Hello, my name is Samuel Slutsky and I am an aspiring Business Major at the University of Colorado Denver. Amongst numerous fields, geography has interested and intrigued me all my life, so much so that while contemplating majors, I was stuck between Geography, Anthropology, and Business. Being in this class is super exciting, because I get to learn about the physicality of the Earth, and how it corrrelates to human and animal culture. With this vast interest and curiousity, I would like to pick several regions and landmarks to do this blog on, but I will limit myself to one. I am choosing to research the region of Western Washington, USA, particularly the region within a 50 miles radius of Bellingham, Washington. I use to attened a university in this region and I was always astounded by the aesthetics of this place, and would love to learn and understand its wonderous beauty. I will be scrutinizing this region's geographical, geological, ecological, cultural, weather, and many more of its features.
file://localhost/Users/samuelslutsky/Desktop/35625439.MtBaker0324038adj-620x465.jpg
Mt. Baker, an active glaciated andesitic stratovolcano, is the tallest peak in the region, and is the 3rd tallest peak in Washington state.
http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/tcp/sites_brochure/blhm_bay/blhm_bay.htm
Beautiful Bellingham Bay
BLOG POST #1
Western Washington, as stated in the previous 'introduction' post, is a very diverse setting in terms of physical geography, ecology, geology, culture, and all and all science. Firstly, what I believe makes Western Washington so interesting is its unique geological location, volcanic activity, seismology and other plate activities, and the diversity of what is with in the state.
Washington's Physical Geography
The landmass of Washington state is located on the North American plate, in the country of the United States of America, its physical borders range from nearly 125° W to just beyond 117° W, and 45.66° North at its Southern Border to 49° N at its Northern Border. Its tallest peak is Mt. Rainer at 14,410 feet above sea level, and its lowest point is the Pacific Ocean, at sea level.Western Washington is geographically considered the temperate, "rainshadowed" side of Washington, West of the major Cascade Mountain Range. The coast of Western Washington is directly on the Pacific Ocean, with water residing on the Juan De Fuca Plate, as pictured above on this Seismic activity map.
The Cascades (Mountains and Volcanoes) are the dividing mountain range between Western Washington and Eastern Washington, and were formed by the subduction of the Juan De Fuca Plate, Explorer, and Gorda Plate. Melting of the Juan De Fuca Plate caused intruding magma into the lithosphere, and then continental crust of Washington's continental plate, causing Volcanism along Western Washington. Notable volcanoes, like Mt. Saint Helens are located in Washington State. This volcanic spread occured over 37 Million Years ago. As we learned in class, this is a pretty blatant example of a Ocean-Continent Convergence, like the Andes Mountains.
Notable Volcano- Mt. St Helens
http://inapcache.boston.com/universal/site_graphics/blogs/bigpicture/msh30_05_18/m01_l80S3141.jpg
http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/volcanoes/st_helens/st_helens_geo_hist_101.html
Western Washington's Seismic Activity
Western Washington in particular is prone to severe Seismic activity and Earthquakes because of its precise location on subductions zones and tectonic plates. In the state of Washington, there are over 1000 earthquakes a year, accordingly, though majority of them are not destructive, sizable, or even noticable. Western Washington is located at convergent continental margin at a collasional boundary between two tectonic plates; the Cascadia Subduction Zone and the Juan De Fuca Plate. The subduction zone is what acts as the convergent boundary between the Juan De Fuca Plate, and the North Amerian Plate that Washington sits on. The plates are converging at about 2 inches a year, plus a northward shifting Pacific plate, cause a strain between the two, which result in the hefty amount of earthquakes that Washington recieves yearly.
