CWU's Nick Zentner from his home in Ellensburg, Washington on Sunday, April 19, 2020 during the global coronavirus pandemic. Alfred Wegener, Pangaea, Continental Drift, Tuzo Wilson, Mid Atlantic Ridge, subduction, Plate Tectonics.
Dr. Nick Zentner, a Retired old Codger from Tennessee here. I Love your Geology Classes. If I was still a young man, I would probably go back to College and Major in Geology or maybe GeoChemistry. I Love Rocks and I Love Chemistry. I was a Fool and Majored in Mortuary Science instead. I Love the way you teach on Plate Tectonics. I used to Hate because I didn't Believe it but now I Love it because I Believe it wholeheartedly. I agree with you that that it can't be taught by focusing on just on one individual. It has has to be taught on each individual and his/her involvement from Continental Drift, Seafloor Spreading, Plate Tectonics, etc. as you have done. The Whole Multitude needs to be taught before it makes any sense. THANK YOU Sir. Please tell the President of the College there in Washington State I said "Give you a raise because you Deserve it!" LOL
My small circle of friends and family have watched all your videos over the years and still look forward to these new home videos. We occasionally discuss the new content presented. In my opinion it feels like an old friend chatting with me in the back yard about things I love to discuss.
Over the road truck driver in Texas. I enjoy your lectures on geology. I watch them at night after my drive. I guess you focus on north west United States
Nick, thanks for sharing your knowledge, you remind my wife and I of an geology teacher she had at Mt Hood CC. She blames him for her love of Rock collecting, and love of the varied geology of Oregon.
I don't know how you could be going too long, because we are all sitting at home with nothing to do! These daily videos are a real highlight and something to look forward to. (:
Just discovered these talks a month ago or so and have been working my way through them. One of the things I miss this summer is camping in National Parks. And, you know the best part of camping in a National Park is the Ranger shows. So, Nick, thank you for being my summer 2020 Mr. Ranger, Sir. It's making the loss of the camping much less painful and I'm learning stuff I didn't know before about my adopted state. I live in Seattle now, but was raise atop the San Andreas fault and was perched on the epicenter in Felton, CA during the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989. So, while I grew up with earthquakes, Washington state's trifecta of subduction, rotation and slip is a whole new thing. Cheers.
Truly, Nick, make an animation of TIME passing!! People have absolutely no clue at all whatsoever how BIG a million years is much less a billion even 1000 or even!! 100 years!!
Dear Nick...anybody ever tell you you are nuts??? in the most delightful way, of course...that was some crazy toast! love your shows and am learning heaps. Cheers from a life-long learner.
A woman doing geology? My niece graduated from your alma mater with a degree in hydro geology. Works for a gold mining company I remember having a number of science related books as a kid that we got through the Boy Scouts. One one geology not only discussed ice ages and the cause. But it also discussed Wegener, his ideas and evidence. Versus the fantastic idea of land bridges between Continents. These were published circa 1960 or so. The idea of Continental Drift was still around. It would not surprise me if some geologists looked into the idea unofficially in their spare time trying to make sense of Wegener's evidence. Plate tectonics also comes into play in regards to Ice Ages. Changes in patterns in ocean circulation due to land masses being connected or separated have a great deal to do with the rise of ice ages. Probably more than the changes in the Earths orbit, polar wobble or precession. As I understand it the primary reason Antarctica is frozen over and has been for the last 15M years or so is that when Antarctica and South America finally separated at the Palmer Peninsula and Tierra della Fuego it allowed the current in the Southern Ocean to circulate around Antarctica preventing warm tropical water from moving far enough south to some what moderate the climate. This unbroken stretch of sea in the region of 40° to 60° south also allowed the roaring forties and furious fifties to get established.
I had that same Geology 101 textbook back in 1982...paid $17.00 for it, used, at the college bookstore and when I had to re-sell it they paid me .75 for it. Wish I'd kept it now.
