Title Text
ORACLE STATE PARK
azstateparks.com
Granite Inselberg
Title Text
ORACLE STATE PARK
Text
Text
azstateparks.com
Oracle State Park
Coronado National Forest
Title Text
ORACLE STATE PARK
Text
Text
azstateparks.com
San Pedro Valley - Galiuro Mountains
Title Text
ORACLE STATE PARK
azstateparks.com
Oldest Rock - 1.65 Billion Years
azstateparks.com
Title Text
ORACLE STATE PARK
Text
Text
azstateparks.com
1.65 BYA
azstateparks.com
Text
Text
Title Text
ORACLE STATE PARK
Text
Text
azstateparks.com
Pinal Schist Origins
Pinal Schist Origins
azstateparks.com
Undersea Avalanches - Turbidity Flows
azstateparks.com
Text
Title Text
ORACLE STATE PARK
azstateparks.com
Thousands of feet thick
azstateparks.com
Title Text
ORACLE STATE PARK
azstateparks.com
Metamorphosed from Turbidite
azstateparks.com
Oracle Granite - Basement Rock of the Park
Text
azstateparks.com
1.4BYA - Crystallized from magma, miles below the surface
aazstateparks.comaaaaa
While still buried, joints formed from extreme pressure
azstateparks.com
Percolated groundwater, reacting with feldspar, created clay
azstateparks.com
More than 25 MYA, faults lifted Oracle Granite towards the surface
azstateparks.com
Erosion removed thousands of feet overlying rock, exposing the fractured bedrock
azstateparks.com
Delamination - Exfoliation
After millions of years of winds and erosion, exposed the underlying basement
azstateparks.com
Title Text
ORACLE STATE PARK
azstateparks.com
Text
azstateparks.com
Pinal Schist Xenoliths in Oracle Granite
Title Text
ORACLE STATE PARK
azstateparks.com
1.4 BYA magma rose from earth's crust as Oracle Granite
azstateparks.com
Text
Title Text
ORACLE STATE PARK
azstateparks.com
As it rose, it broke through a roof of Pinal Schist
azstateparks.com
The fragments, carried by the magma, became a part of the cooling rock
azstateparks.com
Title Text
ORACLE STATE PARK
azstateparks.com
azstateparks.com
Aplite dikes
Tourmaline
Diabase in Mescal Limestone
Encased Diabase
Granodiorite Porphyry
Laramide Orogeny
- 60 - 70 mya
- North America collided with the ocean crust
- Magmatic activity produced Laramide Granitic Porphyry
- This time, hydrothermal solutions were rich in copper
- Smaller amounts of silver, gold and molybdenum were also present
Sources
Azstateparks.com, Oracle State Park - Special thanks to Tom Buckley, geologist, Oracle State Park volunteer
Bezy, J.V., 2016, A Guide to the Geology of the Santa Catalina Mountains, Arizona: The Geology and Life Zones of a Madrean Sky Island. Arizona Geological Survey Down-to-Earth #22 , 83p.
Johnson, Chris, Affolter, Matthew D., Inkenbrandt, Paul, Mosher, Cam, 2017, An Introduction to Geology, Salt Lake City Community College