Bedrock Geology and Surface Processes in Wanapum Recreation Area (Vantage, WA) - Essay Example

 Introduction The Wanapum Recreation Area is located in the Kittitas Country, which is nearby the city of Vantage, WA, and it’s also called Ginkgo State Park. It is nearby the Columbia River. This area is the only way from Pullman to Seattle. This project area has 7,470-acre whit camping, and it has 27,000-feet of freshwater shoreline along the Columbia River, and the important rocks is basalt which is from Columbia River. This area was discovered in the early 1930s. (Coffin 166) The Wanapum Recreation Area is a perfect camping area in the Washington state, it has a watercraft launch with two ramps, and it has 50 full hook-up sites, maximum site length is 60-feet. Maps and Bedrock Geology Topography The Wanapum Recreation Area (Ginkgo State Park) is my project area, which is circled in the Figure 1. According to the source from Google Earth, the highest point of Wanapum Recreation Area is 1561ft, which is on the top of the mountain. And the lowest point is 573ft, which is the Columbia river. For the total relief of this area, it is calculating from highest point minus lowest point, which is 988ft. The steepest slope is 23.2%, which is from the top of the mountain and down to the Columbia river. And also, according to the source, the Wanapum Recreation Area have some distinctive landforms, such as Columbia River, several mountains, and a V-shaped valley in the Columbia River. Figure 1: Topographic map of Wanapum Recreation Area (Ginkgo State Park), Vantage, WA. Source: Google Earth ©2016 Google. Rock Types and Ages Figure 2: Geologic map of project area showing rock types. Wanapum Recreation Area (Ginkgo State Park), Vantage, WA. Source: Google Earth ©2016 Google. Formation Name (symbol) Rock type and brief description Ages: Oldest to youngest (Ma = million years ago) Miocene Volanic Rock (Mv) They both are igneous rock and volcanic (extrusive) rock. Tholeiite are a chemical sub-type of basalt, and it contains quartz. Andesite is intermediate in composition between rhyolite and basalt. Middle Miocene Miocene-Pliocene nonmarine rocks (MPLc) Conglomerate is one of the clastic sedimentary rock. Pumice is one of the volcanic (extrusive) rock. Conglomerate can be mineral particles such as quartz. Miocene-Pliocene Quaternary nonmarine deposits (Qce) They both are clastic sedimentary rock. And they both contains quartz and glaciacustrine. Pleistocene Table 1. List of rock types with formation names and ages. Geologic Structures Figure 3.1: Geologic map of Wanapum Recreation Area (Ginkgo State Park), Vantage, WA. (showing faults and folds (structures). Source: USGS/AASG, mapView According to the sources, the Green Number (1,2,3) on both Figure 3.1 and Figure 3.2 shows the Dip-slips in my project area, which is Wanapum Recreation Area. The first one is a thrust fault, the angle of contact is lower and formed by compression, the oriented is 132.89 degrees and the length is around 4.38 miles. The second one is also a thrust fault, it is same with first fault, the oriented of second one is 147.10 degrees and the length is around 6.28 miles. For the third, it is a normal fault, the heading is 149.44 degree and the length is around 1.45 miles. Figure 3.2: Geologic map of Wanapum Recreation Area (Ginkgo State Park), Vantage, WA. showing faults and folds (structures). Source: Google Earth ©2016 Google. Sequence of Events According to the research, the geologists determined the Frenchmans Spring member of Wanapum basalt formation, Columbia River basalt group from 17 sites through anomalous paleomagnetic in in my project area, which is Wanapum Recreation Area, located near Vantage, Washington. (Sheriff, 398) And also, there are have other member during the middle Miocene, such as Roza Member, Eckler Mountain Member. The Frenchmans Springs member is the most extensive member of the Wanapum basalt formation. (Mackin, 45) Photographs Surface Processes Water Resources Stream The main stream is Sand Hollow-Columbia River in my project area. It is a straight channel of stream channel. The Columbia River is a perennial stream. It is a V-shaped and flows from north to south. And its drainage pattern is trellis. Its stream flows would increase on the winter, and would decrease on the summer. But the flows have changed relatively little for a several years. Groundwater The primary aquifers of the CPRAS are the Columbia River basalt group (CRBG) and overlying basin-fill sediments. There is one aquifer is confined, which is fractured basalts, and unfeatured basalt made by overlying basin-fill sediments. The confining layer is unfeatured basalt. The aquifer is made by both fractured basalt and unfeatured