Quaternary Geology on Mt. Rainier
Figure 1. View of Mt Rainier from the west. At 14410 feet, it is the most prominent peak in the contiguous United States. It has 28 glaciers, with the largest total surface area in the lower states–35 square miles. Mt Rainier is a stratovolcano, composed of andesitic lava (rather than basalt), material ejected from the summit, and ash layers. This type of volcano is commonly found in subduction zones; they tend to have explosive eruptions (e.g. Mt Saint Helens). The oldest rocks on Mt Rainier are about 500,000 years old. It is active and listed as a decadal volcano–one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world. Its last major eruption, accompanied by caldera collapse, was 5000 years ago, but minor activity was noted during the nineteenth century.
Figure 2. From my home in Tacoma (star) it’s a two-hour drive to Mt Rainier National Park. It is part of the Cascades Range, which comprises many well-known volcanoes like Mt Baker, Mt St. Helens, and Mt Hood.
Figure 3. This photo was taken on the south flank at an elevation of about 5400 feet, near the visitor’s center. It was a beautiful day and there were a lot of people preparing for some cross-country skiing on a couple of feet of snow. From this elevation it takes 2-3 days to reach the summit, almost 9000 feet higher. It’s hard to imagine it being so high and taking so long to reach.
Figure 4. These southern volcanic mountains are part of the Tatoosh Range, with peaks of about 6600 feet. Most of the volcanic rocks comprising these mountains are andesite, intermediate in composition between basalt and rhyolite. It is also very viscous, behaving like peanut butter and thus not flowing well. Andesite is commonly found at convergent plate boundaries where it is thought to result from mixing of basalt (from the oceanic crust), continental crust, and sediments accumulated in the accretionary prism.
Figure 5. Map of the 28 glaciers on Mt. Rainier. The glaciers fill canyons and valleys that were partly cut by ice. Figure 3 shows a smooth mountain, but in reality most of the smooth areas are the surfaces of glaciers. We’ll look at one below. The ellipse indicates the area discussed in this post.
Figure 6. (A) Narada Falls interrupts the descent of Paradise River, fed by Paradise Glacier (see Fig. 5 for location), making it drop a couple hundred feet over a thick layer of andesite. Andesite tends to form blocky flows, as shown in the right side of the photo, where the water seems to be climbing down steps. (B) Possible contact between younger volcanic and older intrusive rocks. Igneous activity within the area has been continuous for at least 50 my, during which time erosion has exposed older intrusive rocks like this granodiorite, which is part of a pluton intruded between 23 and 5 Ma. It is important to keep in mind that the volcanic rocks originated in plutons (magma chambers) emplaced miles beneath the surface. As they are exposed, new volcanoes form as more magma is injected into the shallow crust in a continuous process. (C) Differential weathering has accentuated layering in this volcanic rock, which was probably created by a series of ash layers deposited in quick succession–geologically speaking.
Figure 7. (A) View looking north towards the source of Nisqually Glacier (see Fig. 5 for location), which originates near the peak of Mt Rainier. The area delineated by the blue rectangle is the face of the glacier. (B) Closeup of the face of Nisqually Glacier. The characteristic U-shaped valley carved by glaciers is highlighted in white. Note the dark material within the glacier, probably wind-blown fine sediment. It looks like the face is a couple hundred feet high. I’ve never seen a retreating glacier before, so this is pretty spectacular to me. The Nisqually River originates right here…
Figure 8. View looking upstream along Nisqually River a mile downstream from Fig. 7. This is one of the most stunning photos I’ve ever taken because it reveals geological continuity, from the origin of a glacier 10000 feet higher, to the outwash being transported by a river. Amazing! Note the perfect U-shape where the shadow ends upriver. This area would have been covered by the glacier as recently as 10000 years ago.
Figure 9. Another mile downstream from Fig. 8 the walls of the valley have lowered, and are now rimmed by volcanic flows half-buried by detritus. Evidence of a glacier filling the valley has been erased by collapse of the valley walls. Rounded boulders fill the riverbed. The Nisqually River is overwhelmed by the huge sediment load and opens up new channels to continue flowing.
