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PDeXplore OP t1_isuanu9 wrote

Reply to comment by HighOnGoofballs in The long lasting impact of the St Helens eruption. WA, USA [OC] [2560 x 1707] by PDeXplore

Wow! I do see that in Spirit Lake. In fact, I remember hiking towards Spirit, from far away it kind of looked like an abandoned city with all the "rubble" everywhere. It wasn't until I got much closer that I could make out that it was all just dead trees everywhere.

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HighOnGoofballs t1_isudfpc wrote

One of the lakes the logjam moves arohbd based on season and wind direction. They’ve created new ecosystems too

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FyudoMyo t1_isuknjf wrote

How have they not rotted and completely decomposed in 40 years?

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chemicalxv t1_isw8e7v wrote

Trees in general take a very long time to decompose, it's not actually out of the ordinary that they're still there, especially factoring in that they would have been pyrolized by the actual eruption, and I believe the water temperatures generally being cooler also slow down decomposition. For the most part they're all just slowly sinking to the bottom of the lake.

Old Man of the Lake is still floating around Crater Lake and has been there since at least 1896.

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PDeXplore OP t1_iswaj13 wrote

Yeah it seems strange, but I also watched an episode of This Old House a few weeks ago where they were pulling up centuries old trees from a river in order to make tables. So I guess with the right conditions, things don't decompose much.

When I go back to this spot, I'd love to do a better job of getting a composition with all the dead trees still "standing". It's really fascinating how many are still there, and in good shape other than the top halves were obliterated lol

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ardent_wolf t1_isxsxi3 wrote

It’s in salt water so it’s a bit different, but the city of Venice is built upon timber that they sunk into the clay sea bed. Always thought that was pretty cool.

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slimejumper t1_iswf5jm wrote

what is old man of the lake? a tree?

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chemicalxv t1_iswfl8p wrote

Yes it's the remaining stump of an old tree that's been floating vertically in the lake for a very, very long time.

I don't know if there's any real guesses as to how long its been in the water (1896 is just the oldest recorded observation) but I believe the tree has been dated to being like 450ish years old.

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SpiderFarter t1_isxuutd wrote

They still “harvest” old growth trees that have sunk in Lake Superior in the 1800’s. Can’t find this quality anymore

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