Mineral Evolution Database
Created and maintained by the Mineral Evolution Project in partnership with RRUFF and mindat.
Mineral locality data provided by mindat.org



The Mineral Evolution database is currently under development.

The goal of this page is to present localities at which the mineral is found, and estimates of the oldest possible geologic age of the minerals at these localities.


Locality Name:
Birch Creek Prospect, Malheur Co., Oregon, USA

Oldest recorded age at locality: 17.86
Youngest recorded age at locality: 15.68

mindat Locality ID: 147581
mindat URL: http://www.mindat.org/loc-147581.html

Tectonic Settings:

Total number of sublocalities beneath "Birch Creek Prospect, Malheur Co., Oregon, USA": 0
Total number of bottom-level sublocalities: 0

Latitude: 44°14'29"N
Longitude: 117°20'24"W
Decimal Degree (lat, lon): 44.241388888889,-117.34

AThis mineral is Anthropogenic.
GThis mineral is directly dated.
BThis mineral is reported as having this age.
YThis mineral is using an age reported as an element mineralization period.
OThis mineral is using an age calculated from all data at the locality.
RThe age displayed for this mineral originates from a different, non-child locality.
PThe age displayed for this mineral is the range of ages for this mineral at all of this locality's children.
This mineral's age has not yet been recorded.

No IMA Minerals occur at this locality according to mindat

Locality Notes from all Ages at Locality:
Age IDLocality Notes
Michelle_789Birch Creek low-silica rhyolite lava. It is the first rhyolitic unit to erupt in the region. 150 m high exposures of flow banded, devitrified, tan lava in cliffs near Birch Creek Campground. Of the Rooster Comb Caldera.


1 Ages assigned to this locality:

Excel IDMax Age (Ma)Min Age (Ma)Age as listed in referenceDating MethodAge InterpretPrioritized?Sample SourceSample NumRun NumAge from other LocalityDated MineralMinerals explicitely stated as having this ageAge applies to these ElementsMinDat Locality IDDated Locality (Max Age)Location as listed in referenceReferenceReference DOIReference IDAge Notes
Michelle_78917.8615.6816.77±1.09Ar-ArAge of rhyoliteplagioclaseTB-278A    147581Birch Creek Prospect, Malheur Co., Oregon, USABirch CreekBenson and Mahood (2016)10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2015.11.011JVGR309_96Age of rhyolite flow. "Our new 40Ar/39Ar age of 16.8 ± 1.1 Ma on plagioclase from the Birch Creek low-silica rhyolite lava (sample TB-278A in Table 2) is of such low precision that it does not establish conclusively that this unit is older than the 15.81 Ma Tuff of Leslie Gulch."


SampleSource LocalityReference URL


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