Saturday, February 22, 2014

Geo 730: Feb. 22, Day 418: Warner Mountain & Adel

A view to the west from the Warner Valley. The canyon with the tuff and lahar exposure I featured starting a few weeks ago is visible in the middle left of the photo, and I suspect the elevated bench at it's mouth is a combination of a pluvial delta and modern alluvial fan. I don't know the details of the history of south-central and eastern Oregon's pluvial lakes, but it seems sensible to suppose that they might have been cyclic in nature, waxing and waning along with advances and retreats of Pleistocene glaciations. If one could find an exposure where the stream coming out of that canyon has cut into and eroded a good section of that fan/delta, one might be able to find evidence of such cyclicity. Delta deposits would be generally finer-grained and better sorted, while fan deposits would be more poorly sorted, and more dominated by debris flows.

Like many communties in this area, Adel is pretty diffuse. In my own head, "Adel" is the combination gas station/general store. There are some residences nearby, but there's not much beyond a sign and the store to let you know you're passing through a "town." However, like many of these little villages, that hub serves a much, much larger area than a casual visitor would recognize, amounting to hundreds of square miles.

Photo unmodified. August 19, 2011. FlashEarth Location.

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