The mystery of why the Pacific Northwest has one of the highest rates of multiple sclerosis in the world is as enduring as the mystery of the D.B. Cooper hijacking — and has proven about as. Become a Friend of the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus (FOTPNWTO) I support the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus! Show your support for the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus by placing a Tentacle Ribbon or badge—along with a link to the PNWTO page so people can learn more—on your website or blog. Together, we have the power to build a grass-roots campaign to save the Tree Octopus! Northern Pacific Railway, Main Street of the Northwest The Northern Pacific Railway is often overshadowed by the Transcontinental Railroad. The latter was completed by the Union Pacific (UP) and Central Pacific (CP) in 1869, running the 42nd parallel between Omaha, Nebraska Territory and Sacramento, California.

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Along with black lights and hookahs, lava lamps are iconic fixtures of the psychedelic 1960’s. Observing what happens when we turn on a lava lamp can help us understand the evolution of the Columbia Plateau–Yellowstone Hotspot track. It’s not clear exactly why deep mantle material heats up. But when it does it expands like the hot wax in a lava lamp. The wax rises as it becomes less dense than the surrounding oil. At times the rising wax develops a mushroom shape, with a large head and narrow stem. Similarly, deep within the Earth heated mantle becomes less dense than the surrounding material. Although it is still solid, the heated mantle can rise slowly toward the surface. And like the wax in a lava lamp, it can develop a mushroom shape. The magma melting off the mantle at a hotspot initially has a low-silica, basalt composition. When the Yellowstone Hotspot initially reached the surface 17 million years ago, it was shaped like a mushroom, with a large head and narrow stem. The massive outpourings of basalt lava covered the Columbia Plateau and Steens Basalt regions.
After a few million years, the mushroom head of the hotspot dissipates, leaving only a thin stem. Plate motion carries the region of extensive basalt lava away, but the magma rising from the stem must somehow work its way to the surface. That’s when the thickness and composition of continental crust come into play. The basaltic melt from the hotspot stem may, in fact, form two levels of magma chambers within the overriding plate. The lowest is at the base of the crust, retaining a low-silica (basalt/gabbro) composition. Magma rising from that level melts its way through thick, silica-rich continental crust, forming high-silica (rhyolite/granite) magma chambers in the upper part of the crust. A narrow chain of explosive, rhyolite volcanoes forms on the surface of the moving plate.
The areas of rhyolite underlying the Snake River Plain form discrete areas of volcanic activity, rather than one long ridge. This situation is analogous to that seen in the Pacific Ocean, where discrete islands form over the Hawaiian Hotspot. “Islands” of rhyolite, progressively younger to the northeast, extend across the Snake River Plain of southern Idaho. Similar to the Big Island of Hawaii, a very high region, the Yellowstone Plateau, lies directly above the hotspot.

John Day Fossil Beds

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John Day Fossil Beds National Monument in northeastern Oregon contains incredible examples of mammal, plant, and other fossils. Those fossils are preserved in sedimentary layers that were deposited from 54 to 6 million years ago. Within the fossil beds are lava flows—part of the enormous volume of basalt that formed the Columbia Plateau of northeastern Oregon and southeastern Washington. The fluid lavas poured out of long fissures, much like those seen erupting from rift zones on the flanks of shield volcanoes in Hawaii and Iceland. More than 20 such flows, totaling about 1,600 feet (500 meters) thickness, can be seen in Picture Gorge within the monument.

Hard Lava Flows form the Caprock of many Buttes and Mesas in the Columbia Plateau Region

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Cephalopods In General:

• The Cephalopod Page — Scientific information about these wonderful mollusks.
• The Octopus News Magazine Online — An online magazine about anything and everything pertaining to octopuses, squids, and other cephalopods.

Conservation Organizations:

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• World Conservation Union — An international organization whose mission is 'To influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve the integrity and diversity of nature and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable.'
• The Wildlife Fund — The WWF works to preserve genetic, species, and ecosystem diversity throughout the world.
• UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre — An office of the UN that provides information for policy and action to conserve the living world.
• Green Press Initiative — A non-profit program aimed at encouraging book publishers to use recycled paper instead of cutting down tree octopus forests and using their pulped homes to print anti-tree-octopus propaganda (also known as 'textbooks', see FAQ).

Other Animals Of Interest:

Below are some other animals that are endangered, elusive, or whose current existence is in question. Much like the tree octopus, these species often do not get the conservation attention that they deserve. Students are invited to research the links and decide if they would like to take up the cause of any of these creatures.

