Cle Elum Moraines 

Nick, I have to stop at the 48 second mark to compliment your great camera work as you spun around from the "view" to the "good stuff." Nice and smooth. You've come a long way in that department. Yes, the gizmo helps, but knowing how to handle the gizmo is important, too. Well done.

This was super! 20 years ago, I was a wedding guest at a ceremony in Cle Elum for one of my son's college friends (she and her family now live in Pasco). I spent a night at a motel in Cle Elum, knew nothing about geology, or Washington, and was most excited by stumbling across nearby Roslyn, WA and the exterior setting for the opening shots of "Northern Exposure." (I was a big fan of the TV show). Now I'm seeing it in an entirely different way. Cool! Way cool! I really like that 3D drawing at 24:00. Thanks for the field videos, Nick…

Thank you so much for these videos on glacial moraines! Your explanations and drawings, together with the visual reinforcement, really makes the geological history pop for me! I won't look at the scenery the same way ever again! Thanks!

I love these. I just wish I could remember this when I'm out & about. Thanks for the education, Nick.

Oh wow, I see it, Nick!😃💗✨ I see how glacial moraines drain to extends to make up outwash terraces over geologic time!! I'm excited for the next A to Z series, yup!!😉✨💙

Cool video Nick. I can't believe that you haven't run out of things to teach us about. You Rock Nick

Hi Nick! Beautiful day, great views - great to learn about the Cle Elum moraines! Fascinating- I’ve driven through there so many times. Looking forward to the new video series! 👌👍👍

Just popped on my notices. Hi from Prosser WA.

Great visuals again, Nick! I especially liked the drawing at 24:10. Really cements the ideas in the mind's eye.

Beautiful overview of the moraines! I'll copy the cartoon with the stages of ice ages so I will be ready (sort of) for the kick off of the A to Z series! I'm already sitting on the edge of my seat!

This is home to me in the 60s and 70s. Each time you go over this, it makes more sense. I also have live in the basin and wenatchee and Columbia valleys. I have the bits and pieces. This series is going to get it in order and put it together.

Thanks for making my Saturday afternoon👍 😎Bill O’

My favorite class I took at CWU was the Geology course you taught, and I took it on a whim my senior year 10 years ago just to fill credits. I'd be a geologist today had I taken that class my freshman year. I'm an ER doc now, but still have the "what if?" thought every time I go down a Geology rabbit hole.

Great video & channel. My wife and I lived in Seattle from 2017-2022 and hiked all over. I feel like I'm seeing all these mountains for the first time again because of what I'm learning by watching your videos. Very educational. Miss those mountains. We're in FL now where its super flat. Thank you for posting!

Nick! Thanks so much ! Have enjoyed the sights and sounds of your summer time field trips in Central Washington!! Back to class!

Late as usual. Keep on Trucking Nick! Late or something taking up the rear! Just finished..your doing a service. When I can keep up with your thinking and your guests it's really a statement on your video series over the last few years and the interest it rekindled. Aces 👍

Thanks Nick - I would enjoy just watching you doodle on the maps - 🤠

Thanks Nick, for bringing context and understanding to the landscape I’ve driven through a zillion times !

Thank you! I have enjoyed *every one* of the videos Prof Zentner. I will also look forward to the upcoming ones and will wait for the spring 2024 field trips!

I'm on #73 of your 2020 series from home and I've watched many of your other videos. Eventually I will watch them all. I've yet to make a live presentation but I'm trying to get it together. 😁 I know you have your good reasons for not monetizing your videos but I wish you would for the ones that are all yours apart from the school. You deserve remuneration for all you do.

Interesting. Very interesting. Thanks Nick.

Brilliant! Thanks Nick!

The knowledge and education priceless and enlightening enjoyable

Thank you for explaining the mechanics of the moraine terrace. I assumed that the glacier would have a river flowing out from under it and a stream bed with braided channels depositing the material somewhat evenly creating the flat appearing terraces!

Wonderful Nick. See ya for the A to Zs.

Thank you for opening my eyes to the amount of erosion that has taken place with each successive ice flow over those thousands of years. I’m just glad that I did not live there in those times. Really don’t like the cold but it will happen again.

Interesting video! I was driving from Cle Elum to Ellensberg on WA 10 back in July (killing time before the start of the Ellensberg Music Fest.). It was cool seeing the lower terraces. But I was missing the upper ones!

