Cosmic Mineral Separation Initiative

The cosmic mineral separation directive has officially been implemented at NBMG. I now actually understand what we are doing and learned how a microscope works. Turns out looking for olivine makes my hair grow. 

I have received much help from colleagues Nick (of previous 3D mapping fame) and Bret (shown in photo). Bret is doing nearly all of the work. Nick is providing more guidance than I am because he separates minerals for Ar-Ar all of the time. I (we) am (are) paying Bret for all of this work. Have also gotten some billets for thin sections out of the deal.

Can you guess where this is?

Hint: SWA Flt 2268







You can clearly see the RB, CB, WC, BR lavas in this one.


Here you can see the WC vent and the main lava tube. Rad.


-Spud

Dave's landslide blog: The Tennessee flow slide accident - what went wrong?

Dave's landslide blog: The Tennessee flow slide accident - what went wrong?

Geologic Froth: Geofroth at AGU 2008

Geologic Froth: Geofroth at AGU 2008

I'm done with the map, I'm done with the map, etc.

Finished just in time to attend a meeting about heavy budget cuts at UNR. Check the earlier entries to see how far this came. On this version, the lava dams are indicated and I have exercised my urges to name stuff.

I will only change something if it is factually and not only aesthetically erroneous.

I'm sick of the map, I'm sick of the map, I'm sick of the map, etc.

Here is one version...had some plotter problems (shocking, no?) and dumbed the base down a little. This one is about 24 by 28.

I'm the map, I'm the map, I'm the map, etc.

This is what I came up with for a draft layout for the map. I will add the base material images when back at my office computer. Any votes for shaded relief vs topo or some other possibility (e.g. a combination of those, the NAIP imagery, satellite imagery)? I am traveling after noon tomorrow and will be unavailable on Thursday and Friday. Weekend is possible, but I have a talk to prepare for AGU and haven't started that yet.

The draft above shows some labels on the lava flows. I could add more or delete the ones on there. Anyone have a preference? Let me know soon.

Owyhee Map for AGU...almost there

I have reached a point of no return on the map and have gotten close to a final draft for inclusion on AGU poster(s). In this version, a lot of the detail is left out:

no bedrock older than Bogus Rim flow
undivided landslides,
undivided mainstem fluvial deposits (active channel is divided),
undivided lacsutrine deposits.

Reasons: map is too complicated for showing everything and too many loose ends in some units (mainly generalized bedrock) to build polys.

The colors are chosen to highlight the various features and are obviously not conventional geologic map colors. Mainly, those conventions are a real annoyance when you map detailed surficial units anyway. The snippets in this post should give you a good idea of where things stand. I am leaving town tomorrow afternoon and cannot have this map hanging over my head...and I bet that spud is tired of waiting.

It will be pretty easy to create a basemap using these data as the 1:250,000 version indicates. I need some feedback on where to go from here.

Cool Tangent...Rocky Butte and Jordan Creek

I have been mapping the Q basalt flows that didn't make it to the Owyhee and have learned that the lava v. water situation on Jordan Creek is exceptionally cool and interesting. We should really check this out this spring if time permits. The photo here shows a very well developed overflow channel. It appears to have filled in and then incised some depressions on the flow surface. Lots of interesting features associated with this flow.

Map-tacular Effort

Great job on the mapping Kyle! I am looking forward to seeing it on our poster.
-Spud

Miraculous Late Night Recovery!

GeoMap-a-thon, Day 6. The curse of Topology

Put in 7 hours on map today to find an inexplicable topology error that precluded building polygons. I was so excited for this to happen. After lengthy consultation with local GIS supergeek, turns out that exporting feature dataset as shapefile and then reimporting it as feature dataset worked. Took 1.5 hours to figure that out. If you get this error in your life, don't panic like I did, it is not worth it (just follow the steps above):


Despite this roadblock, I made alot of progress. Will post map tomorrow AM...can't work on it much at all beyond tomorrow.

Holy Crap, day 5 was a bad one

Lots of tedium, lots of cursing, lots of computer problems. Nonetheless, I made a lot of progress. Here is a snippet of the Bogus Rim / Lambert Area. Don't be alarmed...there are still some tiny holes that lead to bleeding polys. This does show my interp of the landslides vs. in situ rox in the Bogus Rim area. Until Monday....

Yeehow GeoMap-a-thon, Day 4

I don't have a particularly meaningful map to post today. Have been mired in correcting imported linework from the vr...topology issues. However, did spend a lot of time mapping in the landslides coming off of Bogus Rim and had a good online chat with Spud about some contentious mapping calls of mine. Worthy of a group discussion in the field for sure.

Using the vr is instructive, but it is most useful in topographically complex areas. Many of the lines I added were redundant with respect to prior flat mapping and field mapping. By placing the vr lines on high-res imagery using ArcExplorer (get it now) also proved just how useful it would be to be able to directly edit arc-ish linework. The screen shot below is what my computer looked like most of the day. The area is the large foundering slab of Qbw above Dogleg. Check the killer perspective on the right vs. the flat map perspective on the left. Note also that the overprinted lines on the left are the imported vr lines and the prior flat mapping lines. My goal is to now find out why I can't place vectors on precisely georeferenced images draped on topography.

