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Archive for the tag “Oregon”

16 Oct 2014
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Crater Lake caldera, Oregon –some things happen quickly!

Crater Lake never ceases to amaze me.  It’s huge –some 6 miles (10 km) across, deep –some 1700 feet deep in parts –the deepest lake in the United States and 7th deepest on the planet– incredibly clear, and really really blue.  And for volcano buffs, one of the best places ever!

Crater Lake as seen from The Watchman. Wizard Island, which formed after the caldera collapse, occupies the center of the photo.

Crater Lake as seen from The Watchman. Wizard Island, which formed after the caldera collapse, occupies the center of the photo.

Crater Lake is a caldera, formed when ancient Mt. Mazama erupted so catastrophically that it emptied its magma chamber sufficiently for the overlying part of the mountain to collapse downward into the empty space.  That was about 7700 years ago.  Soon afterwards, Wizard Island formed, along with some other volcanic features that are now hidden beneath the lake–and then over the years, the lake filled to its present depth.  It’s unlikely to rise any higher because there is a permeable zone of rock at lake level that acts as a drain.

Here’s one of the coolest things about the cataclysmic eruption: Not only was it really big, but it happened really fast.  We know it was big because we can see pumice, exploded out of the volcano, blanketing the landscape for 100s of square miles to the north of the volcano –and we can see the caldera.  We can tell it happened quickly because the base of the pumice is welded onto a rhyolite flow that erupted at the beginning stages of the collapse; the rhyolite was still HOT when the pumice landed on it!  You can see the welded pumice on top the Cleetwood Flow along the road at Cleetwood Cove.

pumice welded onto top of Cleetwood rhyolite flow at Cleetwood Cove. Note how the base of the pumice is red from oxidation --and forms a ledge because it's so hard.

pumice welded onto top of Cleetwood rhyolite flow at Cleetwood Cove. Note how the base of the pumice is red from oxidation –and forms a ledge because it’s so hard.  Pumice blankets the landscape all around Crater Lake.

Crater Lake though, is so much more than a caldera –it’s the exposed inside of a big stratovolcano!  Where else can you see, exposed in beautiful natural cross-sections, lava flow after lava flow, each of which erupted long before the caldera collapse and built the original volcano? Within the caldera itself, these flows go back 400,000 years–the oldest ones being those that make up Phantom Ship –the cool little island (some 50′ tall) in Crater Lake’s southeast corner.

Phantom Ship, in Crater Lake's southeast corner, is made of the caldera's oldest known rock, at 400,000 years old.

Phantom Ship, in Crater Lake’s southeast corner, is made of the caldera’s oldest known rock, at 400,000 years old.

I can’t resist.  The caldera formed about 7700 years ago, incredibly recent in Earth history–incredibly recent in just the history of Mt. Mazama!  To a young earth creationist though, that’s 1700 years before Earth formed.  Now THAT’S amazing!

Click here if you want to see a Geologic map of Crater Lake.
Or… for more pictures of Crater Lake, type its name into the Geology Search Engine.  Or… check out the new Roadside Geology of Oregon book!

Posted in creationism, geologic hazards, Geologic Time, Geology, geophotography, mountains, national parks, photography, volcanoes, young earth creationism and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
11 Oct 2014

Lakes drying up in southeastern Oregon –geologically, very quickly

Lake Abert’s one of the coolest lakes in Oregon –in my opinion.  It’s got birds along its shoreline because it hosts a huge population of brine shrimp (which smell, by the way).  It has the brine shrimp because it doesn’t have any fish –and it doesn’t have fish because it’s an alkali lake in a closed basin, full of salt. The water that goes into this lake stays there, until it evaporates.  When it evaporates, it leaves behind more salt.

Birds along small creek that empties into Lake Abert, Oregon.

Birds along small creek that empties into Lake Abert, Oregon.

Over the past few years, the lake seems to be drying up faster than usual–which makes all the sense in the world because we’ve had less rainfall than usual over the past few years.  There’s still water, but it’s noticeably farther out into the “lake” than before.  That’s certainly fast.  We, as humans, can watch this lake dry up over just a few years.

salt deposits at Lake Abert, Oregon

salt deposits at Lake Abert, Oregon, looking northward.  Abert Rim, along the right side of the photo, is uplifted along a normal fault.

