Steeple Rock (Washington)

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Steeple Rock
Steeple Rock 5288' on Hurricane Ridge.jpg
Steeple Rock seen from the east
Highest point
Elevation 5,567 ft (1,697 m) [1]
Prominence 567 ft (173 m) [1]
Coordinates 47°57′43″N123°27′15″W / 47.961935°N 123.454043°W / 47.961935; -123.454043 [1]
Geography
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Steeple Rock
Location of Steeple Rock in Washington
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Steeple Rock
Steeple Rock (the United States)
CountryUnited States
State Washington
County Clallam
Protected area Olympic National Park
Parent range Olympic Mountains
Topo map USGS Mount Angeles
Geology
Rock age Eocene
Rock type Basalt
Climbing
Easiest route Scrambling class 3

Steeple Rock [2] is a 200-foot (61 meter) basalt pillar in the Olympic Mountains, and is located in Clallam County of Washington state. It rises next to the Obstruction Point Road on Hurricane Ridge within Olympic National Park. It's situated midway between Eagle Point and the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center. Precipitation runoff drains into tributaries of the Elwha River and Morse Creek, thence to the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Contents

Climate

Set in the north-central portion of the Olympic Mountains, Steeple Rock is located in the marine west coast climate zone of western North America. [3] Weather fronts originating in the Pacific Ocean travel northeast toward the Olympic Mountains. As fronts approach, they are forced upward by the peaks (orographic lift), causing them to drop their moisture in the form of rain or snow. As a result, the Olympics experience high precipitation, especially during the winter months in the form of snowfall. [4] Because of maritime influence, snow tends to be wet and heavy, resulting in avalanche danger. During winter months weather is usually cloudy, but due to high pressure systems over the Pacific Ocean that intensify during summer months, there is often little or no cloud cover during the summer. [4]

Geology

The Olympic Mountains are made up of obducted clastic wedge material and oceanic crust. They are primarily Eocene sandstones, turbidites, and basaltic oceanic crust. [5] Unlike the Cascades, the Olympic Mountains are not volcanic, and contain no granite. [4]

Millions of years ago, vents and fissures opened under the Pacific Ocean and lava flowed forth, creating huge underwater mountains and ranges called seamounts. The Farallon tectonic plate that formed a part of the Pacific Ocean floor (separate from the Pacific plate) inched eastward toward North America about 35 million years ago and most of the sea floor subducted beneath the continental land mass of the North America plate. Some of the sea floor, however, was scraped off and jammed against the mainland, creating the dome that was the forerunner of today's Olympics. Thrust-faulting northeast into the Vancouver Island/North Cascades corner pushes Olympic rock upward and southwestward, resulting in strata that appear to be standing on edge and that intermix with strata of different mineral composition. [4] All this occurred under water; the Olympics began to rise above the sea only 10–20 million years ago. [4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Steeple Rock". Peakbagger.com.
  2. ↑ "Steeple Rock". Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior . Retrieved 2018-08-07.
  3. ↑ Peel, M. C.; Finlayson, B. L.; McMahon, T. A. (2007). "Updated world map of the Köppen−Geiger climate classification". Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 11: 1633–1644. ISSN   1027-5606.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 McNulty, Tim (2009). Olympic National Park: A Natural History. Seattle, Washington: University of Washington Press.
  5. ↑ Alt, D.D.; Hyndman, D.W. (1984). Roadside Geology of Washington. pp. 249–259. ISBN   0-87842-160-2.
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