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Slip Sliding Away - a recap/field guide of the Landslides of Portland's Tualatin Mountains Field Trip

September 28, 2024

A significant portion of the terrain of Portland’s West Hills between Burnside Road and US 26 is ancient and active landslides. Dr. Scott Burns, professor emeritus of Geology at Portland State University, took GSOC participants on a field trip exploring this terrain and observing the mitigation methods used over the years to try and arrest the sliding and damage. Dr. Burns has trained quite a few geologists about landslides over the years he has taught at PSU, and many of his students are now cataloguing and mitigating landslides throughout the Pacific northwest and other areas of the country.

Episodes of Death and Destruction - a recap of the Wasco County Geology Field Trip

June 7-9, 2024

In the June 2024 field trip, GSOC participants were treated to explore some of the geological fieldwork and mapping done by Jason McClaughry and field trip leader and GSOC Past President Clark Niewendorp of DOGAMI over the years 2014-2020. The main subject of the field trip was volcanic materials that originated in the Mt. Hood area of the High Cascades and were deposited on the eastern flanks of these mountains in Wasco County between The Dalles and Tygh Valley from the Late Miocene onwards. All this volcanic material is underlain by a platform of Columbia River Basalt. Also, the group examined the effects of folding and faulting associated with the Yakima Fold and Thrust Belt. Late Pleistocene surficial deposits – notably wind-blown loess and megaflood sediments – completed the surface geology they saw in the area.