America's Volcanic Past
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| "Though few people in the United States may actually experience an erupting volcano, the evidence for earlier volcanism is preserved in many rocks of North America. Features seen in volcanic rocks only hours old are also present in ancient volcanic rocks, both at the surface and buried beneath younger deposits." -- Excerpt from: Brantley, 1994 |
Volcanic Highlights and Features:
[This list is just a sample of
various Washington State volcanic features or events and is by no means inclusive.]
Idaho, Oregon, and Washington:
Excerpts from: R.L. Whitehead, 1994, Ground Water Atlas of the United States: Idaho, Oregon, Washington: U.S. Geological Survey HA730-H |
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Cascade Range Region:15
Where the Sierra Nevada ends a chain of
explosive volcanic centers, the Cascade volcanoes,
begins. The Cascades Province forms an arc-shaped
band extending from British Columbia to Northern
California, roughly parallel to the Pacific coastline.
Within this region, 13 major volcanic centers lie in
sequence like a string of explosive pearls.
Although the largest volcanoes like Mount St.
Helens get the most attention, the Cascades is really made up of a band of thousands of
very small, short-lived volcanoes that have built a platform of lava and volcanic debris.
Rising above this volcanic platform are a few strikingly large volcanoes that dominate the
landscape.
Columbia Plateau:15 The Columbia Plateau province is enveloped by one of the worlds largest accumulations of lava. Over 500,000 square kilometers of the Earth's surface is covered by it. The topography here is dominated by geologically young lava flows that inundated the countryside with amazing speed, all within the last 17 million years. Over 170,000 cubic kilometers of basaltic lava, known as the Columbia River basalts, covers the western part of the province. These tremendous flows erupted between 17-6 million years ago. Most of the lava flooded out in the first 1.5 million years -- an extraordinarily short time for such an outpouring of molten rock. It is difficult to conceive of the enormity of these eruptions. Basaltic lava erupts at no less than about 1100 degrees C. Basalt is a very fluid lava; it is likely that tongues of lava advanced at an average of 5 kilometers/hour -- faster than most animals can run. Whatever topography was present prior to the Columbia River Basalt eruptions was buried and smoothed over by flow upon flow of lava. Over 300 high-volume individual lava flows have been identified, along with countless smaller flows. Numerous linear vents, some over 150 kilometers long, show where lava erupted near the eastern edge of the Columbia River Basalts, but older vents were probably buried by younger flows. Rocky Mountains:15 The Rockies form a majestic mountain barrier that stretches from Canada through central New Mexico. Although formidable, a look at the topography reveals a discontinuous series of mountain ranges with distinct geological origins. The Rocky Mountains took shape during a period of intense plate tectonic activity that formed much of the rugged landscape of the western United States. Three major mountain-building episodes reshaped the west from about 170 to 40 million years ago (Jurassic to Cenozoic Periods). The last mountain building event, the Laramide orogeny, (about 70-40 million years ago) the last of the three episodes, is responsible for raising the Rocky Mountains. |
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Washington State Geology:14
Rocks of Idaho, Oregon, and Washington State:20
Unconsolidated Deposits:20
Volcanic Rocks:20
Pre-Miocene Undifferentiated Rocks:20
Miocene Volcanic Rocks:20
Miocene Basaltic-Rock Aquifers:20
Pliocene and Younger Volcanic Rocks:20
Silicic Volcanic Rocks:20
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| Washington State's Cascade Range Volcanoes |
Washington State Volcanoes:14
Washington is home to five major composite volcanoes or stratovolcanoes
(from north to south): Mount Baker, Glacier Peak, Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens,
and Mount Adams. These volcanoes and Mount Hood to the south in Oregon are part of
the Cascade Range, a volcanic arc that stretches from southwestern
British Columbia to northern California.
All Washington volcanoes except Mount Adams have erupted within the last
250 years. However, the volcanoes do not erupt at regular
intervals, thus making it difficult to forecast when a given volcano might
come to life again. Although worldwide the risks from volcanoes are
significantly lower than risks from earthquakes and landslides, the
relatively long recurrence interval for volcanic hazards
(decades to several centuries) combined with their great potential for
destruction make them particularly insidious.
(See Mount Adams, Mount Baker, Glacier Peak, Mount Rainier, and Mount St. Helens below)
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| Battle Ground Lake |
Battle Ground Lake:17
The lake's origin is volcanic, and is believed to have been formed as a "Maar" volcano.
