Sunday, December 19, 2010

Pushtay, an Odd Hill Near Selah, Washington

Pushtay on the eastern portion of the Yakima Firing Center

Topography map of Pushtay (note different name on the topo map)

A relatively small but odd hill is located east of Interstate-82 northeast of Selah, Washington on the U.S. Army's Yakima Firing Center. It is a bit hard to capture its out of place appearance. It is nearly a perfectly conical hill located on the south side of a broad slope of a large anticlinal ridge of the Yakima fold belt. The overall landscape of the area is broad sweeping valleys and ridges defined by the folded layers of basalt along with deep sharp edged canyons incised down through the folds. Hence this hill with its conical shape stands out as an oddity.

The base of the hill as well as the surrounding broad slope it rises from is underlain by the Pomona Member of the Saddle Mountains Basalt of the Columbia River Basalt Group. The Pomona basalt is approximately 12 million years old. Most of the hill itself consists of alluvial sediments that were deposited between eruptions of basalt during the upper Miocene. The particular unit on the hill is less than 12 million years old. Younger basalt lavas are present in eastern Washington; however, after the Pomona flows the volumes of later flows were substantially less voluminous. The only younger flows in the area that could have capped Pushtay is the Elephant Mountain basalt, but that flow is fairly thin in the area and may not have ever capped the alluvial sediments underlying Pushtay. The very peak area of the hill has been mapped as being underlain by Pliocene gravels that have been dated at 3.6 million years old.

The alluvial sediments that make up Pushtay were deposited by the ancestral Yakima River and perhaps also the Columbia River. The Yakima and the Columbia were pushed to the west by the repeated floods of basalt lava that filled the basin in eastern Washington. The river(s) likely was carrying a large sediment load from uplift and volcanic activity in the Cascade Range.

The Yakima River is an antecedent river. That is the river was there before the ridges formed. As south to north compression continued the Yakima fold belt lifted up the ridges that the river now cuts through. The meandering nature of the ancestal river is preserved where the river is entrenched into deeply incised valleys through the ridge areas particularly to the north of Selah in the Yakima Canyon - a classic example of entrenched meanders of an antecedent river.

Yakima Canyon topography with entrenched meander loop within Yakima Fold Belt ridges between Ellensburg and Selah

The antecedent nature of the Yakima River can be also readily be observed just north of Yakima and south of Yakima where both the river and Interstate-82 squeeze through Selah Gap north of Yakima and Union Gap south of Yakima.

Yakima River north and south of Yakima (Google maps)

A tributary stream to the Yakima (Selah Creek) is likewise entrenched in the uplifted fold very near Pushtay and can be seen on the topographic map showing Pushtay. This tributary canyon is crossed by the Interstate via a spectacular bridge.

The Yakima flows into the Columbia River. Not yet well understood changes in the area the Columbia River cuts through the Cascade Range likely caused an increase in gradient on the Yakima and thus increased the rate of down cutting by the Yakima further enhancing the entrenched nature of the current river. Possible changes on the Columbia River route through the Cascade Range may have been the result of volcanic activity.

Pushtay is a relatively isolated remnant of the old valley sediments from prior to the entrenchment of the Yakima. It is likely that the original remnant alluvial deposit that forms Pushtay was a somewhat different shape, but over the tens of thousands of years of frost action, wind and occasional sheet wash erosion from rare intense storms the hill was shaped into its current conical shape. Another factor to consider regarding the relative uniqueness of this hill is that similar features that may have once been present along the Yakima at lower elevations would have been obliterated by flood waters from the Missoula Floods that would have inundated areas below 1,200 feet. Pushtay at 1,845 feet as well the surrounding slopes would have been above the reach of the flood waters.

A look at the topographic map shows that Pushtay went by another name for many years. The name was changed to Pushtay after the Yakima Nation, Wanapum Tribe, and the U.S. Army made a request to the Board of Geographic Names for the name change in 1999. Pushtay means small mound in the local Yakima language. I have to admit the second part of the old name is descriptive and it may have been the first part that was more offensive.

