Tuesday, March 10, 2015

San Juan Islands emerged from the ocean

I just visited Joshua Tree National Park in CA with its outrageous mountain formations of loose rock and slabs of rock like nowhere else on earth. I am not an expert on the geology of this but it obviously was once under water. I am reminded of the San Juan Islands of Washington which have had a dramatic beginning. Back in time they were not islands but a series of mountains in a valley at the site. During the Ice Age the Canadian glaciers came down to engulf them to perhaps 5000 feet from the bases. Then the glaciers melted and the inland lakes and waterways through the area grew so large that the waters joined with salt water through what is now the Strait of Juan de Fuca. This drowned the San Juan Islands that we know today, leaving only the mountain tops above water. Perhaps once that site could have been as unusual as the Joshua Tree Park formations on the bottom of our "Salish Sea."  My thinking on this is strictly amateur...just wondering...  See the San Juan Islands: Into the 21st Century (published by Caxton late 2013).

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