This type of volcano is the result of hot lava
or magma pushing up near the surface of the earth and then coming into contact
with underground water. This is thought to have
resulted in a large steam explosion, leaving a crater that later formed a lake.
This area was named for a battle that settlers at Fort Vancouver expected to happen in 1855
between U.S. Army soldiers and some Klickitat Indians. The battle never occurred.
Captain Strong, the post commander, allowed some Indians to leave the fort on the promise that
they would return after burying their chief, who had been accidentally killed. Most fort residents
believed a battle would ensue to get the Indians to return, and therefore dubbed the spot
"Strong's Battle Ground." The Indians, true to their word, returned peacefully, but the name took
hold. Later the area was simply referred to as "Battle Ground."
| Beacon Rock |
Beacon Rock:17
Beacon Rock is the core of an ancient volcano.
The ice-age floods through the Columbia River Gorge eroded the softer material
away, leaving this unique geological structure standing by itself
on the banks of the Columbia River.
Beacon Rock served as a landmark for river travelers for hundreds of years.
The Indians knew it marked the last of the rapids on
the Columbia River and the beginning of tidal influence from the Pacific Ocean,
150 miles away. Lewis and Clark were the first
white men to see the rock. They camped at its base in November of 1805,
noting the rock in their journal and giving it its present
name. In 1811, Alexander Ross, of the John Jacob Aster expedition,
called the rock Inshoack Castle, and it was known as
"Castle Rock" until the United States Board of Geographic Names
officially restored the title of "Beacon Rock", in 1961.
Beacon Rock State Park is located 35 miles east of Vancouver,
Washington, on State Route 14, in Skamania County.
| Columbia Plateau |
Columbia Plateau - Columbia River Gorge7
Between 14 and 16 million years ago, "fissure" volcanic eruptions
in eastern Washington, eastern
Oregon, and western Idaho produced enormous
volumes of molten Columbia River basalt that flowed
like water west into the Deschutes-Columbia
Plateau province in eastern Washington and
northeastern Oregon, with some lava continuing to
flow as far west as the Pacific Ocean via the
ancestral Columbia River valley. As the basalt
cooled and congealed, it formed the columnar cliffs
that dominate the landscape today. Erosions by the
Columbia River has exposed a particularly
spectacular sequence of these rocks in the
Columbia River Gorge.
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| Columbia River Gorge |
Columbia River Gorge:8
17-12 million years ago (Miocene) -- During this period, unusual volcanoes,
called basalt floods, erupted in eastern Washington
and Oregon. These volcanoes were cracks in the earth's crust, several miles long, which poured out floods of liquid molten rock.
41,000 cubic miles (170,000 cubic kilometers) of this lava spread to cover large parts of Oregon and Washington. Out of 270 lava
flows that spread across the region, 21 poured through the Gorge forming layers of rock up to 2,000 feet
(600 meters) deep.
| Drumheller Channels |
Drumheller Channels - National Natural Landmark:23
Douglas County - The most spectacular example in the
Columbia Plateau Natural Region of "butte-and-basin"
scabland, an erosional landscape characterized by hundreds of
isolated, steep-sided hills surrounded by a braided network of
underfit channels. It represents and illustrates the dramatic
modification of the Columbia Plateau volcanic terrain by late
Pleistocene catastrophic glacial outburst floods that occurred at
a scale remaining unparalleled on earth, either in the geologic
record or in historical account. Owner: Federal, State, Private.
DESIGNATION DATE:
May 1986
| Fort Spokane Area |
Fort Spokane Area:21
The dark rock that encompasses the Fort Spokane area is basalt. This is hardened lava that came from great fissures on what is now the southern part of the Idaho/Washington border. Beginning approximately 17 million years ago lava flow after lava flow poured onto the landscape of what is now central Washington and northern Oregon. After 11 million years of flows, up to 150 separate lava flows with a combine depth of over 2 miles remain. Most recently wind blown soil, called loess, from the glaciers was deposited on top of the lava flows. Massive floods which roared through central Washington washed away some of this loess. Where the loess remains, the soil is extremely fertile, proving to be excellent for growing wheat, barley, canola and many other crops which you will encounter directly south of Lake Roosevelt. The soil deposits found right along Lake Roosevelt are the result of sediments left from the gigantic Ice Age Floods that came through this area 10,000 to
20,000 years ago.
| Ginkgo Petrified Forest |
Ginkgo Petrified Forest - National Natural Landmark:23
29 miles east of Ellensburg in Kittitas County. Thousands of
logs petrified in lava flows containing an unusually large number
of tree species. Logs of the ginkgo tree, rarely found as fossil
wood, are located here. Owner: State.
