Javaria Aziz Master's Candidate

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My master’s thesis focuses on understanding magma evolution and eruptive history of Three Fingered Jack, a dissected mafic composite cone volcano in the central High Cascades of Oregon. This region is characterized by intra-arc extension, creating an extensive mafic platform dominated by dozens of small scoria cones and voluminous mafic flows of basaltic and basaltic andesitic composition. It has the largest concentration of mafic monogenetic volcanoes in the entire Cascade arc, some of which have erupted in the past 2,500 years. Three Fingered Jack is much larger compared to its neighboring scoria cones.

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George Anim Master’s Candidate

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My research is focused on understanding shock deformation in shergottites, the most commonly sampled Martian meteorites. My goals are to estimate deformation intensities in shergottites, identify the number of asteroid impact events they have undergone, and develop additional deformation estimation criteria based on changes in the crystal structure of key minerals such as olivine and pyroxene. Understanding the shock deformation in shergottites (and, by extension, all Martian meteorites) will allow for an unbiased interpretation of primary features that can reveal a lot about the geologic processes that shaped Mars.

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GSOC Crowd Enjoyed the Annual Picnic at Beacon Rock SP

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GSOC Crowd Enjoyed the Annual Picnic at Beacon Rock SP

The GSOC Annual Picnic enjoyed a good turnout this year at Beacon Rock State Park in the Columbia River Gorge. GSOC had not sited the picnic here for over 20 years, and members agreed that this was a very good venue for a picnic. Not only did the site have a serviceable enclosed shelter building, but also a great view of some outstanding geology – Beacon Rock, a remnant of the last known outpouring of Boring lava, dated at 58,000 years ago.

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Lab Work on Mafic Dikes Will Reveal Magma Storage Depth

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Lab Work on Mafic Dikes Will Reveal Magma Storage Depth

Vogt Scholar Rachel Sweeten reports: “This year we were able to successfully locate another ~30 dikes as well as a potential layered mafic intrusion exposure (middle photo) with an inferred 600 cubic km volume. Lab work will continue this fall and winter in the form of clinopyroxene thermobarometry (to determine storage depth) as well as the full suite of XRF [X-ray fluorescence] and ICPMS [Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry] analysis of all new samples.” Photo on right is of field assistant Heather Ziff next to a large boulder of the upper portion of the layered intrusion that fell to the bottom of the slope as a result of a rockfall.

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A Unique Dunite Clast in a Lunar Meteorite

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A Unique Dunite Clast in a Lunar Meteorite

Vogt Scholar Daniel Sheikh reports: “I recently had the opportunity to present some of my research at the 85th Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society, held in Glasgow in August. In this talk, I presented on a unique dunite clast (photo left) found within one of my lunar meteorite samples for research, and implications on how it likely formed. This is a component of the larger research focus that I am involved in, which is to constrain the range of lunar lithologies found in lithic clasts from lunar meteorites and to characterize the degree of shock deformation imposed on each of them.”

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Examining Magma History from Grains of Olivine

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Examining Magma History from Grains of Olivine

Vogt Scholar Darlene Gilroy reports: “I am currently in the picking stage of lab work. In this stage, I am using a microscope to look at crushed scoria and “pick” out specific grains of olivine. The scoria is from the Boring Volcanic Mt. Tabor. After finishing the Mount Tabor samples I will move on to my other sample sites, also Boring Volcanic: Prune Hill, Mount Scott, and Battle Ground Lake. The olivine grains will be mounted in epoxy and sent off for electron microprobe and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy to establish the rate of ascent and storage depth of magma for the Boring volcanics. I recently sent samples from all four locations to WSU for bulk geochemical analysis.”
(Photo left: Darlene and retired DOGAMI geologist/GSOCer Ian Madin at her Mt. Tabor field site reconning for our 2023 Boring Buttes field trip. Photo right: view under a microscope showing olivine which are the “amber colored” grains among the darker scoria. )

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Preparing Central/Eastern Oregon Glass for Mass Spectrometry

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Preparing Central/Eastern Oregon Glass for Mass Spectrometry

Vogt Scholar Julian Cohen reports: “I completed my field work over 11 days at the end of August and collected around 30 glass samples from various places all over central and eastern Oregon. Since then, I’ve been working to prepare them for mass spectrometry analysis by crushing, sieving, and cleaning the glass shards. Photo (left) is of some relatively “clean” glass, meaning there aren’t a lot of surface precipitates on it that might impact the analysis. I’ll have to run many samples through a series of acid washes to clean the shards to insure there isn’t contamination! I’ll be at the University of Texas Austin in December to do my analyses.”

