Hoquiam Landslides, January 2015

January 5, 2015 was a bad day for the City of Hoquiam. Flooding and then landslides hit several areas of the city. The recent landslides are obvious scars on the steep slopes on the north side of the city. The worst area was along the steep slope of Beacon Hill.  

One of the destroyed homes still on site 11 months later 

Location of two former homes

An interesting bit on the three homes hit by slides along Queets Avenue is that two were occupied at the time the slides came down. One was pushed off its foundation into the street, but no one was injured. Impressive in that it suggests the home framing structure must have been strong.

Most of the soil on steep slope has slid 

 It is readily apparent that the top soil layer pealed away from the hard unweathered bedrock on the steep slope. It also appears that more material will likely come down the slope.

This section of slope did not slide in Jan 2015

1990 aerial view of area with Beacon Hill Road above the neighborhood

2013 view of land cleared above the slide area.

Other areas of Beacon Hill had problems as well including the road to the hill top which was blocked by slides and homes were damaged and destroyed that were above the other slide areas.

The slides were a hard hit to this city. The landslide damage just to the city property was estimated at $1.8 million. But tough for home owners or renters as landslide insurance is very rarely carried.

The damage cost to the City of Hoquiam was $1.8 million. A tough nut for a city that has been seeing some significant declines in tax base. The closure of the Harbor Paper mill in 2013 cut $500,000 out of the annual tax revenue for the city and 240 jobs left the city. The city staff level has declined nearly 30% since 1995.

The city reported that a DNR geologist inspected the slopes of Beacon Hill after the slides(http://cityofhoquiam.com/landslide-flood-disaster/). This could not have been an easy task under the circumstances. The brief report concluded with a not very comfortable ending:

Residents along Queets Avenue (with the exception of the homes condemned) are hereby advised the city is unable to assess or determine the condition of their home or property.

Although there has not been any visible significant movement today of the hillsides along Beacon Hill, the city cannot guarantee the safety of any structures above or below this area. Each resident is urged to contact their insurance provider as well as engineering and licensed geological experts to determine the status and safety of their premises should they chose to return.

Washington State Outer Coast

I live less than a mile from a salt water bay. However, I really do not feel like I live near the ocean. A trip to the ocean beaches versus the inland waters beaches of Washington is a fairly long drive. I refer to the ocean beach and shores of the western edge of Washington State as the "Outer Coast".  

The southwest outer coast is made up of huge sand beaches with large drowned estuaries of the Columbia River, Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor. The sandy shallows extend far off shore and hence the initial breakers are a couple of thousand feet off the beach.

Surf from near Ocean Shores

It was hard to judge how big the initial waves were. The National Weather Service had predicted 20 to 25 foot swells off the coast down from 25 to 30 two days before. The NWS also issued this warning:

A HIGH SURF ADVISORY MEANS THAT HIGH SURF WILL AFFECT BEACHES IN
THE ADVISORY AREA...PRODUCING LOCALIZED BEACH EROSION AND
DANGEROUS SWIMMING CONDITIONS.

No desire to swim, but we did venture out in the stormy weather to Point Brown near the end of the long Ocean Shores peninsula.

Beach combers looking for storm treasures

The rain hurts when the wind is blowing 50 mph. There was a 2-foot storm surge added onto the already high tide. I noted the pair of folks above were pros - they wore goggles. A brilliant idea with the high wind and rain and flying salt spray. One other note - I took a look at the large jetty rocks and they sure look like they came from greenschist quarries in Skagit County. Big massive blocks that can take large waves. 

Around the tip of the peninsula we checked out the recent and ongoing erosion.

End of the old road to Protection Island

20 years ago all the water area in this picture was land

Shoreline barrier peninsulas are dynamic places. The southwest Washington State coast is a land of barrier peninsulas and like similar landforms on the Atlantic coast and Gulf coast of the United States this is a place of changes that can readily be seen within individual life spans.

A look at Google earth for a quick sense of the change captures the change since 1990. Protection Island (currently and in both images a continuation of the spit) is on the right in the image below. Point Brown is on the left.

1990

2013

Natural change, dredging to keep the harbor open, jetties and marinas all can trigger changes in the shoreline processes and where sediment gets eroded and deposited. Compared to the Atlantic coast and Gulf coast our beaches might be a bit more dynamic due to the greater frequency of large storms with high wind and the very large waves the Pacific Ocean routinely sends up against our outer coast. We also have a bit of a tectonic issue that adds an additional and very significant dynamic to the shoreline processes. (I will note I had my tsunami escape routes in mind at all times)

A closer look at the erosion site shown above over time:

1990 (note the road)

2006

2011 (note the road ending in the water)

Physics and Minorities: A Non Answer to Chief Justice Roberts

CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS:  What ­­unique perspective does a minority student bring to a physics class? 

MR. GARRE:  Your Honor ­­ 

CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS:  You're counting those among the classes in which there are no minority students. And I'm just wondering what the benefits of diversity are in that situation? 

