Oregon on EARTH Magazine

Taking the surprise out of sneaker waves

Tue, 01 May 2018 16:11:06 -0400

Most beaches in the Pacific Northwest and Northern California have signs warning beachgoers of sneaker waves. Credit: Daveynin, CC BY 2.0.

Since 2005, more than two dozen confirmed fatalities in California and Oregon have been caused by so-called sneaker waves, which surge far ashore with little warning, sometimes catching beachgoers by surprise. Most beaches in the Pacific Northwest and California have posted signs warning visitors of the hazard, but few scientific studies have been done on sneaker waves and, currently, there is no consensus on their definition or origin. A new incident database is helping clarify where and when sneaker waves are most likely to occur, an important step toward creating better warning systems.

"Blob"-related warming contributed to Pacific Northwest ozone spike

Mon, 15 May 2017 15:00:06 -0400

In June 2015, tropospheric ozone levels measured at the observatory on Oregon's Mount Bachelor were more than 20 percent above the decadal average. Credit: Pao Baylon.

In June 2015, instruments on Oregon’s Mount Bachelor recorded mean ozone for the month at 56 parts per billion, more than 20 percent higher than the average level for the 11 years prior. Other stations around the West noted similarly high readings, puzzling scientists over the cause of the rise. In a new study in Geophysical Research Letters, researchers describe a confluence of meteorological conditions that appear to have driven the phenomenon.

Getting there and getting around Hells Canyon

Thu, 03 Sep 2015 12:57:23 -0400

Rafting trips begin below the 100-metertall Hells Canyon Dam. Credit: Mary Caperton Morton.

The Snake River is still plentiful in smallmouth bass. Credit: Mary Caperton Morton.

The closest major airports to Hells Canyon are Missoula, Mont., Boise, Idaho, and Spokane, Wash. If you book a multiday trip with a reputable rafting company, the company will likely help you arrange shuttles to the beginning and end of the canyon, or you may need to rent a car. Most Hells Canyon river trips end in Lewiston, Idaho, which also has a small airport with regularly scheduled flights to Salt Lake City, Seattle and Boise.

Damming the salmon

Thu, 03 Sep 2015 12:53:34 -0400

Salmon used to be plentiful in the Snake River; today, wild salmon populations are less than 10 percent of their pre-European settlement numbers. Credit: Mary Caperton Morton.

In the 1940s, the state of Idaho decided that the Salmon River would be left to flow freely while the Snake would be developed for hydroelectric power to become Idaho’s workhorse river. To date, a total of 15 dams have been built along the Snake for a variety of purposes, from irrigation to flood control to hydroelectricity. Hells Canyon is home to three hydroelectric impoundments: the Brownlee, Oxbow and Hells Canyon dams, built in 1959, 1961 and 1967, respectively. Together they have a maximum capacity of 391 megawatts of power production.

Travels in Geology: Rafting the Pacific Northwest's heavenly Hells Canyon

Wed, 02 Sep 2015 15:07:19 -0400

Hells Canyon, the deepest gorge in North America, is challenging to get to, but it's great to raft or boat. Credit: Mary Caperton Morton.

Hells Canyon forms part of the Oregon-Idaho border. Credit: both: K. Cantner, AGI.

Why would you ever visit a place called Hells Canyon? Especially given how hard it is to get there: Few roads and only steep, difficult trails run down into the 2,400-meter-deep gorge — the deepest canyon in North America — which forms part of the border between Oregon and Idaho. Despite its remote and rugged challenges, however, Hells Canyon has attracted visitors for thousands of years, from the Clovis people and Native Americans to turn-of-the-century gold miners, sheep ranchers and homesteaders.

New off-the-shelf aerial imaging technique trumps lidar

Tue, 19 Aug 2014 13:55:17 -0400

In recent years lidar has become the gold standard for people looking to make high-resolution aerial maps — from archaeologists studying ruins hidden beneath jungle canopies to engineers monitoring dams and levees. Although the technology has many useful applications, it’s often prohibitively expensive. Now, a new technique using an off-the-shelf digital camera is offering an inexpensive alternative for collecting 3-D aerial data.

Setting sail on unknown seas: The past, present and future of species rafting

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 09:23:37 -0500

This map portrays a few examples of modern animals whose ancestors dispersed by voyaging on natural rafts across open water, including lemurs, which rafted from Africa to Madagascar, and chameleons, which rafted from Madagascar to islands in the Indian Ocean. Rafting routes are delineated by the green arrows. Kathleen Cantner, AGI

Removal of the dock at Agate Beach was a public process; people were very interested in its progress. Courtesy of the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department

A section of the dock will be preserved in Newport, Ore., as a memorial to the victims of the earthquake and tsunami. Courtesy of the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department

Examining the dock that washed up on the coast of Washington in December posed quite a challenge: Researchers had to ford deep, cold streams, hike through forests and across logs and use a rope line to descend to the beach. Courtesy of the National Park Service and the Washington Department of Ecology

On June 5, 2012, several thousand castaways rode a massive boxcar-sized dock to landfall on Oregon’s Agate Beach, just north of Newport. A plaque on the side, written in Japanese, revealed an unprecedented journey: The dock had been unmoored from the Japanese coastal city of Misawa during the catastrophic tsunami on March 11, 2011.