
Plio-Pleistocene Calcretes & Age of the Cascades Rain Shadow
Calcrete overprints a regional unconformity of Pliocene-Pleistocene age in south-central Washington. The unconformity truncates lacustrine sediments of the uppermost Ringold Formation (8.0 to 3.4 Ma) and is overlain by glacial outburst flood deposits (<2 Ma). The aridity necessary for calcrete formation post-dates drainage of the last Pliocene lake system from Pasco Basin and pre-dates Ice Age cooling. The calcretes suggest a strong rain shadow first formed in Eastern Washing

Ucluelet & the Broken Islands Group, BC
Courtney took all of these photos. Wickaninnish. Our marina. The other guys' marina. Tofino's surf-saturated culture gently spills over into friendly Ucluelet. Dinosaur coffee is lucky coffee. A, Double-A, and Dr. Bob ready to haul slabs on discount rack Coyotes off Wya and Swale. Wait...what? Their team beat our team in both touch football and no-net sand volleyball. Goats on the roof and hippies in isle 7. Courtney's Guide Service is the best in Ukee. "Fifty-four and one-el

Creative Depictions of the Ringold Fm
Stratigraphy of the Miocene-Pliocene age Ringold Formation of Eastern Washington has recently drawn my attention. In reviewing the literature, I am struck by the artistic creativity shown by geologists who have depicted Ringold strata in their reports. As late as 1990, a basic descriptive framework for the unit was still being constructed, The Miocene-Pliocene Ringold Fm is an interstratified sequence of unconsolidated clay, silt, sand, and granule to cobble gravel that gener

Where is the Neogene Seismic Record for the Yakima Fold Belt?
"Considerable work awaits sedimentologists on and adjacent to the Columbia Plateau before we will be cognizant of all aspects of the tectonic, volcanic, and climatic influences on regional sedimentation during the Neogene." - Gary Smith and others (1989) Where is the Neogene record of seismic shaking in eastern Washington? The Yakima Fold Belt (YFB) in central Washington is a set of west trending, fault-cored folds located in the back-arc of the Cascadia Subduction Zone. The