Tectonic Geomorphology and the Record of Quaternary Plate Boundary Deformation in the Olympic Mountains
Geological Society of America Field Guide 4 2003 Tectonic geomorphology and the record of Quaternary plate boundary deformation in the Olympic Mountains Frank J. Pazzaglia Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania 18015, USA Glenn D. Thackray Department of Geosciences, Idaho State University, Pocatello, Idaho 83209, USA Mark T. Brandon Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8109, USA Karl W. Wegmann Washington Department of Natural Resources, Division of Geology & Earth Resources, Olympia, Washington 98504-7007, USA John Gosse Department of Earth Sciences, Room 3006, Life Sciences Centre, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4J1, Canada Eric McDonald Desert Research Institute, Division of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, 2215 Raggio Parkway, Reno, Nevada 89512, USA Antonio F. Garcia Department of Physics, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, California 93407, USA Don Prothero Department of Geology, Occidental College, 1600 Campus Road, Los Angeles, California 90041-3314, USA ABSTRACT We use Quaternary stratigraphy to reconstruct landscape evolution and measure tectonic deformation of the Olympic Mountains section of the Pacifi c Northwest Coast Range. An important motivation for understanding orogenesis here, and throughout the Coast Range, is the concern about the relationship of active deformation to seismic hazards associated with the Cascadia subduction zone. There is also much interest in apportioning the nature of the deformation, whether cyclic or permanent, whether it involves mainly shortening parallel or normal to the margin, and how the deformation on the pro- versus retrowedge sides of the orogen compare. Pre-Holocene stratigraphy and structure provide the only records of suffi cient duration to separate long-term permanent deformation from earthquake-cycle elastic deformation.
[Show full text]