basalt. According to the research, my project area is belonging to the Wanapum hydrogeologic unit, and it is composed mostly of basalt and interbed members of the Wanapum basalt, is in most of the north-central part of the project area. Water Use I selected a nearest city to my project area to determine the water use, which is city of Yakima, WA. Its main drinking water are from groundwater. According to the sources, written by KE Gibson and KJ Schwab, its water mainly for the agricultural. The city of Yakima has a history of GW and SW pollution issues around lower Yakima Valley, it caused by the nonpoint agricultural runoff of land-applied animal wastes and inorganic fertilizers, such as bovine’s wastes. In my opinions, it is a potential issue in the future development of water use on the Yakima area. Glaciers and Shorelines There are have glacier valley in the vicinity. According to the research, reported by Anacortes, Washington, my project area does have a shoreline, which is Columbia River shoreline at the hand boat launch. It has about 27,000-feet of freshwater shoreline on the Wanapum Reservoir along the Columbia River. Figure 5, Shoreline. Climate and Global Climate Change The Yakima is the nearest city to my project area. The average annual precipitation in the area is 8.11 inches. The highest average maximum temperature is 88.18°F, which is on the July. The lowest average minimum temperature of 21.36°F, which is on the January. The average annual snowfall in the Yakima is 22.29 inches. According to the research, due to the global climate change in the area of Yakima and my project area, the average temperature increased about 1.5°F during the twentieth century. The scientists forecast that the annual temperature will increase to 49.9°F on the 2040s. In my opinions, this area has already experienced consequences of rapid climate change, because the scientists said this area will receive most of their precipitation as rain through the globe climate change. And the scientists determined that the climate change will continue to affect Yakima’s economy, and that impacts is growing. Conclusion The most interesting thing of I learned and searched geology knowledge is that the name of my project area, it is called Wanapum Recreation Area or Ginkgo State Park. What is ginkgo? This was the first question in my mind. I thought this area should very beautiful because there were should have many ginkgo trees. However, I didn’t see any ginkgo tree when I visited this area. And also, I learned more about the Columbia River, it forming much of the border between the states of Washington and Oregon, the Columbia River is the largest North American river, by volume, that flows into the Pacific Ocean. And according to the research, the volume of Columbia River is decreasing during these serval years. In the US Northwest, it lost about 14 percent of its volume from 1948 to 2004, it is largely because of reduced precipitation and higher water usage in the West, such as the rising of population. References 1. Coffin, Harold G. "The Ginkgo petrified forest." Origins 1.2 (1974): 101-103. 2. USGS. USGS Topographic Maps on Google Earth. www. Earthpoint.us/ Topomap.aspx. 6 October 2016. 3. Huntting, M. T., Bennett, W. A. G., Livingston, V. E. Jr., Moen, W. S., 1961, Geologic Map of Washington: Washington Division of Mines and Geology, scale 1:500,000. 4. USGS, AASG mapView, Link: http://ngmdb.usgs.gov/maps/MapView/ 5. Sheriff, Steven D. "Paleomagnetic evidence for spatially distributed post-Miocene rotation of western Washington and Oregon." Tectonics 3.3 (1984): 397-408. 6. Mackin, J. H., A stratigraphic section in the Yakima Basalt and Ellensburg formation in south-central Washington, Wash. Div. Mines Geol. Rep. Invest., 19, 45 pp., 1961. 7. USGS: The National Mat Hydrography Link: https://viewer.nationalmap.gov/viewer/nhd.html?p=nhd 8. Gibson, Kristen E., and Kellogg J. Schwab. "Detection of bacterial indicators and human and bovine enteric viruses in surface water and groundwater sources potentially impacted by animal and human wastes in Lower Yakima Valley, Washington." Applied and environmental microbiology 77.1 (2011): 355-362. 9. Anacortes, Washington. "Mitigation Plan." 10. "Yakima Air Terminal, Washington (459465): Period of Record Monthly Climate Summary." Cooperative Climatological Data Summaries: NOAA Cooperative Stations – Temperature and Precipitation. Western Regional Climate Center, 20 Jan. 2015. Sat. 5 Nov. 2016. http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/climatedata/climsum/ 11. “IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON WASHINGTON’S ECONOMY.” A Preliminary Assessment of Risks and Opportunities, Washington Department of Ecology, Nov. 2006. PDF. Read More