SELECTED PAPERS ON THE GEOLOGY OF WASHINGTON J. ERIC SCHUSTER, Editor WASHINGTON DIVISION OF GEOLOGY AND EARTH RESOURCES BULLETIN 77 1987 •• WASHINGTON STATE DEPARTMENT OF =~;;;arf;t Natural Resources Brian Boyle • Commlnloner ol Public Land> Art Sleoms · Supervisor Division ol Geology and Earth Resources Raymond Lamianis. Stale Geologist This report is for sale by: Publications Washington Deparbnent of Natural Resources Division of Geology and Earth Resources Mail Stop PY-12 Olympia, WA 98504 Price $ 14.84 Tax 1.16 Total $ 16.00 Mail orders must be prepaid; please add $1.00 to each order for postage and handling. Make checks payable to the Department of Natural Resources. This book is printed on acid-free paper. Printed in the United States of America. ii This volume is in memory of Randall L. Gresens (1935-1982) E. Bates McKee, Jr. (1934-1982) and in honor of Julian D. Barksdale (1904-1983) Howard A. Coombs Peter Misch A. Lincoln Washburn and Harry E. Wheeler (1907-1987) for their service to the University of Washington, Department of Geological Sciences, and their contributions to the geological sciences. iii iv CONTENTS page Preface J. Eric Schuster and Eric S. Cheney vii A tectonic and geochronologic overview of the Priest River crystalline complex, northeastern Washington and northern Idaho William A. Rehrig, Stephen J. Reynolds, and Richard L. Armstrong ......................... I Rb-Sr and U-Pb geochronometry of the Priest River metamorphic complex­ Precambrian X basement and its Mesozoic-Cenozoic plutonic-metamorphic overprint, northeastern Washington and northern Idaho Richard Lee Armstrong, Randall R. Parrish, Peter van der Heyden, Stephen J. Reynolds, and William A. Rehrig ................................................................. 15 Recent structural analyses of the Kootenay Arc in northeastern Washington A. J. Watkinson and Michael A. Ellis ............................................................................ 41 Kettle and Okanogan domes, northeastern Washington and southern British Columbia Kristin E. Orr and Eric S. Cheney ................................................................................. .. 55 Upper Mesozoic Methow-Pasayten sequence, northeastern Cascade Range, Washington and British Columbia Marilyn E. Tennyson and Mark R. Cole ........................................................................ 73 Rb-Sr and K-Ar dating of mid-Mesozoic blueschist and late Paleozoic albite­ epidote-amphibolite and blueschist metamorphism in the North Cascades, Washington and British Columbia, and Sr-isotope fingerprinting of eugeosynclinal rock assemblages Richard Lee Armstrong and Peter Misch ....................................................................... 85 Possible tectonostratigraphic terranes in the North Cascades crystalline core, Washington R. W. Tabor, R. E. Zartman, and V. A. Frizzell, Jr ..................................................... 107 Late Mesozoic or early Tertiary melanges in the western Cascades of Washington Virgil A. Frizzell, Jr., Rowland W. Tabor, Robert E. Zartman, and Charles D. Blome .............................................................................................................. 129 Major Cenozoic faults in the northern Puget Lowland of Washington Eric S. Cheney .................................................................................................................. 149 Early Cenozoic geology of central Washington State: I. Summary of sedimentary, igneous, and tectonic events Randall L. Gresens ........................................................................................................... 169 Early Cenozoic geology of central Washington State: II. Implications for plate tectonics and alternatives for the origin of the Chiwaukum graben Randall L. Gresens 179 V CONTENTS ( continued) page Distribution maps of stratigraphic units of the Columbia River Basalt Group James Lee Anderson, M. H. Beeson, R. D. Bentley, K. R. Fecht, P. R. Hooper, A. R. Niem, S. P. Reidel, D. A. Swanson, T. L. Tolan, and T. L. Wright.................................................................. ............................ 183 Evolution of the eastern part of the Columbia Plateau P. R. Hooper and D. A. Swanson........................................................................................ 197 Paleodrainage of the Columbia River system on the Columbia Plateau of Washington State-A summary Karl R. Fecht, Stephen P. Reidel, and Ann M. Tallman............................................. ..... 219 lntracanyon flows of the Columbia River Basalt Group in the southwest part of the Columbia Plateau and adjacent Cascade Range, Oregon and Washington James Lee Anderson and Beverly F. Vogt.............................................................. ............ 