DESIGNATION DATE:
October 1965
| Glacier Peak |
Glacier Peak:4,11,18
Glacier Peak (3,213 meters) is a small Cascade Range stratovolcano.
Although its summit reaches greater then 3,000 meters above the surrounding valleys, the main
cone of Glacier Peak is perched on a high ridge, and the volcanic pile is no more than
500-1,000 meters thick.
More than a dozen glaciers occur on the flanks of the volcano, and unconsolidated pyroclastic
deposits over 12,000 years old have been largely removed by glaciation. Lava flows locally cap
ridges to the northeast of the volcano. While small basaltic flows and cones are found at
several points around the flanks of Glacier Peak, the main edifice is largely dacite and
andesite. Lava flows extend no more than a few kilometers from the summit.
Glacier Peak is probably best known as the source of voluminous tephra eruptions dated to
11,250 years ago. Two tephra layers produced at this time have been identified as far as
800-1,000 kilometers to the east, and are widely used by geologists, anthropologists, and
paleoecologists to date late Pleistocene sediments. Also at this time, an extensive valley
fill of pumiceous lahars and alluvium was deposited downriver to the west, blocking valleys and
affecting drainages as far as 80 kilometers from the volcano.
Glacier Peak is not predominantly visible from any major metropolitan centers,
and so its attractions, as well as its hazards, tend to be overlooked. Yet,
Glacier Peak has produced larger and more explosive eruptions than any other
Washington volcano except Mount St. Helens. In the past 14,000 years, Glacier
Peak has erupted at least a dozen times, most recently around the eighteenth
century.
An especially powerful series of
eruptions about 13,000 years ago deposited volcanic ash at least as far away as Wyoming.
| Goat Rocks Volcanic Field |
Goat Rocks:16
The Goat Rocks volcano is a deeply eroded, glaciated volcanic center
in an area of wide-spread Pliocene and Pleistocene
volcanism along the Cascade crest in southern Washington.
Volcanism began approximately 3.2 million years ago with eruption of
at least 650 meters of high-silica rhyolite tuff (perhaps a caldera fill),
which is exposed on the east flank of the subsequent Goat
Rocks volcano. The silicic volcanism ended approximately 3 million years ago,
and olivine basalt was locally erupted onto the
rhyolitic rocks. Soon thereafter lava flows of high-K2O andesite,
dominantly pyroxene phyric but including flows with significant
hornblende, formed the Goat Rocks volcano.
The volcano was probably build between approximately 2.5 and 0.5 million years
ago. Some large volume lava flows moved many kilometers downvalley away from the volcano.
The most notable such flow is the
1.0 million-year-old Tieton Andesite, which advanced approximately 80 kilometers
eastward down the ancestral Tieton and
Naches Rivers, and is the longest known andesite flow on Earth.
The Goat Rocks volcano is 70 kilometers west of Yakima and 15 kilometers south of White Pass.
Access is by foot along the Pacific Crest
trail system from White Pass of several feeder trails east and west of the crest.
Gilbert Peak:16
Gilbert Peak (2,494
meters), the highest point in the area, is capped with hornblende andesite.
| Grand Coulee |
Grand Coulee:19
Washington has two world-class geologic destinations of stark and eerie beauty that should be on the "must-see" list of any resident. The first, of course, is Mount St. Helens, which is simply the most accessible volcanic, geologic and biological outdoor laboratory on the planet right now. ... The second electrifying feature is Grand Coulee, the basalt canyon that runs south of the dam by the same name. It is the Ice Age bed of the Columbia River. Cliffs remain of an Ice Age waterfall bigger than any in today's world. The coulee is a dramatic reminder of a cyclic flooding that occurred an estimated 40 to 100 times when glacial ice dams repeatedly broke in Western Montana. Each time, about 500 cubic miles of lake water roared across this state in a wall up to 1,000 feet high, at speeds approaching 60 mph, redrawing the surface of the Columbia Plateau. The plateau itself is one of the greatest lava flows on the planet, covering 100,000 square miles.
