Abiqua Falls, OR

I dig it. Love the colors, the composition, and the processing.

Clone out that dust-spot on the right side of the water "spray" ;)

Jake
 
I dig it. Love the colors, the composition, and the processing.

Clone out that dust-spot on the right side of the water "spray" ;)

Jake

Haha funny you pointed that out. I must have uploaded the dust spot version by accident. Thanks for the kind words though.
 
beautiful, the detail in the rocks by the falls and the colour, really impressive
 
I've often wondered how the heck those weird "match stick" rock formations were made!!! I notice that LaTourelle Falls in the Columbia Gorge has the same type of match stick rock formations in the rock face there...so that must have something to do with how that rock cooled after it was ejected from the Earth. I've never been to Abiqua Falls...looks like a great place to shoot at!
 
I've often wondered how the heck those weird "match stick" rock formations were made!!! I notice that LaTourelle Falls in the Columbia Gorge has the same type of match stick rock formations in the rock face there...so that must have something to do with how that rock cooled after it was ejected from the Earth. I've never been to Abiqua Falls...looks like a great place to shoot at!

Yeah I have always wondered how they are formed too. I highly recommend checking Abiqua Falls out. Its down near Salem. Its a hidden gem. It's pretty difficult to find as you have to go about 9 miles offroading, and then you need to scale down a huge cliff to the river. You then walk along the river and hit the falls around the corner. Probably the most breath taking thing you will see just because of the adventure it takes to get there.
 
Very nice shot. For those who are wondering, the "match stick" rocks are, as Derrel has suggested, the result of how the rock cooled after flowing out onto the "ground". Most of that part of Oregon, part of Washington and Idaho are included in what is known as the Columbia Plateau, an area of large basalt flows that occurred during the geologic periods of the Miocene and Pliocene Epochs which date from about 23 million years ago to about 3.5 million years ago. When I was there, in Oregon, a year ago shooting waterfalls in the Columbia River Gorge, I found these features, "match stick rocks" (as Derrel calls them) to be quite common in the basalts that the waterfalls have eroded through. As the basalts flowed out of the vents, wherever they were, and cooled, the result was a sequence of rocks that have these, more or less hexagonal forms in the rocks. You get similar "forms" in mud flats, when the mud dries out as the water evaporates, only they are not as uniform because the mud is not as uniform in composition, as the basalt was when it flowed out onto the "plateau" area. The basalts, themselves actually formed the plateau. You can check here, if interested, - Columbia Plateau - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia

You are probably all wondering how I know this - well, I am a geologist (now retired) and one of the areas we studied in school was, in fact, the Columbia Plateau as it is quite unique in some ways as far as geological basalt plateaus go in the geological record - some things just stick with you forever. :biggrin-93:

Hope that answers any questions.

WesternGuy
 

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