249 Early and middle Cenozoic stratigraphy of the Mount Rainier- Tieton River area, southern Washington Cascades Joseph A. Vance, Geoffrey A. Clayton, James M. Mattinson, and Charles W. Naeser........................................................................ ............. ... ..... ..... ............. 269 Cenozoic stratigraphy, unconformity-bounded sequences, and tectonic history of southwestern Washington John M. Armentrout.................................................................................. ........................... 291 Chronology of Pleistocene sediments in the Puget Lowland, Washington David J. Blunt, Don J. Easterbrook, and Nathaniel W. Rutter........................................ 321 Minor explosive eruptions at Mount St. Helens dramatically interacting with winter snowpack in March-April 1982 Richard B. Waitt and Norman S. MacLeod ................................ ...................................... 355 Abbreviated biographies Julian D. Barksdale....................................... ....................................................... ................. 381 Memorials Julian D. Barksdale, Eric S. Cheney.......................... .......................... ............................... 383 vi Washington Division of Geology and Earth Resources Bulletin 77, 1987 PREFACE In the past few decades the geology of virtually The symposium was highly successful. A meeting every region of Washington has been so extensively room capable of seating perhaps 75 to 100 people had revised that most previous descriptions are badly out of been allotted for the symposium. The room was filled date. Much of the credit for these revisions belongs to overflowing by the time the symposium began, and either directly or indirectly to five long-time faculty after Cheney's opening remarks the gathering was members of the Department of Geological Sciences at moved to a larger hall. Attendance probably the University of Washington: J. D. Barksdale, H. A. approached 500 people. Papers were delivered as Coombs, P. Misch, A. L. Washburn, and H. E. Wheeler. shown in Table l, except that H. A. Coombs was They either were directly responsible for much of the unable to attend because of illness. In his place, R. B. new data and interpretations through their own research Waitt, Jr., gave a paper on the March-April 1982 or were indirectly responsible through the work of their eruptions of Mount St. Helens. colleagues and former students. Chairpersons of the sessions were other major In 1980 Eric S. Cheney conceived the idea of a contributors to the geology of the State. The late V. E. symposium on the geology of Washington to honor Livingston had to withdraw as a chairperson for rea­ these five, each of whom had recently retired from the sons of health just before the program was printed. University of Washington. He discussed the idea with Likewise, the late A. E. Weissenborn of the U.S. E. Bates McKee, Jr., who was in the process of revis­ Geological Survey in Spokane had to withdraw after ing Cascadia, his famous textbook on the geology of the program was printed. The sessions ultimately were the Pacific Northwest. McKee was equally enthusias­ chaired by McKee, John T. Whetten (a former chair­ tic, and together they framed the concept that each person of the Department of Geological Sciences, Uni­ speaker should involve as many co-authors as possible versity of Washington), and Schuster. and should present a regional overview of some part of The emotional apogee of the symposium came the State. Cheney and McKee approached the Cordil­ after Barksdale delivered his paper on the biographies leran Section of the Geological Society of America of the five honorees. CharacteristicaJly, Barksdale had about such a symposium and were immediately left almost no time for his autobiography. He was encouraged to proceed by Margaret W oyski, the Sec­ foiled by Whetten, who used his prerogative as chair­ tion's Program Chairperson. person to insert a few remarks. When Whetten had Cheney was primarily responsible for the sympo­ finished, there was hardly a dry eye in the hall, and the sium, and McKee was to be the editor for a volume five honorees were given a standing ovation. incorporating the papers of the symposium. V. E. Three months after the symposium Bates McKee, (Ted) Livingston, State Geologist, and J. Eric Randy Gresens, and Randy's wife, Mimi, were killed Schuster, Assistant State Geologist, volunteered that in a plane crash near Wenatchee. Cheney then took on the Washington State Division of Geology and Earth the responsibility of seeing that a symposium volume Resources would be interested in assisting in publica­ would be published. The five retired faculty members tion of the symposium