Our grandpa bought us really cool adult books when we were young and asking questions My brother has a world atlas in a book with all the terrain in the ocean its really cool
I learned some of this in high school but it was geography and geology together My teacher was kinda like you :) fun and used tv to show this stuff so we could imagine these ideas better He was also teaching us not really like a high school teacher his projects were more on the advanced side i think he should have tought college or university but im glad i got him as a teacher Thanks
Communication is huge with this stuff We have a big science center in Sudbury because of the areas minerals I need to read more about our area and mixing ideas learned from you Very interesting things to be learning about Im a biology type learner with some chemistry this goes well and explains more of the chemistry and physics to put this together I just watched a few videos on RU-vid about how life started on earth theres a few cool ones Linking the volcanoes to life Our brains might actually grow bigger after earthquakes and volcanoes Or maybe the bigger brained ones survived these disasters The magnetic field of the earth has lots to do with how our dna was formed Lots of interesting ideas that makes sense Thanks
I have Continents Adrift. Got it in the early 1970's as a teenager. It contains classic papers on continental drift. One influences that go me interested in geology.
Saw something also about the Alaska Quake of 1964 (great quake), helped solidified a lot on plate tectonics. And heck the mid pacific hot spot has made the island of Hawai'i larger in the last couple years.
It's a bit unfortunate I cannot watch yours live because I am always in a sound sleep but please don't care I am always learning many thing s from yours a bit later! From Yokohama Japan.
I found your videos recently and have thoroughly enjoyed them. Glad you are continuing these in this manner as I’m now finding the interest in Geology and the methods you use to teach the subject.
Hey Nick! I love your lectures and have learned a LOT from you! Thank you! But, I firmly disagree with you about when people discovered the topography of the North Atlantic. I've read a textbook from Stanford (New Text-Book of Geology: Designed for Schools & Academies by James Dwight Dana Copyright 1883). On page 10, I can quote "From north to south, along the middle of the Atlantic, there is a wide zigzag ridge or plateau, conforming in trend to the American coast. It lies at a depth of 6,000 to 12,000 feet, while on either side the bottom slopes away to depths mostly between 15,000 and 20,000 feet. .... the United States Coast Survey steamer 'Blake' found, in 1883, a depth of 27,366 feet." They were doing a lot of depth sounding in the late 1800's. They significantly refined those preliminary findings as underwater surveying improved. But they knew there was a ridge 80 years earlier than you say here! Still love ya! Cheers!
I've come to believe there should be a science prize for the heretics in science who in the end are proven right. It could be called the Wegener Prize.
Nick, Love your work! Look at a broadcasting tool called OBS Studio. You can mix live video with presentations from your computer, add logos, show graphics, whatever!
Development of continental crust, does that not happen with the introduction of silica and water into the melt mix of the subduction zone oceanic crusts, making a lighter than igneous crust that “floats” on the mantel. Hence the Cascade volcanic range.
One can think of the material that a continental plate scapes off the oceanic plate as it sub ducts as the accumulated scum. It puts things into perspective
I'm sure there is some way you can plug in your laptop to your smartphone and view the video or picture closed circuit, regardless of that cozy Fort stuff and the Sun or wind. maybe not as fun. ..
FOR TUESDAY: How do we determine how thick the crust/plates are....and what deterimines whether a plate will subduct beneath another one or have a plate subduct beneath it....what determines who wins the fight/collision?
The Hawaiian hotspot isn't totally stationary. It is moving to some degree. Indeed the change in direction in the Hawaiian-Emperor chain was probably due to the hot spot changing direction. The hotspot's movement and the Hawaiian island chain appears to be speeding up.
Science knew that there were mountains etc on the sea floor. HMS Challenger's expiration in the 1870s along with survey work for laying underwater telegraph cables had to give some idea that the ocean floor was more than just a flat featureless Abyssal Plain Another factor in driving Geology and Oceanography in regards to the Evidence for Plate Tectonics. The US Navy and other navies I imagine funded a lot of the research in terms of the use of sonar to measure the sea floor. Gravity readings to measure local gravity strength. Plus the magnetic measurements of the seafloor which is tied into searching for the magnetic signature of submarines.
Nick, go buy a sun cover that is like a tent? Only it is on 4 posts with a top cover. Costs between 40 to 100$ I love your at 'home lectures'. How long do you see or that you've been told this will last?
Logically and simplistically, it would make sence that the Pacific Ocean would be shinking at the same rate, accept that there are other oceanic ridges and boundaries moving at different rates in all different directions...
Look up Newton's law to see what effect changing the Earth's mass has on the force between two objects.. If the mass of the Earth increases e.g. meteorites, dust gathered etc, then the Earth's orbit changes slightly because the force between Sun & Earth is slightly different. So changing mass affects the force and not the gravitational constant. Regarding constants, Physicists like an easy life and prefer to keep their constants constant! Anytime you see a constant it is an assumption that it is the same value anywhere in our universe.
