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ORECiON CiEOLOCiY formerly THE ORE BIN published by the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries VOLUME 42 , NUMBER 7 JULY 19BO . - , Geologic studies of the La Grande ORECOM GEOLOGY area and Mount Hood now available (lSSN 0164-3304) VOLUME 42, NUMBER 7 JULY 1980 The Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries announces the release of two new geologic Published monthly by the Stale of Oregon Department of Geology and MinerallnduSlries (Volumes 1 through 40 were en publications that are part of its geothermal assessment titled The Ore Bi,,). program in the State of Oregon. Special Paper 6, The Geology of the La Grande Governing Board Area, Oregon, summarizes the results of a re<:entiy com l ohn L. Schwabe, Chairman ...... .. .. .•.....• Portland pleted geologic investigation by Warren Barrash, John Robert W . Doty .. ... .... .. ... ... .... .. Talent G. Bond, John D. Kauffman, and Ramesh Venkata C. Stanley Rasmussen . .. .... ... .. Baker krishnan, Geoscience Research Consultants, under con Shle Geologist . .... .. .. ... ........ , ... Donald A. Hull tract to the Department. The 47-page report describes the stratigraphy and structure of the Miocene Columbia Deputy Slale Geologist . ..... , .. , . ..... John D. Beaulieu River Basalt Group in the general area through which Editor ... ... .. .. .. ..... .. .. Beverly F. Vogl Interstate 1-84 (old 1-80N) runs between Hilgard and North Union, in eastern Oregon. It includes s.eologic Main OHlce: 1069 Slate Office Building, Portland 9720 1. phone maps and cross sections of the Hilgard, La Grande SE, (S03) 229-5 580. Glass Hill, and Craig Mountain 7 Y.z -minute quadrangles Baker Field Oflice: 2013 First Street, Baker 978 14, phone (503) (scale 1:24,(00). Price of Special Paper 6 is $5.00. 523-3 133. Special Paper 8, Geology and Geochemistry of Howard C. Brooks, Resident Geologist Mount Hood Volcano, is the result of a study by Craig Grants Pass Field Oftict: 312 S.E. "Hft Street, Grants Pass 97526, White, Department of Geology, University of Oregon, phone (503 ) 476-2496. Len Ramp, Resident Geologist also under contract to the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries. The 26-page report Mined Land Reclamation Program: 1129 S.E. Santiam Road, AI· sells for $2.00 and contains petrologic and geochemical bany 97321, phone (503) 967-2039. Paul F. Lawson, Supervisor data, including maj or- and trace-element analyses of Main Stage lavas and post-glacial silicic rocks. Both papers may be purchased from the Depart Subsc ription rates: I year, S4.00; 3 years, SIO.OO . Sin gle issues, ment's Ponland, Baker, or Grants Pass offices . They S.40 at counter, S.50 mailed. Available back iss ues o f The Ore Bin: S.2S at counter, S.50 may be ordered by mail from the Portland office. Pay mailed. ment must accompany orders under $20.00. 0 Address subscription orders, renewals, and changes of address to Oregon Geology, 1069 State Office Building, Portland, OR 97201. June OREGON GEOLOGY late Due to circumstances beyond our control, the June Send news, nOlices, meeting announcements, anicles for issue of Oregon Geology was printed two weeks later publication, and editorial correspondence to the editor, Portland office. The Department encourages author-in it iated peer review than usual. We apologize for any inconvenience this for technical articles prior to submiss io n. Any review should be delay may have caused. nOted in the acknowledgments. ---- Second class postage paid at Pon land, Oregon. Postmaster: Send address changes to Oregon Geology, 1069 State Office Bu ilding, Portland, OR 97201. CONTENTS Sheeted dikes of the Wild Rogue Wilderness. 119 Geology of the Condrey Mountain Schist, northern Klamath Mountains, California and Oregon . .. 125 COVER PHOTO Three companies high bidders for Oregon Photomicrograph of quartz-mica-graphite geothermal parcels . .. .. .. ..... ......... 129 variety of Condrey Mountain Schist, discussed in Chemical analyses of Mount St. Helens pumice article beginning on page 125. This photo. taken and ash .... ...... ...... .. .. ... ..... 130 under plane-polarized light, shows incipient devel opment of crenulation cleavage typical of later Geologic map of southern Washington Cascades stages of deformation of Condrey Mountain Schist. now available . .... .. .... .. ... ....... .. 130 Each edge of photo represents about 0.75 cm. GSA offers employment opportunities booklet. 