Environment Nick on the Rocks: The mystery of Waterville's basalt boulders Just north of Withrow, WA, pancake-flat fields are dotted with massive rocks that help us visualize an Ice Age glacier. by Shannen Ortale / January 26, 2024
Environment Nick on the Rocks: The North Cascades' gneiss-est bedrock The range’s oldest bedrock sits high in the mountains near Canada. But the yellow aster gneiss originated an ocean away 400 million years ago. by Shannen Ortale / January 19, 2024
Environment Nick on the Rocks: Mount Baker, the volcano born from volcanoes Shifting glaciers revealed the North Cascade peak’s origins, forged from three ancient volcanoes that lived and died over the past million years. by Shannen Ortale / January 12, 2024
Environment Nick on the Rocks: Why Mount Shuksan is made of sea green stone Greenschist gets its tint from minerals compressed under the ocean long ago. Now it caps an entire mountaintop in the North Cascades. Special thanks to Central Washington University as the original... by Shannen Ortale / January 5, 2024
Environment Nick on the Rocks: The sideways mountain in Western WA Sedimentary rock usually builds horizontally. So how does Big Four Mountain in Snohomish County have nearly vertical layers? by Shannen Ortale / December 29, 2023
Environment Nick on the Rocks: The mystery within Moses Coulee’s canyon walls Geologists believe the formation was created by floods 16,000 years ago, but its ghostly hanging valleys tell a different story. by Shannen Ortale / December 22, 2023
Environment Nick on the Rocks: Wenatchee spires signal ancient volcanic power Towers at Saddle Rock were formed from 44-million-year-old vents of magma hidden deep under the Cascade mountains. by Shannen Ortale / December 15, 2023
Environment Nick on the Rocks: How the Ice Age carved WA’s labyrinth of canyons Host and geology professor Nick Zentner explores the Drumheller Channels near Othello — which resemble Southwest deserts — in the Season 5 premiere. by Shannen Ortale / December 8, 2023
Investigations Washington counties, tribes get more than $110M in federal land aid A small part of the American Rescue Plan provides direct, flexible dollars to compensate for untaxable national parks or other federally owned lands. by Brandon Block / June 13, 2023 / Updated at 12:15 p.m.
News Bisected by highways, a Spokane neighborhood shapes what's left The final stretch of North Spokane Corridor construction reopens old wounds in East Central — and sparks a pilot program to address historical damage. by Brandon Block / August 8, 2022