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Use this page to search our collection of educationally-useful geologic field guides and road logs in Montana and Yellowstone. You may search the database by entering a keyword to search or choosing one of the listed terms for geologic topic, geographic location, or geologic province.


Results 1 - 10 of 54 matches

Early Proterozoic Geology of the Highland Mountains, Southwestern Montana, and Field Guide to the Basement Rocks that Compose the Highland Mountain Gneiss Dome part of MT Field Guides
The Highland Mountains are underlain by the largest of the northwesternmost exposures of basement crystalline rocks in southwestern Montana....Metasedimentary rocks in the Highland Mountains are in part lithologically similar to the Late Archean multilithologic sequence (in the Tobacco Root, Ruby, and the northern Madison and Gravelly Ranges), but are considerably thinner. In the Highland Mountains the individual beds of aluminous schist, marble, quartzite, and iron-formation extend for only short distances, but the assemblage as a whole is mappable. It nowhere exceeds 300 ft (100 m) in thickness and appears to pinch out to the north....these rocks in the Highlands, unlike those to the southeast, are overlain by more than 10,000 ft (3000 m) of aluminous biotite gneiss that may have been deposited as muds basinward from the Late Archean shelf edge.

Geographic Location: Southwest Montana
Geologic Province: Central Rocky Mountains Foreland Province

Middle Proterozoic Belt Supergroup, Western Montana part of MT Field Guides
From Great Falls, to Butte, Helena Glacier National Park and Spokane, this field trip crosses onto the leading edge of the Rocky Mountain thrust belt and proceeds to the stratiform copper-silver deposits in the Revett Formation of the Troy Mine in the main part of the Belt basin. The road log includes sections on the paleontology of the Middle Proterozoic Belt Supergroup, stromatolites of the Belt Supergroup (specific to Glacier National Park), Middle Proterozoic Tectonics of the Belt basin, and a sedimentologic and tectonic interpretation of the Belt Supergroup.

Topics: Igneous rocks, Sedimentary rocks, Metamorphic rocks, Structures, Surficial geology, Fossils
Geographic Location: Northwest Montana
Geologic Province: Rocky Mountain Fold-Thrust Belt

Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks and the Middle Rocky Mountains part of MT Field Guides
This trip is designed to show participants the granite-cored Laramide (Late Cretaceous-earliest Eocene) mountain ranges in the middle Rocky Mountains, and their various stages of burial by Cenozoic deposits and subsequent Quaternary exhumation. Mountain-flank structures involving Precambrian, Paleozoic, and Mesozoic rocks, the classic Heart Mountain detachment fault complex, and the rootless overthrust mountain ranges of the Wyoming-Utah-Idaho thrust belt are traversed.

Topics: Igneous rocks, Sedimentary rocks, Metamorphic rocks, Structures, Hydrology, Hazards
Geographic Location: Yellowstone National Park
Geologic Province: Yellowstone Plateau

Plutonism at Deep Crustal Levels: The Idaho Batholith, Montana and Idaho part of MT Field Guides
The Idaho batholith field trip traverses a well exposed cross-section of the northern Idaho batholith, briefly examines the broad aspects of this deep-seated granitoid batholith and its regionally metamorphosed country rocks, and considers the role of the synplutonic mafic magmas from the mantle in providing heat for melting of continental crustal rocks to form the more felsic main-phase units of the batholith.

Topics: Igneous rocks, Metamorphic rocks
Geographic Location: Southwest Montana
Geologic Province: Rocky Mountain Fold-Thrust Belt

Road Log to the Picket Pin Mountain, Chrome Mountain and Contact Mountain Areas part of MT Field Guides
This road log describes the geologic features along the access roads for three additional traverses: Guide to the Picket Pin Mountain Area, Guide to the Chrome Mountain Area, and A Traverse Through the Banded Series in the Contact Mountain Area. "This trip requires nearly 2 hours without stops. Beyond 12.5 miles, the road is rough and steep in places; a four-wheel-drive vehicle is recommended.

Topics: Igneous rocks, Sedimentary rocks, Structures
Geographic Location: Southwest Montana
Geologic Province: Central Rocky Mountains Foreland Province

A Traverse Through the Banded Series in the Contact Mountain Area part of MT Field Guides
This traverse through the Banded Series of the Stillwater Complex follows the section described in detail by McCallum and others (1980)....Unusual or particularly interesting features are highlighted by the 22 localities along the traverse. In view of the nearly continuous outcrop, however, there is much of interest to see between localities, and full appreciation of the entire section would require several days. Nonetheless, most of the important rock types can be seen on a 1-day trip.

Topics: Igneous rocks
Geographic Location: Southwest Montana
Geologic Province: Central Rocky Mountains Foreland Province

Field Guide; Little Rocky Mountains part of MT Field Guides
This fieldtrip examines deformed Paleozoic sedimentary rocks on the margins of the Little Rocky Mountains, Tertiary intrusive rocks (porphyrys, magmatic-hydrothermal breccias, and dikes), and associated mineralization.

Topics: Igneous rocks, Sedimentary rocks, Metamorphic rocks
Geographic Location: North-Central Montana
Geologic Province: Montana Plains

Shonkin Sag and Square Butte Laccoliths, Montana part of MT Field Guides
Shonkin Sag and Square Butte laccoliths are at the eastern edge of the Highwood Mountains as part of the Central Montana Alkalic Province. Rocks in the Highwood Mountains date to 50-53 Ma. Both laccoliths are internally differentiated and contain a variety of rock types, including shonkinite, syenite, and pegmatite.

Topics: Igneous rocks, Sedimentary rocks
Geographic Location: North-Central Montana
Geologic Province: Montana Plains

Crazy Mountains, Montana part of MT Field Guides
This trip examines a variety of mid-Eocene alkalic (feldspathoidal) stocks, laccoliths, sills, and dikes emplaced into Cretaceous and Paleozoic sedimentary strata. These rocks include mafic and felsic varieties, and are both texturally and compositionally variable. Most of the mafic alkalic rocks are unique in the Montana Alkalic Province in having Na2O > K2O. They are unusual even among feldspathoidal rocks because they are stongly enriched in incompatible elements, and have Sr, Nd, and Pb isotopic compositions which reflect an ancient source having low Rb/Sr, Sm/Nd, and U/Pb.

Topics: Igneous rocks, Sedimentary rocks, Metamorphic rocks, Structures
Geographic Location: South-Central Montana
Geologic Province: Central Rocky Mountains Foreland Province

The Hebgen Lake Earthquake Area, Montana and Wyoming part of MT Field Guides
Several high-angle normal faults bounding the west front of the Madison Range north of Hebgen Lake, recurrently active during much of Neogene time, reactivated catastrophically on August 7, 1959. Faulting was accompanied by largest historic earthquake within the Intermountain Seismic Belt. Unusual geologic features were formed--spectacular fault scarps, a large landslide, a deformed lake basin (Hebgen Lake), and a new lake (Earthquake Lake)--each of which demonstrates the destructive power of a large eathquake. These features are described in the context of the bedrock geology in this field guide.

Topics: Sedimentary rocks, Metamorphic rocks, Structures, Surficial geology, Hazards
Geographic Location: Southwest Montana
Geologic Province: Central Rocky Mountains Foreland Province