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G. R. Byerly

Publications and source records attributed to G. R. Byerly.

14 recordsLinked to original sources

Database for the geologic map of the Chelan 30-minute by 60-minute quadrangle, Washington (I-1661)

This digital map database has been prepared by R. W. Tabor from the published Geologic map of the Chelan 30-Minute Quadrangle, Washington. Together with the accompanying text files as PDF, it provides information on the geologic structure and stratigraphy of the area covered. The database delineates map units that are identified by general age and lithology following the stratigraphic nomenclature of the U.S. Geological Survey. The authors mapped most of the bedrock geology at 1:100,000 scale, but compiled Quaternary units at 1:24,000 scale. The Quaternary contacts and structural data have been much simplified for the 1:100,000-scale map and database. The spatial resolution (scale) of the database is 1:100,000 or smaller. This database depicts the distribution of geologic materials and structures at a regional (1:100,000) scale. The report is intended to provide geologic information for the regional study of materials properties, earthquake shaking, landslide potential, mineral hazards, seismic velocity, and earthquake faults. In addition, the report contains information and interpretations about the regional geologic history and framework. However, the regional scale of this report does not provide sufficient detail for site development purposes.

Washington↗

Geologic map of the Wenatchee 1:100,000 quadrangle, central Washington: A digital database

This digital map database has been prepared by R.W. Tabor from the published Geologic map of the Wenatchee 1:100,000 Quadrangle, Central Washington. Together with the accompanying text files as PDF, it provides information on the geologic structure and stratigraphy of the area covered. The database delineates map units that are identified by general age and lithology following the stratigraphic nomenclature of the U.S. Geological Survey. The authors mapped most of the bedrock geology at 1:100,000 scale, but compiled Quaternary units at 1:24,000 scale. The Quaternary contacts and structural data have been much simplified for the 1:100,000-scale map and database. The spatial resolution (scale) of the database is 1:100,000 or smaller. This database depicts the distribution of geologic materials and structures at a regional (1:100,000) scale. The report is intended to provide geologic information for the regional study of materials properties, earthquake shaking, landslide potential, mineral hazards, seismic velocity, and earthquake faults. In addition, the report contains information and interpretations about the regional geologic history and framework. However, the regional scale of this report does not provide sufficient detail for site development purposes.

Washington↗

Geologic map of the Chelan 30-minute by 60-minute quadrangle, Washington

Summary -- The Chelan quadrangle hosts a wide variety of rocks and deposits and display a long geologic history ranging from possible Precambrian to Recent. Two major structures, the Leavenworth and Entiat faults divide cross the quadrangle from southeast to northwest and bound the Chiwaukum 'graben', a structural low preserving Tertiary sedimentary rocks between blocks of older, metamorphic and igneous rocks. Pre-Tertiary metamorphic rocks in the quadrangle are subdivided into five major tectonostratigraphic terranes: (1) the Ingalls terrane, equivalent to the Jurassic Ingalls Tectonic Complex of probable mantle and deep oceanic rocks origin, (2) the Nason terrane, composed of the Chiwaukum Schist and related gneiss, (3) the Swakane terrane, made up entirely of the Swakane Biotite Gneiss, a metamorphosed, possibly Precambrian, sedimentary and/or volcanic rock, (4) the Mad River terrane composed mostly of the rocks of the Napeequa River area (Napeequa Schist), a unit of oceanic protolith now considered part of the Chelan Mountains terrane (the Mad River terrane has been abandoned, 2001), and (5) the Chelan Mountains terrane, dominated by the Chelan Complex of Hopson and Mattinson (1971) which is composed of migmatite and gneissic to tonalite of deep-seated igneous and metamorphic origin.During an episode of Late Cretaceous regional metamorphism, all the terranes were intruded by deepseated tonalite to granodiorite plutons, including the Mount Stuart batholith, Ten Peak and Dirty Face plutons, and the Entiat pluton and massive granitoid rocks of the Chelan Complex. The Duncan Hill pluton intruded rocks of the Chelan Mountains terrane in the Middle Eocene. At about the same time fluvial arkosic sediment of the Chumstick Formation was deposited in a depression. The outpouring of basalt lavas to the southeast of the quadrangle during the Miocene built up the Columbia River Basalt Group. These now slightly warped lavas lapped onto the uplifted older rocks. Deformation, uplift, and erosion recorded in the rocks and deposits of the quadrangle continued into post-Miocene time. Quaternary deposits reflect advances of glaciers down the major valleys, a complicated history of catastrophic glacial floods down the Columbia River, the formation of lakes in the Columbia and Wenatchee river valleys by landslides and flood backwaters, and hillslope erosion by large and small landslides and debris flows.