130 ---~- - -- --- II. OREGON GEOLOGY, VOL. 42, NO.7, J ULY 1980 Sheeted dikes of the Wild Rogue Wilderness, Oregon by Len Romp, Grants Pass Field Office, Oregon Department of Geology and Minera/lndustries, Grants Pass, Oregon 97526. and Floyd Gray, U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, Ca/tfornio 94025 INTRODUCTION and Cann, 1974). Possible sites of such extension zones include island-arc marginal basins, mid-ocean ridges, The name "ophiolite" is applied to sequences of and stationary hot spots beneath a drifting plate. rocks consisting, in part, from bottom to top, of perido This article discusses dike swarms recently recog tite, gabbro, dike swarms, basalt (often as pillows), and nized in the Wild Rogue Wilderness, southwestern oceanic sediments. The basaltic dike swarms (sheeted Oregon. diabase dikes), apparently feeders for the overlying volcanic rocks, form a continuous layer between them LOCATION and the underlying gabbro (Figure I). The dikes are thought to have been intruded along a single, narrow The recently designated Wild Rogue Wilderness is fracture, thereby becoming chilled against previously an elongate area extending from near Agness to the emplaced. solidified dike rock. Ideally. the dikes pinch Eden Valley Road just north of Mount Bolivar near the downward into the gabbro unit, from which they are Coos. Curry. and Douglas County boundaries. The area thought to have been derived. The relation between the is about 31 km(19mi) long and from 2 t08 km(I.3 to dikes and the underlying gabbro constitutes one of the 5 mil wide. Elevations range from about 46 m (150 ft) major field and petrogenetic problems of ophiolite near the Rogue River at the southern end of the area to genesis. The central question of the gabbro-diabase rela 1.316 m (4,319 ft) on top of Mount Bolivar. The area in tionship was succinctly pointed out by Thayer (1977a) in cludes about 19 km (12 mil of the Rogue River from a discussion of the Troodos Complex: Marial downstream to Big Bend near IIIahe (Figure 2; detail on Figure 5). "If the dikes are chilled against underlying A study of this wilderness is being conducted cumulate gabbro, they cannot be derived from it. If jointly by the U.S. Geological Survey, the Oregon they pinch out downward in the gabbro, as de Department of Geology and Mineral Industries. and the scribed and postulated, they cannot have come up U.S. Bureau of Mines. The Wild Rogue Wilderness through it How then, did they get where they are?" project, a part of a multidisciplinary land-resource study of the Medford 2° quadrangle, emphasizes evalu The great lateral extent of some dike swarms has ation of potential mineral resources and their relation to led geologists to believe that the dikes were formed by regional geology. Field mapping in the steep. rugged repeated injection of magmatic liquid along zones of ex area began in June 1979 and should be completed dur treme crustal extension (Moores and Vine, 1971; Kidd ing the 1980 field season. This article outlines some re cent discoveries of the past field season and suggests possible avenues of future research. PREVIOUS WORK Previous studies of the area include those by Diller (1914), Butler and Mitchell (1916), Wells (1955), Wells and Peck (1961), Baldwin and Rud (1972), Kent (1972), Purdom (1977), and Ramp and others (1977). Earlier geologic mapping in this area was done at smaller scales MAGMA than that of the present investigation, and the dikes were grouped along with the volcanic rocks as green schist-facies metamorphic volcanic rocks. including basalt, andesitic to siliceous tuffs and flows, occasional Figure J. This idealil.ed cross section shows {he pillow lavas, tuffaceous sediments, and chert locally in relationships of various parts of an ophiolite sequence truded by diabasic and gabbroic dikes then considered as it is believed to develop on one side of a mid-oceanic part of the Rogue Formation. A few areas of similar ridge (spreading center). The spreading center is to the rocks were mapped about 32 km (20 mil to the south right of the drawing. and a mirror image of the ophiolite west in the vicinity of Saddle Mountain and Gray Butte sequence shown here generally occurs on the other side by Ramp and others (1977, p. 6) and were described as of the spreading center. (Modi/ied from Greenbaum, Rogue Formation volcanic rocks intruded by abundant 1972) diabasic and gabbroic dikes. OREGON GEOLOGY, VOL. 42, NO. 7,JULY 1980 II. ,J" COOS "' 1\ l (4~' 1 DOUGLAS I '''0; , ,. /L... RiYi'r ~ WILDERNESS I L __ ~ ~-., 'I AREA ~~_-J<~'11>V-J '-. L.~-- _ / ____ r'" T i, < "... CURRY • I, ( Iz " ( '0 . ~e~ " 1 \I' .. ..-... -"'" I~ 'u JOSEPHINE "' ! ~ "-... \ -"'I:::::~~ii;t\V~H42"3O' ~ -" ""- 5~Mm~0I-_-,5~, ' , , , I 1 . _-'''.I_~...JI5, . MILES I "",II I eo 10 2OKM. Figure 2. Loc(Jlily map uf {he Wild R()~ue Wilderness urea, southwestern Oregon. DISCUSSION The recognition of the extensive sheeted dike unit described in this article is of particular interest to those attempting to construct a model of the tectonic environ· ment of the northern Klamath Mountains of southwest ern Oregon. The sheeted dikes are best exposed in Mule Creek Canyon of the Rogue River in the vicinity of In spiration Point (Figure 3), where they crop out continu ously from about 0.5 km (0.3 mil upstream to 0.8 km (0.5 mil downstream from the mouth of Stair Creek. The dikes are also well exposed in Mule Creek, on the ridge extending south from Saddle Peaks, and on the south slope and top of Mount Bolivar (Figure 4).