Nick on the Rocks

Much of Vancouver Island is covered by a layer of 230-million-year-old basalt, but erosion at select beaches has exposed layers of both older and younger rock that tell a story of continental collision and massive gaps in the rock record.

On the hard-to-reach Quadra Island is a small bay with a mass of swirling rock that appears almost liquid. The folded limestone is not only a textbook example of the Law of Cross Cutting Relations, but it also traveled to Canada from tropical waters and keeps the record of a collision along the way.

The peaks that surround Leavenworth are granite, but the valley itself is an enormous sandstone basin built up over millennia. The discovery of an ancient layer of volcanic ash chronicles an era of eruptions and tectonic activity that rapidly created the sandstone and some unique outcrops around the Washington town.

In the hills outside of Naches, Washington, at the foot of Mount Rainier are the remains of a much older volcano. Join Nick as he searches the landscape for signs of an eroded 25-million-year-old volcano that shines a light on the Cascade Range’s distant past.

The Naches Peak Loop trail is popular for its views of Mount Rainier, but there are more volcanic stories to be found if you know where to look. Rocks just off the trail leave clues to a large volcano out in the Pacific Ocean, and to a newer volcano that sent dikes of magma up through the ancient ocean rock – all before Mount Rainier started to grow.

An old oceanic island, a deep-ocean magma chamber and an ancient batholith have all been pushed together to form the base of scenic San Juan Island. All around the island is evidence of volcanic activity that went down far off in the Pacific Ocean – including signs of an ancient coral reef!

The granite of Mount Stuart dominates the skyline outside of Cle Elum, Washington, but a unique green rock can also be found all along the trails of the Teanaway. The green look of the Bean Peak serpentinite tells a deep ocean story, but did it combine with Mount Stuart here in Washington or way out in the ocean?

The road out of Mazama, Washington eventually leads all the way up to Slate Peak and the highest road in Washington at 7,440 feet. Scattered around this perch in the Cascades are signs that the rocks that now sit more than a mile up were once down at sea level. Fossilized snails and ancient mud tell a story of our distant past and the region’s landscape during the time of the dinosaurs.