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This institution reserves the right to refuse to accept a copying order if, in its judgment, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of copyright law. 5061 Geology and Gravimetry of the Quaternary Basaltic Volcanic Field, Southern Cascade Rangel Washington - .........- ... ......... .-.St . .1 . -, ..,. ., 036........--.-I---:--- PAUL E. HAMMOND STEVEN A. PEDERSEN Department of Earth Sciences, Portland State University, P.O. Box 751, Portland, Oregon 97207, USA KENNETH D. HOPKINS Department of Earth Sciences, university of Northern Colorado, Greeley, Colorado 80631, USA DAN AIKEN Department of Geology, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403, USA DAVID S. HARLE Department of Geology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, USA Z. F. DANES DANIELA L. KONICEK CLAUDE R. STRICKLIN Department of Physics, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Washington 98416, USA ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION A late Quaternary basaltic field, of about 2200 sq km, Hot springs and the High Cascade stratovolcanoes are lies east of Mount St. Helens and extends eastward and not the only evidence of geothermal activity in the Cascade northward of Mount Adams. The flows originated from Range. Many basaltic shield volcanoes, and cinder cones, two north-trending fissure zones: a west fissure, extending scattered among the higher cones, give evidence of long 30 km, with 11 distinct centers, which produced at least and perhaps more frequent volcanic activity. The Quaternary 14 groups of lava flows; and an east fissure, lying about basaltic volcanic field in the southern Cascade Range of 25 km to the east, passing beneath Mount Adams, and Washington is such an example. extending 48 km. The east fissure contains 8 centers, Basaltic volcanic fields have been considered unfavorable excluding the andesitic Mount Adams volcano, from which for geothermal resources. Because these fields are underlain at least 10 groups of lava have flowed. Each center consists by thin lavas of high permeability and fed by narrow tabular of a shield volcano surmounted by one or more cinder cones. intrusions which produce short-lived eruptions, they are Interstratified relations with late Quaternary glacial and believed to have cooled quickly and not generated sufficient tephra deposits of Mount St. Helens indicate that at least heat to establish a convective geothermal system. However, 20 different volcanic eruptions have occurred in the field continued investigation of this field has been encouraged within the last 50 000 years, the last event'being the oupouring by evidence of frequent eruptions within the last 100 000 of the Big Lava Bed between 450 and 4000 years ago. or more years; a favorable reservoir zone within the un- The fissures strike oblique to regional northeast-trending derlying strata; large amounts of ground water; and an open folds of early to middle Tertiary volcanic strata. Several unusual gravity anomaly. north-striking faults extend northward and southward The purpose of this report is to summarize the results beyond the field. Gravity data reveal a linear local gravity of the geologic investigations and gravity surveys to date low' of -35 mgal, representing possibly less dense strata, in a continuing program of evaluating the geothermal re- hydrothermal alteration, or a magma reservoir, coincident sources of the southern Cascade Range. with the west fissure. A Bouguer gravity low of -115 mgal at the northern end of the east fissure may represent part LOCATION of the buried Mesozoic granitic batholith. The nearest thermal springs, of low temperature, mixed The Quaternary basaltic field, an area of about 2200 sq waters, lie 15 km southwest of the field, Their chemistry km, lies east of Mount St. Helens and extends northward indicates aquifer temperatures below 140°C. Continued geo- and eastward of Mount Adams to merge with the Simcoe physical investigations of the west fissure are planned. Basalt field (Sheppard, 1960, 1962, 1967) in the western 397 MAP OF BEDROCK GEOLOGY Lt { •,·:1·· AND BOUGUER GRAVITY •., I j 1 OF QUATERNARY BASALT FIELD, / 11.'