There's a place up the valley across the creek from my house, where some very interesting geology is exposed. On top is a massive single sheet of basalt, broken along a fault line. Under it is evidence of prior flows, layers of fine sedimentary rock with leaf fossils, a two-foot-thick crust of white volcanic ash, bentonite patches full of rounded river rock, pillow basalt over shale beds, and welded tuff. I want to photograph the whole set sometime, but for now here's what a cell phone cam on an overcast evening could get.
The top cap rock. The line of cliff continues across several hills.
The ash layer
River rock exposed in a draw. A layer of welded conglomerate above it is like aggregate cement.
River rock that I want more of but could only find one piece.
Leaf fossil from the sediment layer below the river rock.
Agate from the basalt layer.
Breccated, quartz-filled metamorphic was-shale from where the shale and basalt meet.
Will be going back to inspect the river rock and metamorphic shale more closely...
