The Upsides and Downsides of Mountains

I’ve lived in Western Washington for a total of twenty-one years, so it’s really easy for me to answer this month’s Accretionary Wedge (#29!) as posed by Ann at Ann's Musings on Geology & Other Things: "What Geological features about the area you call 'home' do you love? and what do you not like?"

Washington can be divided very roughly into thirds: Eastern Washington, home to the Missoula Flood-carved Columbia River Flood Basalts; Western Washington, with thick glacial deposits and steep stratovolcanoes in the Cascade Mountains; and the Olympic Penninsula, which is an accretionary wedge, with the uplifted Olympic Mountains.

My favorite geological features are the volcanoes. These result from the subduction of the Juan de Fuca plate beneath the North American plate:

Cascades Volcano Observatory

Mt. Rainier

Mt. St. Helens

Mt. Adams

 

Now, my least favorite geological features of Western Washington are also the Cascades, because they help cause the massive, constant amounts of rain.

sequimwa.com

The Olympics create a rain shadow, but they aren’t so high that all the moisture condenses and falls: the rest is carried over the Puget Sound. As it does so, it picks up more moisture, which then condenses as it rises over the Cascades, dropping all over Western Washington.

That’s why it rains 365 days out of the year (or at least feels like it!)

Thus, my Theory of Seattle: the rain nourishes the trees and shrubbery, which grows profusely and blocks out the light. Between the rain and the trees, everyone wants to stay indoors – thus, the major IT industry begins. Between the masses of commuters and the nasty dim weather, rush hour runs rampant. Since everyone codes late into the night and has to get up early to beat the traffic, the immense coffee culture is started. Thus, the population has a Vitamin D deficiency, stares at computers constantly, is always struck in traffic, and gets regularly strung out on coffee, resulting in perpetual depression and tweakiness. Thus leading to the reign of 90s grunge music, which also contributes to the high suicide rate.

That’s my theory, at least. And I’m sticking to it.

I’ll be honest: I’ve had my fill of the dreary rain and endless rush hour.

So, I’m going to study Geology at Boise State University next year!

Sight-seeing, Airplane Style

Yesterday, my family flew down to Phoenix to watch my brother graduate from UTI (at the head of his class, no less.) Our plane flight was luckily during the day, so we got an aerial view of some great mountains:

Mt. St. Helens

Mt. Hood

The Three Sisters.

I think this is Mt. Wheeler.

I’ve always wanted to see Mt. St. Helens from the air, and I was so excited to spot it!

I live on a glacial garbage dump.

Geologic Map of Tumwater

My house lies on the Qgo section:
"Vashon recessional outwash—Recessional and proglacial
stratified, moderately to well-rounded, poorly to moderately
sorted outwash sand and gravel of northern or mixed
northern and Cascade source, locally containing silt and
clay; also contains lacustrine deposits and ice-contact
stratified drift. Some areas mapped as unit Qgo may instead
be advance outwash (unit Qga) because it is difficult to tell
the difference between the two without the presence of an
intervening till."

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In other garbage-dump news, a fellow is Tacoma is building condos on the foundations of an old copper/arsenic plant, now a Superfund site.
This is apparently old news, but I only found out today, via Text Message from a Toxic Waste Site on the Stranger.
Recovering viable land from our past mistakes seems like a noble ambition (despite being aimed only at the rich) however the ecological aspects are slightly concerning.
My knowledge of the issue is, admittedly, fairly limited.