Bibliography
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8583311.stm
http://www.dnr.wa.gov/researchscience/topics/geologichazardsmapping/pages/earthquakes.aspx
http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/htmlfiles/wa/wa.01.html
Blogpost #2
For my second blog, I will discuss furthermore into the vast diversity of Washington's landscape, its magnificent weathering and erosion, more volcanic activy, and lastly its soils. As stated before, Western Washington is one of the most unique ecosystems in the United States. It is a hearth for a whole spectrum of features that are relevant to this class.
Extrusive Volcanic Landforms in Western Washington
As discussed in class Professor Allen's lectures, there are some key landforms that are considered extrusive volcanoes, those being Shield Volcanoes, Cindercones, or Composite (Stratovolcanoes). And Western Washington has a plethora of these said landforms.
Shield Volcanoes- Signal Peak and Indian Heaven, referred to as the "couch potato of eruptions", highy flowable lava created this shield like volcano, and the lava settles further, than that of a Stratovolcano. This usually gives the volcano a low profile and a wide base. This active volcano is the eroded remnant of a small andesitic stratovolcano overlying the southern part of the basaltic shield of the Lincoln Plateau. With its near proximity to Volcanoes to the West and Cindercones to the east, it is a part of a chain, active for perhaps, for the last 5 million years.
Cindercones- Simcoe Volcano, is a Volcanic field consisting of 24 monogetic Cindercone Volcanoes. These Cindercone Volcanoes are formed from the tephra of an active Volcano, so primarily, a volcano has an eruption of pyroclasts, and downwind from the eruption or volcanic vent, the Cindercones are created from the deposits, and compilation of the Tephra.
Composite Volcanoes (Stratovolcanoes)- Washington has several Composite Volcanoes, including; Mount Baker, Glacier Peak, Mount Rainier, Goat Rocks, Mount Adams & Mt. Saint Helens. These are cone-like Volcano, that is the Strata of hardened lava, tephra, and volcanic ash. They are origianly surfaced by subduction zones. The most interesting thing about Composite Volcanoes, to me at least, are the Pyroclastic Flows! This a hot moving current of Volcanic Gas, and Tephra that speeds down a rock, during an eruption.
Weathering, Decay, and Erosion... and a little Slides and flow.
Like the rest of the world, Western Washington experiences weathering, decay, and erosion. Uniquely, Western Washington and the rest of Washington State has a labyrinth of weathered and eroded landscapes, as well as well as objects that have been decayed. Both chemical and physical decay are prevelant, mixed with the breaking down of rock in place (weathering), this is truly a Geomorphologist's dream location. Here is one example of Erosion, Decay, and Weathering;
Mt.Rainer's height and shape is dependent on weathering and erosion. Through the breaking down of its rock, soils, and minerals, contacted with earth's atmosphere, organisms, and elements, Mt Rainer is uniquely shaped. Once weathering or in situ, is placed, erosion can occur. Erosion in this case, is the transport of Mt.Rainer's Weathered materials, furthermore shaping the Mountain. Several forms of Physical Decay are predominant, such as Frost Decay; the expanding of once frozen water, within a joint of rock, and other common ones like Salt Decay. Like many places that experience extremes climatically (hot and cold season), thermal decay and contraction also occur. And due to the extreme amount of Rain in the park, over 44 inches a year, Wetting and Drying Decay also occur. Mt. Rainier also experiences several forms of chemical decay, such as; Disolution, Hydrolysis, Oxidation and Chelation.
A report from a Geological Survey, by the U.S. Department of the Interior, explaining weathering and erosion of Volcanic, Glacial, and other geologic materials in Mt. Rainier National Park, states that a key factor in Erosion of the peak is Glacial Drift. This is the moving or transportation of the resulting debris downvalley by the ice, and the eventual deposition of the debris. Tills are the buildup of said drifts, that are a mixture of rock debris, will Moraines are ridges of Tills, that Mt. Rainier has so many of. The article later goes on to say the role that mudslides play in the shaping of Mount Rainier,
"A second geologic process responsible for many surficial deposits in the park is landsliding. Some large slides of the past became mixed with water as they moved downslope into valleys and formed mudflows. Mudflows are mixtures of water and rock debris of many sizes and during movement resemble wet concrete. Falls of masses of rock from cliffs are also a type of landslide; they range from small pieces that accumulate at the base of the cliff and form a sloping talus of angular rock fragments to falls of whole sections of a cliff. Rockfalls that become broken into material of many sizes sometimes move rapidly far downvalley as avalanches of rock debris."
