David, thanks for that post which is equal parts fun, fascinating, inspiring, cool, and terrifying. I am wondering if you came across any science from further north or south along our Megafault that might indicate similar, concurrent, catastrophic shaking south to Oregon and California or north of Vancouver Island? In other words, when the next big one comes, how likely is it that it will hammer just the Puget Sound area versus an entire multi jurisdiction economic region on the West Coast? And should we be investing in underwater chainsaws?
Thx for your note. Being the hyperlocal guy I am, I haven't done much investigating the evidence for other quakes, such as Cascadia Subduction, north or south. That being written, of course, the most famous tree evidence for quakes comes from the 1700 Cascadia quake, which killed trees all along the Pacific Coast. I wrote about it here: https://streetsmartnaturalist.substack.com/p/ghosts-and-orphans
And, investing in underwater chainsaws is a no brainer. Go for it.
Yes! Thanks so much for digging into this. I saw the news brief in Science and was hoping for a bit more context. Such cool research. Have you or others written about the upright trees in Lakes WA and Sammamish and how the heck they are still upright after 1000+ years? Why wood lasts so long in certain underwater environments? Were all the trees in this study Doug firs?
Chris, Thanks. I have written a bit about the trees in my book, The Seattle Street-Smart Naturalist. Sandi Doughton also wrote a bit about them in her book Full Rip 9.0. Neither of us looked into the Lake Sammamish trees. I don't remember if they all were Doug firs and didn't do research on why they remained upright and intact. Other sources of information include Edwin F. Thor McKnight's 1923 thesis at the UW library; and "Topography and Postglacial Sediments of Lake Washington" by Howard R. Gould and Estella B. Leopold. Hope these help. David
David, thanks for that post which is equal parts fun, fascinating, inspiring, cool, and terrifying. I am wondering if you came across any science from further north or south along our Megafault that might indicate similar, concurrent, catastrophic shaking south to Oregon and California or north of Vancouver Island? In other words, when the next big one comes, how likely is it that it will hammer just the Puget Sound area versus an entire multi jurisdiction economic region on the West Coast? And should we be investing in underwater chainsaws?
Thx for your note. Being the hyperlocal guy I am, I haven't done much investigating the evidence for other quakes, such as Cascadia Subduction, north or south. That being written, of course, the most famous tree evidence for quakes comes from the 1700 Cascadia quake, which killed trees all along the Pacific Coast. I wrote about it here: https://streetsmartnaturalist.substack.com/p/ghosts-and-orphans
And, investing in underwater chainsaws is a no brainer. Go for it.
Yes! Thanks so much for digging into this. I saw the news brief in Science and was hoping for a bit more context. Such cool research. Have you or others written about the upright trees in Lakes WA and Sammamish and how the heck they are still upright after 1000+ years? Why wood lasts so long in certain underwater environments? Were all the trees in this study Doug firs?
Chris, Thanks. I have written a bit about the trees in my book, The Seattle Street-Smart Naturalist. Sandi Doughton also wrote a bit about them in her book Full Rip 9.0. Neither of us looked into the Lake Sammamish trees. I don't remember if they all were Doug firs and didn't do research on why they remained upright and intact. Other sources of information include Edwin F. Thor McKnight's 1923 thesis at the UW library; and "Topography and Postglacial Sediments of Lake Washington" by Howard R. Gould and Estella B. Leopold. Hope these help. David
I look forward to digging in, thanks David.