The northwestern corner of the Basin and Range Province (NWBR) lies in southeast Oregon where extensive Late Miocene, mafic to bimodal basalt-rhyolite volcanism and extensional faults dominate a stark and arid landscape. Near Lake Abert, the Late Miocene volcanic section abuts Early Miocene, dominantly intermediate composition volcanoes at the Coleman...
The Rattlesnake Ash-Flow Tuff erupted 7.05±0.01 Ma from the western Harney Basin, southeastern Oregon. The location of the vent area is inferred based on vent-ward increases in size of pumices, in degree of welding, and in degree of post-emplacement crystallization. Today's outcrops cover 9000 km2 and estimated original outcrop coverage...
The interaction of magma with continental crust at convergent margins is fundamental to
understanding if and how continents grow. Isotopic and elemental data constrain the
progressive stages of development of the magmatic underpinnings of the long-lived
Aucanquilcha Volcanic Cluster (AVC), situated atop the thick continental crust of the
central Andes...
The Absaroka volcanic province is the largest of Eocene volcanic fields in the northern Cordillera of the western U.S., and consists of 25,000 km2 of lava flows, shallow intrusions, ash-flow tuffs and volcaniclastic deposits. It is aligned with northwest-trending Precambrian lineaments, and includes the remains of at least ten volcanic...
Feeder dikes to the Columbia River Basalt Group (CRBG) large igneous province provide a rare opportunity to examine magma transport through the shallow crust during flood basalt eruptions. Over 70% of the CRBG erupted from the Chief Joseph dike swarm, which is exposed across southeastern Washington, eastern Oregon, and western...
The imposing andesite stratovolcano is the characteristic expression of subduction zone magmatism, posing hazards to coastal populations and bearing insight into deep Earth processes. On a map of a typical volcanic arc, one can easily distinguish the approximately linear alignment and regular spacing of these major edifices that stand out...
The Hampton Tuff is a 3.9 ± .02 Ma (2σ) ignimbrite sheet from the High Lava Plains of central Oregon. The majority of known outcrops exist to the north, within ~22 mi (~35 km) of the Frederick Butte Volcanic Center, the proposed source of the tuff. Thickness of the tuff...
The pressure history of a continental magmatic system can be deciphered by analyzing the composition of amphiboles in the eruptive products where the pressure of equilibration correlates with the depth of the magmatic system. This can reveal vertical evolution of the magma as amphibole composition varies significantly with temperature and...
Columbia River Basalt Group dikes cut the tonalite-granodiorite Wallowa Batholith in northeastern Oregon, providing a natural setting in which to examine partial melting. Many dikes have up to 5 m-wide zones of quenched partially melted wallrock at their margins. This paper examines the progressive partial melting reactions in biotite-and hornblende-bearing...
Inheritance from pre-existing mantle domains and fluid and melt contributions from active subduction together produce the geochemical signatures of mantle-derived arc basalts. In this context, this work evaluates the evolution of Cascadia mantle sources by documenting the isotopic and compositional characteristics of primitive basalts along a transect across the Eocene-Oligocene...
