Pat Pringle, geologist and professor emeritus at Centralia College, is featured in a recent New York Times article exploring how dendrochronology — that is, the dating of tree rings — helped scientists estimate the date of the largest lahar to flow from Mount Rainier in the last 1,000 years.
Lahars are massive collections of mud, rock, water and other debris that can travel quickly down volcanoes across dozens of miles.
According to the article, titled “If the Volcanic Eruption Doesn’t Scare You, the Mudflow Should,” Pringle collected wood from tree stumps in the 1990s at a construction site in the Pierce County city of Orting — an area that was hit by the great lahar known as the Electron Mudflow.
Researchers recently compared wood from those Douglas fir trees — and others collected from construction sites by Pringle and volunteers — with a data set of living Douglas fir trees in British Columbia to determine the death of the Orting trees.
According to the article, the researchers concluded the Orting trees’ year of death was 1507.
That year is now the estimated year of the Electron Mudflow.
According to the article, researchers now hope to learn what caused the great lahar.
The answer may help scientists predict the next one to fall from Mount Rainier.
To read the full New York Times article featuring Pringle, visit https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/16/science/mount-rainier-lahar-mudflow.html.
Pringle’s original study, published in Geology in December 2025, is available online at https://tinyurl.com/47jdj3ph.
