Uploaded May 2017 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
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How can the rocks of the Deschutes Canyon be found hundreds of miles away on the Oregon Coast? Or how does the mud near the canyon bottom relate to floods in Montana? One of Oregon's most spectacular areas is the Deschutes Canyon around Harris Ranch, an abandoned homestead that dates to the 1890s, and observing the magnificent cliffs above can tell a lot about the area's chaotic past.
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How can the rocks of the Deschutes Canyon be found hundreds of miles away on the Oregon Coast? Or how does the mud near the canyon bottom relate to floods in Montana? One of Oregon's most spectacular areas is the Deschutes Canyon around Harris Ranch, an abandoned homestead that dates to the 1890s, and observing the magnificent cliffs above can tell a lot about the area's chaotic past.
![Geology of the Alvord Desert | Oregon Geology - 4K [CC]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xYUxSZgL1p8/mqdefault.jpg "Geology of the Alvord Desert | Oregon Geology - 4K [CC]
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The Alvord Desert is Oregons largest dry lake bed, and it is at the center of a fascinating geologic story. It sits in the shadow of Steens Mountain, one of Oregons highest mountains which towers more than 5,000 feet above the lake bed and creates the rain shadow needed to maintain Alvords desert-like conditions. Steens Mountain was uplifted over the past 10 million years along the Steens Fault, and more than 3,000 meters of total offset has occurred in that time. Alvord Desert filled the graben that that fault system created. Above Alvord Desert in Pike Creek, older volcanic rocks can be seen which reflect an interesting volcanic environment which produced highly-evolved rhyolite lava shortly before the massive outpouring of the Steens Basalts (part of the Columbia River Basalt Group) blanketed Oregon. These older volcanic rocks of the Pike Creek Volcanics also contain some of Oregons few uranium mines. Uranium was concentrated in old fault zones, and the presence of heavy metals shows that the Steens Fault extends very deep into the Earth. This deep structure is also what allows the numerous hot springs (Alvord Hot Springs, Mickey Hot Springs, and Borax Lake) to reach the surface.
This video was filmed by and with camera gear provided by Riley Hooper, who can be found over at Wogos Media.
The data for the Columbia River Basalt dikes is from Morriss et al, 2020 paper The Chief Joseph dike swarm of the Columbia River flood basalts, and the legacy data set of William H. Taubeneck published in Geosphere. https://doi.org/10.1130/GES02173.1")
