; it's only unknown when it will happen.

y'all are adorable

Loma Prieta was notably shitty on many axes, but the Bay Area has smaller, "adjustment" quakes at more frequent intervals than the PNW experiences, and the Bay Area is much better prepared for quakes, from infrastructure to public knowledge of What To Do. The PNW is due someday for a seriously impactful one, without the benefit of frequent, incremental, quakes. It has a fraction of the preparedness that California has in its quake zones. Your condescension makes no sense to me.
posted by sandettie light vessel automatic at 1:46 PM on August 15, 2017 [17 favorites]


Aw, shit!
posted by Bee'sWing at 1:57 PM on August 15, 2017 [1 favorite]


let us not forget that a PNW quake could potentially trigger a major tsunami also (which is not the case of the San Andreas Fault) a much bigger quake, a major tsunami, in a region very poorly informed and prepared for the possibility.
posted by supermedusa at 2:09 PM on August 15, 2017 [2 favorites]


a region very poorly informed and prepared

This always seems to be the crux of the issue; I was born & raised in SoCal with regular earthquake drills and quite a bit of experience with small/mid-size quakes. But I was here (south Sound) for the Nisqually Quake in 2001, and it was an eye-opening experience watching my coworkers Freak The Hell Out while I was calmly sitting under my desk and then gathering up my things to evacuate the building.
posted by epersonae at 2:25 PM on August 15, 2017 [5 favorites]


any one else having trouble getting these vids to play on mobile? works fine on my desktop but not my android :(
posted by supermedusa at 2:53 PM on August 15, 2017


turns out to be an adblocker issue d'oh. climbing down the disaster porn rabbit hole now :)
posted by supermedusa at 3:20 PM on August 15, 2017


Loma Prieta was on the San Andreas fault, which is two plates sliding past each other. The Cascadia fault is a subduction zone, which is one plate sliding under another. Subduction zones are the ones that generate really big earthquakes, such as the 1960 9.5 quake in Chile, the 1964 9.2 quake in Alaska, and the 9.1-9.3 Indian Ocean earthquake that set off the tsunami. The San Andreas fault doesn't tend to make earthquakes bigger than about an 8. Loma Prieta was a 6.9.
posted by Anne Neville at 3:52 PM on August 15, 2017


Not to make light of the Loma Prieta quake though. It killed 60 people and injured thousands and I'm sure it was terrifying for people who lived through it.
posted by Bee'sWing at 4:19 PM on August 15, 2017


As a close observer* of both Loma Prieta and Nisqually 2001, I'll say that I was then, and continue to be, surprised at how little earthquake preparedness is thought about up here.

Anyway, the difference in experience with the two quakes was notable and interesting. At least to me.

Loma Prieta felt like the ground was rolling, like it built up before calming down. I watched neighbors patio chairs effectively dance across the deck and fall off. The feeling went on for a surprisingly long time. Like smoothing out wrinkles in fabric, or getting into a waterbed. "hey, we're having another earthquake... why hasn't it stopped yet? This might be a big one, I need to turn on the tv and see what's happening."

Nisqually was a short, sharp jolt that dropped off quickly . Like hitting a tight drum skin, or banging a heavy cable at high tension. "Wow, Earthquake! ... It's over, why are people screaming? Oh the lights are out, I should do something about that." (Sorry if it sounds insensitive, but this is what went through my mind at the time)

Loma Prieta was a lot more scary in the moment, though I was signifigantly closer to the epicenter of the Niqually quake.

*Calling myself a survivor would feel wrong. I was not traumatized by either of them, and do not wish to diminish the experience or emotions of those who were.
posted by monopas at 4:53 PM on August 15, 2017


If "the mountain" (Mt Rainier) goes no one will bother even mentioning Krakatoa, or well actually even be around to mention it.

(A few years after St Helens eruption a guy I know had a great idea for a bar gimmick, interrupt the sports/disco with a fake news show and include some low vibration from the disco speakers. On a Friday night was run once, emptied the bar, the parking lot cleared in two minutes, the "event" was not invited back).
posted by sammyo at 5:19 PM on August 15, 2017 [2 favorites]


These are fantastic, thanks!
posted by thandal at 8:48 PM on August 15, 2017


I have been cut off from reciting terrifying/fascinating earthquake facts for the rest of breakfast.

Not to make this a Trump thread, but he wants to cut the paltry USGS funding for building an earthquake early warning system in the Pacific Northwest.
posted by rockindata at 4:25 AM on August 16, 2017 [2 favorites]


My family and I drove from Puget Sound to Yellowstone and crossed the Snake River Plain. It was pretty sobering learning how the Yellowstone Hotspot carved that huge smooth plain out of the surrounding mountains as the continental shelf slowly slid over it. Geology is cool.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 7:11 PM on August 16, 2017 [1 favorite]


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