#oregon geology

Cape Blanco: the second most western point on the Lower 48. This cape of rock jutting out into the vast Pacific Ocean is supported by grand rocks that for cliffs which frame the endless beach. The rocks here create a grand spectacle, and show the great range of environments that Coastal Oregon has had in its past. The light cliffs here, from the Miocene, are made of a mostly massive sandstone (The Sandstone of Floras Lake, part of the Empire Formation) with small beds and lenses of very round gravel. Studying the sand and gravel to  find its origin in a tedious procedure, but studies have traced much of it to the Klamath Mountains region, an area of old rocks that are greatly deformed: a mountain building region. The presence of this gravel, and the well-sorted, mature nature of the sandstone grains tells geologists that this is a river delta dominated by wave energy, so it may have resembled the modern delta of the Columbia River or Rogue River in shape and form. 

Fire and Ice: Arnold Ice Cave

This cave in Oregon contains ice year round, though climate change is threatening this fragile resource forever.