Washington Rocks

Active volcanoes, like Rainier and Baker, dominate Washington's western half, and Columbia flood basalt covers much of the eastern half, but scattered here and there are other equally amazing rocks and features that make the Evergreen State one of the most geologically interesting places in the entire country.

With this book as your guide, you can find limestone caves, billion-year-old gneiss, glacial moraines, petrified forests, fossilized palm leaves, upside-down sandstone beds, and ancient landslides. Or you can explore the mind-boggling canyons, waterfalls, and scabland carved by the torrential Missoula Floods, check out the glacially carved granite of the North Cascades, or watch sea stacks erode in the pounding surf of the Pacific Ocean.

Washington Rocks! is part of the state-by-state Geology Rocks! series that introduces readers to some of the most compelling and accessible geologic sites in each state. The 57 sites in this book are scattered throughout the state, from Steptoe Butte in the southeast, the namesake of the steptoe geologic feature, to trilobite-bearing limestone in Box Canyon in the northeast, and from glacial gouges on Iceberg Point in the San Juan Islands to ghost forests in Willapa Bay, trees killed during the last great earthquake. Colorful photographs and instructive diagrams make this book a must-have for rockhounds, students, tourists, and residents alike.

Eugene Kiver, an emeritus professor of geology, who taught and did research on geomorphology and Ice Age history at Eastern Washington University for thirty-two years, now lives in the seaport of Anacortes, Washington. He is on the Ice Age Floods Institute Board, leads field trips in the Channeled Scabland, and makes numerous presentations to interested groups. He recently coauthored On the Trail of the Ice Age Floods with Bruce Bjornstad. Gene is an active hiker and has hiked well over 3,000 miles in the past ten years in the Cascade Range and elsewhere in the Pacific Northwest.



Chad Pritchard, a geology professor at Eastern Washington University, grew up rock climbing, snowboarding, and SCUBA diving throughout the Northwest. After various jobs in the earth sciences, including with the soil survey in Spokane and as an environmental regulator in Hawaii, he obtained a PhD in geology from Washington State University. In addition to studying a great variety of geologic features in Washington, Chad has researched geothermal heat in Iceland, volcanics in Yellowstone, and land level changes associated with large Cascadia earthquakes on the West Coast. He lives with his wife and three children in Medical Lake, Washington.



Richard L. Orndorff, professor of geotechnical engineering at Eastern Washington University, is a coauthor of Geology Underfoot in Central Nevada, Geology Underfoot in Southern Utah (published by GSA), and Landforms of Southern Utah (out of print.) He resides in Spokane with his wife, Sherry, daughter, Emma, and dog, Chloe (woof).