7700 years ago Mazama, one of the largest mountains in the Cascades, erupted violently. A mile-wide column of tephra shot into the sky at twice the speed of sound. "Flow after flow followed in rapid succession," as Wikipedia says, until finally the mountain began to fracture; and then lava flowed from these fractures in all directions, spreading in some cases over 40 miles.
Mt. Mazama is now the spectacularly beautiful Crater Lake, photos of which you'll find all over the interwebs. You'd be hard put to find photos of the area around the lake, though. It's too eerie. Too barren. I imagine it's unrewarding to photograph.
Anyway: it was this map that got me thinking of Mt. Mazama: the oil spill superimposed over Oregon. I think it looks like an ash plume. On the map I made Prineville the epicenter because if Bend had been the epicenter, the spill would have run about 40 miles into the ocean.
In case you can't see it clearly, the spill starts at Yachats on the coast, travels up and over the Cascades, then oozes through the desert, up and over the Ochocos and back into the desert, finally stopping (for the moment) in John Day, where the fossil beds are.
Via ifitwasmyhome.com.
3 comments:
It's a terrible though. We have just been driving through this country - up the coast to Astoria then along the Columbia,more or less, to Grand Coulee. We are in Chelan today. This is some of the most beautiful country I have ever seen, even if some of the roads scare me spitless. The thought of it destroyed, with its birds and delicate wild flowers is just as awful as what is actually going on along the gulf coast. I know that countryside too, have tracked and photographed the pelicans that are now, the live ones, in such sodden misery.
And yet, we drove. All the way from Ottawa, using gasoline all the way. I feel guilty about using the gas for pleasure, but I still do it. How else to see the beauty of the coast and the Cascades?
thought. Snarl. Typing on my husband's tiny laptop.
Hi Mary! You're really close to Bend, comparatively speaking. I'm waving to you.
Post a Comment