38 Plate Boundary Evolution and Lithospheric Dynamics of Western North America (Posters)

We invite presentations on Cenozoic tectonics, volcanism, sedimentation, and geohazards offshore and along the margin of western North America. Example topics include crustal structure, mantle processes, triple-junction migration, paleomagnetism, active faulting, marine stratigraphy, and seismicity.

Friday, 24 April 2026
8:00 AM - 5:30 PM
LMH, 5th Floor Chapel

The Oregon Thermochronology Project

Paper number: 38-2
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 8:00 AM – 8:00 AM

Authors

Abstract

The Oregon Thermochronology Project has set out to aggregate low-temperature thermochronology data from within the geographic bounds of the state of Oregon, USA.  The last century has seen major improvements in the methodologies used to collect and interpret low-temperature thermochronology data, and the intellectual development of these methods has necessarily been biased towards the project-based applications where they were proven and where thermochronologists have focused their efforts.  As a result, a small number of geological provinces like the southern Sierra Nevada batholith are very well covered with thermochronology data, while other provinces remain functionally unexplored, like the Oregon basin and range.  Despite being primarily a natural scientific progression, the history of the field is fundamentally intertwined with the geoscience egregor regarding the meaning, purpose, and interpretive value of low-temperature thermochronology data.  Unsurprisingly, this history has left large gaps in our geologic pursuits, i.e. the very limited amount of thermochronologic data in Oregon, USA.  To further learn about this phenomenon and work towards rectifying it, we establish the Oregon Thermochronology Project.  Current work is focused on published (U-Th)/He and fission-track systems in apatite and zircon minerals, and we welcome community input on datasets we are missing or are unpublished to date.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 58, No. 3

doi: 10.1130/abs/2026CD-410934

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