OREGON GEOLOGY published by the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries VOLUME 61 , NUMBER 2 MARCH/APRIL 1999 APRIL-Earthquake and Tsunami Preparedness Month: New K-12 Curriculum for Oregon Schools IN THIS ISSUE: METEORITES FROM THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST OIL AND GAS EXPLORATION AND DEVELOPMENT IN OREGON, 1998 GEOTHERMAL EXPLORATION IN OREGON, 1996-1998 OREGON GEOLOGY Roddey joins DDGAMI staff (ISSN0164.3304) James Roddey has joined the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI) as Commu­ VOLUME 6 1, NUMBER 2 MARJAPR. 1999 nity Education Coordinator. He has an extensive back­ ~"""","",,~~ ........m."'I' . "'. ~''''_bf''''o..p.~.,. ~"''-~_~l~'''' __ '''''o.- ... ) ground in educational and commercial media including over 20 years of marketing and public relations experi­ Governing Bo ~ rd Jacqueline G, Haggerty, Chair ....................................... Enterpr;l.t: ence in the television industry. He joins the department Arleen N. Samett __ ............................................................. Portland from Boise, Idaho, where he was Promotion and Com­ ____ ..... Depoe 8ay Donald W Ch,,~tensen .. munity Relations Manager of K1VI-T v' an ABC affiliate. State Geologj~t _.. .. ,... ................................................ Donald A. Hull Deputy Slate Geologist ...................•.. ___ ___ _. John D. Beaulieu ~ditO f .. ............ ...... .. l<laus K.E. Neuendorf Production Anistanh ,_ . ................ ........................ Geneva Beck ................... ...... .......... ....................... .... __ . Kate Halstead M ain Office; Suite 965, 800 NE Oregon Street II 28. Portland 97232. phone (503) 731 -41 00. FAX (503) 731·4066. tnlelnet : http : / / S<lrv~ . d ogami.$ t aleorus Saker City Field Office: 1831 First Street. 8a ker CIty 9781 4, phone (541 ) 523-3133. FAX (541) 523,5992. Mark l. Ferns. Regional Geologist. Grants Pass Field Office: 5375 M onument DIi~. Gran~ Pass 97526, phone (541) 476·2496. FAX (541) 474·3158. Thomas J. Wiley. Regional Geologist. Mined land Reclamation Program: 1536 Queen Ave . SE. Albany 97321. phone (541) 967·2039. FAX (541) 967·2075. Gary W. Lynch. SupervIsor. In ternet: http://www.proaxos.com/ -dogamojmlrweb shtml The Nature of the Norlhwest lnform ation Center: Suite In. 800 NE O regon St. /I 5, Portland, OR 97232·2162. phone (503) 872 -2750. FAX (503) 731 ·4066. Donald J. Haines. Manager. Internet: http:// www.naturenw.org Periodicals postage paid at Portland. Oregon. $ubseriptJon rates: I Prior to his service in Boise, Roddey worked at North­ year, S10; 3 years, 522 . Single issues, 53 . Address subscription orde.s. ern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona, where he renewals. and changes of addre$s to Oregon Geology. SUIte 965. 800 produced and directed over 60 educational earth­ NE Oregon Street II 28. Portland 97232. Orl!',pm C"'oiogy IS designed to l each a w,de spectrum of readers science te levision programs for The Learning Channel ,n terested in the geology and mInerai Industry of Oregon. Manusc"pt (TLC). " GEONAUTS" was produced in partnership with contributions are invited on both technical and gene,aI-interest ~ubiects the National Park Service and included a year-long relatong to Oregon geology. Two copies of the manUSCript should be subm'tted If manusCftpl was prepared on common word·processlng cu rriculum for upper elementary students that could be equipment. a file copy on diSKette should be ~ubmilt e d in place of one used in conjunction with the twice-weekly television paper copy (f,om Ma cin t o~h $ystems. h'gh·denslty d.skelte only) program. "GEONAUTS " explored the geology of the GraphICs ~houid be Camera ready; photographs should be black -and­ whIte glOSSIes All figures should be clearly marked; figure captIons Colorado Plateau and featured many of the national should be together at the end of the text. parks in the area, including Grand Canyon National Style is generally that of U.S. GeoklgKal Survey publtcations (See Park, Dinosaur National Monument, Petrified Forest USGS Suggestions to Authors, 7th ed .. 1991. or recent issues of Or"',{011 Ct'1oIo,{y) Blbliog.ap hy should be limIted to references CIted . Authors National Park, and Canyonlands National Park. are responsible for the accuracy of the bibliographic rel erences. Indude As partner in the DOGAMI outreach and earthquake names 01 reVIewers in the ac k nowle d gm~n t s . teams , Roddey will help the department promote its Authors WIll rece,ve 20 complimentary copIes 01 the Issue contaoning their cont"bution Manuscripts. letters. notKes. and mtetong announce­ natural hazards awareness programs, including seismic ments should be sent to Kl aus Neuendorl. Ed itor. at the Po,tland office rehabilitation and education, and landslide and tsunami (address above) awareness. "It's exciting to be able to combine my Perm,ssion is granted to ,eprlnt InlormatlOn contaIned he'eln Cred It g,ven to the