Rattlesnake Hills
| Rattlesnake Hills | |
|---|---|
 The Rattlesnake Hills behind a winery |
|
| Highest peak | Lookout Summit ( 1106 m ) |
| location | Benton County / Yakima County , Washington , USA |
| Coordinates | 46 ° 27 ′ N , 119 ° 50 ′ W |
The Rattlesnake Hills , also known as Rattlesnake Ridge , is a 16 mi (26 km) long anticline mountain range in Yakima and Benton Counties , Washington state . It should not be confused with the smaller Rattlesnake Ridge near the west end of the Ahtanum Ridge . The highest point of the range of hills (as in Benton County) is the 3,629 ft (1,106 m) high Lookout Summit , which exceeds the better known Rattlesnake Mountain by about 100 ft (approx. 30 m) in height. The Rattlesnake Hills are part of the Yakima Fold Belt , whose eastward mountain and hill ranges were formed by folding in the Miocene when the Columbia River basalt rivers poured over the present-day states of Washington, Oregon and Idaho .
The Rattlesnake Hills form the northern edge of the Yakima Valley and run from near Benton City to just south of the city of Yakima , where the Yakima River cuts the hills at Union Gap . West of the Yakima River, the chain is called Ahtanum Ridge.
North of the Rattlesnake Hills are the Moxee Valley and Black Rock Valley . The hills extend into the Hanford Site . A branch on the north side almost connects it with the Yakima Ridge .
The Roza Canal , an agricultural irrigation canal, passes through the Rattlesnake Hills through a tunnel.
Named high points on the Rattlesnake Hills are, according to the USGS , Elephant Mountain, Zillah Peak, Eagle Peak, High Top, Lookout and Rattlesnake Mountain.
Landslide at Rattlesnake Ridge 2018
On January 21, 2018, there was a large, albeit slow, landslide in the Rattlesnake Hills, about 3 mi (4.8 km) south of Yakima. The event first hit the headlines in late 2017 after a long crack was discovered high up in the Rattlesnake Ridge: this crack was reportedly up to 250 ft (76 m) deep. The first road closure for public safety was on December 17, 2017. The Washington State Department of Natural Resources maintains a website with information about the event, which states that the moving basalt volume is four million tons, about 20 acres ( 8.1 hectares) and moving south at the rate of 1.5 ft (0.5 m) per week.
On the weekend of 20./21. January 2018 saw excitement in the news, which highlighted the consensus that the landslide could suddenly collapse, in months, if not weeks.
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ Rattlesnake Hills in the Geographic Names Information System of the United States Geological Survey
- ↑ Rattlesnake Ridge in the Geographic Names Information System of the United States Geological Survey
- ^ Rattlesnake Hills Lookout, Washington . Peakbagger.com. Retrieved February 15, 2019.
- ^ Complete Report for Saddle Mountains Structures . In: USGS Earthquake Hazards Program . Archived from the original on July 21, 2011. Retrieved February 15, 2019.
- ↑ 250-foot-deep crack in earth prompts landslide warnings at Rattlesnake Ridge near Union Gap . In: Seattle Times , December 22, 2017.
- ^ Rattlesnake Hills Landslide - WA - DNR . In: www.dnr.wa.gov .
- ↑ Landslide watch: Can experts predict collapse at Washington's Rattlesnake Ridge? . In: Seattle Times , January 21, 2018.
- ↑ David Bressan: The Rattlesnake Ridge - A Landslide In The Making . In: Forbes .
- ↑ EndPlay: New images show intimidating landslide moving down Rattlesnake Ridge . 20th January 2018.
- ↑ ABC News: Giant crack on Washington's Rattlesnake Ridge prompts evacuations . In: ABC News . 5th January 2018.
- ↑ Miles Jay Oliver: Rep. Newhouse receives briefing on Rattlesnake Ridge . In: Yakima Herald .