Seattle Weekly: News: The Super Flood by Frank Parchman: Some
5,600 years ago, the body of water we call Puget Sound had an
arm that extended 30 miles inland from present-day Elliott Bay
in Seattle to a point halfway between Auburn and Sumner. Today,
of course, that is the Green River Valley—the narrow, flat
suburban land of Kent and Renton and the industrial lowlands of
South Seattle. It would be reasonable to think that this change
happened gradually, but scientists have determined that most of
the long-gone stretch of inland sea was transformed by a single
event that created 200 square miles of land in a matter of
hours, with waves of mud 20 feet to 600 feet high. Imagine a
wall the consistency of wet concrete traveling up to 60 mph.
This mudflow destroyed everything in its path, uprooting entire
old-growth forests. It hit Puget Sound with such force and with
so much material that it flowed underwater for 15 miles, maybe
farther. An area of hundreds of square miles was covered with
mud and debris up to 350