Trenches open doors to the past
By the time you read this, the trenches stretching around
Fremont School should be filled in.
But for a lucky few, the trenches that were excavated as part of
a search for earthquake faults offered more than evidence of
possible earthquake activity.
Trenches open doors to the past
By the time you read this, the trenches stretching around Fremont School should be filled in.
But for a lucky few, the trenches that were excavated as part of a search for earthquake faults offered more than evidence of possible earthquake activity.
The neat layers of soil exposed in the vertical walls of the trenches allow viewers to travel back in time.
Geologists dug to about 19 feet, to a layer of soil characterized by the Holocene Era, a time 11,000 years ago. The great pyramids did not exist, neither did the great cities of Europe. The Americans were not even imagined by Europeans.
Even though I didn’t know what it all meant, it was still exciting to peer into the past.
Were those flecks of charcoal evidence of long-ago fires?
Most startling for many observers was lead geologist Steve Thompson’s revelation that floods periodically inundated the area around Fremont School.
The school is a long way from the current trace of the San Benito River, but once upon a time, the river certainly spilled its banks, spreading across vast plains.
Local well drillers say they sometimes encounter chunks of redwood in the sediments of San Juan Valley. Bird species found near Paicines at the dawn of the 20th Century reveal that the area had to have contained large, uninterrupted riparian forest. Runs of salmon and steelhead up San Juan Canyon occurred within living memory.
Most of us never spend long enough in one place to see it change and evolve.
But when we look at it from the perspective revealed by those trenches, or think about forests and redwoods alongside the San Benito River, it’s easy to see that abrupt changes are occurring around us.
Geologists are not yet ready to say whether they do believe the trace of an earthquake fault runs through Fremont School, where a new county courts complex may be built.
But their excitement over their investigation was easy to see.
One member of the team of geologists, Ashley R. Streig, eagerly clambered down a long ladder this week.
One visitor asked her if she liked her work.
Her reply was immediate and enthusiastic: “I love doing this.”
The bottom of a pit might not be the most comfortable place for many of us to be, but considering what trained eyes were able to prize out of the earth, there’s good reason for her enthusiasm.
In other news
It’s a good week to be a gorilla.
Researchers revealed this week that their census revealed 125,000 western lowland gorillas in the remote northern reaches of Congo. The gentle forest creatures are too shy to count individually, so researchers hunted out their sleeping nests to estimate population.
The discovery brings the global population of the gorilla subspecies to 175,000 to 225,000, according to the Associated Press.
All four gorilla subspecies, along with about half of all the primates, are still in danger of extinction.
For gorillas, the threats are the Ebola virus and hunting for the bush meat trade and scientists say that unless human behavior changes, the survival of the species remains in doubt.
Perhaps it’s because they’re so like us, or their devotion to their family groups, or something deeper captured in their gaze, but it’s deeply inspiring to learn that an animal so like us has been granted a chance.
