virtual-geology.info

Geology and Hazards of the Pacific Northwest

The Pacific Northwest is defined broadly here to include, from north to south, British Columbia, Washington state, Oregon, Idaho and Northern California as far south as the San Francisco Bay area (see map, which shows the US part of the Pacific NW). The links below have been compiled to provide support for the University of Derby's Geological Hazards field courses to the Pacific Northwest, which have been running since 2005, with the next visit coming up in September 2017.

Follow our UoD Pacific NW blog.

New links will be added to this page over time. It has in part been compiled by Hazards students at the University of Derby.

General information
Earthquakes
Tsunami and other coastal hazards
Volcanoes
Floods
Drought, fires and water management
Landslides
Manmade hazards

General information on the USA, the region, states and provinces and their geology and hazards

• The Pacific Northwest (Wikipedia)
• Geology of the Pacific NW (Wenatchee Valley College - online course)
• New Lands Along the Old Coast: Building the Pacific Northwest (Burke Museum, University of Washington)
• Pacific Disaster Center - current events
• USGS Current Water Data for the Nation (streamflow, groundwater etc.)

• US Geological Survey - hazards, resources, products
• NASA Earth Observatory - Natural Hazards
• Communicating Uncertainties in Natural Hazard Forecasts
• Satellite images of US cities
• Geology of the National Parks and Tour of Park Geology
• Scorecard - The Pollution Information site
• FEMA - Natural Hazards - are you ready? - check out the simple leaflets produced to improve citizen awareness of hazards
• Quick facts from the US Census Bureau - can be looked up by state, county or city

Maps

• Topographic maps of USA - USGS. Free download of current and historical topographic maps as pdf files
• USGS National Map viewer - interactive GIS system
• Digital map of major bedrock lithologic units for the Pacific Northwest
• Pacific Northwest Geologic Mapping and Urban Hazards (USGS)

History

• History of Washington State and the Pacific Northwest (University of Washington)
• Discovery of the Pacific Northwest - Lewis and Clark
• Lewis and Clark National Historic Park (OR and WA)
• Oregon Historical Society
• Washington State Historical Society

Plate Tectonics

• This Dynamic Earth - a good revision source on plate tectonics from USGS
• The Cascadia Subduction Zone and Related Subduction Systems (Geological Survey of Canada/USGS)
• The Cascadia Megathrust and Tectonic Stress in the Pacific Northwest (USGS)
• Unlocking the Cascadia Subduction Zone's secrets (Earth magazine article)
• Reconstructing Past Plate History - The North Pacific and the West Coast of North America
• Tectonic plate motions, crustal blocks, and shallow earthquakes in Cascadia (USGS)

 

California (CA)

• The California Geological Survey

   

• Oregon (OR)

• Oregon State Highway maps and other maps
• Oregon county maps 
• Map showing counties and rivers in Oregon
• Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT)
• Oregon Climate service
• Oregonlive.com - online version of Portland's major newspaper, The Oregonian

• DOGAMI (Department of Geology and Mineral Industries). The state geological survey for Oregon
• Natural hazards home page (DOGAMI)
  
• Oregon Office of Emergency Management
• Oregon Partnership for Disaster Resilience
• Learn more about Oregon's geology (DOGAMI)
• Oregon: A Geologic History (DOGAMI)
• Interactive Geological Map of Oregon
• Oregon Geological  Maps and Publications
• USGS - Oregon Water Science Center
• Landslide & Debris Flow Information (DOGAMI)
• University of Oregon, Earth Sciences Dept.

 

Washington (WA)

• Washington State Highway Map
• Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT)
• Seattle Times - major regional newspaper
• The Seattle Post-Intelligencer - online newspaper PI Twitter feed

• Washington Department of Natural Resources (WA DNR)
• Washington Geological Survey (WA DNR)
• Washington State Geology News (blog)
• WA DNR publications and maps
• Geologic Hazards and the Environment, WA (WA DNR)
• WA Emergency Management Division
• Building an emergency kit
• Seattle Office of Emergency Management
• Seattle Hazard Explorer (interactive GIS)
• Pierce County Dept of Emergency Management (Tacoma to Mt Rainier)
• Learning to Live with Geologic and Hydrologic Hazards (Seattle area) factsheet from USGS
• US Geological Survey Washington Water Science Center (Washington)
• University of Washington, Earth & Space Sciences
• Geological map of Washington State (1) small png file
• Geological map of Washington State (2) more detailed pdf map at 1:500,000 (zip file) (2005)
• WA Geologic Information Portal, including Interactive Geology Map
• Geological map of Seattle
• Exploring Washington's geology (pdf article from On Trail magazine)
• Geologic Provinces of Washington (WA DNR)
• Viticulture and Enology: the Science and Business of Wine at Washington State University