MR. GARRE:  Your Honor, we can talk about different classes, but ­­ but this Court has ­accepted in Bakke and Grutter, and I think it accepted again in Fisher, that student body diversity is a compelling interest.

The question Robert's asked is a good one. I can not answer Judge Robert's question, "What unique perspective does a minority student bring to a physics class?" The reason I can not answer the question is that in my physics classes (I took 7 physics classes) there were no minority students. 

I still wish I would have had the opportunity to have gotten to know that answer. It was a short coming of much of my university science education. 

 

(Complete transcript (supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts).
The University of Texas was defending its admission policies for student diversity this week before the Supreme Court. The question by Justice Roberts got some attention (roberts-affirmative-action-physics). The question is a good one. And one that I have found many scientists have noted in their own personal experience. The answer within the transcript is not directly towards the point of the question and is lost in precedent case reference and within the larger context of the various nuances of efforts to ensure a diverse experience for university students. And in this case the oral arguments are rather choppier than even the usual dialog that takes place during Supreme Court oral arguments. 

Wet Notes from Field Days in Winter

Part of doing geology field work is getting wet, and the last few days have given me a share of that. But the rain was mild and big rains and leafless trees and brush can make the job of assessing conditions easier than the dry times and jungles of summer. 

Shades of back and white on Puget Sound

Water flowing out of a catch basin

Drain pipe on a steep slope

Drift wood adrift after a fairly large storm surge tide

Water run off heading over the lip of a steep bluff

A long ways down and hence a long walk around to inspect the bluff

Black and white view in the San Juans

View towards Obstruction Pass and Peavine Pass from Upright Head on Lopez

Leaving Friday Harbor

Dry Land Wheat Harvest and Towns

Historic wheat harvest pictures tell more than simply the old ways. A little thought also tells a demographic story which is reflected in the dry land wheat towns of eastern Washington.

The above picture shows that harvesting and shipping wheat required people. The equipment would require people. the horses would require people and moving bags of wheat would require multiple handing and storage. Some of this effort would have been taken up by traveling crews. But many would be local. The number of employees or farmers required today is tiny compared to the situation 100 years ago. And that in part explains the appearance of numerous eastern Washington dryland wheat communities.

The change was not immediate. And it has been ongoing. Even the past few decades, long after horse and ox were had no longer been in use for many years the number of workers needed has continued to decline. Farm equipment has gotten better and more reliable. The same can be said for the cars we drive and the way food and goods are distributed. A long list of reasons some of the small towns have faded.

A couple of years ago I had some field time over in the dryland wheat and learned just how much some towns had shrunk. Lesson learned about the lack of places to have an early breakfast.

Walla Walla 1931 Flood

Walla Walla means place of many waters. But at times in the past there was a bit too much water. Mill Creek which flows through Walla Walla has been heavily engineered mill-creek-and-walla-walla. In doing some research for work I came across some images from the State Archives that show the why of that engineering.    

West Alder Street at S 2nd Street

The big flood took place in March 1931. The flood was a classic eastern Washington event: rain then snow then a very sudden warm up with a warm Chinook wind. Alder Street shown above is one and half blocks north of Mill Creek. Walla Walla is essentially built on the broad alluvial plan of Mill Creek. When the creek flooded in 1931 the flood waters were channeled down several of the main east-west streets of Walla Walla.

After the 1931 flood, a huge flood project was undertaken to reduce the flood hazard. This included a dam on Mill Creek, engineered diversions and construction of  deep concrete channel for the creek through downtown including routing the creek through a tunnel. The work was completed by 1941 and subsequent floods have been contained. 

View down West Alder Street

Main Street

Birch Street

Clinton Court

Crescent Street

Clinton Street

West Alder Street (I think)

South 7th Avenue and West Poplar

Clinton Street

Vegetation and Glacial Outwash in Moses Coulee

Mosses Coulee in central Washington was the route of some of the earlier huge ice- age floods. State Highway 2 crosses the Coulee and crosses over one of the huge gravel bars left by the flood on the coulee floor (huge-deflation-bar-at-moses-coulee). 

A couple of miles north of the Highway 2 crossing is another crossing. The Withrow Moraine crosses the coulee.  

As glacier ice advanced from the north the ice blocked the ice age flood path down Moses Coulee. The glacial moraine left by the maximum extend of ice overlies the ice age flood deposits on the coulee floor. A geologic classic case of superpostion meaning the ice-age floods in Moses Coulee are older than the maximum ice advance. The advanced ice blocked the Moses Coulee flood route and diverted the later floods down the Grand Coulee route to the east.

The above summary can readily be seen by taking a trip up the coulee on Jameson lake Road. But of course it can be readily seen on Google earth. But the most striking thing to me is how the melt water routes are enhanced by the vegetation based on the subtle changes in sediment composition. This feature was not noticeable on the ground but with the right season and light stood out sharply in this view.