GEOLOGY
CollegeDummy
lab9.docx
TIMELINE OF EVENTS FOR CONSTRUCTING OREGON
PHASE 1 FOUNDATION — Rocks many miles thick underlie the entire state and range from 400 million to 50 million years old.
Generalized Geologic Units:
1. Exotic Terranes: foundation blocks of Oregon
2. Batholiths and Plutons: mortar for the foundation
3. Early Sediments: Oregon’s first coast
PHASE 2 BRICKS AND MORTAR — Volcanic and sedimentary rocks thousands of feet thick cover most of the foundation. These rocks are generally between 60 million and 2 million years old.
Generalized Geologic Units:
4. Siletz Terrane: last exotic arrival
5. Early Volcanic Arc: Oregon’s tropical volcanoes
6. Coast Range Sediments: 50 million years of mud
7. Coast Range Volcanoes: Oregon’s first hot spot
8. Columbia River Basalt: the Yellowstone hot spot arrives in a flood of fire
9. Rift Volcanoes: aftermath of the Yellowstone hot spot
PHASE 3 PLASTER AND PAINT — This is the familiar land that we live on. Rocks hundreds of feet thick began forming 15 million years ago and continue to be shaped today.
Generalized Geologic Units:
10. Ancient Waterways: home of Oregon's first salmon
11. Rattlesnake Tuff: Oregon’s largest known eruption
12. High Cascade Volcanoes: land of fire and ice
13. High Desert Volcanoes: sleeping giants of eastern Oregon
14. Lakes, Rivers, and Dunes: painting the landscape
15. Pluvial Lakes: Oregon’s inland seas
16. Glacial Deposits: runaway global cooling
17. Ice Age Floods: Oregon's best soils lifted from eastern Washington
18. Mazama Deposits: a jewel born of destruction
19. Unstable Oregon: land of 10,000 landslides
20. Cascadia Subduction Zone Earthquakes: the big one(s)
1. Which two terranes were the first to accrete to form Oregon?
2. Where did these two terranes form and what evidence do we have?
3. What geologic processes were predominating during the Cenozoic?
4. Where did the Columbia River basalts originate and what land area did they cover?
5. What are some of the geologic regions formed from Oregon running over the Yellowstone hotspot?
6. What caused the High Lava Plains and Basin and Range Provence?
7. What type of rock erupted from the early High Cascades?
8. What happened in the early Tertiary period in Oregon?
9. What was the cause of the Clarno and Challis volcanic eruptions?
10. How has Oregon’s climate changed throughout its geologic history?
11. Describe how Oregon’s climate and geology will change in the future.
On the accompanying map, clearly mark and label the approximate location and extent (for instance, a mountain range is not symbolized by one dot) of the following features and cities. Use different colored pencils to mark the different features. Please use blue for rivers, brown for mountains, red dots for cities, and green for other features.
Rivers and Waterways
1. Columbia River
2. Strait of Juan de Fuca
3. Willamette River
4. Yakima River
5. Puget Sound
6. Skagit River
7. Snake River
Mountains
8. Olympic Mountains
9. Cascade Range
10. Mt. St. Helens
11. Mt. Rainier
12. Mt. Baker
13. Klamath Mountains
14. Willapa Hills
15. Okanogan Highland
16. Wallowa Mountains
17. Oregon Coast Range
Other Geographic Features and
Places
18. Columbia Plateau
19. The Palouse Hills
20. San Juan Islands
21. Vancouver Island
22. Grand Coulee (not just the dam)
23. Crater Lake
24. Snake River Plain
25. Glacier National Park
26. North Cascades National Park
27. Gray’s Harbor
28. Newberry Volcano
29. Methow Valley
30. Hell’s Canyon
Cities (WA, unless otherwise stated)
A. Seattle
B. Portland, OR
C. Yakima
D. Spokane
E. Olympia
F. Bellingham
G. Wenatchee
H. Richland/Pasco/Kennewick (Tri-Cities)
I. Tacoma
J. Orting
K. Forks
L. Republic
M. Boise, ID
N. Missoula, MT
O. Eugene, OR
P. Salem, OR
Q. John Day, OR
R. Joseph, OR
S. Cache Creek, BC
T. Vancouver, BC
