Month: January 2017

David Williams, “Too High and Too Steep”

Last week, David Williams, author of “Too High and Too Steep”, discoursed on Seattle’s topography. It boggled the mind overall, how, in the early 1900s and even farther back, did they accomplish what they did? There were no bulldozers, graders, hydrologists, nor cranes. And yet they juggled with water levels, obliterated high mounds, and leveled the landscape. All of this molded the city to the extent that business and residency were enabled.   At the start (1854) it was decided someday to utilize smallish Lake Union to connect the salt water of Puget Sound to the fresh water of Lake Washington. Fast forward 69 years, when a ship canal was envisioned. Lake Washington was 29′ above sea level, Lake Union 20′. Salmon Bay was a tidal salt water inlet. A feat of engineering for that time took place. It involved coffer dams, gates, pumping, blasting, and at times redoing. Ultimately, boats could go from the salt water of Puget Sound, through locks, into Lake Washington. In the process, the waters of Portage Bay flowed into the Montlake Cut. The landscape underwent change with the filling in of the tidal flats, creating 24 acres of new land between Beacon Hill and West Seattle.
A series of mounds, Denny Regrade being the most iconic. had to be obliterated. The soft earth was removed in huge volumes with the use of water cannons and dynamite. In the process, houses had to be relocated. Elevated on pallets, they were brought down by a technique of “stairstepping.”

The author gives praise to pioneers from the east who did all that was necessary to create the city they wanted, from such a challenging landscape.

Dr. Donn Charnley: NW Geology

 

On January 12th, a zip-fast lesson in NW geology was rendered by Dr. Donn Charnley, Professor Emeritus at Shoreline Community College.

 

 

Some of the facts expressed in his talk were:

  • Lithosphere is the outer, rigid, rock girdling the planet. It consists of movable plates
  • Some collide with each other, i.e, Pacific and South American plates, or diverge, i.e. Mid-Atlantic Ridge
  • Layers of the earth are core, mantle, crust
  • Speeds of plate movements are up to 1 inch per year
  • The newest rock is being formed at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge; oldest is at the continents
  • Some plates move past each other
  • Smaller rock fragments are called Terranes, some of which date back to a billion years
  • The Yukatat terrane is moving northward and will end up in Alaska, while Baja California is destined for the same area
  • 1 billion years ago, the coast was in Idaho
  • The east-moving North American plate began to change direction some 250 million years ago in the so called March of Terranes and terranes crashed into the N.A. plate and piled up against each other
  • At this time the Pacific plate moved eastward and the N.A. plate moved westward
  • Low rock melted and rose, giving rise to volcanism
  • Basalt was formed in eastern WA
  • The Kootenay Arc became part of N.A
  • The large Okanogan terrane now collided and became part of the N.A. plate
  • The N. Cascade super terrane came from the SE and collided then pushed up to form the Strait Creek Fault
  • The San Juan Islands are a group of terranes from a process of older rock being pushed up by younger rock.
  • Starting 12 million years ago, the Pacific plate continued to crash eastward, creating a subduction zone
  • This has given rise to the Olympic mountains and rock at the south end of Vancouver Islands
  • Basalt rocks in Eastern WA are connected to the massive floods that arose from Missoula.

Comment:  Quite a bit to digest. He kindly did not dwell on the Cascadia Fault whose potential energy continues to ratchet up beneath our feet.

Luke Timmerman: Biographer of Lee Hood

Luke Timmerman w/ Pres. Jim

Our first speaker of the year was Luke Timmerman, biographer of Lee Hood. Many biographers have to rely on archives, old newspapers, relatives, and much more.  Others have the advantage of a living and compliant subject for firsthand information.  Luke Timmerman, in his biography of Lee Hood, entitled “Hood“, enjoyed the latter situation.

Hood’s evolution stemmed from an association with a high school teacher, a Caltech alumnus, who, seeing potential, steered the young man to that institution.  Hood soon made his name in Immunology and in genetics as applied to it. This entailed the DNA sequence and the shuffling of genes to evolve elements of the immune system. Thus arose the Biotech industry, investors therein, and AMGEN, the leading company in the field. Hood sat atop an empire. However, he clashed with the CalTech administration and his colleagues. CalTech discontinued genome research. Hood was ousted.

His next opportunity came at UW, to which he was recruited by Roger Perlmutter and financed by Bill Gates. In  the beginning, it was rosy. Hood brought CalTech recruits, $, prominence to UW. But ultimately he ran into difficulties. The issue was that of Systems Biology, a collaboration with other disciplines. UW did not go for this. He headed the Genome Department, but encountered managerial issues. He was again out on his own.

His contributions to biology are recognized worldwide. His many awards have not included the Nobel Prize. This, according to the author, is tragic.