Figure 10. View looking upstream at the confluence of Nisqually River and Van Trump Creek. There are a couple of interesting features visible in this braided stream bed, less than two miles from the glaciers feeding each branch. The valley is very wide and flat-bottomed because it was carved by glaciers more than 10000 years ago. The large boulders (as large as three feet) covering the entire valley floor were transported by a glacier and became relict after its retreat because the stream flow, even during floods, is too weak to transport and erode them. The Nisqually River is cutting a channel through these relict sediments; the scarp is about eight feet in height. The white line delineates large, surface boulders from subjacent sand and silt with few boulders. Note that the surface boulders stop upstream where the white line curves sharply upward.
Figure 11. Image from 200 feet downstream of Fig. 10, showing a break eroded in the boulder-bar that crosses the stream bed at an angle. During recent heavy rain Nisqually River broke out of its current channel and created a myriad of flow structures such as the longitudinal bars seen in the lower-right of the photo. I think this bedform is actually a terminal moraine marking the maximum advance of a previous glacier–not necessarily the maximum glacial extent during the last two-million years.
Figure 12. (A) Andesite boulder (2 feet across) wet by recent rain shows fine-scale structure. The irregularity of the laminae, and phenocryst distribution, suggest to me that this sample represents ash fall rather than a flow. Magma with the viscosity of peanut butter tends to form smooth lines because it is difficult to penetrate, which would be necessary to create the mixed-up appearance between the lighter and darker shades in the center of the image. (B) Large block (~10 feet long) of intrusive rock similar to that seen at Narada Falls (Fig. 6B), but this is two-miles downstream. This relic was pushed/dragged by a glacier to this location. The white circle indicates where a close-up photo was taken. (C) Close-up (5x) image of the heavy block. It contains quartz (Q), plagioclase/albite feldspar (no orthoclase) (F), and amphibole (Am). My estimate of the composition is: 50% feldspar; 30% quartz; and 20% amphibole. Based on my estimated mineral composition, this would be granodiorite; however, I didn’t differentiate plagioclase and albite feldspar. (The former is darker than the latter.)
Figure 13. Map of potential volcanic risks associated with Mt Rainier–besides an explosion (e.g. Mt St Helens) and the eruption of ash which would cover a large area, depending on wind direction. Lahars (mud flows fed by all those glaciers) pose the greatest risk because andesite is too viscous to flow more than a few miles from its source.
Summary. I have seen evidence of continental glaciers in the Great Plains, the German Plain, and Ireland, but I never had the opportunity to observe glaciers up close. Alpine glaciers were nothing more than an abstract idea to me, something viewed from a distance.
I’ve looked out over the clouds from the summit of Haleakala crater on Maui, gazed into the cauldron of Kilauea, witnessed the boiling water rising from beneath Yellowstone’s seething caldera. I’ve seen videos of volcanic eruptions in Iceland, but I never imagined putting the glaciers and volcanoes together–right next door!
Usually, geology is observed as a series of images frozen in time, but at Mt Rainier it can be glimpsed as a real-time process that reshapes the earth’s surface–from top to bottom.
What a wild geological ride!
Geological Cycles at Wolf Trap National Park
Figure 1. (A) Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts is located about twenty miles west of Washington DC, near several parks I’ve discussed in previous posts, especially Great Falls National Monument. The geology of the area is dominated by Neoproterozoic-to-Cambrian (1000 – 511 Ma) metasedimentary rocks that originated in oceanic environments near rapidly rising mountains (e.g., a volcanic island arc). The dates are from the time of metamorphosis, which is why they give such a long time span. Taking into account the accuracy of the dates in general, this region was undergoing erosion with the resultant sediment buried in marine trenches, probably near a subduction zone, for hundreds of millions of years. The majority of the material would have been mud. There would have been hiatuses (perhaps an ocean basin briefly emerged), but such detail is lost to us after so long. (B) This map of Wolf Trap Park shows the trail we followed. The map doesn’t show topography, but the ridges are short, with maximum relief less than 100 feet. Wolf Trap creek enters from the west (left side of panel B) and flows through a wetland area (indicated by blue ellipse) before meandering a little and following the east side of the valley.