IMAP↗

Regional correlation of Grande Ronde basalt flows, Columbia River basalt group, Washington, Oregon, and Idaho (USA)

The tholeiitic flood basalts of the Columbia River Basalt Group of middle and late Miocene age cover more than 200,000 km 2 in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. The most voluminous formation of the Group, the Grande Ronde Basalt, erupted for 2 m.y. from north-northwest-trending fissure systems concentrated in southeast Washington and adjacent Oregon and Idaho. Four magnetostratigraphic units (designated R 1 , N 1 , R 2 , and N 2 from oldest to youngest) are recognized on the basis of polarity in the Grande Ronde and provide the broad stratigraphic framework for the formation. In this study, major-element chemistry and relative stratigraphic position within the polarity intervals are used to identify and correlate individual flows and sequences of flows within the Grande Ronde Basalt on a regional scale. Systematic examination of more than 350 analyses from 47 stratigraphic sections show that most flows fall into one of five major chemical groupings, which are distinguished primarily by small but significant variations in MgO, TiO 2 , and P 2 O 5 content. In addition, four minor chemical types local to the eastern part of the province have been identified. Feeder dikes of each chemical type have also been located. Flows or packets of flows of each chemical type can be correlated between field sections to define specific chemical-stratigraphic subunits. These subunits consist of several flows collectively 30–150 m thick. Subunits of most chemical types are repeated at irregular intervals throughout the formation; no progressive chemical trend occurs within the Grande Ronde. Many of the chemical-stratigraphic subunits extend to the margins of the province, although most are confined to the source region in eastern Washington. Although the total number of subunits is less in the west away from the fissure systems, the total thicknesses of the N 2 and R 2 magnetostratigraphic units are each as thick or thicker than the corresponding units in eastern Washington. The greatest thicknesses occur in the central part of the province within the Pasco basin. The distribution of basalt relative to the location of vents, as well as the relative east-west thicknesses, suggests that basalt flowed hundreds of kilometres westward during the most voluminous Grande Ronde eruptions, ponding against the irregular margin of the Cascade Range and being diverted through the ancestral Columbia Gorge toward the Washington-Oregon coast. Between these huge sheetflood events, smaller eruptions blanketed areas within the source region, and ongoing regional subsidence created a shallow westward-draining basin in the center of the province.

Idaho, Oregon, Washington↗

Studies related to the Charleston, South Carolina, earthquake of 1886 — Tectonics and seismicity

