Fidalgo Island Crossings

I had never noticed those power lines before.  For this week's Skywatch, we leave our usual South Fidalgo vantage point.  We haven't gone far though.  This a shot from Pass Island in the middle of the Deception Pass Bridge looking east.  The point on the left is Yokeko on Fidalgo, and on the right is Hoypus Point on Whidbey Island.  The little island in the center of the photo is Kiket Island which is right in front of my house.  It has appeared in many of my Skywatch shots, so the theme continues.  In the background are the North Cascades. The sky is special only because it is allowing the sun to shine through today.  It's March 23rd and the weatherman promised us this one day before the rain and clouds return.  The power lines deliver electricity to North Whidbey Island.  I believe these are the same lines that run along the road where I live.

9:56 AM, Temp 45.5° F, Dew Pt 35.2° F, Barometer 29.83 in, Wind 8 mph East, Humidity 67% From Bowman Bay in Deception Pass State Park, the Olympic Mountains sparkle across the Strait of Juan de Fuca.  The sun finally came out for real today.  The day was simply "Olympian."  The way things have been going, it may be our entire spring.  I decided I had better take advantage of the opportunity.  I got 257 photos, so there will be more to come.  Don't worry, I won't post them all.  I even got a bit of a sunburn today.  I didn't know that could happen in March.

"Many years ago, T’ist’ilal was a giant, a thunderbird that lived in an ice cave at the base of the Blue Glacier on Mount Olympus.  This was the headwaters of the Hoh River.  When this bird blinked, lightning flashed from its eyes.  His wings were larger than two Hoh or Quillayute war canoes.  He shook the mountains with the flapping of his wings.  Thunderbird could carry a whale in his talons, and great battles waged between them in the ocean, on Mount Olympus and in the prairies along the Hoh and Quillayute rivers." (1) "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." (2) "You know Forks Prairie, Quillayute Prairie, Little Prairie, Beaver Prairie, Tyee Prairie and all the other prairies of our country.  Well, these are the places where the great, elder Thunderbird had terrible battles with the whale of the deep." (2) "There was ...

In the past three weeks, the sky has appeared only a couple of times on South Fidalgo.  Wind, drizzle and overcast have characterized the weather as our La Niña winter fights to retain control.  Just a couple of brief sun breaks have given proof that the sky was really still there.  I had to go back to the last day of January for this sunrise photo.

View Larger Map This is a followup of my previous post about the Japan earthquake, its parallels in the Pacific Northwest and the Cascadia Subduction Zone.  I discovered something amazing while looking at some Google maps of Japan.  In the satellite view, the Earth's crustal plates in the region can actually be seen along with the subduction zone which produced the earthquake: The darker blue curved shape on the right is a piece of the Pacific Plate.  Its dark border along the western edge is the subduction zone which runs along northern Japan, then turns south-southeast.  Near Sendai is the actual site of the earthquake where the Pacific Plate dives beneath the North American Plate. The triangular area south of Tokyo is the Philippine Sea Plate.  It is bordered by the Pacific Plate on the east and the Eurasian Plate to the west. The northern half of Japan sits on a narrow arm of the North American Plate.  Tokyo marks the spot where it meets the Phi...

By now, everyone is aware of the devastating swarm of large earthquakes that struck Japan this past week.  The quakes generated a 13 foot/4 meter tsunami wave that all but washed away entire towns in Japan.  The videos have been both mesmerizing and terrifying.  The tsunami also reached Hawaii and the west coast of the United States.  It caused damage to coastal sites in Hawaii, Oregon and California.  For a time, Washington was under a tsunami advisory, but the effects here were minimal and no damage occurred.  A warning system put in place after the 2004 Indian Ocean quake proved its worth.  According to news accounts, this quake moved the Japanese coast 8 feet or 2.5 meters and the tilt of the earth changed by 4 inches/10 cm. I find it interesting that the U.S. news media always look to California and the San Andreas Fault when discussing earthquakes.  It is the most famous earthquake site around here, but it is also very different from...

10:38 AM, Temp 44.8° F, Dew Pt 41.2° F, Barometer 29.880 in, Wind 12 mph Gust 25, Humidity 87% The lion of winter that brings in March continues to roar.  Winter and La Niña are not allowing spring to arrive around here yet.  A succession of storms have blown through almost continually since the end of February.  Winds have peaked at 33 mph/53 kph so far.  Indian Plum is just now blooming, almost two weeks late.  Occasional sun breaks offer hope, but it still looks and feels more like November outside.  We actually had better weather in January.  It was cold, but also sunny, clear and calm. Gusty winds and Douglas Fir sometimes don't play well together.  When you choose to garden in the understory of big trees, occasional windfall must be expected.  The lion brought down this limb last night.  Douglas Firs will protect themselves by giving up limbs to the wind.  Better to lose a limb or two than have the entire tree blow dow...