Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Using Geologic Principles And Data To Create A Symphony For Wind Ensemble, Thomas J. Davis

2022 Symposium

Geology and geologic processes have featured in many pieces of classical music such as Alan Hovhaness’ symphonic works after Mt. St. Helens and Glacier Peak but these pieces are impressionistic and only take general inspiration from the geology of their subjects. This paper describes the creation of Tectonics (2021) a piece which incorporates and describes many geologic principles and processes, such as mantle convection, through the musical form of cannon, the formation of fold and thrust belts whose cross sections are directly visually recreated in the score, and the physical dynamics of earthquake waves demonstrated through variations of pitch and …

Groundwater Modeling Of The West Plains, Wa, Erin L. Toulou, Chad Pritchard Phd, Lauren Stachowiak Phd

2022 Symposium

Located in Eastern Washington in the West Plains Region sits a plateau of Columbia River Basalts between Deep Creek, Hangman Creek, and south of the Spokane River. Primarily in Airway Heights, the amount of drinking water as well as the quality of the water has affected residents in the area. The most recent issue is PFAS contamination, which is thought to negatively affect human health and is found in drinking water wells across the West Plains. We can interpret subsurface geology using new well logs from Fairchild Air Force Base and in the Palisades area. When using ArcGIS PRO, well …

Detrital Zircon Ages In Heavily Folded Quartzite Compared To Steptoe Butte, Travis A. Morton, Chad Pritchard

2022 Symposium

Folded and altered quartzite along Interstate 90 and the Palouse to Cascades Trail out of Rosalia, WA preserves a record of the region’s tectonic past. The working hypothesis is that the sandstone is Cambrian (roughly 500 million years old) and was metamorphosed and deformed during the Sevier orogeny (roughly 150 to 50 million years ago), and then uplifted about 50 million years ago. The first step to address the hypothesis is to determine the age of the rocks using detrital zircon U/Pb analyses. The second step is for a detailed field study to identify relationships between metamorphic grades and geologic …

Deciphering Regional Geology Using The New Usgs-Ewu Mineral Separation Lab, Zachary Shimp, Katlin Gamache, Travis Morton, Chad Pritchard

2022 Symposium

U/Pb radiometric dating of zircon is one of the most widely used methods to determine the crystallization ages of igneous and metamorphic rocks and the provenance of sedimentary rocks. Eastern Washington University (EWU) has collaborated with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to build a mineral separation lab for isolating zircon (and other) minerals for analysis. This lab was completed in Fall 2022 and is currently being transferred to the new ISC for future use. Graphically illustrated below are the methods used for sampling and pulverizing the rock, as well as grain mount preparation techniques. One of the EWU projects that …

Exceptional Agate Formation Found In Spokane Basalt, Matthew J. Markus

2022 Symposium

People don’t normally associate semi-precious gems with basalt or the “boring black rock” that dominates the Eastern Washington landscape. However, a site just northeast of Cheney in the West Planes of Spokane, shows where a system of gem-filled veins can be found nestled into the 16-million-year-old (Kasbohm and Schoene, 2018) Priest Rapids Member of the Wanapum Basalt that is a part of the greater Columbia River Basalt. The volcanic rocks are the host to millimeter - 10 cm wide fractures with variable colored agate and opal.

Ductile And Brittle Deformation Of Slackwater Deposits In The Tucannon River Valley, Chelsi K. Howard

Geosciences Student Work

The Tucannon River valley in eastern Washington is home to a number of ductile and brittle soft-sediment deformation. This project aims to look at ductile deformation by classifying and comparing styles of clastic dikes in the field and to look at brittle deformation by analyzing small faults in localized outcrops. Clastic dikes are sedimentary intrusions into other sedimentary strata. There are three main types of clastic dikes: injection, extrusion, and sugtrusion. In addition, two subcategories of clastic dikes are described as sheeted dikes and fault injection dikes. Ductile and brittle deformation occurs in “slackwater” deposits associated with margins of glacial …

Geologic Study Of The Palisades Park, Spokane, Washington, Ethan Jeffrey Ducken, Alex Michael Navarra

Geosciences Student Work

The Palisades Park is a large City owned tract of land located on the western bluffs above Spokane. The purpose of this project was to create a geologic map and assess the features within the park for the benefit of a public conservation group, Friends of the Palisades. There are 3 main units identified by previous research in the vicinity. Volcanic rock units are part of the Columbia River Basalt Group (CRBG), which erupted primarily between 16.5 to 15.6 MA (Hammond 2013). Large sedimentary interbeds identified as Latah formation present between CRB flows (Swanson et al 1979a, 1979b). Latah formation …

Chemical Weathering Of Deposits From The 1980 Mount St. Helens Eruption And Its Effect On Stream Water Chemistry, Darlene Gilroy, Dr. Carmen Nezat

2020 Symposium Posters

Chemical weathering is an ongoing natural phenomenon that aids in the breakdown of solid rocks and contributes to the chemistry of natural waters and soils. Therefore, studying chemical weathering in a given area may provide a better understanding of the natural influencers on nearby water chemistry. The eruption of Mount St. Helens (MSH) in 1980 provides a unique opportunity to study the chemical weathering of young rocks which typically weather more rapidly than older rocks.

