About The Geologic History and Hazards of Mount Rainier
Presented by Patrick Pringle, Professor Emeritus of Earth Sciences
at Centralia College
Geologists have learned a great deal about Mount Rainier volcano
over the past few decades, for example, it has had at least 40 eruptions in the
past 11,500 years (since the last major Ice Age). Did you know there are
ancient Mount Rainier deposits exposed along the shoreline at Olympia's Priest
Point Park, on Ketron Island, and in bluffs at Tacoma? And why are there Mount
Rainier rocks in the Mima Mounds, Tenino, the Skookumchuck River valley, under
Centralia? Find out more about Mount Rainier's past, which areas are most at
risk during future eruptions, and which areas are safest.
About the Speaker:
Pat Pringle is Professor Emeritus of Earth Sciences at Centralia
College, Washington. He taught at Centralia College from 2005–2017 and was a
Research Geologist at DNR Geological Survey of Washington from 1990–2005 and at
US Geological Survey Cascades Volcano Observatory from 1982–1990. Pat studies
volcanoes, earthquakes, landslides, and debris flows using radiocarbon and
tree-ring analysis to establish the history of past geologic events. He is the
author of books on the roadside geology of Mounts St. Helens and Rainier as
well as many published papers and reports; the Mount Rainier book won the
Geoscience Information Society’s “Best Guidebook Award” for 2009, presented at
the Geological Society of America’s Annual Meeting that year.