Oakland Geology

Oakland has a long narrow strip of basalt mapped along the Hayward fault between Park Boulevard and Seminary Avenue, but it’s hard to find outcrops of it. I remember searching for it in the valley south of the Mormon temple and coming up empty. There’s supposed to be a bit of it in the hill at 98th Avenue that deflects Arroyo Viejo, though that’s so shattered that it’s hard to tell what you’re looking at. But in Joaquin Miller Park there’s a second tendril of the basalt running from under Joaquin Miller High School up the creek bed. There’s a nice exposure along the road next to the Browning monument, where this chunk sits.

The bluish color is correct; like the serpentinite around it, this rock is of Jurassic age and is part of the Coast Range Ophiolite, and a long history of burial, compression, upheaval and tectonic motions has left it rather altered from its original looks. But once it was a thick flow of oceanic lava. In fact, I may be fooling myself in seeing the vague remains of lava pillows in this roadcut:

I didn’t have the time (or the magnifier) to examine this closely—just another question to follow up on some time.

At some point in the next few days, I’ll be finalizing the contents of a new interpretive sign that will be installed at the park. Along with the usual subjects of plants and animals and human history, the rocks will get their due.

This entry was posted on 13 September 2010 at 8:48 pm and is filed under Oakland rock types. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.