Check out ArcExplorer. It is free. Not as good as Google Earth, but possibly more functional? At least it has the high-res imagery for our area. Lastly, it cannot adequately render the gorge because of the extreme relief and some bad orthorectification inthe NAIP data. Turns out that careful orthorecitification of high-res photo scans in the vr has some (but less) trouble here. If we can drape images on the LiDAR and map on that....

Yeehow GeoMap-a-thon Day 3-D

No map to post today, instead here is a shot of me totally geeked-out (electric glasses, mp3 player, Blackberry) working away on the map. The 3-D mapping is great, but it takes some serious time. Since it allows you to check the elevation of any point in the image, it allows for some checks of in situ vs. landslide strat...this has led to some significant reinterpretations of the suite of landslides off of Bogus Rim...lots to talk about. Lots more in situ rock there than appears at first, second, and third glance.

Yeehow GeoMap-a-Thon day 2

Good progress today despite interminable interruptions. Heather (NBMG Yeehow in training...YIT) set up Rome Valley on the VR today...the 3-D computer mapping device. I will get to mapping that in more detail tomorrow AM. 3-D will help immensely in that reach. Have relied on much of Cooper's mapping to get the lava flow extents. Some refinement added. Some questions about where some begin and where some end still remain. Anyway, here it is:

A big week for the Yeehow GeoMap

Howdy. Here is a 1:200k version of the map as it stands at the end of the day today. I will commit to updating this image via blog entry each day through Friday as a form of personal motivation. Many of the color bleeds will go away with some topology corrections and some additional lines. Yes. I did start mapping the Q lava flows to their sources. At some point, I need a little help from Cooper with this. Note the major league lava-water interface in the Danner area (east of Arock)...yowza. Looks like a good side trip for Yeehows. Totally cool and unexpected (by me, at least). Sometimes it is good to look beyond the map area, no?

Incision of Hell's Canyon

Hi again,

If you are not up on the evolution of the Western Snake River Plain (WSRP) and the timing of the cutting of Hell's Canyon in relation to the Owyhee intra-canyon lava flows then consider reading a paper by BSU Emeritus geomorphology professor Spencer Wood and his colleague Drew Clemens, "Geologic and Tectonic history of the Western Snake River Plain, Idaho and Oregon" Find it at:
http://earth.boisestate.edu/home/swood/WOODCLEM-2002.PDF
Among other things, the paper discusses where and when Lake Idaho existed and how and when Hell's Canyon was cut. It refers to work done by Kurt Otherberg, who Jim had mentioned before in the context of Hell's Canyon.
-Spud

Paleoclimate of northern Great Basin and Owyhee area

Hi folks,

Two years ago I asked Peter Wigand for some direction in
searching for papers that might help us understand the
paleoclimate (and therefore perhaps river discharge and
stream power) of the Owyhee River basin.  He replied to
me but I never was able to track down all the papers he
suggested.  I am providing his suggestions here in the
hopes that we can improve our understanding of what the
Owyhee River might have looked like during the existence
of the lava dams.  He said to start with the first one
which had an extensive bibliography that would
lead to some of the others.
-Spud




Wigand, P. E. and D. Rhode. 2002. Great Basin
Vegetation History and Aquatic Systems: The Last
150,000 years. Pp. 309-367. In Hershler, R., D. B.
Madsen and D. R. Currey (eds.), Great Basin Aquatic
Systems History. Smithsonian Contributions to Earth
Sciences 33. Smithsonian Institution Press,
Washington, D.C.

Mladen Zic, Robert M. Negrini, Peter E. Wigand. 2002.
Evidence of synchronous climate change across the
northern hemisphere between the north Atlantic and the
northwestern Great Basin, USA. Geology 30(7):635-638.

Cohen, A. S., M. Palacios, R. M. Negrini, P. E.
Wigand, and D. B. Erbes. 2000. A paleoclimate record
for the past 250,000 years from Summer Lake, Oregon,
U.S.A.: II. Sedimentology, paleontology, and
geochemistry. Journal of Paleolimnology 24
(2):151-182.

Negrini, R. M., D.l B. Erbes, K. Faber, A. M. Herrera,
A. P. Roberts, A. S. Cohen, P. E. Wigand, and Franklin
F. Foit, Jr. 2000. A paleoclimate record for the past
250,000 years from Summer Lake, Oregon, U.S.A.: I.
Chronology and magnetic proxies for lake level.
Journal of Paleolimnology 24 (2):125-149.

Mehringer, P.J., Jr. and P.E. Wigand. 1990. Comparison
of Late Holocene environments from woodrat middens and
pollen, Diamond Craters, Oregon. In Martin, P.S., J.
Betancourt and T.R. Van Devender (eds.), Fossil
Packrat Middens: The Last 40,000 Years of Biotic
Change. University of Arizona Press.

Wigand, P.E. 1987. Diamond Pond, Harney County,
Oregon: Vegetation history and water table in the
eastern Oregon desert. Great Basin Naturalist 47
(3):427-458.

OWY-19, river left outcrop of WC between Bogus Falls and Dogleg

Here are two photos--long overdue--that show the contact relations of the WC lava where I collected sample OWY-19. One shows the modern swale that has eroded around the WC lava that filled the paleo-swale. The other photo shows the nature of the contact between WC and lava flows within the Tertiary section: the WC lava sits on top of the Tertiary section there.
-Spud