It is a bit unusual to see a single rock being transported on the highway.
Large rock on I-5 north bound through the Chuckanuts
Large rocks are being transported from the Big Lake Quarry in Skagit County northward to to the Bellingham waterfront and from there to the North Jetty at the Columbia River.
Mouth of The Columbia River
The rock is greenschist - metamorphosed ocean floor basalt. It was mined from one of the terranes that make up the Northwest Cascades. The advantage of this rock is they can be broken into very large blocks, they have high density relative to other rocks and are resistant to both physical and chemical weathering. Good material for a jetty that must resist huge waves.
This has resulted in a proposal to mine additional greenschist in the Skagit Valley with a mine proposed at a greenschist outcrop near Marblemount.
Where is "Big Rock Quarry" in Skagit County?
ReplyDeleteI didn't find it using a google search.
48 26'15" and 122 13'46"
ReplyDeleteThanks. So that is Beaver Lake Quarry, right?
ReplyDeleteThat load is seriously off-center from this view.
ReplyDeleteThankfully, the proposed Marblemount quarry was undermined by the Kiewet Corporation’s repetitious mendacity in its permit application, and the well organized campaign by local activists to publicize the extent of the corporate lies and the environmental destruction the quarry would cause.