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Pastimes : Where the GIT's are going -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Alan Smithee who wrote (184508)	10/13/2009 12:26:19 PM
From: Neeka	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 225578

I'm no geologist, but I'd bet there was an underlying fault that made it easy for gravity to (finally) do its thing. This guy has as good an explanation as any I've found. I wouldn't be so quick to assume that mankind is wholly at fault. I'll try to stick to what I know about the terrain and situation over in Naches and the Nile Valley, instead of spinning off into theories based on supposition. I go over to this area every year to work, walk and ride the trails for a week or two. Although I haven't walked every inch of that particular ground, I'm familiar with the area. I don't know any of the folks involved, really. Most of the folks I know live on the other side of Yakima and we get together in the National Forest for our volunteer work. The slopes at this location are mostly grass and sage, with just a few trees scattered around. It's pretty dry. As I recall, the timberline actually begins about three miles or so West, near the other end of the Nile Loop Road. There isn't any active logging, particularly in the area where the slide occurred. Logging happens about 15 or 20 miles further on, and that haul down to a mill in Naches--or did until the slide. The only mining activity is the quarry, and it sounds like the state and the owners were actively monitoring the impact. That monitoring appeared to show the slope was stable, with only slight subsidence. It may have been a contributing factor, but I wouldn't be so quick to jump to the conclusion that it was the only factor. There is very little water in terms of snow or rain at this altitude. Just enough turn the grass and sage green in Spring for a week or two. It's dry! When it does rain, it isn't gentle or nice like here on the wet side. It dumps down--the thing is, an hour later and the surface is dry again. The water has perced straight through. There isn't much ground saturation away from the river bottoms. Wet side rules definitely do not apply to this area. There was a pretty big brush fire in the area a few years ago that may have touched this area. The loss of brush and grasses could contribute to the conditions needed for a slide. Of course, that's only conjecture on my part. I don't remember the fire reaching that area for certain. I think a big factor that may be over-looked is that these hills are essentially layers of volcanic ash piled on some fairly vertical basalt bones. The whole area is a slag heap, deposited over thousands of years by at least three different volcanoes. It bound to have undiscovered faults and fractures waiting for the perfect conditions to let go. Maybe, between water, gravity and possibly some human activity, those conditions were met. Hopefully, that gives you a better idea of what the terrain is like near the slide area. It isn't something you should make judgments about based solely on a map reconnaissance, or poor quality satellite photos. You need to know the ground. Of course, you can espouse that its some sort of government/local conspiracy if you want, that being the most common sort of arm-chair quarterbacking that goes on here. I'd like to point out that the locals who are heaviest impacted actually work for the government and the local businesses. Certainly that quarry is out of business as it's chartered. Do you really believe that they wouldn't be looking out for their own best interest and try to avoid this kind of thing? When a natural disaster occurs, why do some respond by trying to find some human agency to blame? community.seattletimes.nwsource.com