To paraphrase the last exert about Landslides, they've played an important role at Mt. Rainier because they were so expectionally large. The largest one occured 5700 yeras ago, which destroyed the majority of the volcano's once summit. The top of Mt. Rainer today is a result of this landslide, so its true summit is only perhaps 2000 years old. This great landslide and several other are responisble for forming the mountain grealy, and will continue to.
Bibliography
http://www.idcide.com/weather/md/mt-rainier.htm
http://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/1288/report.pdf
http://facstaff.gpc.edu/~pgore/geology/geo101/weather.htm
http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/washington.html
http://clasfaculty.ucdenver.edu/callen/1202/
Blogpost #3
When Western Washington and the state of Washington come up, most of think Seattle. When we think of Seattle we tend to think of rain, gloom, coffee, grunge music, and maybe some large companies like Boeing or Microsoft. Most of our preconcieved notions are right, except for one major one; not all of Washington is rainy. In actuality much of Washington State has a semi-arid and or arid climate, and has a similar accumulative precipitation to the American Southwest (as pictured below)
But for the Majority of Western Washington, rainfall is far more heavy and more so prevalent. Areas to the far, far West, within the Olympic Mountain range can recieve more than 240 inches of rain, while some regions of inner Western Washington, like along the Cascade Mountains, can recieve anywhere from 60 inches of rain to 180 inches of rain. Though most of Western Washington's rainfall is comparable to many other regions of the United States, it's gloominess and cloud coverage is incomparable. Western Washington has the top 15 gloomiest cities in the country, ranging from 35% Sunshine in a year to 45% sunshine in a year. So why does Western Washington have so much gloom and rainfall?
Rainshadow, Unstable Air, Orographic Lifting and Adiabatic Process
Western Washington is a perfect example of rainshadowing; there's a wet side and lee side of a mountain, a lee side is a dry area on the side of a mountainous area, that does not face the wind. The mountains in Washington allow the Maritime Polar front to passage over one side of the mountain, the lush green side (Western Washington) and usually rainshadows the Eastern Half of the state.
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| Crazy Example of Rainshadow in the Himalayas http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/Himalaya_composite.jpg |
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| Hoh Rainforest http://pixdaus.com/the-hoh-rainforest-is-located-in-western-washington-state-us/items/view/578667/ |
Western Washington's Maritime Polar Air Mass, particularly influences the "gloominess" that we all associate with Seattle and other cities along the coast. The air mass, which is always comprised of constant water vapor, ranges from little water vapor, to alot of water vapor. Quite often in Seattle, more so, the Pugent Sound of Washington, the air mass is highly comprised of water vapor, from the moisture that comes off the Ocean, and the Sound. The cool, wet, and generally gray conditions, give Washington its rainy season.
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| http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/art-166713/In-the-principal-world-air-masses-continental-Arctic-continental-polar |
Bibliography
http://www.city-data.com/top2/c475.html
http://clasfaculty.ucdenver.edu/callen/1202/
http://clasfaculty.ucdenver.edu/callen/1202/Climate/Moisture/WaterMoistureClouds.html
Final Blog Post
Western Washington has been an awesome case study to learn about, and I'm thrilled that I choose it. In the course of this class I have learned so much information that applies to an area that I am passionate about. For starters I was fasinated by the Folding and Faulting of Western Washington's plates, Mountain Ranges, Subduction Zones, and secondly its Seismic Activities in my first blog. By the Second blog, I was captivated its abundance of Volcanism, weathering, decay, and some examples of slides within the state. And by the lastly I was engulfed in the regions adiabatic process, heavy precipatation and unique weather.
