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The previously accepted estimates for the areal extent (200,000 km 2 ) and volume (325,000 to 382,000 km 3 ) of the Columbia River Basalt Group (CRBG) have, upon réévaluation, been found to be too large. New area and volume estimates for 38 units that compose most of the CRBG indicate that it once covered an area of approximately 163,700 ± 5,000 km 2 and has a volume of approximately 174,300 ± 31,000 km 3 . Our work further suggests that the volume of individual flows is huge, on average exceeding hundreds of cubic kilometers. The maximum known volume of an individual flow exceeds 2,000 km 3 , and some flows may have volumes on the order of 3,000 km 3 . Typically such huge-volume flows (here termed "great flows") were able to travel hundreds of kilometers from their vents, with some flows known to have advanced more than 750 km. The eruption of great flows generally ceased with the end of Wanapum volcanism. The extent and volume of great flows qualifies them as the largest known terrestrial lava flows.

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The distributional patterns of individual Columbia River Basalt Group (CRBG) unite and structures recorded in the CRBG place the following constraints on Neogene tectonics of the northern Oregon Cascade Range: (1) A north–east trending topographic low of regional extent, the Columbia transarc lowland, transected the Miocene northern Oregon Cascade Range. The Columbia transarc lowland existed prior to the eruption of the CRBG and served to funnel CRBG flows across the Miocene Cascade Range. The lowland was apparently devoid of active volcanic centers from before 17 to ∼14.5 Ma. After 15 Ma, volcanic centers began to develop in the southern and central parts of the lowland. (2) Folds and associated faults of the Yakima Fold Belt extend through the western Columbia Plateau and far into the Cascade Range. These structures were active between 16.5 and S Ma and represent N–S shortening. (3) The Portland Hills‐Clackamas River structural zone is a northwest trending dextral wrench fault zone that became active prior to the incursion of CRBG flows (∼16.5 Ma) and limited the distribution of some CRBG units. This structural zone appears to mark the western termination of the Yakima Fold Belt. Other similarly trending, dextral strike‐slip faults are common in the northern Oregon Cascades but did not affect the distribution of CRBG flows and therefore developed in post‐CRBG time. (4) Mount Hood is located near the axis of a major Yakima Fold Belt syncline in the CRBG, in the general location of earlier major andesitic volcanic activity related to the Rhododendron Formation.

Tectonic development and evolution of the central Columbia Plateau since middleMiocene time is a product of dynamic interplay among (1) the eruption and emplacement of the Columbia River Basalt Group (CRBG), (2) the subsidence of the area encompassing the Yakima fold belt subprovince, (3) the growth of the Yakima folds, and (4) the influence of regional structures transecting the fold belt, specifically the Hog Ranch-Naneum Ridge anticline and the Cle Elum-Wallula disturbed zone.Subsidence of the Yakima fold belt subprovince began prior to the eruption of the CRBG and has continued from Miocene time to the present. The rate of subsidence kept pace with the rate of CRBG flow emplacement, decreasing as CRBG volcanism waned. Simultaneously, anticlinal fold growth within the Yakima fold belt occurred under north-south compression and also decreased as the rates of subsidence and eruptions of lava declined. Paleomagnetic data indicate fold growth was accompanied by local clockwise rotation of basalt within the anticlines.The tectonic and volcanic histories of the central Columbia Plateau are interrelated and imply a common cause. The structural rotation and north-south compression, and thus fold growth, are interpreted to result from oblique subduction along a converging plate margin. The coincidence of the timing and rates of fold growth, subsidence of the central Columbia Plateau, and basalt production rates suggest that CRBG volcanism is primarily a product of oblique subduction off western North America.