Abstract
The Columbia River Basalt Group (CRBG) is one of the younger continental flood basalt provinces (17.5–6.0 My B.P.). The flows form a high plateau in northwestern USA, covering large parts of the states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho between the actively rising Cascade Range to the west and the main ranges of the Rocky Mountain system to the east (Fig. 1). Of moderate size (164,000 km2 and an estimated 170,000 km3; Tolan et al., 1987) the CRBG is an order of magnitude smaller than the Karoo or Deccan provinces. The flows are fresh, almost horizontal, and well preserved by a semi-arid climate. Deep canyons, cut by rivers rising in the mountains to the east, provide a plexus of natural cross sections. These geographic advantages, combined with a systematic research effort by many groups over the last fifteen years, have provided a detailed picture of the physical development of the province and of its chemical and isotopic composition.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderson, J.L., M.H. Beeson, R.D. Bentley, K.R. Fecht, P.R. Hooper, R. Niem, S.P. Reidel, D.A. Swanson, T.L. Tolan, and T.L. Wright (1987). Distribution maps of stratigraphic units of the Columbia River Basalt Group. In: Selected papers on the geology of Washington (Ed. J.E. Schuster). Washington Division of Geology and Earth Resources Bull. 77 (in press).
Armstrong, R.E., W.H. Taubeneck and P.O. Hales (1977). Rb-Sr and K-Ar geochronometry of Mesozoic granitic rocks and their Sr isotopic composition, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. Geol. Soc. Amer. Bull. 88, 397–411.
Bailey, M.M. (1985). Stratigraphy of the Picture Gorge Basalt (PGB), Columbia River Basalt Group, north-central Oregon. Geol. Soc. Amer., Abstr. Prog. 17, 339.
Bailey, M.M. (1986). Petrogenesis of the Picture Gorge Basalt (PGB), Columbia River Basalt Group. Geol. Soc. Amer. Abstr. Prog. 18, 532.
Beeson, M.H., K.R. Fecht, S.P. Reidel and T.L. Tolan (1985). Regional correlations within the Frenchman Springs Member of the Columbia River Basalt Group: New insights into the Middle Miocene tectonics of northwestern Oregon. Oregon Geology 47, 87–96.
Bevier, M.L. (1983). Implications of chemical and isotopic composition for petrogenesis of Chilcoton group basalts, British Columbia. Jour. Petrol. 24, 207–226.
Camp, V.E. (1981). Geologic studies of the Columbia Plateau: Part II. Upper Miocene basalt distribution reflecting source locations, tectonism and drainage history in the Clearwater embayment, Idaho. Geol. Soc. Amer. Bull. 92, 669–678.
Camp, V.E. and P.R. Hooper (1981). Geologic studies of the Columbia Plateau: Part I. Late Cenozoic evolution of the southeast part of the Columbia River Basalt Province. Geol. Soc. Amer. Bull. 92, 659–668.
Camp, V.E., S.M. Price and S.P. Reidel (1978). Descriptive summary of the Grande Ronde Basalt type section, Columbia River Basalt Group. Rockwell Int’ I lnformal Rept. RHO-BW1-LD-15, Richland, WA.
Carlson, R.W. (1984). Isotopic constraints on Columbia River flood basalt genesis and the nature of the subcontinental mantle. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 48, 2357–2372.
Carlson, R.W., G.W. Lugmair and J.D. Macdougall (1981). Columbia River volcanism: The question of mantle heterogeneity or crustal contamination. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 45, 2483–2499.
Cockerham, R.S. and R.D. Bentley (1973). Picture Gorge and Yakima Basalt between Clarno and Butte Creek, Oregon. Geol. Soc. Amer. Abstr. Prog. 5, 23.
Cox, K.G. (1980). A model for flood basalt volcanism. Jour. Petrol. 21, 629–650.
Duncan, R.A. (1982). A captured island chain in the coast range of Oregon and Washington. Jour. Geophys. Res. 87, 10827–10837.
Fitzgerald, J.F. (1984). Geology and basalt stratigraphy of the Weiser Embayment, west-central Idaho. In Bonnichsen, B., and Breckinridge, R.M. (Eds.), Cenozoic Geology of Idaho. Idaho Bur. Mines Geol. Bull. 26, 103–128.
Fleck, R.J. and R.E. Criss (1985). Strontium and oxygen isotopic variations in Mesozoic and Tertiary plutons of Central Idaho. Contrib. Min. Petrol. 90, 241–318.
