- The Stingray Nebula (Hen 3-1357) is the youngest-known planetary nebula, having appeared in the 1980s. The nebula is located in the direction of the southern constellation Ara (the Altar), and is located 18,000 light-years (5,600 parsecs) away. Although it is some 130 times the size of the Solar System, the Stingray Nebula is only about one tenth the size of most other known planetary nebulae. The central star of the nebula is the fast-evolving star SAO 244567. Until the early 1970s, it was observed on Earth as a preplanetary nebula in which the gas had not yet become hot and ionized.
- Field Trip Guide to the Geologic Development of the Pasco Basin, South-Central Washington (PDF) (nwgs.org)
Flood basalt volcanism occurred in the Pacific Northwest, USA, between 17.5 and 6 Ma when over 300 basaltic lavas of the Columbia River Basalt Group (CRBG) were erupted from fissures in eastern Washington, eastern Oregon, and western Idaho (Fig. 1) (Swanson et al., 1979a). These flood basalts cover over 200,000 km2 of the Pacific Northwest and have an estimated volume of more than 234,000 km3 (Camp et al., 2003). Concurrent with these massive basalt eruptions was the folding and faulting of the basalt in the western part of the Columbia Basin and development of generally east-west trending anticlinal ridges and synclinal valleys collectively known as the Yakima Fold Belt