Why God Created the Olympic Mountains

A friend writes:

I was concerned for you and your kin what with the tsunami headed that way, after a fashion. I hope you are well and safe.

The West Coast alert turned out to be a fizzle, thank God. [Update: I apparently spoke too soon.] However, even if the tsunami had hit Washington with full force, the odds are very low it would affect those of us in the Puget Sound area, even if we didn’t live several hundred feet above sea level. Here’s why:

Tsunamis have to work pretty hard to get through the baffle effect of Vancouver Island, the straits of Juan de Fuca, the San Juans, Whidbey, Camano, Bainbridge and all them little islands out in the Sound. Apparently, during the big Ash Wednesday Quake in 2001, the Sound sloshed back and forth a bit like a giant bathtub, but no serious damage was done.

Out on the coast it’s a whole ‘nother story. There is a submerged forest that got that way in a GIANT Cascadia quake in 1700 (the tsunami from this event just off our shores destroyed the east coast of Japan, so there was reason to be jittery about the US Pacific coast last night).

Anyway, thanks for your concern!