But think of what the lake was 20,000 years ago, at the height of the last glaciation!  The physiographic map below shows Lake Abert (along US 395) as part of the much larger Lake Chewaucan, which included the even larger Summer Lake basin to the west.  There’s all sorts of evidence for this earlier lake: old shorelines, deposits at elevations well above the modern lake, gravel bars.  And Lake Chewaucan was only one of many such Pleistocene, or “pluvial” lakes that occupied closed basins in the Oregon and Nevada Basin and Range.

Distribution of Pleistocene lakes in the southern Oregon Basin and Range.

Distribution of Pleistocene lakes in the southern Oregon Basin and Range.

Of course these ages do a “time-number” on me.  20,000 years is a short time, geologically.  So just yesterday, this region had many of these large large lakes –and in just a short time, they’ve dwindled to isolated remnants.  But in just the last 5 years, those remnants have dwindled even more.  It’s dramatic.  It’s frightening.

Odd too –those Young Earth Creation types think that planet Earth is younger than Lake Chewaucan!  And really?  Lake Chewaucan couldn’t have formed unless there was a basin there –and do you see the cliffs on the right (east) side of the lake?  That’s Abert Rim, uplifted by a big normal fault –which is what formed the basin.  So, the 2000′ of  uplift on this fault must be older than the lake, which is older than planet Earth!  Cool!

For more photos of Lake Abert, type “Lake Abert” into the geology search engine.
For information about the completely new (available in November, 2014) Roadside Geology of Oregon book.

Posted in climate change, creationism, drought, Geologic Time, Geology, photography, young earth creationism and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment
04 Oct 2014
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Geologic Time in a mountainside –the Wallowa Mountains from Joseph, Oregon

Joseph, Oregon is a wonderful place for geology.  The town sits right at the foot of the Wallowa Mountains in the northeastern corner of Oregon.  The mountains rise some 4-5000′ abruptly from the valley floor along a recently active normal fault.

The Wallowa Mountains rise along a fault zone just south of the town of Joseph.

The Wallowa Mountains rise along a fault zone just south of the town of Joseph.

In the mountains, you can see some bedrock relations that speak to great lengths of geologic time.  An erosional remnant of the Columbia River Basalt Group caps Sawtooth Peak in the photos below; it sits directly on granite of the Wallowa Batholith –and just a little bit south, on the next peak, the granite intrudes Martin Bridge Limestone!  So, from oldest to youngest, the rock units are the Martin Bridge Limestone, the Wallowa granite, the Columbia River Basalt.

Sawtooth Peak (right) capped by Columbia River Basalt. Beneath it is granite of the Wallow Batholith --and off to the left, are the bedded rocks of the Martin Bridge Limestone.

Sawtooth Peak (right) capped by Columbia River Basalt. Beneath it is granite of the Wallowa Batholith –and off to the left, are the bedded rocks of the Martin Bridge Limestone.  See below for labels.

Rock units and contacts described in the text

Rock units and contacts described in the text

Never mind that we know the Martin Bridge Limestone is Triassic –so more than 200 million years old –and that the Wallowa Batholith formed at different times between 140 to about 120 million years ago –and that the basalt is about 16 million years old.  You can throw out radiometric dating, but even so, you’re looking at a great span of geologic time.  The limestone first had to be deposited, layer after layer –and then buried –and then intruded at a depth of 5-8 km by the granite –which THEN had to get uplifted to Earth’s surface so the basalt could flow over it.  After THAT, it all had to get uplifted to its present elevation along the normal fault just south of town and much of the basalt had to erode away.

Honestly, we have influential people in this country who spout off things like the Earth is only 6000 years old.  They also deny the overwhelming evidence for climate change.  I guess I should stop writing now before I get too worked up!

More photos of the Wallowas at Geologic Photography.

Posted in Geologic Time, Geology, mountains, photography and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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