.,• volcano4/ke.\•f SOUTHERN CASCADE RANGE, WASHINGTON 0. 90 Tcb ( LEGEND: r - Bouguer grovily contour Density 2,67g/cm3 -· - Rivers and Creeks \ 2 ,·' / 1,- f, - Contact / \.1,5 /K //-///// ./. -?- Indeflnlle contact '88- --Qb // 2-r.r•- TraceFault, ofshowingcross-sectiondown-droppedand numberblock b/rbed, and indefinite extent ? -•-•-- Anticllne,Syncline, showingshowing tracefrace ofaxisaxis andplungeplunge \--- ? Tcb 1ifs3««-- Volcanic center or criter \\ ,) T•i •74 , ?»T»,-------------»I Dike or plug Tsr .Tsr -1111111111111•1•1•1110 Hof springs .ae'lableI QT•••-1111-1•- Qhv - aar ---0 \ 1 4\46"15'- Tcb .yl\/1 » •= .....»AdiS . 7 T 7-' ,Lys-»j2<-«\T* / . «E Qhv \ 11 Tcb -90/ Tch Tec Qb S.» ', -..' 1 4 »»1,» - . .........»,-» Tcb f,Y Tec Qhv Qhv Tsr Z St mboot Mtil 1.-- « 3' 0b - 0T 1 . ? ? 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Tec CO.U.ex,-,1-2----132..X.--_.: _. /-T-' 1 -rr-' OREGON WASHINGTONI11 1 1 G * Moffetts Springs \ 2 < 1 -1 121:301 Figure 1. Map of bedrock geology and Bouguer gravity of Quaternary basalt field, southern Cascade Range, Washington. 398 GEOLOGY AND GRAVIMETRY OF SOUTHERN CASCADE RANGE, WASHINGTON 399 part of the Columbia Plateau (Fig. 1 ). The field lies wholly the fold axes trend predominantly northwestward but in within the jurisdiction of the Gifford Pinchot National the eastern part of the range, bordering the Columbia Plateau, Forest, with headquarters at Vancouver, Washington. the folds trend eastward. These fold trends converge in The field is accessible via paved county and Forest Service the approximate center of the range beneath the Quaternary roads along Wind, Little White Salmon, and White Salmon basalt field (Fig. 1 ). Faults trend northwestward; many faults Rivers, branching northward from State Highway 14 at the are as young as Quaternary. Columbia River, westward from Glenwood via the Glen- wood-Trout Lake road, eastward from the Lewis 'River road Stratigraphy via Forest Service roads No. N714 and No, N733, and southward from U.S. Highway 12 (Cowlitz River-White Pass The pre-Quaternary stratigraphic units are summarized highway) at Randle, via Forest Service road No. 123 and in Table 1. References to more detailed descriptions of the near Packwood via Forest' Service road No. '1302. The area units are included. can be reached within two hours' driving from Portland, The oldest rocks exposed are part of the Ohanapecosh Oregon, a distance of about 112 km (70 mi). formation, of Eo-Oligocene age. The strata are over 4500 m thick, and consists of interstratified volcanic sediments, REGIONAL GEOLOGY andesite and basalt lava flow complexes, and mudflow breccia deposits. Individual units are well stratified but discontinuous laterally. Marker or traceable strata are lack- General Features ing. The Ohanapecosh is overlain unconformably by the The Cascade Range extends about 1000 km in length, major Tertiary marker unit, the Stevens Ridge formation, from the Canadian border on the north, to Lassen Peak of largely ash-flow tuffs and interbedded volcanic sedimen- in northern California to the south, and is a narrow 120 tary rocks. It is Miocene in age, having been radiometrically km wide. The range has been arched and uplifted, some dated at 20 to 25 m.y. (Hartman, 1973). The Formation 1000 to 3000 m, (the greater amount occurring at the northern ranges from 90 to 600 m thick. The Stevens Ridge is, in end) during the late Pliocene and Pleistocene, from 1 to turn, overlain conformably by the beds of Council Bluff, 4 million years (m.y.) ago. Within the arch are many divergent of pyroxene andesite lava flow complexes and volcanic folds and faults of Tertiary age. sediments. The unit has a maximum thickness of 400 m. The southern Cascade Range of Washington, similar to The Ohanapecosh, Stevens Ridge, and Council Bluff the Western Cascades of Oregon, is composed of calc-alka- formations can be traced almost continuously through the line volcanic.