Earthquakes

• Pacific Northwest Seismic Network - recent earthquakes map
• Earthquake Information from USGS
• Earthquake hazards maps - FEMA
• WSSPC EPICenter (Western States Seismic Policy Council, Earthquake Program Information Center)
• Earthquake Hazards Program - USGS
• Pacific NW GPS monitoring program (USGS)
• Earthquake Preparedness
• Averting Surprises in the Pacific Northwest (USGS fact sheet)
• ShakeAlert—An Earthquake Early Warning System for the United States West Coast (USGS fact sheet)
• Puget Sound faults
• Cascadia subduction zone earthquakes - magnitude 9 scenario (Cascadia Region Earthquake Workgroup - CREW - pdf)
• Cascadia Subduction Zone: Are Portland and Seattle prepared for an earthquake and tsunami? (Oregonlive)
• BBC Horizon: "The Next Megaquake"
• Did You Feel It? Community-Made Earthquake Shaking Maps (USGS)
• Slow slip: A new kind of earthquake (blog entry from Pacific NW Seismic Network - PNSN) Full article (pdf)
• Slow Slip and Tremor Observations and Research at the PNSN
• Slow Earthquakes, ETS, and Cascadia (CWU)

California

• USGS Earthquake Hazards Program: California
• Earthquake Hazard Maps - San Francisco Bay area
• Northern California earthquake data centre
• Interactive hazards maps from California Geological Survey
• ABAG personal preparedness for residents of the SF Bay area
• Magnitude 7.2 earthquake off N California, 15 June 2005
• BBC: Quakes: A constant threat to California
• When Will the Next Great Quake Strike Northern California? (USGS fact sheet)

Oregon

• USGS Earthquake Hazards Program: Oregon
• Seismic hazard map of Oregon (USGS)
• Earthquake Hazards
• Airborne Hunt for Faults in the Portland-Vancouver Area (USGS fact sheet)
• Oregon Cascadia scenario

Washington

• USGS Earthquake Hazards Program: Washington
• Seismic hazard map of Washington (USGS)
• Earthquakes and faults (WA DNR)
• Airborne Hunt for Faults in the Portland-Vancouver Area (USGS fact sheet)
• Seattle Seismic Hazard Maps and Data Download
• Seattle Fault Scenario (EERI)
• Region's sleuths turning up more and more faults (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
• Was last year's [2001] Nisqually Quake 'the Big One'? Hardly (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
• Seattle Channel video - Earthquake safe spots (1m:16)
• Washington Shakeout - Annual earthquake drill

  British Columbia

• Recent earthquakes (Natural Resources Canada)

Tsunami and other coastal hazards

• El Niño and coastal erosion in the Pacific Northwest (Oregon geology magazine article, starts p9)
• Surviving a Tsunami—Lessons from Chile, Hawaii, and Japan (USGS)
• Local Tsunamis in the Pacific Northwest (USGS)
• The Orphan tsunami of 1700 (large pdf file)
• The Big One: 1700 Earthquake and Tsunami (Burke Museum, University of Washington)
• Unearthing Proof of a Tsunami in the Northwest. Listen to Brian Atwater, the pioneer of tsunami research in the Pacific Northwest, on National Public Radio (7 minutes)
• Tsunami Science - reducing the risk (video: 7 minutes))

  California

• California Coastal Records project - an aerial photographic survey of the California Coastline
• El Niño Sea-Level Rise Wreaks Havoc in California's San Francisco Bay Region

Oregon

• Oregon Coastal Atlas
• Geological Hazards on the Oregon coast (DOGAMI)
• Oregon tsunami fact sheet (pdf)
• Tsunami survival leaflet (pdf)
• Oregon tsunami evacuation brochures for each coastal community
• Oregon tsunami inundation maps
• Oregon Tsunami clearing house
• Profile of a hazards professional - Yumei Wang, Geotechnical Engineer at DOGAMI, focussed on building resilience to natural hazards

Washington

• WA coast hazards
• Washington's Coast - tsunamis
• Washington shoreline aerial photos

Volcanoes

• Types of Volcano Hazards (USGS)
• Living with Volcanic Risk in the Cascades (USGS fact sheet - pdf)
• Volcano-related fact sheets (USGS)
• Ash fall (USGS fact sheet)
• USGS - Cascades Volcano Observatory
• Cascade Range Volcanoes Summaries
• Cascades hazard assessments for individual volcanoes
• The Volcanoes of Lewis and Clark
• Volcanic Ash: Danger to Aircraft in the North Pacific (USGS fact sheet)
• Automated Lahar Detection Systems (USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory - CVO)
• Volcanic eruption preparedness (CVO)
  

California

• Mount Shasta
• Geology of Lassen Volcanic National Park

Oregon

• Mount Hood fact sheet
• Mount Hood virtual field trip
• Volcanic hazards: Mount Hood Coordination Plan (DOGAMI)
• Crater Lake National Park
• Crater Lake National Park: Presently Tranquil (USGS Fact Sheet)
• Mount Mazama and Crater Lake (USGS Fact Sheet)
  