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The Big Kapow! Crater Lake Field Trip Recap

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The Big Kapow! Crater Lake Field Trip Recap

This trip began in the mind of GSOC member Dr. Benjamin Sloan after he joined the society last year and participated in the Coaledo trip last summer. By September he was emailing me and asking whether we would consider doing a trip to Crater Lake. I replied that we’d consider the trip, then added a long list of logistical considerations that needed to be worked out, thinking that would be the last I’d hear from him. Well, one month later he had researched the technical papers, gone to Crater Lake to research lodging and travel routes, and sent me a list of tasks he’d completed. Turns out that Ben has been planning field trips worldwide and teaching geology for years as well as doing oil exploration.

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GSOC Strawberry Mountain Field Trip

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GSOC Strawberry Mountain Field Trip

story text by Carole Miles

photos by Carole Miles, Denny Chamberlin, and Kate Ely

The Strawberry Mountain fault was discovered in 2019 by DOGAMI’s Ian Madin upon reviewing new LiDAR maps of the area. Andrew Dunning, looking for a project for his master’s thesis at Portland State University, realized that a lack of high-quality seismic data in this area of Oregon may have erroneously led to an inaccurate assessment of the seismic risk in Eastern Oregon on the USGS National Seismic Hazard Map. He has been working on gathering data related to timing and offset of the Strawberry Mountain fault for the past two years. He was excited to take GSOC members into the field to show us what he has learned.

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Willamette East Bank Bike Geotour Recap and DIY Field Trip

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Willamette East Bank Bike Geotour Recap and DIY Field Trip

Recap of the GSOC Willamette East Bank Bike Geotour - June 26, 2022

GSOC participants of the 3rd Eastbank Bike Geotour field trip met on the morning of Sunday, June 26, in order to complete the tour before the 90+ degree temperatures of the hottest day of the year (so far) set in. This tour had not been run in three years due to the pandemic, and the leaders included Ian Madin, who just retired from DOGAMI, and Dr. Lalo Guerrero, who teaches geology at Portland Community College. Take a journey with the group and think about biking it for yourself!

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Fluvial Processes in the Willamette Valley

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Fluvial Processes in the Willamette Valley

Recap of the GSOC Willamette Valley Transect Geotour - June 18, 2022

Thirteen happy participants of 2022’s first GSOC field trip piled into the back room of the Bear Creek Pizza parlor in Molalla this past Saturday night to eat dinner and sketch up their conclusions from the day’s journey across the Willamette Valley. GSOC Past President and Programming Director Sheila Alfsen led the group from Erratic Rock State Park on the west side of the valley to the Molalla Rosette to the east of the valley in more or less a straight line. The purpose of the trip was to observe the landforms of the Willamette Valley, concentrating on the fluvial processes at work in the sediments of the valley floor.

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2022 PSU Beverly Vogt Grant Awardees

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2022 PSU Beverly Vogt Grant Awardees

GSOC is pleased to announce our 2022 PSU Beverly Vogt grant awardees! Each applicant was awarded $1,000 to be used toward the achievement of their degree. Each awardee has expressed gratitude to GSOC members for this financial support toward their research goals. Once they complete their research, we plan to have each of them share their findings with GSOC through a Friday Night lecture and/or a Saturday Zoom meetup session.

Read more about the candidates’ thesis projects…

Note: Our three Master’s candidates have expressed interest in having GSOC members assist them in their fieldwork. We are currently working with them to find out dates and what their needs will be. If you are interested in providing some assistance in the field, please contact a GSOC board member or email the PSU Bev Vogt committee members at: gsocfundforpsu@gsoc.org

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Malheur Field Trip Sept 2022

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Malheur Field Station GEOLOGY FIELD STUDY

Led by Michael Cummings

 

3 Night program.  Check in Sept 22 anytime, check out Sept 25 after breakfast.  Program, meals and lodging included in price of $550 per person.  Breakfast served at 7:30am, pack away lunch for the field, Dinner served at 6pm.  Lunch out in the field.  There are various bathroom stops along the way. 

Explore the geology of Harney County.  Learn about the Steens Mt. and geothermal activity in South Eastern Oregon desert.

 

Arrive:  Sept 22, 2022 Thursday.

