Hudspeth Shores
- Marble and blueschist on a base of sandstone. Collected near Mitchell Oregon.
- Height 9 inches, base 14 inches by 8 inches.
- Donated to OSU Field Geology Program 6/20/24
- This piece combines several rocks collected in the Myers Canyon area near Mitchell Oregon, while I was helping teach the Oregon State University Field Camp in 2022. The blueschist and marble are part of one of Oregon's exotic terrranes, a huge block of rock that was transported hundreds of miles by plate tectonics till it slammed into Oregon over 150 Million years ago. The marble is Permian in age, and possibly the oldest rock in Oregon, and the blueschist is a rare and unique rock found in tectonic collision zones. They come from an outcrop that only covers a few hundred acres, the rest of these older rocks are buried by the Hudspeth Formation, sandstone and conglomerate of the Cretaceous Period, 100 million years ago. At that time, the seas advanced across the older terrane, and there were likely seastacks of the older rocks surrounded by the beaches of Hudspeth sand.