Professor Nick your field videos have been excellent and has demonstrated the action of many glacials in our current ice age. How fascinating! With this new knowledge and if I were living in your area I too would look at all that terrain differently and appreciate the extra knowledge. Your work, and that of Shawn Willsey and Myron Cook are all fantastic to help appreciate the fascinating topic of geology in North America. Thank you for taking us along.

Wonderful video. I learned a lot from an area where I spent a lot of time. "My meadow", not really mine, runs from Lookout Mt towards Cle Elum.

I'm so glad that I live in the State of Washington to someday take another glance of this myself.

Great content as usual Nick very much appreciated your effort.

❤❤thanks Nick! LY2

Thanks Nick. Been very interesting. God bless

Pretty area! Great start to a trip up to the Northern Cascades Scenic Highway. Pretty cool seeing those wind mills tucked in low and out of the way at the start of the trip but the mountains. Impressive. Start in the Scab Lands, Drumheller, Steamboat, Grand Coulee, Colville Reservation. Then Northern Cascade Scenic Hwy, Mount Baker. Back the Mount Rainer (Paradise and Sunrise), Saint Helens, bit of Gifford Pinchot and off to Olympic National Park. Worth the ride all the way around. Dinner in Port Angeles. Finish with a rest in Grapeview Puget Sound Area. Now that’s a trip!

Excellent.

Thanks!

Thanks for teaching Americans things

Love the look at tdrraces..

0:26 Hey nick, great stuff as usual! I watch your videos alot, as I've always been interested in geological stuff. You did the hells canyon creation video.... can you do something on how the lewiston hill was created, as well as clarkston and snake/Clearwater rivers.... Also, something on how rock lake would be interesting viewing....You are awesome, wish I went to school at church after HS in freeman. Kaptkirk

Great video as usual Nick! I will have to go back and re -watch and look at your figures again, but I was curious about the relative elevation changes between each age group of terraces. Great observation about the terraces along the Wenatchee river and in the Wenatchee valley. These have been used for tree fruit farms since early settlement times. You can see these terrace remnants (albeit small ones) going up drainages like the Squilchuck and Stemilt creeks as well. Here is a small snippet of general data I have been collecting for my location using my Iphone app to get rough elevations when I cannot find a published source. Here in Malaga we have the present day river level, plus three distinct terrace levels in addition to the actual Malaga Slide. Bretz designated moraine on what I have labeled Malaga level 3. Icycle Drainage 13 - 29,000 BP Wisconsin glaciation Nick podcast Leavenworth Mountain Home 80,000 BP glaciation flow recent paper Steven Porter E Wenatchee River Park Present day river level in this section Wen/Columbia confluence Present day river level in this section Rock Island Dam 609 Present day river pool level Wenatchee 669 Rock Island townsite 643 Rounded river cobbles across from Malaga Rock Island Overlook artifacts ?? Recently redated to 16,000 BP undisclosed elev below Malaga Malaga 672 #1 Malaga Alcoa Highway at townsite Malaga Ripples 740 - #2 Bradley Property cobble ripple terrace/ some large boulders Mud Lake (Bretz Moraine) 940 - #3 Bradley property rounded river cobble ridge highest point Malaga Slide homesite 880 - #4 Bradley property 35 feet thick sand/ soil no cobbles or basalt

It makes so much sense! You imply that this is counter to superposition but this is different. In the case of glacial moraines we are looking at a cut and deposit process. If the younger glaciers were larger they would have advanced overtop of the previous glacier moraine and erased the evidence. Very cool stuff.

Oh! To really see what you're talking about: beautiful view plus Bentleys drawings. The charts make such good sense, the better to remember. (It's reminiscent of Okanogan benches with Jerome.) I'm glad to learn more about this whole area. Maybe it's not quite too late to explore this year (?). PS Was it ever April? Thanks, Nick!

I've only been to Cle Elum a few times; but, have passed by it when I've had to go to Seattle. It seems like a nice location. I am partial to Eburg and Kittitas, though.

