The Walla Walla Subbasin (WWSB) in Oregon is underlain by formations of the extensive Columbia River Basalt Group (CRBG) which have been deformed by post-Miocene folding and faulting. Extensive irrigation with groundwater from these basalt groups, as well as sedimentary aquifers and surface water diversions from the Walla Walla River,...
Continental flood basalts represent short-lived but immense blasts of mafic magma to the continental crust. The youngest and smallest continental flood basalt worldwide, the Columbia River Basalt, initiated with the eruption of the most mafic member, the Steens Basalt (~16.9 Ma). The Steens Basalt is exposed in southeast Oregon, southwest...
Ninety basalt samples from eight locations in central Oregon
and one location in the Willamette Valley were analyzed for Si and Al.
Fourteen basaltic rock specimens (> 1 kg each) from four buttes in the
Willamette Valley were sampled and analyzed for Si, Al, Fe, Na, K,
Mn, Cr, Co,...
The subsurface microbial biosphere in the igneous oceanic crust has implications for global geochemical cycling, early life on Earth, and the search for life on Mars. Microscopic evidence of a subsurface microbial ecosystem includes biotic alteration textures associated with basaltic glass. The exact conditions in the basaltic layer that make...
Prior to eruption at mid-ocean ridges, melts must travel through >6 km of crust from their origin in the mantle. The final composition of the melts is dependent on both the melting conditions and magmatic processes within the crust. While mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB) glasses are commonly used to infer...
Basalts of both Eocene and Miocene age from several groups
along the Oregon and Washington coasts have been analyzed for some
major, minor, and trace elements using instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA). The rare earth element (REE) patterns observed
in these samples are used for comparisons within the groups studied...
The Paleocene-lower Eocene volcanic rocks of the southern Oregon Coast Range
Roseburg Formation are the oldest remnant eruptive sequence of an oceanic islandseamount
province which is presently exposed along a north-south lineament that stretches
from Vancouver, B.C. into southwestern Oregon. This seamount terrane is thought to
have formed on the...
In an attempt to understand the phase equilibria and petrogenesis of MORB anorthitic plagioclase, Cr-spinel commonly hosted within anorthitic plagioclase has been investigated petrographically and compositionally. Based on spinel-anorthite relationships from three samples of plagioclase ultra-phyric basalt (PUB; Southeast Indian Ridge, Axial Seamount and West Valley Segment, Juan de Fuca...