Shifting Narratives

There was the great flood, at that time. Thunderbird fought with Mimlos-Whale (killer whale) and the battle lasted a long time. For a long time the battle was undecided because Thunderbird in the air could not fight Mimlos-whale in the water. So Thunderbird would seize Mimlos-whale in his talons and try to carry Mimlos-whale to his nest in the mountains, but Mimlos-whale would get away. Again Thunderbird would seize him. Again Mimlos-whale would escape. The battle between them was terrible. The noise that Thunderbird made when he flapped his wings shook the mountains. They stripped the timber there. They tore the trees out by their roots. Then again Mimlos-whale got away. Again Thunderbird caught Mimlos-whale and they fought a terrible battle in another place. All the trees there were torn out by their roots. Again Mimlos-whale escaped.

Many times they fought thus. Each time thunderbird caught Mimlos-whale there was a terrible battle, and all the trees in that place were uprooted. At last, Mimlos-whale escaped to the deep ocean, and Thunderbird gave up the fight. That is why the killer whale still lives in the ocean today. In those places where Thunderbird and Mimlos-whale fought, to this day, no trees grow. Those places are the prairies on the Olympic Peninsula today.

(Told by Luke Hobucket. Mr. Hobucket said that Thunderbird represented good and that Mimlos-whale represented evil. Source: PNSN.org)

Prior to the settling of the Pacfic Northwest by European immigrants is considered to be "pre-history", largely due to the respected definition of history being the meticulous keeping of written record. However, had they been willing to listen, the history of the region was very much alive in the indigenous communities who had a long tradition of oral history.

“The waters receded...and...again rose. The water of the Pacific flowed through what is now the swamp and prairie westward from Neah Bay on the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the Pacific, making an island of Cape Flattery. Again the waters suddenly receded ... and numerous sea monsters and whales were left on dry land. Also each time that the waters rose, the people took to their canoes and floated off as the winds and currents wafted them, as there was neither sun nor land to guide them. Many canoes also came down in trees and were destroyed, and numerous lives were lost.”

Countless stories like this, told by indigenous communities, held the history of seismic activity in the Pacific Northwest.

On Tuesday January 26, 1700, a ship heading for Edo (now known as Tokyo) was loaded with 30 tons of rice from a feudal domain called Nakamura-han.

By early Thursday morning, the ship arrived at the mouth of a rive 100 miles from where they started, that would mark the last leg of the journey. However, they were unable to enter the due to a mysterious series of waves that made the entry too dangerous. The waves lasted for eighteen hours. The entire set as a whole would turn out to be a tsunami. The length of the tsunami shines light on just how big the parent earthquake must have been.

In the time it took for the tsunami to pass a storm had brewed, leaving the ship in a very vulnerable position. As a result, the ship was thrown against the coastal rocks, killing two crew members and losing the entire load of rice to the sea.

For much of modern history, it has been thought that the Cascadian Region did not have earthquakes. However, there was quite a different story hiding underneath the surface.

It is now known that the region has had an extensive history of seismic activity. Most notably, in 1700, the Cascade region experienced a magnitude 9 earthquake, equal to the strength of the Tohoku earthquake in 2011. The tsunami that followed the Japanese earthquake lead to the death of 18,000 people.

Geologists were able to find scientific evidence of the 1700 Cascadia Earthquake in what are called "ghost forests", areas of standing dead trees that were once a thriving forest. The trees were drown by a sudden influx of saltwater related to the earthquake and subsequent tsunami. Using carbon dating, the geologists were able to identify that the group of dead trees last ring had occurred in 1699, while the few trees that survived had changes to their ring size occurring between the growing seasons of 1699 and 1700.

Geologists also found that soil layer surveys showed stark layers of sand displaced by the tsunami, changing the soil composition in those regions.

The Cascadia Subduction Zone extends from northern Vancouver Island, B.C. to Cape Mendicino, C.A. and occurs where the Juan de Fuca Plate meets the North American tectonic plate. The North American is older, harder and more stable, causing the Juan de Fuca Plate (ninety thousand square miles in size) to subduct below as its pushed towards it by mantle upwelling along the Juan de Fuca Ridge.

Subduction creates friction and tension, which has to be released. This is often done by continuous small earthquakes that release tension over time. The relative seismic inactivity in the years following the 1700 megathrust earthquake means that pressure is building in the North American Plate, which is bulging upward and compressing eastward, at between three to four millimeters and thirty to forty millimeters a year. Eventually the subducting plate will slip below, allowing the upper plate to recoil to its natural position. The PNW has experienced 41 subduction zone earthquakes, with a recurrence interval of 243 years. The next megathrust earthquake has simply been named the "Big One" and we are now in the earthquake reccurence window.