Arrive anytime, unpack into E-Dorm.  Meet at Malcolm Hall in the AV room at 5pm

Evening session at the station

Dinner at 6pm in Dining Hall

Introduction to the geology of SE Oregon

 

Day 1:  Sept 23 Friday  NORTH OF BURNS ON HWY 395

 

Breakfast at 7:30 am in Dining Hall at MFS – depart for field trip to:

Accreted terrains and evolution of western margin of North American during the Mesozoic

Dinner Creek Welded Tuff (16million) and its local relation to older rocks (Silvies River valley)

Divine Canyon Welded Tuff (9.7 million) and the younger westward trend of rhyolites

Prater Creek Welded Tuff (8.0 million) and the newly discover caldera source west of Hines

Rattlesnake Welded Tuff (7.0 million) and characteristics of zones in welded tuffs

Dinner at 6pm in Dining Hall at MFS

Evening session:  Columbia River Basalt Group (CRGB) and its relation to rhyolite centers in Eastern Oregon.  Newly defined extent of the Picture Gorge Basalt, a member of the CRBG.

 

Day 2: Sept 24 Saturday CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF STEENS MOUNTAIN

Breakfast served at 7:30am in Dining Hall at MFS – depart for field trip to:

Explosion structures in Steens Mountain Basalt flows near the crest of Steens Mountain

Steen Mountain front and active faults

Mickey Springs – silica sinter deposits formed between about 30,000 and 18,000 years ago

Hot spring ecosystems

Pluvial Lake Alvord and shoreline features

Borax Lake – construction of a biomorphic mound and silica sinter from hot spring activity

Dinner served at 6pm in Dining Hall at MFS

Evening session:  Brief wrap up of what we’ve seen

 

September 25 Sunday , Check out after breakfast end of program

For more information, contact

  Rose Garacci, Station Manager

The Great Basin Society, Inc., dba Malheur Field Station

34848 Sodhouse Lane

Princeton, OR   97721

 

541-493-2629

malheurfieldstation@gmail.com

GSOC Beverly Vogt PSU Graduate Student Fund

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Fund will provides financial support to PSU graduate Geoscience students to assist them in completing their degree programs. Applications will open again in Winter 2023.

To honor former President Beverly Vogt and create a legacy for her work and that of the society, the GSOC Board of Directors created the Beverly Vogt PSU Graduate Student Fund. The Board formed a new committee to make recommendations as to the administration of this fund. The Vogt committee arranges for PSU grad students to present their projects and proposals, not only related to scholarships, but also in the interest of strengthening the 70-year+ relationship between GSOC and the PSU Geology Department.

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Goodbye to a dear friend, Bev Vogt

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Goodbye to a dear friend, Bev Vogt

Former GSOC President Bev Vogt — who with her partner in life and geology “Bart” Bartels — led a rejuvenation of our club in the 1990s and 2000s, died peacefully in her home on July 28, 2021. For many of us who remember Bev’s gentle leadership, Bart’s fascinating seminars, and the outstanding field trips they led together, they were very much the heart of the club.

Photo by Dave Olcott

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Recap of the Coaledo Formation Field Trip

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Recap of the Coaledo Formation Field Trip

The Coaledo Formation field trip began about two years ago when Dr. John Armentrout, a native Oregonian and sedimentary basin stratigrapher with a long career at Mobil Oil, came to talk to GSOC about a project he was working on. He was revisiting a part of Oregon that he had studied in the early days of his career, the Coaledo Formation centered in the Coos Bay and Cape Arago areas. He had assembled a team of researchers from the University of Oregon and elsewhere to work on the multidisciplinary project. And he proposed the GSOC field trip as a precursor to a GSA field trip he would be organizing for the GSA annual meeting in 2021.

So, we were all preparing to go on the trip in August 2020 and then COVID struck. We subsequently revised the trip date and finally this year got the trip ready to go. It turned out to be quite a fun trip and well worth the wait!

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Eastern Oregon Volcanics Trip Remembered

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Eastern Oregon Volcanics Trip Remembered

With forecasts in the Willamette Valley due to surpass 115 degrees, suddenly a four-day geology field trip in traditionally hot Central Oregon seemed to be a very cool place to visit indeed! So, off to the (relatively) cool hills and mountains surrounding Prineville and John Day did 25 geologists and geologist-wanna-be’s travel. Led deftly by three intrepid women: Carol Hasenberg (primary trip organizer), Carrie Gordon (Day 1 & Day 4 Geologist) and Emily Cahoon (Day 2, 3 & 4 Geologist), the group caravanned in up to 14-vehicles to incredibly important and fascinating geologic formations that only friends-of-rocks and aficionados-of-prevailing-geologic theory would appreciate!

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