Grand Coulee:21
Violent events thousands and millions of years ago created the landscape of Coulee Dam and most of eastern Washington. The dark layered rock walls you see as you travel along the lake were built from lava that gushed out of enormous cracks in the earth. Lakeshore sand and gravel terraces are evidence of a more recent event the Ice Age. Prevailing geologic theory suggests that during glaciation, spectacular catastrophic floods raged through this area, carving the canyon of the Grand Coulee and other deep channels.
Grand Coulee - National Natural Landmark:23
Grant County - An illustration of a series of geological events
including outpourings of lava, advance and recession of glacial
ice, retreat of waterfalls, and the cutting of the Columbia River
channel. Owner: Federal, State, Private.
DESIGNATION DATE:
April 1965
| Horsethief State Park |
Horsethief Lake State Park:17
Horsethief Lake State Park is a 338-acre camping park with
7,500 feet of freshwater shoreline on the Columbia River.
Horsethief Butte dominates the skyline. It stands over the lake
like an ancient castle. The lake itself is about 90 acres in size
and is actually an impoundment of the Columbia River. The lake
was flooded into existence by the reservoir created by The
Dalles Dam.
For centuries, the park was the site of a
Native American village. The Lewis and Clark expedition
camped at the village and described its
wooden houses in one of their journals. The village was
flooded by the waters of The Dalles Dam.
Oral history states that the park received
its name from workers in the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers who developed the site.
The workers thought the terrain was similar to that of horsethief
hideouts in popular 1950s Hollywood westerns.
The abundance of horses kept on the premises by
local Indians apparently gave the workers their inspiration.
Horsethief Butte and Vicinity:17
The Butte and the surrounding
Columbia River channel were
carved out of basalt rock by
floods following the last ice age.
The basalt rock resulted from a
series of lava flows which
emerged from cracks in the
earth's crust and blanketed the
entire eastern
Washington/Oregon region long
before the coming of ice-age
floods.
When viewing the cliffs along the
river, notice the stratigraphy
highlighted by benches rising up
the cliffs. Each of these
benches, or layers, represents a
different lava flow. Some lava
flows were hundreds of feet thick
in places.
| Kamiak Butte |
Kamiak Butte - National Natural Landmark:23
Whitman County - Isolated mountain peaks of older rock
surrounded by basalt, rising above the surrounding lava
plateau. Part of outliers of Couer d' Alene Mountains of Idaho.
Owner: State, County, Private.
DESIGNATION DATE:
April 1980
| Lyons Ferry State Park |
Lyons Ferry State Park:17
The rich geologic history of this
1,282-acre park is readily
evidenced by basaltic formations
that outline the paths of both the
Snake and the Palouse rivers.
Park visitors drive through rolling
hills of agricultural land, broken
lava, dry grass and sagebrush for
opportunities to wander through
what geologists call "the
strangest landscape this side of
Mars." These "Channeled
Scablands" are part of hundreds
of square miles of raw, peeled
ground that stretch from Spokane
west to the Cascades and south
to the Snake River.
| Mount Adams |
Mount Adams:1,10,18
Mount Adams (3,742 meters) stands astride the Cascade Crest some 50 kilometers due east of
Mount St. Helens. The towering stratovolcano
is marked by a dozen glaciers, most of which are fed radially from its summit icecap.
Mount Adams is composed of lava flows and fragmental rocks of basaltic
andesite and andesite; numerous satellitic vents on the flanks of the volcano
have erupted rocks ranging from basalt to dacite. Most of the main cone is
younger than 220,000 years.
Mount Adams has produced few eruptions during the past several thousand years.
This volcano's most recent
activity was a series of small eruptions about 1,000 years ago.
| Mount Baker |
Mount Baker:3,9,18
Mount Baker (3,285 meters) is the northernmost and most isolated of the Cascade volcanoes in
the USA. The andesitic cone rises nearly 2 kilometers above the older
metamorphic and sedimentary rocks
at its base and it is almost completely covered in glaciers -- hence its original Nooksack
Indian name "White Steep Mountain".
Mount Baker is a large stratovolcano
in northwestern Washington about 30
kilometers east of Bellingham and 25 kilometers south of the International
Boundary.