Washington

• Mount St. Helens (MSH)
• Earthshots: Satellite Images of Environmental Change - Mount St Helens
• Mount St. Helens – From the 1980 Eruption to 2000 (USGS fact sheet)
• A look at the Mt. St. Helens eruption 35 years later
• Mount St Helens National Volcanic Monument
• Mount St Helens recovery and remediation projects (US Army Corps of Engineers - USACE)
• MSH Volcano cams

• Mount Rainier
• Mount Rainier National Park
• Around Mount Rainier (Geotimes travel article)
• Geology of Mount Rainier National Park
• Geological photo tour of Mount Rainier NP
• Living with a volcano in your backyard: Mount Rainier
• Monitoring lahars at Mount Rainier (USGS)
• Loss estimation pilot project for lahar hazards from Mount Rainier, Washington (pdf from Washington State DNR)

• Mount Adams
• Glacier Peak — History and Hazards of a Cascade Volcano (USGS)
• Mount Baker—Living with an Active Volcano (USGS fact sheet)

  The Columbia River Basalts - Miocene flood basalts

• Columbia Plateau & Columbia River Basalts (USGS)
• Origin of Columbia River flood basalt (Nature, 2012)
• A Miocene Forest Assemblage in the Columbia River Basalts

Floods

• USGS Real-time Water Data for the Nation
• How USGS monitors water
• How USGS collects streamflow data
• Mapping a Flood...Before It Happens (USGS fact sheet)
• The "100 year flood" (USGS fact sheet)
• US Army Corps of Engineers Historic Columbia River Photos
• Warm Water and Strange Weather May Be Connected (NASA Earth Observatory)

California

• USGS Water Hazards, California
• Northern California Storms and Floods of January 1995 (pdf - USGS factsheet)

Oregon

• The Willamette Valley Flood of 1996
• FEMA and State Officials Look at Oregon Flood Disaster Areas (VIDEO)
• Columbia River floods at Vanport, 1948

Washington

• Aerial images of flooding in W Washington, January 2009
• Mount Rainier National Park - November 2006 Flooding (National Park Service)
• Mt Rainier: Images of the Flood of 2006

Giant glacial floods

• The Pleistocene glacial outburst floods (Ice Age Floods Institute)
• J Harlen Bretz - originator of the giant glacial floods hypothesis
• J Harlen Bretz biographical essay (historylink.org)
• Guide to the J Harlen Bretz papers (University of Chicago Library)
• Mystery of the Megaflood (PBS)
• Lake Lewis: a 3000 square mile "retention pond"
• Ice Age Floods reference list

Drought, Fires and Water Management

• Water Management Projects in the NW (Bureau of Reclamation )
• Columbia Basin water management (USACE)
• The Columbia Basin Project (Bureau of Reclamation)
• Columbia Plateau regional aquifer system (USGS)
• Columbia Basin Ground Water Management
• Columbia River contaminants and wildlife
• Grand Coulee Dam and Columbia Basin Irrigation Project

• Northwest Coordination Center for wildland fires
• Inciweb - incident information system for wildfires with maps and reports (locate the area of interest on the interactive map)

Washington

• WA wildfires, summer 2013 (NASA Earth Observatory)

Landslides

• Landslide Hazards Program (USGS)
• Debris flow hazards in the United States (USGS Fact Sheet; pdf)
• What causes landslides? Podcast interview with Prof Scott Burns, Portland State University

California

• San Francisco Bay Region Landslide Folio (USGS)
• Riding The Storm - Landslide Danger in the San Francisco Bay Area (USGS)

Oregon

• Landslide hazards in Oregon - factsheet (pdf)
• Coastal Landslides in Oregon
• Oregon's debris flow warning system
• 3D mapping study shows Astoria at high risk for landslides

Washington

• Puget Sound landslides
• Landslide map of the Puget Sound coast N of Seattle (pdf)
• Landslide Reconnaissance Following the Storm Event of December 1–3, 2007, in Western Washington (pdf, WA DNR)
• Mudslide derails freight cars (online newspaper article and video, December 2012)
• March 2013 landslides on Whidbey Island
• One Year Later – The Oso Landslide in Washington (22 March 2014) (USGS)
• Oso Landslide Research Paves Way for Future Hazard Evaluations (USGS)
• Landslides at Kelso, WA

Manmade Hazards and Remediation

• Hanford: the clean-up of a huge nuclear weapons site near the Columbia River
• Hanford site Facebook page

• Tacoma 'Superfund' waterway cleanup
• Reclaiming the Tacoma Waterfront (pdf slides)
• The Asarco smelter site, Tacoma

This page is maintained by Roger Suthren. Last updated 23 July, 2018 3:40 PM