Correlation of Miocene flows of the Columbia River Basalt Group from the central Columbia River Plateau to the coast of Oregon and Washington

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Abstract

Nearly twenty flows of the Columbia River Basalt Group (CRBG) can be paleomagnetically and chemically correlated westward as far as 500 km from the Columbia Plateau in Washington, through the Columbia Gorge, to the Coast Range of Oregon and Washington. In the Coast Range near Cathlamet, Washington, the CRBG flow stratigraphy includes 10 flows of Grande Ronde Basalt (1 low-MgO R2 flow, 6 low-MgO N2 flows, 3 high-MgO N2 flows), 2 flows of Wanapum Basalt (both flows of Sand Hollow from the Frenchman Springs Member), and the Pomona Member of the Saddle Mountains Basalt. Elsewhere in the Coast Range, additional Grande Ronde Basalt flows, including flows of Winterwater or Umtanum, and additional Wanapum flows, including the flows of Ginkgo, have been reported. Thus at least 18 to 20 CRBG flows reached the coast region. Several of these distal flows have distinctive chemical and magnetic characteristics that are shared by nearby isolated intrusions in Coast Range sedimentary rocks, thus strongly supporting recent suggestions that these intrusions are invasive bodies fed by CRBG flows. Magnetization directions from several flows indicate 16 to 30° of clockwise rotation of the coast with respect to the plateau since middle Miocene time.

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Publication type Book chapter
Publication Subtype Book Chapter
Title Correlation of Miocene flows of the Columbia River Basalt Group from the central Columbia River Plateau to the coast of Oregon and Washington
DOI 10.1130/SPE239-p113
Volume 239
Year Published 1989
Language English
Publisher Geological Society of America
Contributing office(s) Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center
Description 15 p.
Larger Work Type Book
Larger Work Title Volcanism and Tectonism in the Columbia River Flood-Basalt Province, Geological Society of America Special Paper 239
First page 113
Last page 129
Country United States
State Oregon, Washington
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