I see those flats going to Yakima all the time! But the endpoint for all of them is the Yakima canyon…yet below the canyon we get where the Naches River comes in with its alpine glacier input…which when you enter canyon road from Ellensburg there are clear glacial lake Missoula type old shorelines …I noticed last year…So the question is Did the Naches River Glacier Dam up The Yakima Canyon and creat a lake ? When you look up from this point 46°55'18"N 120°30'33"W and proceed down canyon you will see those old beach lines. When you reach this point where the Yakima and Naches river merge 46°37'47"N 120°31'08"W you’ve got more Terraces! Which has been bugging me since you N Jerome brought them up! My eyes are trained to spot these features now Nick and I see them on the west side of the cascades too!

Very interesting and informative. It makes sense and at the same time I am confused. On the cross section. The oldest on top I get that. Question I have at the centre of the cross section, how thick was the oldest deposit? It must have been sitting on bed rock. The next ice age comes along. Did ice cover the oldest deposit or was it down stream from the ice? The outflow of this event washed away the oldest layer except for the outer margins. Did it cut deeper into the bed rock or was there an existing valley and the outflow cut into deposits older than the oldest 'purple' stuff? Anyway very stimulating and beautiful scenery. 1980 was the last time I was out that way. I was looking at a farm scale ethanol production facility using cull potatoes as a feedstock. The alcohol fueled farm equipment. Yes the 'green' movement 40 years ago. The current generation is going to solve the worlds energy problems in the next 30 years. Dream on, it won't happen. I digress. Thanks Nick.

Nice work Nick! I live in Seattle but visit Cle Elum often. I've been up Hart road to the exact spot you started this video, and I can't believe that I never noticed the terracing. By the way, have you ever looked at this area in Google Earth VR. It is a great way to see the large-scale geography of the region. If you haven't I can give you a demo sometime. Again, thanks for the videos, I learned a lot.

It’s been several years since I was in that area, so it took me a while to get oriented. The windmills helped. :). Great video, didn’t realize how high in elevation these moraines were. Where did all the material that filled the valley so many times, go?

Hey Nick ! Thank you for the awesome videos and education !! Whats the reason for the lower terraces being younger than the top ?

Magnificent example of subsequent terraces filling a valley. A truly amazing amount of material washed away. Do we know where that ended up? 🐻

I presume that the age/size progression (oldest=biggest, youngest=smallest) will always be true, because successive glaciation will obliterate any moraine it overrides.

If I could add, the pebbles, cobbles, and boulders, in both till and outwash, are sub-rounded and sometimes well rounded. Till is both poorly sorted and lacks internal stratification. Outwash, in contrast, has internal stratification dipping in the direction of the original stream flow.

I survived the looming Ice Age scare of the 1970's. Got the T-shirt to prove it. 😉

❤❤

What is the general erosion ratio between moraine material and outwash material? The moraine mass is considerably diminutive compared to what has been removed around it. Considering how much Pleistocene material has been removed mechanically by water, there’s a huge Pleistocene void behind the Holocene evidence being studied today. I keep thinking back to Nick’s hike up the Tieton Canyon and Nick pointing out the enormous amount of andesite that was removed.

Oh Nick please talk Jerome into teaching at CWU with you guy's

I wonder, what is the story here where I am, with the clackamas and sandy. I will have to look. I wonder how far the white river glacier extended?

Nick - what was the mechanism for the advances to keep cutting lower and lower?

So, is it fair to assume that at the moraine you have poorly sorted rocks of all kinds of sizes, and then in terrace beyond the terminal moraine you have sorted River rocks?

😎

So, as each glacier forms, it is lower down because the previous glacier(s) have scooped out the valley floor? Even if the glacier has the same amount of ice as previous ones, because its bottom is lower, the whole thing is lower?

You keep talking about the "oldest ice being the largest ice" and subsequently smaller ices since then for these alpine glacier stories. The real chronology might not be so neatly scaling in size. There probably were several smaller advances mixed into this time series, or smaller one that are older that MIS 8. Any smaller ones would have been wiped away by large advances. the only reason you can see older ones here is BECAUSE the newer ones were smaller. A good stroke of luck that we seem to have 5 successively smaller ices here. But there may have been some in-between theses that were even smaller still but got wiped away by later medium size ices advances.

How do you tell the difference between glacial till and a landslide? Do you have access to LIDAR of these valleys?

What's this little tease at the end?

I want to be a fly on the wall (probable reincarnation result?) 100 years from now when the youngsters turn all these conclusions topsy-turvy based on some new tech and new methods that we can't imagine.