11,1 V ::::, 0 WASHINGTON 11,1 VOL.25.N0.4 DECEMBER 1997 GEo·~ loG~ I I OLYMPIC PENINSULA ISSUE I Modern and ancient cold seeps on the Pacific Coast, p. 3 I Evidence for Quaternary tectonism along the Washington coast, p 14 I Investigations on the active Canyon River fault, p. 21 WASHINGTON STATE DEPARTMENTOF I Eocene megafossils from the Needles-Gray Wolf Lithic Assemblage, p. 25 I Geologic mapping and landslide inventory, p. 30 Natural Resources Also Jennifer M . Belcher- Commissioner of Public Lands I Trees ring in 1700 as year of huge Northwest earthquake, p. 40 I Rapid earthquake notification in the Pacific Northwest, p. 33 I First record of cycad leaves from the Eocene Republic flora, p. 37 I Museum specialists visit Republic's fossil site, p. 38 WASHINGTON Update on the Crown Jewel Mine GEOLOGY Vol. 25, No. 4 Raymond Lasmanis, State Geologist December 1997 Washington State Department of Natural Resources Division of Geology and Earth Resources Washington Geology (ISSN 1058-2134) is published four times each PO Box 47007, Olympia, WA 98504-7007 year by the Washington State Department of Natu.ral Resources, Divi­ sion of Geology a.nd Eart.h Resources. This publication is free upon re­ quest. The Division also publishes bulletins, information circulars, reports of investigations, geologic maps, and open-file reports. A list of s noted in my previous columns on this subject, the Crown these publications will be sent upon request. A Jewel is one of the significant major new gold mining projects in the U.S. The deposit is on Buckhorn Mountain east DIVISION OF GEOLOGY AND EARTH RESOURCES of Chesaw in Okanogan County. The high-profile project has Raymond Lasmanis, Stare Geologist had, and is still receiving, much scrutiny by myriad entities. J. Eric Schuster, Assistant State Geologist During 1997, progress bas been made. On Feb. 3, the U.S. William S. Lingley, Jr., Assistant State Geologist Forest Service published the Final Environmental Impact Statement Record of Decision. This was followed by the Bu­ Geologists (Olympia) Editor reau of Land Management's Record of Decision on Feb. 7. Joe D. Dragovich Katherine M. Reed Wendy J. Gerstel The permitting process for the Crown Jewel gold mine was Senior Cartographer/ initiated by the operator, Battle Mountain Gold Company, Robert L. (Josh) Logan GIS Specialist David K. Norman Carl F. T. Harris early in 1997. Battle Mountain Gold is earning a 54 percent Stephen P. Palmer interest in the project by providing all of the capital costs to Patrick T. Pringle Cartographers Katherine M. Reed Keith G. Ikerd bring the property into production at a rate of 3,000 tons of ore Henry W. (Hank) Schasse Anne Heinitz per day. Crown Resources will retain a 46 percent interest Timothy J. Walsh Production Editor/ upon production. Weldon W. Rau (volu111eer) Designer The sequencing of the numerous permits is governed by a Geologist (Spokane) Jaretta M. (Jari) Roloff Coordinated Permit Process Scheduling Agreement signed, as Robert E. Derkey Data Communications amended, by the following state agencies: Department of Geologists (Regions) Technician J. Renee Christensen Ecology, Department of Fish and Wildlife, Department of Garth Anderson (Northwest) Health, and Department of Natural Resources. To date, the fol­ Charles W. (Chuck) Gulick Administrative Assistant (Northeast) Janis G. Allen lowing significant permits have been issued to Battle Moun­ Rex J. Hapala (Southwest) Regulatory Programs tain Gold: Lorraine PowelJ (Southeast) Assistant • Two construction storm-water pennits from Ecology Stephanie Zurenko (Central) Mary Ann Shawver • Five dam safety permits from Ecology Senior Librarian Clerical Staff Connie J. Manson • One hydraulic project approval from Fish and Wildlife Philip H. Dobson • Two forest practices permits from Natura] Resources Library Information Judy Henderson Specialist Cathrine Kenner • Water rights from Ecology Lee Walkling • Draft air-quality permit from Ecology • County land-use approval from Natural Resources MAIN OFFICE FIELD OFFICE Some of the major pending permits and plans are the final Department of Natural Resources Department of Natural Resources air-quality permit, surface mine reclamation permit, waste Division of Geology Division of Geology and Earth Resources and Earth Resources rock management plan, monitoring plan, plan of operations PO Box 47007 904 W. Riverside. Room 209 for the federal agencies, and the National Pollutant Discharge Olympia, WA 98504-7007 Spokane, WA 99201-1011 Elimination System (NPDES) and state wastewater discharge Phone: (360) 902- 1450 Phone: (509) 456-3255 permits. Fax: (360) 902-1785 Fax: (509) 456-6115 I will continue to inform our readers of the project's pro­ (See map on inside back cover Publications available from the gress. • for mai,1 office location.) Olympia address only. Internet Connections: Copying is encouraged, but please Library: acknowledge us as the source. CHANGED YOUR ADDRESS [email protected] -r... Printed on recycled paper. OR CHANGED YOUR MIND? lee.walk I [email protected] ,... Printed