Some of this pressure can be identified in the form of fault lines:

In preparation for the "Big One", the city of Seattle created a natural hazards map that allows you to overlay possible hazards over a map of the reason to be aware to risks citizens may face.

-Liquifiable earth: When loosely packed, water-logged sediments at or near the ground surface lose their strength in response to strong ground shaking -Tsunami Risk: A tsunami is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. -Unstable Buildings: Buildings not built for seismic activity, including unreinforced masonry. -Lanslides: A landslide is defined as the movement of a mass of rock, debris, or earth down a slope. -Destuction of vital infastructure: This can include, but is not limited to, loss of electricity and water services, destruction of roads and bridges making it hard to leave the city, and loss or overwhelming of emergency support teams. -Possible chemical contamination of water systems -Loss of life: FEMA projects a possible 13,000 deaths and 27,000 injured and 2.5 million displaced in the Pacific Northwest alone.

As the evidence has shown, an earthquake of this magnitude has far reaching effects. Another magnitude 9 earthquake could have immeasurable costs to Hawaii, countries on the other side of the Pacific like Japan and could have massive impacts on global trade.

As the Northwest remains pushing forward in the fight against Climate Change, there lies a very real threat on the horizon. Often, when we think of the effects of natural disasters, we think about the human cost. Whether that means quality of life issues, loss of life or economic cost. However, the infrastructure that we built to make human lives easier, could come at an even bigger cost for the environment in their destruction.

The destruction of the electrical grid, gas lines, oil and gas tanks, sewage lines, sewage treatment facilities, dams, hydro-electric dams and countless other modern day conveniences will be what ultimately lead to the unlivable conditions of the Pacific Northwest following the earthquake. These will lead to contaminated air, water and soil, smothered water ways and likely many other effects that we are not prepared for.

How will this effect current conservational efforts in the face of climate change? Can this region recover from a disaster of this magnitude? How much more prepared would we be had we listened to the indigenous communities who tried to share their knowledge of the past?

Atwater, B. F. (2005). The Orphan Tsunami of 1700: Japanese clues to a parent earthquake in North America. U.S. Geological Survey. 

Burke Museum of Natural History & Culture. (2002). The Big One. The big one: Online exhibit: Detective story. Retrieved February 19, 2022, from https://www.burkemuseum.org/static/earthquakes/bigone/detective.html 

City of Seattle. (2015). Interactive Earthquake Hazard Map. Seattlecitygis.maps.arcgis.com. Retrieved February 19, 2022, from https://seattlecitygis.maps.arcgis.com/ 

Effects on indigenous communities. Indigenous Climate Hub. (2020, October 1). Retrieved February 21, 2022, from https://indigenousclimatehub.ca/effects-on-indigenous-communities/ 

Finkbeiner, A. (2015, September 14). The Great Quake and the great drowning. Hakai Magazine. Retrieved February 21, 2022, from https://hakaimagazine.com/features/great-quake-and-great-drowning/ 

Heaton, T. H., & Hartzell, S. H. (1987). Earthquake Hazards on the Cascadia Subduction Zone. Science, 236(4798), 162–168. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1698382

Jacoby, G. C., Bunker, D. E., & Benson, B. E. (1997, November 1). Tree-ring evidence for an A.D. 1700 cascadia earthquake in Washington and Northern Oregon. Geology. Retrieved March 5, 2022, from https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article-abstract/25/11/999/206610/Tree-ring-evidence-for-an-A-D-1700-Cascadia?redirectedFrom=fulltext 

Norton-Smith, K., Lynn, K., Chief, K., Cozzetto, K., Donatuto, J., Hiza Redsteer, M., Kruger, L. E., Maldonado, J., Viles, C., & Whyte, K. P. (2016). Climate change and indigenous peoples: A synthesis of current impacts and experiences. United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service(Pacific Northwest Research Station). https://doi.org/10.2737/pnw-gtr-944 

PNSN. Pacific Northwest Seismic Network. (n.d.). Retrieved February 19, 2022, from https://pnsn.org/ 

Reagan, Albert. B. and L.V.W. Walters (1933) Thunderbird fights Mimlos-Whale, IN Tales from the Hoh and Quileute, The Journal of American Folk-lore, Vol. 46, No. 182, pp. 297-346.

Schulz, K. (2015, July 13). The earthquake that will devastate the Pacific Northwest. The New Yorker. Retrieved February 21, 2022, from https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/20/the-really-big-one