Let's start; 10,000 years from now Western Washington will inevitably be different. Copiously? Perhaps not. For on a scale of how long the planet has been here, 10,000 years is simply just not that much time. Processes which effect the Earth's surface and landscape astronomically can take several thousand more years. But there are some factors would definitely begin to alter Western Washington's surface, here a just a few significant ones;
Western Washington would be effected by rising sea level, if types"regional warming" persist. Markedly, scientists speculate that if the Wilkes Subglacial Basin (East Antarctica), amongst other polar ice caps, continue to melt, sea level could rise several meters. This would put many cities along the coast of Western Washington and the several hundred islands of the State under water. It is likely that Western Washington will continue to submerge into the sea, and become smaller in size, by the near future.
The previously stated Juan De Fuca Plate, that is located directly below Washington State is highly active. It is speculated that this will cause severe earthquakes throughout the next 10,000 years. Since it is in a subduction zone, it is almost certain that earthquakes will occur and you can almost guarantee that each one will be dangerous, causing major surface damage. This could be a major contributor to the destruction of Washington's fragile coast line. But what about over 1,000,000 year, will Earthquakes and Tsunamis be a problem still? Absolutely. There is no shortage of submergance and movement of tectonic plates creating earthquakes (and eventually tsunamis), each weakening the surface of Washington furthermore.
With these intermittent stages of hot and cold temperatures, within the ice age that we are in now, Western Washington could experience between the next 10,000 years, a rise in average temperature. This can be enhanced by anthropogenic activity, and continued weather patterns in the state. Secondly, Washington's constantly shifting plates, could cause more Volcanic Activities, furthermore, dispersing more unique landscape, and geologic wonders.
(pictured above is a dramatic effet of increased temperature via glacial melt)
Between 1,000,000 years and 100,000,000 years, countless thing can be done to either destroy or reshape the state of Washington. For starters, and probably the soonest to happen are the erosion of Washington's two main Mountains ranges, and the Glaciers that accompany them; the Cascades and the Olympics. Through the constant erosional force impending on the mountain, breaking down of the rock in place either by physical or chemical decay, the ranges will ultimately be leveled to plains or small hills, just like the neighboring Canadian Rockies. But not to worry, new mountain ranges will form, due to the cycle of earthquakes and volcanic activities, mixed with a constantly emerging plates and faults. And even better, within the next 100,000,000 years there is bound to be another ice age, uniformly. This means that polar caps will re-solidify and glaciers with in Washington State will retreat, or new glaciers, in new mountain ranges will exist.
Perhaps the most destructive event in the next 100,000,000 years will be the potential eruption of one the many supervolcanoes that surround the region (Yellowstone, Mt. Saint Helens, Mt Rainier, etc,) . If this were to happen, a mini-ice age would definitely ensue, due to the ash blocking out the sun. Western Washington would basically be obliterated, having magma spewed all over the previous confines of the state. Ultimately this would kill everyone off, but completely reshape the whole state. It would, in lack of better terms. be the most destructive event in the near future of the state.
Lastly, I believe that Washington's Coast, Sea, and inland will be completely reshaped by said previous events, various catastrophisms, folding and faulting, and plate activity. By the time 100,000,000 years roll around, the state of Washington, would likely be dissolved into the sea, or frozen over with glaciers. This does not include the disappearance of the ozone, or the lifespan of the sun. It also doesn't include the possibility of getting hit by a massive meteorite. So if all those things, were not to happen, Western Washington, would still be completely eroded and obliterated.
Bibliography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_far_future
http://clasfaculty.ucdenver.edu/callen/1202/
http://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/
http://www.peakware.com/areas.html?a=293/how-high-large-can-a-mountain-range-get
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/97772/Cascade-Range
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