Whales and Earthquakes, A Uniquely Oregon Story

Win McLaughlin

Southwestern Oregon Community College 

Register for the Zoom meeting

What do deep water ports, fossil whales, and some of the world’s best golf courses have to do with each other? They’re all connected by subduction and the periodic Cascadia megathrust earthquakes shaping the geography and geology of the Oregon coast. Coos Bay Oregon, the deepest natural bay between San Francisco and Puget Sound, provides a world class record of the megathrust earthquakes shaping the region. Despite the long history of this port, formal geologic study has been sporadic at best. This new research combines a variety of field-based techniques pulling from sedimentology to surveying to paleontology to synthesis with historic data. The structural geology of the area is more complicated than many previous studies recognize, complicating the projected response to possible future Cascadia events. A series of marine terraces, including those that form the base of the world famous Bandon Dunes golf courses, record the history of uplift of the coast. Fossils, both those collections over 100 year ago and newly discovered ones like baleen whales, dolphins, sea hippos, sea lions, walruses, crabs, sea urchins, and a wide range of bivalves offer insight into both geochronology and how the environments of the coastline have changed through time. Join us for a look at student-led research from Southwestern Oregon Community College that will help to inform hazard assessment for the SW Oregon Coast and provide new insights into paleoseismicity, uplift of the coast, and changing faunal communities through time.

Please join us at:

Worthy Brewing (eastside location)

In the Hop Mahal Room

5:30 pm social hour

7:00 pm presentation

COGS talk are free and open to the public -- all are welcome! Please join us for the social hour before the presentation.

All presentations are also live-streamed through Zoom. There will be a registration link at the top of this page as we get closer to the date of this presentation.