Since 1973, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), with support from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, has conducted extensive investigations of the tectonic and seismic history of the Charleston, S.C., earthquake zone and surrounding areas. The goal of these investigations has been to discover the cause of the large intraplate Charleston earthquake of 1886, which dominates the record of seismicity in the Southeastern United States, through an understanding of the historic and modern seismicity at Charleston and of the tectonic setting of the seismicity. This goal is being pursued to evaluate the potential for additional large earthquakes in the Charleston area and surrounding regions and to determine whether the Charleston area differs tectonically in any significant fashion from other parts of the Southeastern United States. An understanding of the specific cause for the 1886 event and of the regional distribution of any structures that are generically related to or geometrically and mechanically similar to the source structure is essential for evaluation of seismic hazards throughout the Southeast. The results given herein represent significant progress toward understanding the tectonic setting of the Charleston-area seismicity. Several chapters in the volume address the distribution and origin of pre-Cretaceous rocks and structures beneath Coastal Plain sediments in the Charleston area and regionally beneath the southern Atlantic Coastal Plain and adjacent Continental Shelf. The modern seismicity at Charleston is occurring at depths equal to or greater than the known extent of these older structures, and rejuvenation of an older fault in the modern stress field is a possible cause of the seismicity. Accordingly, several chapters discuss the possible relationships of the various pre-Cretaceous structures to faults identified near Charleston that have a known Cretaceous and Cenozoic movement history and to the historic and instrumentally recorded seismicity. However, at the present time, none of the young structures can be related unequivocally to the seismicity because earthquake fault-plane solutions and hypocenter distributions do not agree with the locations and orientations of these structures. Therefore, a major emphasis of continuing USGS investigations near Charleston will be to identify additional faults, if any exist, to delineate fault movement histories, and to further refine earthquake locations, focal mechanisms, and related seismological interpretations.

Florida, Georgia, South Carolina↗

Geologic map of the Wenatchee 1:100,000 Quadrangle, central Washington

The rocks and deposits within the Wenatchee quadrangle can be grouped into six generalized units: (1) Precambrian(?) Swakane Biotite Gneiss in the northeastern part of the quadrangle and the probable Jurassic low-grade metamorphic suite, mostly composed of the Easton Schist, in the southwestern part; (2) the Mesozoic Ingalls Tectonic Complex; (3) the Mesozoic Mount Stuart batholith; (4) lower and middle Tertiary nonmarine sedimentary and volcanic rocks; (5) Miocene basalt flows and interbedded epiclastic rocks constituting part of the Columbia River Basalt Group and interbedded silicic volcaniclastic rocks of the Ellensburg Formation; and (6) Pliocene to Holocene alluvium, glacial, flood, and mass-wastage deposits.

IMAP↗

Origin of major element chemical trends in DSDP Leg 37 basalts, Mid-Atlantic Ridge

In this paper we summarize the major element chemical variation for basalts from the Deep Sea Drilling Project Leg 37 and relate it to stratigraphic position in each of five drilling sites. Least-squares techniques are successfully used to quantify the nature and extent of alteration in these basalts, and to correct the major element analysis back to a magmatic, or alteration-free, composition on the assumption that alteration takes place in two ways: (1) secondary minerals are introduced into veins and vesicles, and (2) CO2 and H2O react with components in the rock to form a simple alteration assemblage. A chemical stratigraphy is defined for these basalts by grouping lavas whose chemistries are related by low-pressure phenocryst-liquid differentiation as identified by least-squares calculation. Major chemical-stratigraphic units are as much as 200 m thick; correlations of these units can be made between the holes at site 332 (about 100 m apart), but not between the other sites. Compositions of parental magmas are calculated by extrapolating low-pressure variations to a constant value of 9% MgO. The differences in these extrapolated compositions reflect high-pressure processes, and suggest that clinopyroxene may be an important phase in either intermediate-level fractionation of basaltic liquids, or as a residual phase during the partial melting which produces these basaltic liquids. Several of the basaltic liquids calculated as parental to the Leg 37 basalts have CaO contents greater than 14% and indicate that the oceanic mantle is richer in CaO and Al2O3 than values used in pyrolite models for the upper mantle. A model for magma generation and eruption beneath the Mid-Atlantic Ridge embodies the following characteristics: 1. (1) Separate magma batches are generated in the mantle. 2. (2) Each of these may be erupted directly or stored at shallow depth where significant fractionation takes place. Common fractionation processes are inferred to be gravitative settling of olivine, flotation (?) of plagioclase, and flow differentiation of an olivine-plagioclase-augite assemblage. 3. (3) Eruption of fractionated lava derived from earlier magma batches may alternate with eruption of younger less-fractionated or unfractionated magma. ?? 1978.

Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research↗