EPOD - a service of USRA
The Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) highlights the diverse processes and phenomena which shape our planet and our lives. EPOD will collect and archive photos, imagery, graphics, and artwork with short explanatory
captions and links exemplifying features within the Earth system. The
community is invited to contribute digital imagery, short captions and
relevant links.
The Cataclysmic Birth of Montana’s Earthquake Lake
December 28, 2021
QuakeLk261c_5sep21
Quakelake210c_5sep21
Photographer: Ray Boren
Summary Author: Ray Boren
In a time when cinematic and fantasy apocalypses abound, it is sobering
to visit memorials to real-life tragedies, such as the U.S. Forest
Service’s Earthquake Lake Visitor Center in southern Montana’s
Custer Gallatin National Forest. The visitor center, shown in the
left photo, stands amongst a tremendous swath of rocky debris. Below
the center is the Madison River and the dead-tree-studded
Earthquake Lake. To the east of the visitor center is U.S. Highway
287, shown in the right photo, which rounds the 5-mile-long
(8-kilometer) Earthquake Lake. The lake got its name after forming six
decades ago as a result of the cataclysmic Hebgen Lake earthquake
and the subsequent Madison Canyon landslide.
As described by the visitor center, the powerful earthquake — 7.5
on the Richter scale — occurred just before midnight on the moonlit
summer evening of August 17, 1959. About 250 people had gone to bed in
the canyon in tents, campers and cars at formal and informal campsites,
as well as others nearby in cabins and lodges. “In the morning,”
survivor Joann Gartland is quoted as saying, “we looked across from
where we were, and the mountain had just fallen down.” After a night of
confusion, terror and resilience, that sunrise revealed the desolation
and carnage.
QuakeLk247c_5sep21 The simultaneous tremors from the Red Canyon
and Hebgen faults sent cascades roaring down the Madison River. Soon
after, a section of the southern heights dislodged causing the canyon
and river to be choked with 80 million tons of boulders, rubble and
shattered trees. Debris formed a natural dam that created
Earthquake Lake. Unsuspecting people were sadly crushed, trapped or
lost in the dark, amid churning water, fallen rubble and wrecked cars
and campers. Many survivors found and helped others with their injuries
as well as guided them in the night to higher ground to await rescue,
including to a spot now called Refuge Point.
Inside the visitor center, poignant displays tell the stories of many
survivors, of which some were young children at the time. A side road
and various trails lead to viewpoints, waysides and markers. One such
path leads to the huge block called Memorial Boulder, shown to the
right. Far from its original location high on the other side of the
canyon, it bears a plaque with the names of 28 people killed by the
Hebgen Lake earthquake and the Madison slide — 19 of whom were
entombed.
* Earthquake Lake, Montana Coordinates: 44.831178, -111.422882
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Geology Links
* Earthquakes
* Geologic Time
* Geomagnetism
* General Dictionary of Geology
* Mineral and Locality Database
* Mohs Scale of Mineral Hardness
* This Dynamic Earth
* USGS
* USGS Ask a Geologist
* USGS/NPS Geologic Glossary
* USGS Volcano Hazards Program
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