9 comments:

Casey Klahn said...

A fine report on this landmark, Dan. I remember it quite well from my days in the National Guard.

Unknown said...

I just saw this for the first time the other day and knew immediately what I was looking at. It is a young volcanic mound, and if the conditions are still present, it should continue growing over time.
This feature is an excellent spot to test and prove the electromagnetic nature of how volcanoes form. I know this is not currently known, but if investigated, it will open up huge new areas in our understanding. Basically, instead of magma simply finding an opportune location to rise up and melt its way through the crust, what we actually have is a combination of an electric field coupled with the earth's magnetic field. Together, these forces create a swirling or vorticular field known as the Lorentz force.
It is spots just as these (though less active) that the great pyramid and the African stone circles were built on, and they can yield a significant amount of usable power if tapped into properly.
To first understand the principles; the sediments in the earth around such areas are electrically conductive and a sort of capacitor is formed between the earth and the ionosphere - hence, the electric field. Next is the magnetic field which impels electrons to orbit perpendicular to the electric field, this is where the vorticular flows come from.
I won't go too far into the physics of it (one can study the Lorentz force and see how it's used in various devices), but what you have in these spots are a special kind of field that swirls up from the peak of the mound or volcano, curves up and outward in all directions, and goes back down into the earth. By placing a conductive ring (a wire) at this spot where the field goes back into the earth, you can get a very large voltage and an appreciable amount of current as well.
Now, to find this region, all one needs is a copper bar about two feet long, with a volt meter connected to both ends. A person simply walks from the peak in a straight line with the bar perpendicular to the peak behind them. They should see voltages appear and disappear as they move outward, with one spot that has a far higher voltage than any other. And by repeating this exercise in all of the cardinal directions - and as many in between - one will find the place where to run their conductor. The ancients used this as a source of energy to power many of the same things we have today.
Well, there it is. Someone with the resources and access to this location needs to see if there is an allowable advantage to discovering it and revealing it to the world. Or it could be one of those things we sweep under the rug and forget about as it could cause problems with the established theories in various fields. Progress, after all, is a double-edged sword, and the higher-ups will know whether this is to be exploited or categorically denied.

Dan McShane said...

Prospekt: The hill is not composed of volcanic material.

Zeke said...

Very interesting. I don't fully comprehend, but I'm gathering that the hill has persisted while a lot of geological action has occurred around it. I was at the training center in November 2005 and the following April. Though there are more impressive features all around it, Pushtay's symmetry, position, and former name (which is seen on the maps that were, and probably still are, in use) make it a topic of discussion in a place where boredom reigns. Two weeks into the second visit, I earned a day off, so I decided to break the rules and sneak away from the cantonment area to climb Pushtay. The area is marked off limits, but I ignored that and slid under the fence. I hiked to the top, and also along the rim of the gorge. When I got back, no one even noticed that I had been gone, and I learned that we were heading home the next day. The last time I saw it was from the southbound rest area, where we stopped on the way from Seattle to Hell's Canyon, and ultimately back East.

Anonymous said...

I WAS IN THE 9TH INF. Back in 86-89, spent quite a bit of time in Yakima and remember that hill quite well, we used to refer to it as the witch's tit.

Anonymous said...

One of the guy's in or company took a Jeep to the top back in 1995.

Anonymous said...

Correction !!
Date was 1955

Anonymous said...

Back in 1970 I was given the ride of my life up the contour of Pushtay in a Bell helicopter(like the ones on the MASH tv show)and over the edge of the canyon by an Army Reservist from Portland,OR.We had become friends during the time he was at the Firing Ctr.I'll always remember that great ride and that kind man.

Water Dawg said...

I remember training at Yakima from 87 to 89 while in the 3rd Brigade (Go Devils) 9th Infantry Division. Had both cold nights and hot days there. Some of the best days of my career.