The present cone was formed prior to the
last major glaciation, which occurred between about 25,000
and 10,000 years ago, and probably is considerably older. The cone overlaps
rocks of an earlier eruptive center from which two radiometric dates of about
400,000 years have been obtained.
Mount Baker erupted in the mid-1800's for the first time in several thousand years.
Activity at steam vents
(fumaroles) in Sherman Crater, near the volcano's summit, increased in 1975
and is still vigorous, but there
is no evidence that an eruption is imminent.
|
Mount Rainier -
Mount Rainier National Park |
Mount Rainier:13
Mount Rainier is an active volcano that first erupted about half a million years ago.
Because of Rainier's great height (14,410 feet above sea
level) and northerly location, glaciers have cut deeply into its lavas,
making it appear deceptively older than it actually is. Mount Rainier is known
to have erupted as recently as in the 1840s,
and large eruptions took place as recently as about 1,000 and 2,300 years ago.
Mount Rainier and other similar volcanoes in the Cascade Range, such as Mount Adams and Mount Baker,
erupt much less frequently than the
more familiar Hawaiian volcanoes, but their eruptions are vastly more destructive.
Hot lava and rock debris from Rainier's eruptions have melted
snow and glacier ice and triggered debris flows (mudflows) -
with a consistency of churning wet concrete - that have swept down all of the river
valleys that head on the volcano.
Debris flows have also formed by collapse of unstable parts of the volcano without accompanying eruptions.
Some debris flows have traveled as far as the present margin of Puget Sound,
and much of the lowland to the east of Tacoma and the south of
Seattle is formed of pre-historic debris from Mount Rainier.
| Mount Spokane |
Mount Spokane:14
Mount Spokane consists of foliated Cretaceous two-mica granite
that intruded Precambrian paragneiss (high-temperature
metamorphosed sedimentary rocks).
Mount Spokane State Park:17
Mount Spokane State Park is a 13,919-acre camping
park in the Selkirk Mountains. The view at the top of the
5,883-foot elevation includes surrounding states and
Canada. The forested park features stands of old-growth
timber and granite rock outcroppings. In winter, the park
receives 300 inches of snow.
|
Mount St. Helens -
Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument |
Mount St. Helens:18
Mount St. Helens is the most frequently active volcano in the Cascades.
During the past 4,000 years, it has
produced many lahars and a wide variety of eruptive activity,
from relatively quiet outflows of lava to
explosive eruptions much larger than that of May 18, 1980.
|
North Cascades -
North Cascades National Park |
North Cascades:5
The North Cascades are still rising, shifting, and forming.
Geologists believe that these mountains are a collage of terranes,
distinct assemblages of rock
separated by faults. Fossil and rock magnetism studies
indicate that the North Cascades Terranes were formed in other places,
some many thousands of
miles south of here. Attached to slowly moving plates of oceanic rock,
they drifted northward, merging together about 90 million years ago.
Exactly when
they arrived here is still in question.
Colliding with the North American Continent,
the drifting rock masses were thrust upwards and faulted laterally into a
jumbled array of mountains.
The collision broke or sliced the terrane into north to
south trending faults that are still evident
today. Highway 20 crosses the
Straight Creek fault just east of Marblemount.
Geologists believe the rocks to the west of the fault
slid more than 100 miles north of the slice to the east. The rocks to the
east of Straight Creek Fault are gneisses
and granites, while those to the west are completely different recrystallized
mudstones and sandstones. Over time,
these predecessors to today's North Cascades were further faulted and eroded to a
nearly level plain.
During the past 40 million years,
heavier oceanic rocks thrust beneath the edge of this region. Intense heat at great depths
caused them to melt. Some of the melt
rose to the surface in fiery volcanic eruptions like Mount Baker. The rest crystallized at
various depths to form vast bodies of granitic rock.
The North Cascades have again pushed upward to majestic heights,
exposing the roots of the ancient collision zone.
Ice, water, and wind will eventually level the peaks around us, returning them
bit by bit to the sea.
Big Bosom Buttes:15
Big Bosom Buttes reveal the remains of a volcanic caldera
that erupted about
25-30 million years ago (Oligocene), during the early years of the Cascade Volcanic Arc.
Hannegan Pass:15
The defile of Hannegan Pass is not very volcanolike, but the pass, in fact, has been
eroded from the volcanic filling of ancient Hannegan Caldera.
