Our studies and those of our colleagues in Idaho indicate that the western Snake River Basin is a major geothermal province, similar in some ways to the Imperial Valley Geothermal Province. Deep drilling should encounter high temperature fluids in permeable rocks below 2 km and at shallower depths where permeability...
Let us travel the 65-mile length of the Columbia River Gorge for a closer look at the rock formations and geology of the area. We will supplement our observations with information from the literature on the geology of the Gorge and try to put together a picture of how the...
Periodic violent eruptions from many different centers during Cenozoic time deposited vast quantities of pyroclastic material as ash-flow tuffs over most of Oregon, although the Coast Ranges and isolated patches elsewhere in the state appear to have been spared these recurring inundations. Eruptions occurred at different times throughout the Cenozoic,...
Wright's Point, a 250-foot-high, sinuous, flat-topped ridge, projects eastward into Harney Basin, Harney County, Oregon. This 6-mile-long feature ranges from 200 to 600 yards wide and merges with a broad mesa at its western end. The nearest topographic highs are Dog Mountain, 2 miles southwest, and foothills of the Blue...
One of the most beautiful and geologically interesting parts of the Oregon coast is in the vicinity of Cape Arago near Charleston, 10 miles west of Coos Bay. Three very fine state parks have been developed here. They are (from north to south): Sunset Bay, Shore Acres, and Cape Arago...
(1) Field mapping and biostratigraphic data indicate that the Yamhill Formation overlies and is younger than the Tyee Formation; interfingering of the two formations is not indicated. (2) Stewart's correlation of the Yamhill Formation with the Sacchi Beach member of the Tyee was based on incomplete knowledge of the range...
This report summarizes results of geologic mapping in the South Umpqua Falls region of the Western Cascade Range in Douglas County, southwestern Oregon (plate 1). Rocks of the Western Cascades range in age from late Eocene to late Miocene and consist of deformed and partially altered flows, pyroclastic rocks, and...
The plate tectonic history of Oregon is but one piece of a worldwide jigsaw puzzle encompassing much of geologic time. With the splitting of Pangaea in Mesozoic times, Oregon has occupied the leading edge of the North American Plate as it has impinged upon the ancestral oceanic East Pacific Plate....