Rock Stars Facts
NGC
- The rock slopes along US Highway 12 between mile markers 142.99 – 146.99 consist of slightly weathered to highly weathered, fine grained, locally vesicular, basaltic andesite rock and blocky dacite.
- Slope inclination in the area mentioned above ranges from 25 degrees to 70 degrees.
- The majority of the rock fall produced from the above mentioned slopes is composed of blocks up to six feet in diameter that result from topping or raveling-type failures on highly weathered or fractured surfaces.
- Rock fall is most common during the onset of wet weather in the fall and during the spring thaw.
- Approximately 7% of the annual precipitation (~80 inches) occurs between June and August while 50% occurs between November and January. Annual snowfall is approximately 150 inches.
- The “Chute” mediated by trim blasting originally was approximately fifteen feet wide, sixty feet deep, and 125 feet in height.
- Andesite is a gray, fine-grained volcanic rock, chiefly composed of plagioclase feldspar. Andesites are the principal rocks forming the volcanoes of the “ring of fire”.
- The arcuate chains of volcanoes that rim the Pacific Ocean are often referred to as the “Ring of Fire”.
- Geomorphology – is the science of studies focus on the forces that mold and alter the primary relief elements of the terrestrial surface. These forces include tectonic activity and surficial earth movements (e.g., landslides and rockfalls). They also involve weathering and the erosion and deposition of the resulting rock debris by wind, glacial ice, and streams.
- Raindrops fall with a velocity of 20 – 30 ft per second. The energy of these impacts is sufficient to displace soil particles as high as two feet vertically.
- The formation of the “Chute” on Highway 12 is an example of rill erosion. Rill erosion occurs as runoff begins to form small concentrated channels. As rill erosion begins, erosion rates increase dramatically due to the resulting concentrated higher velocity flows.
- Packwood, WA - the Upper Cowlitz Valley - was first seen by white men, James Longmire and William Packwood in March of 1861. They were searching for a shorter route from Olympia to Yakima. Due to the extremely rugged country, they abandoned the search. William Packwood continued visiting the area, but it was not until the 1880's that settlers came to the area. The first sawmill was built in the mid 1930's. Under new ownership, in 1944, it became Packwood Lumber with a crew of 12. As a result of environmental legislation which severely limits the harvest of timber in Gifford Pinchot Forest, Packwood Lumber was forced to close.
- US Highway 12 is almost 2,500 miles long and runs east-west from downtown Detroit, MI all the way to Aberdeen, WA.
- In Washington, most of US Highway 12 follows the path of the Lewis and Clark Expedition thus being marked as the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail.
- Mount Rainier National Park was created in 1899 and is among the nation’s first national parks.
- With an elevation rise of 13,211 feet, Mount Rainier is the 21st most prominent mountain in the world.
- Although Mount Rainier is considered an active volcano, it’s last eruption was in 1894.
- Mount Rainier National Park was created in 1899 and is among the nation’s first national parks.
- Mount St. Helens eruption on May 18th, 1980 was the deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in the history of the United States.
- The dense ash cloud from Mount St. Helens rupture on May 18th, 1980 turned daylight into darkness in eastern Washington, causing many towns to turn the streetlights on.
- The heat of the May 18th Mount St. Helens blast reached nearly 600 degrees Fahrenheit and exerted 540 million tons of ash.
- With a load of fifteen tons of rock pulling on the rod, a steel rockbolt will expand no more than 1.5 mm, which is about the thickness of a quarter.
- Rockbolt engineering has been used since the late 1800s and is essential to mining and tunnel construction. The Eisenhower Tunnel which cuts through 1.7 miles of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado uses 10,000 tons of steel reinforcing bars.
- The cement grout that binds a rockbolts into the rock also counteracts rusting and corrosion, which is one of the primary causes of rockbolt failure.
- A 10-foot rockbolt has a breaking capacity of 18 tonnes, the weight of a semi-tractor truck and trailer.
- Every day during the Washington Highway 12 project, scalers remove between forty and 900 tons of rock.
- Anchor bolts work by transferring weight from the unstable exterior of a cliff to the much stronger interior of the mountain.
