{"id":13405,"date":"2025-09-25T09:23:23","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T13:23:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/staffsenate\/?p=13405"},"modified":"2025-09-23T15:51:33","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T19:51:33","slug":"understanding-helene-as-a-geologic-event-in-southern-appalachia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/staffsenate\/2025\/09\/25\/understanding-helene-as-a-geologic-event-in-southern-appalachia\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding Helene as a Geologic Event in Southern Appalachia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/staffsenate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/370\/2025\/09\/Picture1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-13406\" src=\"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/staffsenate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/370\/2025\/09\/Picture1-300x173.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"173\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">As we near the anniversary of the devastation Hurricane Helene left behind, some have wondered how have we managed the destruction of such a traumatic event to our landscape.\u00a0 This past summer, Dr. Philip S. Prince, Project Geologist with Appalachian Landslide Consultants and researcher with Virginia Tech\u2019s Department of Geosciences, presented \u201cUnderstanding Helene as a Geologic Event in Southern Appalachia&#8230;and What is a \u2018Geologic Event\u2019 Anyway?\u201d at the Highlands Nature Center. The program was free and open to the public.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">In this fascinating lecture, Dr. Prince examined the extraordinary impacts of Helene, which caused unprecedented flooding and landslides across the southern Appalachians. From Haywood County, North Carolina to southwest Virginia, Helene\u2019s effects outpaced all previously recorded storm damage. Dr. Prince explained how the storm\u2019s unique interaction with the region\u2019s southeast-facing slopes intensified its power, and why southern Appalachian topography played a key role in shaping the storm\u2019s impact.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">By combining fieldwork with remote sensing techniques like LiDAR, Dr. Prince showed those in attendance what Helene actually did to the landscape\u2014how it changed river channels, carved scars into slopes, and left lasting marks on the mountains. His talk also explored how similar storms throughout history may have helped form the rugged topography we see today.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Attached you can access the slides from his presentation linked <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/scl\/fi\/724u0vrdjntee8g46m6pi\/Prince-Zahner-Lecture.pptx?rlkey=cx45dzdaxxvvh828umts30rdc&amp;e=3&amp;st=zajme5nx&amp;dl=0\">here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As we near the anniversary of the devastation Hurricane Helene left behind, some have wondered how have we managed the destruction of such a traumatic event to our landscape.\u00a0 This [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3407,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-university-information"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/staffsenate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/staffsenate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/staffsenate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/staffsenate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3407"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/staffsenate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13405"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/staffsenate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13407,"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/staffsenate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13405\/revisions\/13407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/staffsenate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/staffsenate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/staffsenate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}