FOUNDATIONS IN GENESIS OF IDAHO/OREGON

Summer Field Trip, June 21, 2003

Hagerman Fossil Beds and Snake River Canyon Area

 

A one-day field trip, to explore the Snake River Canyon in the Bliss/Hagerman, ID area, and study the geologic exposures within the Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument, is planned.  The first stop will be in the Bliss area to unravel the cause of an ancient landslide on the north wall of the Snake River Canyon that experienced renewed movement in 1993.  Future movement of this unstable mass could threaten residents in the town of Bliss.  Why is this large area of land unstable?  Have you had a chance to “Yahoo” lately?  The “Yahoo Clay” tells us about the past geologic history of this interesting area and why landslide problems have developed at this location. Extensive exposures of pillow basalts will be examined to determine how and why these unusual features formed in molten rock of past ages.

 

The Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument was established in 1988 by Congress “…to preserve for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations the outstanding paleontological sites known as the Hagerman Valley fossil sites,…”  On other Foundations in Genesis field trips we have studied Post-Flood Lake Idaho areal extent, exposures and deposits.  The floodplain of not-so-long-ago Lake Idaho is very evident in this area, and probably the streams flowing into Lake Idaho contributed to the burial of the vertebrates now found as fossils in the Hagerman sediments.  Although the Hagerman site is noted for horse fossils, more than one hundred species of other vertebrates have been identified.  Why is a wide variety of extinct life forms found as fossils in one location like the Hagerman site?  Perhaps a catastrophic happening(s) had something to do with these layered deposits.  Did the present horse really evolve from smaller, four-footed animals, over millions of years, or is there a better explanation?  Field trip participants will have the opportunity to explore the exposed deposits in the Hagerman Fossil Beds for answers to the above questions.