Quaternary Studies near Summer Lake, Oregon Friends of the Pleistocene Ninth Annual Pacific Northwest Cell Field Trip September 28-30, 2001 springs, bars, bays, shorelines, fault, dunes, etc. volcanic ashes and lake-level proxies in lake sediments N Ana River Fault N Paisley Caves Pluvial Lake Chewaucan Slide Mountain pluvial shorelines Quaternary Studies near Summer Lake, Oregon Friends of the Pleistocene Ninth Annual Pacific Northwest Cell Field Trip September 28-30, 2001 Rob Negrini, Silvio Pezzopane and Tom Badger, Editors Trip Leaders Rob Negrini, California State University, Bakersfield, CA Silvio Pezzopane, United States Geological Survey, Denver, CO Rob Langridge, Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, Lower Hutt, New Zealand Ray Weldon, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR Marty St. Louis, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Summer Lake, Oregon Daniel Erbes, Bureau of Land Management, Carson City, Nevada Glenn Berger, Desert Research Institute, University of Nevada, Reno, NV Manuel Palacios-Fest, Terra Nostra Earth Sciences Research, Tucson, Arizona Peter Wigand, California State University, Bakersfield, CA Nick Foit, Washington State University, Pullman, WA Steve Kuehn, Washington State University, Pullman, WA Andrei Sarna-Wojcicki, United States Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA Cynthia Gardner, USGS, Cascades Volcano Observatory, Vancouver, WA Rick Conrey, Washington State University, Pullman, WA Duane Champion, United States Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA Michael Qulliam, California State University, Bakersfield, CA Steve Van Denburgh, United States Geological Survey, Carson City, NV Gary Simpson, SHN Consulting Geologists, Eureka, CA Mladen Zic, California State University, Bakersfield, CA Joe Licciardi, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Woods Hole, MA Blair Jones, United States Geological Survey, Reston, VA Dolly Friedel, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, CA Mel Aikens, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR Larry Hills, United States Forest Service, Lakewood, OR Ken Gobalet, California State University, Bakersfield, CA Michelle Casterline, California State University, Bakersfield, CA John Huff, California State University, Bakersfield, CA Tom Badger, Mackay School of Mines, University of Nevada, Reno, NV Contents Introduction Intro 1 Road Log Road Log 1 Day 1 Road Log 2 F1- Baymouth bar Road Log 2 F2- Ana River Canyon Section C Road Log 6 F3- Ana River Fault Road Log 9 F4- Ana Reservoir Road Log 9 F5- Ana River Canyon Sections E-F and neopluvial shoreline Road Log 9 Day 2 Sa1- Summer Lake Inn overlook of B&B coring site Road Log 11 Sa2- Willow Creek Pleistocene nearshore sediments Road Log 16 Sa3- Willow Creek Holocene fill terrace sediments Road Log 17 Sa4- Abert Rim nearshore sediments Road Log 18 Sa5- Overflow channel / spillover sill Road Log 19 Day 3 Su1- Paisley Caves Road Log 21 Su2- Fossiliferous sediments Road Log 21 Su3- Slide Mountain escarpment Road Log 23 Su4- Slide Lakes Road Log 23 References Cited Road Log 24 Articles Pluvial Lake Chewaucan shoreline elevations, S. Pezzopane SP 1 Lithologic evidence for the middle and late Pleistocene paleo-lake level fluctuation of pluvial Lake Chewaucan, Oregon, D. Erbes DE 1 Updated tephra stratigraphy at Summer Lake, Oregon, a sub-basin of pluvial Lake Chewaucan, S. Kuehn and F. Foit SK 1 Thermoluminescence dating of Summer Lake tephra, G. Berger GB 1 Magnetism of Chewaucan sediments: Implications for stratigraphy, paleolake-level, and the behavior of the Earth’s magnetic field, R. Negrini RN 1 Paleomagnetic correlation of the Shevlin Park Tuff, central Oregon, with tephra layer SL-JJ at Summer Lake in south-central Oregon, C. Gardner and R. Negrini CG 1 Regression models to calculate temperature of calcification for the ostracodes Limnocythere staplini and Cypridopsis vidua, M. Palacios-Fest MP 1 Slip rate, recurrence intervals and paleoearthquakes for the Ana River Fault, central Oregon, R. Langridge, S. Pezzopane, and R. Weldon RL 1 Latest Pleistocene soft-sediment deformation of lacustrine sediments in the northwestern part of the Summer Lake basin, Oregon, G. Simpson GS 1 Millennial-scale global climate change recorded in Summer Lake depocenter sediments, M. Zic MZ 1 Pleistocene Lake Chewaucan: Two short pieces on hydrological connections and lake-level oscillations, D. Friedel DF 1 Artifacts and Faunal Remains of Pre-and Post-Mazama Age from the Paisley Five-Mile Point Caves at Summer Lake, M. Aikens MA 1 Fossil fish of the northern Great Basin, K. Gobalet KG 1 Landslides along Winter Rim, Southwest Summer Lake Basin, Oregon, T. Badger TB 1 Preliminary study of Slide Mt. Mass Wasting Feature, M. Casterline and J. Huff MC 1 Introduction Rob Negrini, CSU Bakersfield Geography and Origins of Place Names “The Quaternary lake that occupied the The 2001 Friends of the Pleistocene (FOP) trip valleys of Abert Lake, Chewaucan Marsh, for the Pacific NW Cell is in the subbasins of Pluvial and Summer Lake, was 260 feet deep over Lake Chewaucan located in south-central Oregon. the