Birds Of The Pacific Northwest

• The Australian Drop Bear — Thylarctos plummetus is a large, arboreal, predatory marsupial related to the Koala that ambushes prey by dropping on it from the forest canopy.
• Coconut Crab — This hermit crab, Birgus latro, is the world's largest terrestrial arthropod. It lives in the costal forests of Indo-Pacific islands, where it spends the day sleeping in burrows and the nights climbing palm trees looking for coconuts to crack open with it's mighty claws. It's also rumored to steal things from people and lurk on trashcans.
• Dwarf Orca — Rare miniature killer whale sometimes seen in Cascadian waters. Now being bred as a family pet!
• FearsomeCreaturesoftheLumberwoods — A 1911 book by William T. Cox that lists little-known animals, most now extinct, discovered by lumberjacks in the wilds of North America.
• Flying Squid — Squid species in the Ommastrephidae family are known for their ability to glide through the air just above the open ocean, using their fins and stretched arm membranes as wings. Their numbers have been dropping due to over-fishing.
• Fur-Bearing Trout — Also sometimes called Beaver Trout, these species of the Artikdander genus can be found in the chilly streams and rivers throughout the northern regions of North America.
• Giant Palouse Earthworm — This threatened earthworm (Driloleirusamericanus) is native to the Palouse prairies of Washington and Idaho. They can grow up to three feet in length, are pinkish-white, and smell of lilies.
• Mangrove Killifish — This unique fish spends several months out of the year living above water in the trees of mangrove swamps.
• Maranjandu Tree-Climbing Crab — These newly-discovered, long-legged, shy crustaceans (Kani maranjandu) live in the canopies of tall trees in the Western Ghats range of Southern India, where their geographic isolation and dependence on water-filled tree-hollows could put the species at risk.
• Mayfly Squid — Fons volatilis is a freshwater squid found in the Everglades that shoots insect prey out of the air with jets of water and is celebrated during the annual Festival of the Freshwater Squid in Sebring, Florida.
• Mountain Beaver — Not a true beaver, this species of primitive rodent (Aplodontia rufa) is considered a living fossil — the sole survivor of its family, Aplodontiidae. Also contrary to their name, they range only as high as the tree line in the mountains of Cascadia, preferring forest burrows. They have opposable thumbs and are also called 'boomers'.
• Mountain Walrus — Another endangered Northwest creature that needs our help. (Link is to Archive.org mirror. Also, see the Mountain Walrus Foundation for some photos.)
• Pacific Northwest Jumping-Slugs — These little-understood gastropods of the genus Hemphillia, including the threatened Dromedary Jumping-Slug of the Olympic Peninsula, protect themselves from predation by jumping to safety.
• Prairie Crayfish — Once great herds of grassland crayfish (Procambarus gracilis) roamed the American prairies, but then Cajun immigrants hunted them until only those tasty crustaceans that tunneled deep underground survived.
• The Red Crabs of Christmas Island — Once every year, 120 million of these forest crabs migrate enmasse from their inland burrows to the sea to spawn. Along the way, over a million are crushed by traffic and many die of dehydration crossing deforested land. The offspring of those that survive then have to contend with super-colonies of yellow crazy ants, introduced to the island by the thoughtless actions of Man.
• Rock Nest Monster — Known only from its rocky nests and porcelain-like eggs, Cryptogorgopetronidus is so endangered that existential environmentalists wonder if it ever existed at all.
• Sabertooth Salmon — The 3 meter (10 foot) long Smilodonichthysrastrosus once prowled the shores and rivers of Cascadia, attacking Cretaceous octopus swimming in the waters. Could escaping this menace have been the impetus for arboreal octopus evolution? (Artistic reconstruction by Ray Troll.)
• Sea Wolves (or Coastal Wolves) — A species of Pacific Northwest swimming wolf — related to, but genetically distinct from, the mainland timber-wolf — living along the coast of Vancouver Island, from whence they swim out into the Salish Sea to hunt salmon, seals, and barnacles with their specially adapted teeth and immune systems.
• Snouters — Species of the order Rhinogradentia that inhabited the Pacific archipelago of Hy-yi-yi before their islands sank due to nearby nuclear testing. They were noted for their unique nose-like appendage called a nasorium, which was adapted for use in many niches as the founding species radiated throughout the islands. Although now considered extinct, rumors persist that some remnants may have rafted to other islands in the region.
• Tree Goats — Moroccan tree goats frolic in the branches of the argan tree, eating its fruit. Farmers gather the partially digested argan seeds from the goats' droppings to produce argan oil, used in food and cosmetics.
• Tree Kangaroo — These fuzzy arboreal macropods of the genus Dendrolagus spend their days hopping from tree to tree in the tropical rainforests of Australia, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea.
• Yeti Crab — This crustacean (Kiwahirsuta), found near mysterious Easter Island, protects itself against the frigid waters with a silky covering of blond fur on its arms and legs.

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