in the U.S.A. Subscriptions/address changes: The Division pays for Washington Geology from an al­ [email protected] ways-tight budget. Help us use our resources well by Jet­ URL: http://www.wa.gov/dnr/htdocs/ger/ger.html ting us know if you have moved or no longer wish to re­ ceive this "journal". We will do an address change or take Cover Photo: An exposure of late Pleistocene outwash deposits that underlie the area around Forks. The deposits at this site con­ your nam~ off the list immediately. If you move and do tain clasts of Olympic core rocks as well as granitic rocks from not notify us, you will have to wait until the undeliverable Canada. The presence of core rocks suggests that alpine glacial copy comes back from the post office with a new address, sediments were incorporated Into the deposit. However, the gra­ and we have to pay $1 to the post office for this service nitic rocks, poor sorting, and steeply dipping foreset beds suggest and re-mail your copy. There are several ways to contact ice-proximal deposition by continental ice. See article, p. 30. us; look under Main Office in the left column. Photo by Wendy Gerstel. 2 Washington Geology, vol. 25, no. 4, December 1997 Modern and Ancient Cold Seeps on the Pacific Coast-Monterey Bay, California, and Offshore Oregon as Modern-day Analogs to the Hoh Accretionary Complex and Quinault Formation, Washington Daniel L. Orange Kathleen A. Campbell* Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute NASA Ames Research Center, Exobiology Branch PO Box 628, Moss Landing, CA 95039 MS 239-4, Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000 e-mail: [email protected] ediments deposited on the sea floor initially contain more The Hoh rock assemblage was deposited in Eocene to Mio­ Sthan half water (by volume), yet the rocks we see exposed cene time and was accreted, deformed, uplifted, and eroded by on the Earth's surface can contain less than IO percent water. the late Miocene. These rocks are exposed either as coherent, The geologic processes that occur on an active plate margin­ tightly folded turbidites or as intensely sheared mud-matrix compaction, deformation, and cementation-all contribute to melange units in fault zones or mud diapirs. The Hoh rock as­ this decrease in volume of marine sediments. Where does the semblage contains abundant evidence of fluids, including fluid go? How does it move from one place to another? The petroliferous outcrops, carbonate cements, and veins of car­ challenge for geologists is to study something-fluid-that is bonate and laumontite (a calcium-aluminum silicate). Fracture no longer present. permeability of the sheared mud-matrix melange provided In our work on the southwestern Olympic Peninsula, we conduits for fluid flow during and after deformation. have found an unusual fossil community and related authi­ The Miocene(?) and Pliocene Quinault Formation was de­ genic (formed in place) carbonate that provide a clue to the posited on the Hoh rock assemblage in a piggyback basin, in origin and migration of fluids off the ancient coast of western fluvial/estuarine to bathyal depositional settin gs. In outer­ Washington. To demonstrate what these fossils and the car­ shelf facies strata, the Quinault preserves evidence for meth­ bonate can tell us about hydrology on continental shelves and ane-derived authigenic carbonate precipitation. Co-occurring slopes, we will first describe active seep communities from with this unusual carbonate are fossil bivalves (Solemya, Lu­ offshore Monterey Bay and Oregon and illustrate the factors cinoma, Modiolus) that have modem chemosymbiotic coun­ controlling their distribution. We will then apply knowledge terparts at cold seeps and hydrothermal vents. of the processes forming these active underwater seeps and re­ The Quinault paleo-seep owes its existence to the fluids examine the Hoh rock assemblage (Miocene) and the Quinault funneled to the surface through the Hoh melange, an associa­ Formation (late Miocene(?) and Pliocene) exposed on Qui­ tion confirmed by the structural and stratigraphic ties between nault Indian Nation lands in southwestern Washington. In this the two rock units. Additional ancient cold-seep deposits have manner, we will show that the Hoh and Quinault rocks pre­ been reported from Eocene to Oligocene siliciclastic forearc serve the paleohydrology-the plumbing for fluids buried in sequences of western Oregon and Washington and from Late marine sediments-that was active during plate collision and Jurassic to Late Cretaceous sequences in northern California. sedimentation. Stratigraphic and structural associations preserved between Fluids from depth (driven by tectonic or stratigraphic com­ Hoh and Quinault rocks are among the best exposed geologic pression or by buoyancy) are channeled to the surface along examples by which we can observe the pathways and products permeable fault zones, stratigraphic layers, and mud diapirs in of ancient fluid flow from an accretionary prism (marine sed­ modem continental margin settings.