My friend, Joy, gave me two books to read about volcanoes. They were highly interesting. They need to be summarized.
Volcanoes are a natural phenomenon that can, has, and might again change the world.

I read a book called Cascadia’s Fault by Jerry Thompson (2011). For the benefit of my family I need to do a book report. The book was a fascinating detective story. It chronicles the evolution of thought which changed scientists’ thinking that the Pacific Northwest was aseismic (no earthquakes) to the belief that this is one of the most dangerous seismic areas in the world.

I am the Columbia River. I begin at Columbia Lake in southeast British Columbia, in Canada. I am 1,243 miles long, and drop 2,690 feet before I empty into the Pacific Ocean at Astoria, Oregon.

My name is quaking aspen. I am a 50-foot-tall tree with nearly round leaves. The slightest breeze makes my leaves quake and tremble, so the scientific name that botanists gave me is populus tremuloides.

Call me opal. I’m a gem stone. I’m sometimes called “The King of Gems.” That’s because I can be any color, up to 60 different shades, and my color changes with each direction that I’m tilted. I’m actually multi-colored at any one angle.

I have always loved birds. I’m not a serious ornithologist, but I’ve always been interested. I’ve studied the local birds, and know their habits and songs. Most of them I can recognize by sight, flight pattern, or sound. They each have their interesting points.