| The Steens Basalt of the Oregon Plateau covers about 53,000 km2 of southeastern Oregon and northwestern Nevada. Three localities where volcanic sections contain transitional lavas of the Steens reversal have been studied. At Steens Mountain, previous studies showed a complex reversal path consisting of 30 transitional directional groups. At the three new localities, forty-five new transitional directional groups are discovered, show an increase in the complexity of the reversal path, and reinforce the clumping of some directions. Fifteen 40Ar/39Ar ages were determined from lavas on or near the Oregon Plateau. The lavas are shown to have erupted before, after, or during the Steens reversal in the R0, N 0, or N1 of the CRBG. Using a Bayesian statistical analysis of the mean age of the Steens reversal lavas and three other ages at the Catlow section, the best and preferred age of the Steens reversal is 16.73 +0.13/-0.08 Ma (95% confidence). Correlation of this age to a sea floor spreading time scale allows the floating magnetostratigraphy of the CRBG to be placed into the geomagnetic polarity time scale and shows that the R0 corresponds to the C5Cr chron with the Steens reversal at the top of the C5Cr chron. Twenty six paleomagnetic poles from Steens Mountain are combined with 108 non-transitional poles found in this thesis to give a clockwise rotation of the Oregon Plateau of 11.4° +/- 5.6° with respect to the younger CRBG flows to the north and 14.5° +/- 4.6° with respect to cratonic North America. Using secular variation considerations, eruption rates can be calculated at two of the sections which contain the Steens reversal: 85--120 m/ka at Catlow and 130--195 m/ka at Poker Jim South. Similarly, durations of eruptions have been determined at the four sections that do not contain the Steens reversal: &sim2.5 ka for 260 m at the Pueblo Mountains, 0.5 to 1.5 ka for 190 m at Summit Springs, 1--3 ka for 170 m at North Mickey, and &sim3 ka for 160 m at Guano Rim. |
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