Oregon Department of Geology and Mlne,aI Industrlts fo, media skills with my love of geology to help the people comp,ling this InformaMn WIll be appre<:'ated. Conclusklns and Op,nIO nS of Oregon learn about the dynamic environment they p,esented In art..:les a'e those of the au thors and are not necessaJi ly li ve in," said Roddey. " DOGAMl's work has the poten­ endorsed by the Oregon Department 01 ~gy and Moneral lndustnes. tial to save lives. I can't think of anything that's more POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Oregon Geology. Suite 965,800 NE Oregon St.1t 28. Portland. OR 97232·2162. important than that. " Roddey grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, and attended Cover ph oto Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina, wh ere Teach er Kathy Malarkey and pupil Al isha Karel are he majored in English with a minor in Geology. He notes working on an exercise during a workshop at the Hatfield that Oregon and the Northwest have always intrigued Marine Science Center in Newport. testing a cur­ new him ." Ever since I visited the Northwest when I was 11 riculum for earthquake and tsunami preparedness. See art icfe on activities and even ts for "April-Earthquake years old, I've wanted to know this area better. Portland and Tsunami Preparedness Month " on page 50. makes a great home base for exploring, " said Roddey. 0 " OREGON GEOLOGY, VOLUME 61 , NUMBER 2, MARCH/APRI l l999 Meteorites from the Pacific Northwest by George E Mustoe, Geology Oepartment Western Washington University, Be//ingham, WA 98225. INTRODUCTION trajectory was toward the Java beds sturdy wagon and hauled by four One day. long before Europeans of southern Oregon and northern draft horses over 2.5 mi (4 km) of arrived in the Pacific Northwest, the California, but the object's final muddy, boulder-strewn trail to reach fiery trail of a large meteorite illumi­ resting place was a high mesa near the nearest road (Figure 1), ulti­ nated the skies over southern Ore­ Goose Lake in northern Modoc mately headed for the exhibition gon. Unlike the distant shooting stars County, California, only a mile short halls of the National Museum in that can be seen on any dear night. of the Oregon border. Washington, D.C. The Goose Lake the glow in the sky warned of an im­ The meteorite was found on Oc­ meteorite is presently the largest me­ minent arrival of a 1 ,167-kg (1.3- tober 13, 1938, by three deer teorite in the Smithsonian's collection ton) mass of nickel-iron alloy that hunters and was recovered the fol­ (Leonard, 1939). had once been part of the core of lowing year by meteorite scientist Oregon's near-miss experience an asteroid. After more than 4 billion H.H. Nininger, assisted by three pro­ with the Goose Lake meteorite pro­ years in orbit, the eggshaped object fessors from the University of Cali­ vides an appropriate background for hurtled into our atmosphere at a ve­ fornia at Los Angeles, several local this review of meteorites from the locity of somewhere between 11 and residents, and a team of boy scouts. Pacific Northwest, because the state 32 km per second. The meteorite's The specimen was loaded onto a is better known by meteorite enthusi- Fi gure 1. Goose Lake, California, meteorite loaded on cart for transport. From Nininger (1972), p. 177. OREGON GEOLOGY, VOLUME 61, NUMBER 2, MARCH/APRIL 1999 27 asts for tales of frustration rather planets that orbit the sun within a planet each day, mostly in the form than for happy discoveries. Examples series of weJJ-defined belts that are of dust-sized particles (Dodd, 1986). include the Willamette meteorite, located between Mars and Jupiter. Over the past 4.5 billion years, th is which triggered a bitter property· Asteroids were once thought to be volume is equivalent to a surface rights dispute that ultimately resulted pieces of a single planet that broke layer about 5 in. (1 2.7 cm) thick. in the removal of the nation's largest apart billions of years ago, but the Meteorites weighing 1 g (O.04 oz) or recovered meteorite to the east wide range of compositional varia­ more arrive at an annual rate of coast. The well· publicized story of tions observed in meteorites sug­ about 8 per square mile, but only a the "lost " Port Orford meteorite has gests that they derived from many tiny percentage of these are ever dis· given several generations of Orego­ different parent bodies (McSween, covered. Several hundred meteorites nians the hope of another spectacular 1987). weighing 1 ton or more strike the find, but this legendary discovery Most asteroids travel in the same Earth each year. but most escape de· now appears to have originated as a direction in which the planets in our tection, partly because 72 percent of hoax (Clarke, 1993). solar system rotate but along paths the planet is covered by water. Disappointments continue to that cause them to periodically ap­ Geography plays an extremely im­ plague meteorite hunters: a spectac­ proach the Earth .