The Hidden History of the White Bluffs

An important geological discovery in the White Bluffs just north of Hanford has recently been announced in a paper published by Prof. Olaf P. Jenkins of the State College of Washington geology department. The significance of the paper lies in the fact that it points out a discovery of an exposure in the White Bluffs, opposite and a little north of Hanford, Washington, revealing two distinct formations, one overlying, in horizontal beds, the up-tilted and eroded-off surface of a much older formation. This discovery confirms an important suggestion made by Dr. J. C. Merriam, president of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and Dr. J. P. Buwalda, based on their discovery of fossil bones collected some years ago near Ringold in the White Bluffs. The White Bluffs beds had been previously classified as the Ellensburg formation of Miocene age, but these geologists found among the various fossils fragments of the skeleton of a prehistoric horse which showed later evolutionary changes than those of the horse collected from the Ellensburg formation of North Yakima. An unconformity of the beds was therefore believed to occur, which should show a break in time of deposition between the two formations. An actual exposure in the bluffs was discovered by Prof. Jenkins, proving Dr. Merriam's belief which was based purely on his paleontological study of the evolution of the horse.