Chewaucan Marsh, and 300 feet deep in Most of the area can be accessed from State Highway the valley now occupied by Summer Lake.” 31 and Interstate Highway 395 which traverse the two main ~N-S arms of this pluvial system (see In 1982, Ira Allison, a Professor of Geology at Figure R1 in Road Log). Oregon State University, published a revised The subasins are, from NW to SE: Summer maximum depth of ~370 feet in Geology of Pluvial Lake, the Upper Chewaucan Marsh, the Lower Lake Chewaucan, essential reading for anyone Chewaucan Marsh, and Lake Abert. The Pluvial Lake interested in the Quaternary prehistory of this region derives its name from the marshes and the (See Pezzopane in this volume for a comprehensive Chewaucan River which enters the basin at the town study of shoreline elevations around the basin). of Paisley at the northwestern end of the upper Included in the Preface of Allison’s book is a history th marsh. According to MacArthur (1973) the name of early to middle 20 century research in the area. “Chewaucan” derives its origin from the Klamath Briefly, research was spurred by the archeological Indians’ word for wild potato (tchua) and a suffix studies of Luther Cressman of the University of denoting locality (keni). Allison (1940) first used this Oregon and the related work on the volcanology of name for the Pleistocene pluvial lake. Crater Lake by Howel Williams of UC Berkeley and Summer Lake and the adjacent Winter Rim were on the vertebrate paleontology associated with named by J.C. Fremont during the Winter of 1843. Cressman’s archeological finds by John Merriam of Fremont, an army colonel, was leading soldiers the Carnegie Institution of Washington. These eastward through knee-deep snow when they came studies, particularly those associated with the Paisley upon the rim of the impressive Winter Rim Caves site (e.g., see Aikens, this volume), required a escarpment bordering the Summer Lake basin and study of pluvial lake histories. Thus, Allison was viewed a lake surrounded by green vegetation called in to help as part of a team of noted geologist thousands of feet below them. Fremont also named including Ernst Antevs. In Allison’s (1982) words, Lake Abert for one of his officers. See discussions in Allison (1982) and Grayson (1993) for more detail. “The results of this research, as hoped, have Some confusion will no doubt arise from the proved to be particularly helpful in published name of paleo- and modern lakes. Allison integrating the geological and archeological (1940; 1945; 1982) referred to the pluvial lake findings over the years. And as with occupying all of the subbasins during much of the mountain climbing, this investigation of Pleistocene as Pluvial Lake Chewaucan. He then pluvial Lake Chewaucan has been referred to the two separate lakes which occupied the fascinating in its own right, because, it was Summer Lake subbasin and the rest of the subbasins there.” as Winter Lake and ZX Lake, respectively. The latter is named after a ranch originally located in the The reader is referred to articles by Licciardi and by subbasin of the Upper Chewaucan Marsh. Friedel, both in this volume, for examples of how research on the archeological and pluvial prehistories Some Notes on the History of Quaternary of the region complement each other. Science in the Chewaucan Basins Ernst Antevs is well known for some of the earliest attempts to form integrated global climate As is the case for much of the Great Basin, I.C. change models from geological observations of his Russell (1884) was one of the first geologists to study own and of others such as Russell and Allison (e.g., the area. He visited the Chewaucan basin as part of a Antevs, 1948). In this volume articles on the geology reconnaissance study of southern Oregon to of Lake Chewaucan’s bottom sediments by Negrini investigate both the bedrock geology and the surficial and by Erbes demonstrate that data from this area deposits. Based on shoreline evidence he concluded support Antevs’ “migrating jet stream” model for the following: Pleistocene climate change. Data from this region also played a role in the development of Antevs’ phenomenological model of Holocene climate Intro 1 change. In particular, he used Allison’s (1945) Davis (1985) summed up the potential observation of several meters of lacustrine sediments importance of the Ana River exposures with the above the Mazama tephra to infer that Summer Lake following quote: had been 90-100 feet deep in the early Holocene. This was a major component of his evidence upon “The Summer lake section may represent a which his relatively moist “Anathermal” stage of the “Rosetta Stone” in which volcanic events, Holocene is based. Although Antevs’ Holocene paleomagnetic stratigraphy, and paleoecology can be climate model has more or less also stood the test of precisely related for much of the last 335,000 years.” time, it turns out that Allison’s identification of the Mazama tephra was wrong, an error which he Quaternary research in the Chewaucan basin is commendably admitted in a followup paper (Allison, fulfilling the promise anticipated by Davis and those 1966).