Geologic Setting
The San Juan Islands of Northwestern Washington State, USA are an archipelago located between Vancouver Island, Canada, the Northern Cascades Mountain Range, and the Olympic Peninsula, Washington and are the result of both past and present tectonic processes. The San Juan Islands region has a complex tectonic history, which has experienced convergence, thrust faulting and uplift, subsidence, glaciation, tidal scour and sediment transport. These processes have altered and shaped both the terrestrial and the marine environment. Metamorphic, plutonic and sedimentary rocks in the San Juan Islands region have been deformed by these tectonic processes and, thus, have produced diverse marine benthic habitats. The underwater habitats vary from dynamic bedforms, glacially scoured moraines, and fractured and faulted bedrock outcrops.

 

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