FROM NEOPROTEROZOIC ‘PRE-CURSOR’ CLAMS TO THE KLAMATHS: DOCUMENTING THE PALEOGEOGRAPHIC EVOLUTION OF THE EASTERN KLAMATH TERRANES, AN EDUCATION OUTREACH MODEL

This project combines original graphics and writing in a set of educational outreach materials about the geologic history of the Klamath Mountain Province (KMP) in southern Oregon and northern California, with an emphasis on paleogeographic relations and the movement of terranes in the late Neoproterozoic through mid-Paleozoic. Incorporating the most recent primary literature, print and media publications were developed to be accessible, readable and captivating to a general public audience, assuming a baseline level of scientific literacy. Research was conducted through a GSA Geocorps Internship at Oregon Caves National Monument (ORCA), in collaboration with ORCA Chief Naturalist and Head of Resource Management John Roth, and illustrator and geologist Audrey Ledford, as well as personal communication with Drs. Nan Lindsley-Griffin and John Griffin, primary authors on the Eastern Klamath terranes. The project focuses specifically on documenting evidence for the geologic and tectonic evolution of the oldest terrane belt in the KMP, the Eastern Klamaths. Recent publication and classification of Neoproterozoic (Vendian) cyclomedusoid fossils from the Antelope Mountain Quartzite of the Yreka terrane (Griffin et al. 2006) unifies the work as a narrative thread.

As a public education outreach project, the ultimate goal of the work is to address a critical gap in public awareness and understanding of contemporary geoscience research, especially as related to recent reinterpretations of the driving forces behind plate tectonics, mantle dynamics, and terrane accretionary processes. A major emphasis of the piece is in highlighting the many unsolved mysteries of the Eastern Klamath terranes and assembly of the Western Cordillera as a whole.