Earth Sciences professor featured in Earth Magazine
Posted: 12/7/2011
Pat Pringle, Centralia College’s earth sciences professor, is the subject of an interview in Earth magazine, the flagship publication of The American Geosciences Institute. Pringle, armed with 23 years as a researcher and six years as a member of the Centralia College faculty, is currently researching ghost forests on the flanks of Mount Hood in Oregon.
Dendrochronology, the science of dating events and environmental change by using the characteristic patterns of annual growth rings in timber and tree trunks, and the study of lahars and landslides has been a focus of Pringle’s career. He has published widely on these and other geological topics and has been interviewed by regional and national print and electronic journalists.
Pringle was among the experts who briefed Washington’s then-governor, Gary Locke, in the immediate aftermath of the 2001 Nisqually earthquake.
His current research on ghost forests partners him with an Oregon City, Oregon, high school science instructor as part of a Partners in Science program. It is Pringle’s third such partnership activity.
“(The ghost forest) is a dead forest that has been described for many decades standing at timberline. The main cohort of these ghost forest trees is right where there’s a thick pyroclastic surge deposit that’s about 200 years old. Our working hypothesis is that this ghost forest is probably one that was defoliated or traumatized by the hot pyroclastic debris a couple of hundred years ago (as a result of an eruption of Mount Hood).
The tree-ring dating can contribute to more precise dates for geologic and environmental events, such as a volcanic eruption.
“I love what I’m doing, I’m enjoying exploring earth science and earth systems with students. It’s just so great to see the light bulb go on and see students learning about the Earth,” he said.
Pringle has published two books, one, Roadside Geology of Mount Rainier National Park and Vicinity, won the 2009 “Best guidebook” award from the Geoscience Information Society.
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