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My third trip to Washington State brought me to the Space
Needle. During other visits, I toured Mount St. Helens and Mount Rainier, as
well as a hydroelectric plant on the Snoqualmie River. Read Part 1 of this series for a tour of the
city of Seattle. Read on to learn more
about the mountains and volcanoes of Washington!
Warning – Volcanoes Ahead
Active stratovolcano Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980, after
being disturbed by an earthquake
measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale. Its
nine hour eruption blasted at speeds of up to 650 mph, ultimately destroying
150 square miles of nearby forest. A
landslide took away most of the north side of the mountain. Pre-eruption the elevation of Mount St. Helens
was 9,677 feet, compared at today's height of 8,363 feet.
Today, you can visit and see how some of the area has begun
to grow back. I visited Mount St. Helens
in April 1999, but the access roads were closed due to heavy snowfall. If you can't travel in person, you can still
watch for signs of another eruption on the VolcanoCam.
 Mount Rainier is another of Washington's mountains located
in the Snoqualmie National Forest – in fact, it is pretty special:
- It is the tallest mountain
in the Cascade Range at
14,411 feet
- It's an active
stratovolcano with two volcanic craters on the mountain top
- The mountain and
surrounding area contain 26 major glaciers
- It's visible from
Portland, Oregon and Victoria, British Columbia on clear days
How can a mountain contain volcanoes and glaciers? It sounds
pretty bizarre to me. It is said there
is no evidence of imminent eruption; however, the threat of an eruption is
greater than that of Mount St. Helens because of the larger presence of
ice. Past eruptions from Mount Rainier
were said to have reached the Puget Sound.
The last recorded eruption was between 1820 and 1854.
Mount Rainier and Mount St. Helens are about 100 miles
apart. Both are part of the Cascade
Range, which contains 15 volcanoes total. Mount St. Helens is located on
the edge of the
Juan de Fuca and Pacific plates, making it most vulnerable to earthquakes.
 Water Works
To the east of Seattle is Snoqualmie Falls – a 268 foot
waterfall that is also a hydroelectric plant.
Snoqualmie Falls is located just outside the Snoqualmie National Forest.
Interstate 90 (I-90) passes through this forest and the imposing mountain
ranges are beautiful. Originally, the
falls were used for logging, but an underground power plant was constructed in
1889. A second powerhouse was built in 1911.
 The falls are extremely powerful. I was sprayed by the water
while observing the falls from near the top, and from quite a distance away at
the base. The two hydroelectric power
plants at the falls are operated by Puget Sound Energy. They provide about 1% of its energy sales,
41,990 kilowatts of electricity, to service 16,000 homes.
 On this visit to the Seattle area I also took a whale watching trip – you can read about it on the Animal Science blog!
Resources:
http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/mshnvm/
http://www.olywa.net/radu/valerie/mshduring.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_St._Helens/
http://www.nps.gov/mora/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Rainier
http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/Cascades/description_cascade_range.html
http://www.snoqualmiefalls.com/
http://www.seattletravel.com/snoqualmie-falls.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snoqualmie_Falls
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Re: Seeing Seattle – Mountain Views (Part 2)