Figure 2. View of Filene Center from the SW side of our trail loop (see Fig. 1B), showing typical topographic relief at Wolf Trap park.
Figure 3. View of Wolf Trap creek where it enters the valley (Fig. 1B), showing boulders of Precambrian schist to be blocky–eroded nearby and gravitationally slid into creek but were not transported. These recently exhumed blocks are covered by Quaternary fluvial sediments, which are visible along the left side of the creek.
Figure 4. Large block (less than 6 feet in diameter) of schist that has been moderately weathered in place. Note the thin bedding (fissility) between thick layers with a conchoidal fracture pattern (center of image). This is the upstream side, which is pockmarked by rolling and bouncing boulders during high water. Mud becomes schist when buried deeply, retaining the lamination of the original fine-grained sediments, but remineralizing to familiar clays easily at the surface. Mud to schist to mud.
Figure 5. Meander in Wolf Trap creek along the north side of the park (see Fig. 1B), where a shallow pool of quiet water collects between runs (turbulent creek segments).
Figure 6. View looking upstream from a pedestrian bridge crossing Cthse Spring Branch, a tributary crossing our trail (dash line in Fig. 1B) before it joins Wolf Trap creek (NE side of trail in Fig. 1B). The boulders are smaller than downstream (Figs. 3 and 4), and their long axis are aligned with the stream flow. These angular blocks are sliding along on a stream-bed comprising miniature versions of themselves (note the clear view of the bottom in center of image). Even gravel and pebble-sized particles are platy because of the characteristic fissility of schist.
Figure 7. This photo dramatically reveals the effect of water on erosion.
Figure 8. This image is one I’ve seen too often here in northern VA. The sewer systems frequently follow streams because they are low points and run downhill (a good property for a sanitary system). However, when stream levels exceed expected values, the system is compromised and raw sewage can be released into the environment.
Summary. Over a billion years ago, this area was submerged beneath an ocean or marginal sea. Distant mountains eroded rapidly in a time before land plants. Vast quantities of sediment accumulated in layers of erosional debris that were subsequently buried by younger sediment. Between a billion and five-hundred million years ago, these sediments became rocks that were subsequently deformed as continental plates collided. They didn’t melt, however, and survived the cataclysm relatively unharmed, becoming schist and related metasedimentary rocks. For the last 200 million years, they have been slowly working their way to the surface as younger rocks are removed by water erosion in streams like we see all throughout NoVA. They are now exposed to the elements and are weathering to form new layers of sediment in the Atlantic Ocean, beginning a new cycle.
Washington Monument State Park, MD: Familiar Cambrian Metasediments
Figure 1. Looking west from Washington Monument, atop the Blue Ridge in Maryland. The valley is equivalent to the Shenandoah Valley in VA (see Fig. 2), but I couldn’t find a map with it labeled. The Appalachian trail follows the ridge through MD; we encountered it a few miles south of here in a previous post. We expect to see some of the same Proterozoic-to-Cambrian (2500-500 Ma) metasedimentary rocks here that we saw before, in addition to a surprise from an older post.
Figure 2. The field site. Washington Monument is indicated by the purple circle and arrow in the large map. The first inset map shows the geology around the monument. Note the mismatch in geology from different quadrangles; this must be a problem with either the data or Rock D, but the units (indicated in the smaller inset map to the right) were consistent when I clicked on a point. My home is indicated by the star, so you can see we haven’t traveled far. ATWC refers to the Appalachian trail at Weverton Cliff, MD, which I recommend you read to get some background. BRNP represents Bull Run Nature Preserve, which I posted last year. The geological legend for the detailed inset map is at the bottom of the figure. Note that Ma stands for a radiometric age of one-million years; this age is indicative of cooling below the threshold to set the atomic clocks within the minerals, but sedimentary rocks can’t be dated this way. Therefore, these are dates when deep burial and/tectonic deformation/magmatism ceased (i.e. when an orogenic period ended).