The aim of the study was to determine the relative resistance of the volcanic rocks from the 1980 MSH eruption to chemical weathering by using …

Experiments To Synthesize Soft-Sedimentary Deformation And Clastic Dikes, Chelsi K. Howard

2020 Symposium Posters

Clastic dikes are intrusions of sediments into layers of other sedimentary strata that are found in various places across eastern Washington. Three notable sites include Burlingame Canyon in Touchet, WA, Tucannon Valley near Starbuck, WA and Campion Park in Spokane, WA. Clastic dikes are thought to be formed by either overburden stress or from seismic activity. In eastern WA, the dikes were formed by large overburden pressure and seismic-like forces caused by cataclysmic floods that washed over eastern WA (known as the Missoula floods). We recreated this environment by layering saturated sand below and on top of kaolinite clay, and …

Impact Of Compactive Effort On Soil Strength Of Glacial Lake Columbia Soils, Alexander M. Navarra, Dwight Hendrickson, Jaremy Shaw

2020 Symposium Posters

Glacial Lake Columbia (GLC) existed from 15,550 (+/- 450) to 13,050 (+/- 650) years ago (Atwater, 1986) as a result of the Okanagan Lobe of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet damming the Columbia River near present-day Grand Coulee Dam. The lake deposited a fine-grained basal layer that had interbeds of coarse Missoula Flood deposits and later lake deposits above. Because these GLC deposits are present around most of the Spokane area, they are important to civil engineering and development. We sampled the basal layer of GLC soils from the Peone Prairie, WA. We performed prerequisite testing before the main experiment, with …

Geotechnical Engineering: Particle Size Distribution Of Layered Glacial Lake Columbia And Ice Age Flood Deposits In Latah Valley, Spokane, Wa, Aaron Cleveland, Kassie Allen

2020 Symposium Posters

We collected samples from the Latah Valley in Spokane, WA, of Missoula Flood deposits interbedded with Glacial Lake Columbia Sediments. We conducted tests on these soils according to ASTM standards. We performed Specific Gravity tests according to ASTM D854, and determined particle size distribution for these soils by conducting sieve and hydrometer analyses according to ASTM D422. We then plotted these data to create particle size distribution curves. Specific Gravities for the all of the samples collected range from 2.36 to 2.67. The flood deposits are dominated by coarse sand and gravel and the Glacial Lake Columbia deposits are dominated …

Optimum Moisture Content And Maximum Dry Unit Weight For Compaction Of Interdisciplinary Science Center Soil, Rachel A. Lunstroth, Maria Camilla O'Toole, Melissa Simbler

2019 Symposium

Eastern Washington University’s is currently undergoing construction with the addition of the Interdisciplinary Science Center. A soil sample was collected from the construction site and over the course of Fall Quarter 2018 we performed a series of tests on this soil allowing us to classify the soil based on the Unified Soil Classification System. These tests include: a specific gravity determination test according to the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standard D854, a sieve and hydrometer analysis according to the ASTM standard D422, and an Atterberg limits test according to the ASTM standard D-4318. We also performed a …

Origin Of Enigmatic Rocks Located North Of The Stillwater Complex, Montana, M. Christopher Jenkins, Jennifer A. Thomson, Michael L. Zientek

Geology Student Works

The Stillwater Complex is an Archean layered mafic-ultramafic intrusion located in southwestern

Montana. The complex hosts a platinum-group element ore deposit — the J-M Reef. Recent geophysical data collected by the USGS from an area to the north of the Stillwater complex suggests that the complex continues at depth under cover. The northern exposure of Precambrian rock is not the complex but some enigmatic amphibolites. During the 2013 and 2014 field seasons, eight samples were collected from this Precambrian (?) lower-amphibolite to greenschist-facies metamorphic rock unit located approximately 2 kilometers north of the complex. Vail (1955) described the unit as …

The Origin Of Xenoliths With Cumulus Textures Found Above The Subsurface Extension Of The Stillwater Complex, Montana, Cassandra K. Hennings, Jennifer A. Thomson, Michael L. Zientek

Geology Student Works

The Archean Stillwater Complex is a large layered mafic-ultramafic intrusion (LMI) exposed in the

Beartooth Mountains of south-central Montana. Gravity measurements suggest that the north-dipping complex extends under cover at depth. Some of the exposures located above the subsurface Stillwater Complex are younger Cretaceous stocks (Susie Peak and Sliderock Mountain stocks), diorite sills and andesite dikes, exposed north of the complex, passed through area of the gravity anomaly that may be the Stillwater Complex. In the summer of 2013, samples of the stocks and their included xenoliths (foreign rock fragments; commonly metamorphosed to greenschist facies conditions) were collected for study. …

Basalt Ring Formations Of The Columbia River Plateau, Skye Schillhammer, Carly Sorensen, Ted Uecker, Natasha Garland

2014 Symposium

Unusual basalt ring formations are located about 6 miles north of Odessa, WA as part of the expansive Columbia River Basalt Group. There are over 100 crater-like structures that range in size from 50-500 meters in diameter and span a 60 kilometer area of the channeled scablands. These structures are enigmatic due to the erosion of surficial features by the Missoula Floods, and due to their association with a magnetic anomaly as evidenced by an aerial geophysical survey. Since the 1970s, multiple geologists have proposed conflicting formational mechanisms for the rings, including hydrothermal explosions and sag flows. Over the past …

Geotechnical Engineering: Optimum Moisture Content For Compaction Of In Situ Soil At A Residential Construction Site On Five Mile Prairie, Wa., Natasha Garland Clark, Carly Sorensen, Camie Bearup

2014 Symposium

The residential construction site is located at 9117 Scarlet Sky Drive on the southwest margin of Five Mile Prairie, WA. The footprint of the proposed structure overlaps two soils. Near the road is fill material brought in to form the extended roadbed. Further from the access road is the extant soil that formed in place on the prairie. This site is approximately 2,400 feet in elevation, atop basalt. Over time loess and the Glacial Lake Missoula floods shaped the landscape. Grassy, small rolling hills cover the in-situ soil. There is a natural drainage basin below the site that features basalt …