December 2, 2008 - An extensive clean-up of a long neglected mine site and a Good Neighbor award in Linn County are the highlights of this year's Mined Land Reclamation Awards.

DOGAMI created the Statewide Landslide Information Database for Oregon to improve the understanding of the landslide hazard in Oregon and to create a statewide base level of landslide data. The landslide database is the first step in a comprehensive and systematic approach to cataloging the nature and scope of landslides in Oregon and should serve as useful tool for differentiating areas of higher and/or lower hazard. This information is basic to emergency and land use applications by helping identify vulnerable areas that may require planning considerations and in prioritizing mitigation measures that may need to be implemented to reduce future losses.

In 2007 the Oregon 74th Legislative Assembly directed DOGAMI to extend lidarcollection efforts throughout the state in order to provide high-quality lidar coverage for the entire state. To achieve this goal DOGAMI has formed the Oregon Lidar Consortium (OLC), which will develop cooperative agreements for the collection of high-quality Lidar that benefits the public at large, the business community, and agencies at all levels of government.

Oregon will celebrate its 150th birthday in the year 2009. Planning for this big event has already begun. Check out the Oregon 150 Web site. You can share your thoughts and ideas with the planning team, sign up to receive e-mail updates, and learn how you can get involved.

Today marks the 309th anniversary of the most recent, great Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake to strike the Pacific Northwest.

News Release: December 29, 2008 -- Urban volcanic fields, previously unmapped landslides are highlights of new, more accurate maps:

- Open-File Report O-08-06, Preliminary geologic map of the Linnton 7.5' quadrangle, Multnomah and Washington counties, Oregon, by Ian P. Madin, Lina Ma, and Clark A. Niewendorp

- Open-File Report O-08-07, Preliminary geologic map of the Dixie Mountain 7.5' quadrangle, Washington, Multnomah, and Columbia counties, Oregon, by Ian P. Madin and Clark A. Niewendorp

These new lidar based geologic maps provide a remarkably detailed picture of the shape of the land, even under heavy forest, which in turn provides an accurate and detailed picture of the geology. The maps are also the first for which separate bedrock geology and surficial (surface) geology maps have been made.

The maps were produced as part of a cooperative agreement with the USGS National Earthquake Hazard Reduction Program (NEHRP) in an effort to find potentially dangerous active faults.

News Release: December 17, 2008
Open-File Report O-08-12, Prehistoric Cascadia Tsunami Inundation and Runup at Cannon Beach, Clatsop County, Oregon by Robert C. Witter, has been released.

This report discusses field investigations conducted over the past 2 years that detail the landward extent of sand deposits left by Cascadia tsunamis that inundated the lower Ecola Creek valley in Cannon Beach over the last 2,000 years.

Open-File Report O-08-13, Preliminary Digital Geologic Compilation Map of Part of Western Oregon, by Ray E. Wells, Alan R. Niem, George R. Priest, Lina Ma, Clark A. Niewendorp, and Ian P. Madin, is available on CD for $10 from Nature of Northwest Information Center. The publication consists of a map plate depicting a simplified version of the digital data.