Figure 3. Rubble near the monument that resulted from in-place weathering of Weverton Formation rocks (Cw1 and Cw2 in Fig. 2). All of the weathering products (e.g. clays and carbonates) have been washed away, leaving large slabs (~6 feet) piled up. This is a common feature of rocky knolls with good drainage.
Figure 4. (A) Outcrop of older Weverton formation rocks (Cw1 in Fig. 1), revealing weathered material below and boulders on top. This outcrop contains cross-bedded layers on close examination. (B) Photo of a block of Cw1 used in the monument , which shows the crossbedding better than panel A because a fresh surface was cleaved during a recent repair of the 30-foot tower. The color is important: green sedimentary rocks like these represent marine environments, where there is less oxygen; sedimentary rocks deposited in rivers tend to be reddish because of oxidation (rusting) of Fe-containing minerals. These are probably shallow marine sands.
Figure 5. (A) Quartz in a vein (<1 inch thick) from near the monument. Note that the cross-bedding is very similar to Fig. 4 but more weathered. (B) Less-common view of a quartz vein seen obliquely, showing the surface that was against the country rock. These veins would have been injected during a period of magmatism, sometime between 2500 and 511 Ma; I can’t be more specific because I don’t know exactly where the radiometric ages were measured within these rocks. However, the Weverton formation is approximately 4500 feet (1.4 km) thick here; thus it’s possible that these rocks were deposited episodically during this immense time interval; but no unconformity (i.e. erosion or non deposition) is mentioned in RockD.
Figure 6. View looking east from the Appalachian Trail, showing the terrain typical of the Appalachian foothills. To the left of center, outcrops of Weverton rocks (Cw1 and Cw2 in Fig. 2) can be seen.
Figure 7. (A) Boulder (~2 feet across) of arkose, revealing angular clasts of rock fragments in a sandy matrix. (B) Poor outcrop of conglomerate with rounded rock and quartz in a similar, sandy matrix. Comparing these images to Fig. 4 shows the variability of sedimentation (and thus depositional environment) during relatively short time intervals (say … tens of millions of years, for example). This kind of variability implies changing sediment sources, possibly caused by tectonic uplift (with magmatism) to the east.
Figure 8. This figure is from the Bull Run Nature Preserve field trip. It is a schematic of how layers of sedimentary rocks (shown in different colors) can slide over one another along thrust faults. This process results in stacking of similar sediments, making stratigraphic analysis of sparse field data problematic. The rocks on the left are sliding upward to the right along a series of thrust faults (dashed line). At Bull Run Nature Preserve, a fault like this could be identified by older rocks clearly being stratigraphically higher than younger ones. That isn’t the case at Washington monument, where the interleaved rocks (blue and green) are too similar in lithology and age to be differentiated.
SUMMARY
The thrust fault labeled in Fig. 2 has been confidently identified (represented by a solid line), no doubt through more investigation than I was willing to spend time on. This unnamed fault underlies the northern Blue Ridge, and marks the beginning of the Valley and Ridge province; the Blue Ridge was thus an anomaly, which has been identified as a belt of older rocks thrust over younger ones about 500 million-years ago, when the supercontinent of Pangea was being created.
We have followed the Weverton formation through time (2500-485 Ma) and space (more than 40 miles). During this unimaginable interval, this small piece of the Earth’s crust has moved thousands of miles. Only the last 500 my of its journey is known with any confidence. This tectonic plate has been carrying these sediments to unknowable latitudes, colliding with immovable objects while spreading the remnants of mountain ranges that are now forgotten, deconstructed by the irresistible power of water, wind, ice and time.
Some things aren’t meant for us to know …
Timothy R. Keen 
Recent Comments