The eroded slopes all
around are deposits of volcanic ash and breccia deposits that erupted some 4 million years
ago and filled a hole in the land created by the collapse of the roof of an emptying magma
chamber.
Table Mountain and Kulshan Caldera:15
Under the dark lavas of Table Mountain, and forming white cliffs above Swift Creek, are
the older volcanic deposits of Kulshan Caldera. The edge of this large volcanic
depression is more or less directly beneath the parking area. The caldera
is, about 2.5
miles across. If formed and was filled with volcanic tuff (the rock formed from volcanic
ash) about 1.1 million years ago, when the magma chamber beneath it erupted, and
its roof collapsed. Volcanologists have identified ash deposits from the Kulshan
volcanic eruption as far away as southern Puget Sound.
|
Olympic Mountains -
Olympic National Park |
Olympic Mountains:6
Consider the Olympic Mountains to be an ancient sea floor that has
been wedged into the North American Continent and uplifted into the
atmosphere by surrounding geologic pressures.
As the topmost layer of the sea floor is scraped off and crumpled on to the North American
Plate, the lower branch dives beneath
Olympic creating heat and pressure that eventually form the volcanoes of the Cascades.
The Olympic Mountains are not very high -- Mount Olympus, the highest,
is just under 8,000 feet -- but they rise almost from the water's
edge and intercept moisture-rich air masses that move in from the Pacific.
As this air is forced over the mountains, it cools and releases moisture
in the form of rain or snow. At lower elevations rain nurtures the
forests while at higher elevations snow adds to glacial masses that relentlessly
carve the landscape. The mountains wring precipitation
out of the air so effectively that areas on the northeast corner of the peninsula experience
a rain shadow and get very little rain.
The town of Sequim gets only 17 inches a year,
while less than 30 miles away Mount Olympus receives
over 220 inches falling mostly as snow.
There are about 266 glaciers crowning the Olympics peaks;
most of them are quite small in contrast to the great rivers of ice in Alaska. The
prominent glaciers are those on Mount Olympus
covering approximately ten square miles. Beyond the Olympic complex are the glaciers of
Mount Carrie, the Bailey Range, Mount Christie, and Mount Anderson.
Olympic Mountains Formation:6
These mountains have arisen from the sea. For eons, wind and rain
washed sediments from the land into the ocean.
Over time these sediments
were compressed into shale and sandstone. Meanwhile, vents and
fissures opened under the water and lava flowed forth, creating huge
underwater mountains and ranges called seamounts. The plate(s)
that formed the ocean floor inched toward
North America about 35 million years ago and most of the sea floor
went beneath the continental land mass.
Some of the sea floor, however, was scraped off and jammed
against the mainland, creating the dome that was the forerunner of today's Olympics.
Powerful forces fractured, folded, and over-turned rock
formations, which helps explain the jumbled appearance of the Olympics.
Radiating out from the center of the dome, streams, and later a
series of glaciers, carved peaks and valleys, creating the beautiful,
craggy landscape we know today.
Ice Age glacial sheets from the north
carved out the Strait of Juan Fuca and Puget Sound, isolating the
Olympics from nearby landmasses.
| Potholes State Park |
Potholes State Park:17
The park is located in the area of the West known as "the Scablands."
The terrain was formed by large lava flows, followed by
huge floods (known as Missoula floods) and winds.
Large sand dunes, coulees and lava flows can be visited near the park.
| Steamboat Rock State Park |
Steamboat Rock:17
Steamboat Rock State Park is a 3,522-acre camping park
with 50,000 feet of freshwater shoreline at the north end of
Banks Lake. Dominating the landscape is a columnar,
basaltic rock with a surface area of 600 acres. Two
campground areas and a large day-use area are on
sweeping green lawns, protected from winds by tall dramatic
poplars. The surrounding areas are carpeted with wildflowers,
adding to the gray-green brush of the Scablands. A sandy
swimming area and boat launches make the area a favorite
for visitors who enjoy water-play and want respite from the
hot, summer sun.
Steamboat Rock is a long-established area landmark, first used by nomadic Native American
tribes and then by early settlers. The military currently uses the area for aircraft flying training missions. The basalt butte rises 800 feet above Banks Lake. It was once an island in the
Columbia River bed. When the Columbia returned to its natural course, after centuries of being dammed by ice, the massive rock remained.
| Steptoe Butte State Park |
Steptoe Butte:22
Steptoe Butte is the type example of
a steptoe, an isolated hill or
mountain surrounded by lava flows.