Fruchter, J.S. and S.F. Baldwin (1975). Correlations between dikes of the Monument swarm, central Oregon, and Picture Gorge Basalt flows. Geol. Soc. Amer. Bull. 86, 514–516.
Goles, G.G. (1986). Miocene basalts of the Blue Mountains Province in Oregon. Part I: Compositional types and their geological settings. Jour. Petrol 27, 495–520.
Helz, R.T. (1978). The petrogenesis of the Ice Harbor Member, Columbia Plateau, Washington — A chemical and experimental study. Ph.D. Dissert., Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, 284 p.
Holden, G.S. and P.R. Hooper (1976). Petrology and chemistry of a Columbia River Basalt section, Rocky Canyon, west-central Idaho. Geol. Soc. Amer. Bull. 87, no. 2., 215–225.
Hooper, P.R. (1974). Petrology and chemistry of the Rock Creek flow, Columbia River Basalt. Geol. Soc. Amer. Bull. 85, 15–26.
Hooper, P.R. (1981). The role of magnetic polarity and chemical analyses in establishing the stratigraphy, tectonic evolution and petrogenesis of the Columbia River Basalt. Memoirs Geol. Soc. India 3, 362–376.
Hooper, P.R. (1982). The Columbia River Basalts. Science 215, 1463–1468.
Hooper, P.R. (1984a). Physical and chemical constraints on the evolution of the Columbia River Basalts. Geology 12, 495–499.
Hooper, P.R. (1984b). Tectonic model for the Columbia River Basalt west of Riggins, Idaho. In Bonnichsen, B., and Breckinridge, R.M. (Eds.), Cenozoic Geology of Idaho. Idaho Bur. Mines Geol. Bull. 26, 124–136.
Hooper, P.R. and V.E. Camp (1981). Deformation of the southeast part of the Columbia Plateau. Geology 9, 323–328.
Hooper, P.R., W.D. Kleck, C.R. Knowles, S.P. Reidel and R.L. Thiessen (1984). Imnaha Basalt, Columbia River Basalt Group. Jour. Petrol. 25, 473–500.
Hooper, P.R., C.R. Knowles and N.D. Watkins (1979). Magnetostratigraphy of the Imnaha and Grande Ronde Basalts in the southeastern part of the Columbia River Basalt Plateau. Amer. Jour. Sci. 279, 737–754.
Hooper, P.R. and D.A. Swanson (in press). Columbia River Basalt Group and associated volcanic rocks in the Blue Mountains Province: U.S. Geol. Surv. Prof. Paper.
Huppert, H.E. and R.S.J. Sparks (1985). Cooling and contamination of mafic and ultramafic magmas during ascent through continental crust. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 74, 371–386.
McDougall, I. (1976). Geochemistry and origin of basalt of the Columbia River Basalt Group, Oregon and Washington. Geol. Soc. Amer. Bull. 87, 777–792.
McKee, E.H., P.R. Hooper and W.D. Kleck (1981). Age of Imnaha Basalt-oldest basalt flows of the Columbia River Basalt Group, Northwest United States. Isochron-West, 31–33.
McKee, E.H., D.A. Swanson and T.L. Wright (1977). Duration and volume of Columbia River Basalt volcanics, Washington, Oregon and Idaho. Geol. Soc. Amer. Abstr. Prog. 9, 463.
Magill, J.R., R.E. Wells, R.W. Simpson and A.V. Cox (1982). Post 12 m.y. rotation of southwest Washington. Jour. Geophys. Res. 87, 3761–3776.
Martin, B.S. (1984). Paleomagnetism of basalts in northeastern Oregon and west-central Idaho. M.S. Thesis, Washington State University, Pullman, 151 p.
Mohl, G.B. and R.L. Thiessen (1985). Subsurface structure in southeastern Washington as defined by Bouger gravity measurements. Geol. Soc. Amer. Abstr. Prog. 17, 370.
Nathan, S. and J.S. Fruchter (1974). Geochemical and paleomagnetic stratigraphy of the Picture Gorge and Yakima Basalts (Columbia River Group) in central Oregon. Geol. Soc. Amer. Bull. 85, 63–76.
O’Hara, M.J. (1977). Geochemical evolution during fractional crystallization of a periodically refilled magma chamber. Nature 266, 503–507.
O’Hara, M.J. and R.E. Mathews (1981). Geochemical evolution in an advancing, periodically tapped, continuously fractionated magma chamber. Geol. Soc. Lond. Jour. 138, 237–277.
Osawa, M. and G. Goles (1970). Trace element abundances in Columbia River Basalts. In Gilmour, E.H., Stradling, D. (Eds.). Proceedings of the Second Columbia River Basalt Symposium. Eastern Washington State Coll. Press, Cheney, 55–71.
