EOU Geology

Phi Beta Rock, the EOU Geology Club, in Hawaii (2008)

 

We are a group of students and faculty who love going out on field trips and learning about the geologic history of the beautiful area we live in.  Eastern OregonUniversity is located in the La Grande Basin, a graben in the Blue Mountains of Eastern Oregon. Our area has been referred to as “a geological wrecking yard” of 240-200 million year old tropical volcanic island arcs, 150-100 million year old granitic batholiths, 40-20 million year old andesitic and rhyolitic volcanics, and 16-2 million year old Columbia River flood basalts and Powder River volcanics, all deformed by block faulting and carved by Pleistocene glaciers. We’re close to the Wallowa and Elkhorn Mountains, Hells Canyon, the John Day Fossil Beds, the Owyhee volcanic area and a lot of other spectacular geologic sites. And, the Cascades, the Oregon coast, Yellowstone, Glacier National Park and other areas are within a day’s drive. It is a great place to study geology!