Steptoe Butte State Park:17
Steptoe Butte State Park is a 150-acre, 3,612-foot-tall
natural monument. Thimble-shaped, the granite butte looms
in bald grandeur over the prevailing flat lands.
Steptoe Butte - National Natural Landmark:23
Whitman County - Isolated mountain peaks of older rock
surrounded by basalt, rising above the surrounding lava
plateau. Part of outliers of Couer d' Alene Mountains of Idaho.
Owner: State, County, Private.
DESIGNATION DATE:
October 1965
| Underwood Mountain |
Underwood Mountain:24
A shield volcano.
| Wallula Gap |
Wallula Gap - National Natural Landmark:23
Mainly located in Benton County and extends into Walla Walla
County - The largest, most spectacular, and most significant of
the several large water gaps through basalt anticlines in the
Columbia River basin. Owner: Federal, Municipal, Private.
DESIGNATION DATE:
August 1980
| Wind Mountain |
Wind Mountain:24
A quartz diorite intrusion.
The Wind Mountain intrusion is a fine-grained plagioclase-phyric quartz
diorite, in places with hypersthene and hornblende phenocrysts. The
intrusion contains inclusions of Grande Ronde Basalt, and basalt on the
west side of Dog Mountain, 3 kilometers farther east (Columbia River
Gorge) was hornfelsed by the intrusion. A similar quartz diorite occurs
south of the Columbia River at Shellrock Mountain. These shallow bodies,
and several others in the area, presumably were related to volcanic
activity. K-Ar whole-rock ages of 4.9 +/- 0.1 million years and 6.6 +/-
0.7 million years have been obtained for the Wind Mountain intrusion.
Excerpts from:
1) Hoblitt, et.al., 1987, USGS Open-File Report 87-297
2) Hoblitt, et.al., 1995, USGS Open-File Report 95-273
3) Hyde and Crandell, 1978, USGS Professional Paper 1022-C
4) Mastin and Waitt, 1995, USGS Open-File Report 95-413
5) U.S. National Park Service Website,
North Cascades National Park, 2001
6) U.S. National Park Service Website,
Olympic National Park, 2000
7) Geologic Sightseeing:
Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Resources Website, 2001
8) U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District,
and the U. S. Department of the Interior, U. S. Geological Survey, The
Geologic History of the Columbia River Gorge: Information Brochure
9) Wood, 1990, IN: Wood and Kienle, 1990, Volcanoes of North America: United States and Canada:
Cambridge University Press
10) Hildreth, 1990, IN: Wood and Kienle, 1990, Volcanoes of North America:
United States and Canada: Cambridge University Press
11) Beget, 1990, IN: Wood and Kienle, 1990, Volcanoes of North America: United States and Canada:
Cambridge University Press
12) Crandell, 1971,
Postglacial Lahars From Mount Rainier Volcano, Washington:
USGS Professional Paper 677
13) Sisson, 1995, History and Hazards of Mount Rainier, Washington:
USGS Open-File Report 95-642
14)Washington State Department of Natural Resources Website, 2001, 2002
15) USGS/NPS Geology in the Parks Website, 2001
16) Swanson, 1990, IN: Wood and Kienle, 1990, Volcanoes of North America:
United States and Canada: Cambridge University Press
17) Washington State Parks Website, 2000, 2002
18) Dzurisin, et.al., 1997,
Living With Volcanic Risk in the Cascades: USGS Fact Sheet 165-97
19) USGS Earthquake Hazards Program, Pacific Northwest Website, 2002
20) Whitehead, R.L., 1994, Ground Water Atlas of the United States:
Idaho, Oregon, Washington:
U.S. Geological Survey HA730-H
21) U.S. National Park Service, Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area Website, 2002
22) U.S. National Park Service, Columbia Cascades Cluster Website, 2002
23) U.S. National Park Service, National Natural Landmarks Website, 2003
24) Swanson, D.A., et.al., 1989, IGC Field Trip T106: Cenozoic
Volcanism in the Cascade Range and Columbia Plateau,
Southern Washington and Northernmost Oregon: American
Geophysical Union Field Trip Guidebook T106, p.21-24.
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