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Floods, Faults, and Fire: Geological Field Trips in Washington State and Southwest British Columbia
GSA Field Guide

Floods, Faults, and Fire: Geological Field Trips in Washington State and Southwest British Columbia

Editor(s)
Pete Stelling
Pete Stelling
Geology Department Western Washington University 516 High St., MS 9080 Bellingham, Washington 98225 USA
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David S. Tucker
David S. Tucker
Geology Department Western Washington University 516 High St., MS 9080 Bellingham, Washington 98225 USA
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Geological Society of America
Volume
9
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1130/9780813700090
Copyright:
Geological Society of America, Inc.
© Geological Society of America 2007, ISBN 978-0-8137-5609-7$9.00
ISBN electronic:
9780813756097
ISBN print:
9780813700090
Publication date:
January 01, 2007

The ten geological field guides presented in this volume explore key areas of the geologist’s Paradise that is Washington State and British Columbia. These trips investigate a wide variety of geologic and geographic terrains, from the dry steppe of the channeled scablands and Columbia River basalt group to the east, across the glaciated and forested Cascade arc and Coast Mountains, to the geologically complex islands in the west. This guidebook may be unique in that four of the trips utilize boats to reach remote field areas and are therefore rarely visited by geologists. Although these trips were guided during the 2007 GSA Cordilleran Section meeting, the guides were written to ensure that people can easily guide their own trips. The result provides an excellent source of exciting, thought-provoking geologic adventures for years to come.

Book Chapter

Tectonic evolution of the San Juan Islands thrust system, Washington

Author(s)
E.H. Brown
E.H. Brown
Department of Geology, Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington 98225, USA
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;
B.A. Housen
B.A. Housen
Department of Geology, Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington 98225, USA
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;
E.R. Schermer
E.R. Schermer
Department of Geology, Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington 98225, USA
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Doi:
https://doi.org/10.1130/2007.fld009(08)
  • Published:
    January 01, 2007

Abstract

The mid-Cretaceous San Juan Islands–northwest Cascades thrust system is made up of six or more nappes that are a few kilometers or less thick, up to one hundred kilometers in breadth, and that were derived from previously accreted Paleozoic and Mesozoic terranes. This field trip addresses many questions regarding the tectonic evolution of this structural complex, including the homeland of the terranes and the process of post-accretionary dispersal that brought them together, how thrusting in the San Juan Islands might have been related to coeval orogenic activity in the neighboring Coast Plutonic Complex, and the origin of blueschist metamorphism in the thrust system relative to subduction and nappe emplacement. The geology of this trip has many counterparts in other outboard regions of the Cordillera, but some aspects of the tectonic processes, as we understand them to date, seem to be unique.

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