WHAT FORMED THE COOS CONGLOMERATE? CLASTIC ANALYSIS AND PALEONTOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS

We are investigating the origins of the Coos Conglomerate. This conglomerate is at Fossil Point in Coos Bay, Oregon. It has a large varsity of clast sizes, from a sand to silt matrix to individual clasts up to two meters in length. The clasts and fossils have strong directional indicators that could be either from storm deposits or possibly from a tsunami. We are measuring clast orientation and constructing Rose Diagrams to see imbrication direction. The locality we are working is very unique with many fossils as the name suggests with some very interesting fossils like articulated whales. These articulated whales also have a “halo” surrounding them, which may indicate the lower whale fall. We are taking 3D scans of the environment using structure from motion techniques, both on an outcrop scale and on a specimen scale of individual fossils. We will map directional indicators in three dimensions using the models. There are lots of pictures to go through right now so we haven't finished analyzing them using ImageJ, but with more work through the pictures we hope to find that it is a storm deposit or tsunami deposit. Additionally, we will soon have a XRF That may be able to answer the question of if the “halo” around the whales actually represents a lipid biological cement. By combining clast analysis, better descriptions of the fossils, and geochemistry we aim to differentiate environments for the Empire Formation and Coos Conglomerate.