Sponsored by: TBA
Legacy of Cenozoic Volcanism in the Pacific Northwest: Emphasis on the High Lava Plains of Oregon
By
Anita Grunder, Professor Emeritus, Geosciences, Oregon State University
Abstract: The High Lava Plains of eastern Oregon are a Miocene to Recent basalt plateau with west-ward younging rhyolite domes and flows and ignimbrites. They make a geomorphic, compositional and age progressive mirror image to the Yellowstone hotspot and lie at the northern margin of the Basin and Range Province. The basalts are derived by melting of depleted Pacific mantle entrained by Cascadia slab roll-back and steeping. Persistent invasion of basalt has driven reworking of the crust and has contributed the heat and source rocks to create rhyolites, as well as accommodating extension.
Bio: Anita Grunder is professor emeritus at Oregon State University where she served from assistant professor to associate dean of academic programs. She graduated from UC Berkeley in Paleontology in 1977 and, after holding various odd jobs, went on to obtain her PhD at Stanford University in 1986. At Oregon State University she taught courses in petrology, volcanology, geochemistry, and field geology, among others.
Her interests are centered on understanding the interaction between magma and the crust over time in diverse tectonic settings. Her work is based in field studies of the volcanic record supplemented by diverse analytical techniques and modeling. Her present interest areas are volcanism in extensional settings (High Lava Plains), arcs (Andes and Cascades), and hotspots (Steens Basalt).
She has served the professional community as an officer in the GSA, AGU and IAVCEI and as a member of the editorial board of Geology and JGR, Solid Earth. She has served in her community by starting a rural Charter School focused on experiential learning. She is married to John Dilles, also a geologist, and they have three grown children, Anita, Zoe, and Leo.