Prestvik, T. and G.G. Goles (1985). Comments on petrogenesis and the tectonic setting of Columbia River basalts. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 72, 65–73.
Reidel, S.P. (1978). The stratigraphy and petrogenesis of the Grande Ronde Basalt in the lower Salmon and adjacent Snake River Canyons. Ph.D. Thesis, Washington State University, Pullman, 415 p.
Reidel, S.P. (1983). The stratigraphy and petrogenesis of the Grande Ronde Basalt from the deep canyon country of Washington, Oregon and Idaho. Geol. Soc. Amer. Bull. 94, 519–542.
Reidel, S.P. (1984). The Saddle Mountains: the evolution of an anticline in the Yakima fold belt. Amer. Jour. Sci. 284, 942–978.
Reidel, S.P., P.E. Long, C.W. Myers and J. Mase (1982). New evidence for greater than 3.2 km of Columbia River basalt beneath the central Columbia Plateau. Trans. Amer. Geophys. Union (EOS) 63, 173.
Riddihough, R., C. Finn and R. Couch (1986). Klamath-Blue Mountains lineament, Oregon. Geology 14, 528–531.
Robyn, T.L. (1977). Geology and petrology of the Strawberry Volcanics, northeast Oregon. Ph.D. Dissert., Univ. of Oregon, Eugene, 197 p.
Russell, I.C. (1893). A geological reconnaissance in central Washington. U.S. Geol. Surv. Bull. 108, 108 p.
Shaw, H.R. and D.A. Swanson (1970). Eruption and flow rates of flood basalts. In Gilmour, E.H. and Stradling, D., Proc. 2nd Columbia River Basalt Symp. Eastern Washington State College Press, Cheney, 271–297.
Smith, G.A. (1986). Stratigraphy, sedimentology, and petrology of Neogene rocks in the Deschutes Basin, central Oregon: A record of continental margin volcanism and its influence on fluvial sedimentation in an arc-adjacent basin. Ph.D. Thesis, Oregon State University, Corvallis.
Smith, R.L. (1979). Ash flow magmatism. Geol. Soc. Amer. Bull. 71, 795–842.
State of Washington Well Records (1984). Dept. of Natural Resources, Olympia, WA.
Swanson, D.A. and T.L. Wright (1981). The regional approach to studying the Columbia River Basalt. Mem. Geol. Soc. India 3, 58–80.
Swanson, D.A., T.L. Wright and R.T. Helz (1975). Linear vent systems and estimated rates of magma production and eruption for the Yakima Basalt on the Columbia Plateau. Amer. Jour. Sci. 275, 877–905.
Swanson, D.A., T.L. Wright. P.R. Hooper and R.D. Bentley (1979). Revisions in stratigraphic nomenclature of the Columbia River Basalt Group. U.S. Geol. Surv. Bull. 1457-G, G1-G59.
Taubeneck, W.H. (1970). Dikes of Columbia River Basalt in northeastern Oregon, western Idaho, and southeastern Washington. In Gilmour, E.H., Stradling, D. (Eds.), Proc. 2nd Columbia River Basalt Symp. Eastern Washington State College Press, Cheney, 73–96.
Tolan, T.L., S.P. Reidel, M.H. Beeson, J.L. Anderson, K.R. Fecht and D.A. Swanson (1987). Revisions of the areal extent and volume of the Columbia River Basalt Group. Geol. Soc. Amer. Abstr. Prog., Cordilleran Section, Hawaii.
Uppuluri, V.R. (1974). Prineville chemical type: a new basalt type in the Columbia River Group. Geol. Soc. Amer. Bull. 85, 1315–1318.
Waters, A.C. (1961). Stratigraphic and lithologic variations in the Columbia River Basalts. Amer. Jour. Sci. 259, 538–611.
Watkins, N.D. and A.K. Baksi (1974). Magnetostratigraphy and oroclinal folding of the Columbia River, Steens and Owyhee Basalts in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. Amer. Jour. Sci. 274, 148–189.
Wright, T.L., M.J. Grolier and D.A. Swanson (1973). Chemical variations related to the stratigraphy of the Columbia River basalts. Geol. Soc. Amer. Bull. 84, 371–386.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1988 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hooper, P.R. (1988). The Columbia River Basalt. In: Macdougall, J.D. (eds) Continental Flood Basalts. Petrology and Structural Geology, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-7805-9_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-7805-9_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-8458-3
Online ISBN: 978-94-015-7805-9
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive