Idaho's "Sinking Canyon" and the impressive Bluegill Slide of 1998-2004 

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A fascinating location. Thank you for explaining this. Here in the Wenatchee Valley, there is a location that started slumping on the side of the Wenatchee Heights. There was a big fuss over it for a couple of years. Houses built about halfway to the top of what looks to me to be a very old slump slide. The yards and road up the mountain began cracking and moving a bit. The county had it inspected. They decided that it was no longer moving. They are still allowing the people to live there. In college, I took 18 credits of Geography in Ellensburg. The professors pointed out and explained slump slides in that valley. It was stated that ground water is a factor. The area in Wenatchee is below the huge area of irritating for fruit orchards. It was very interesting in this video to see recent sliding. Thanks for this video.

⚠️ Dad Joke ahead ⚠️ “…terra firma that’s not so firma”

I live a couple miles away! I checked this place out 2 years ago. It has definitely moved more since! Ground water runs from the side out towards the salmon creek. There is also geothermal occurrences in that area. One I found a year ago seems to be a new one. If you go to balance rock park on the other side of the road(private property) inbetween the old pump house and the right top corner before the canyon wall. There is a spring of hot geothermal water. Different type of gravel which is red and just in that small spot.

If you look on google earth, there's what looks to be a somewhat older slide section about 2000 feet north of this slide as well. I really enjoy these videos that show that geological processes are something that is continuously happening, not just something that happened some indistinct time in the past.

Thanks for these fascinating videos, Shawn. I appreciate all the time and effort that goes into making these. Very interesting and a pleasure to watch.

I trust your judgement regarding walking up to the edge of the cliff. It still makes my toes tingle! 😁 Thanks for sharing this amazing place.

First 25 years of my life in southern Idaho and acutely interested in geology and yet I missed so much. Thank you, makes me want to go back and just hike these areas, Could almost smell the sagebrush and feel the poke of dried junegrass seeds against my ankles. I'm a bit old now though.

Dramatic example of landslide thank You again!

❤🔨❤🇺🇸What more could I say about this brave and smart professor Sham? Nothing. He is the best in all he has done about Geology. Thank you teacher once more time for this fenomenal job. God bless you in all.🔨🇺🇸👍🙋📙

Wow, this was just a fascinating video. Very well explained too. Even for a layman cum auto didact like myself. I'd never know about this, or be able to appreciate it without Shawn having put so much effort into making and posting this video. So thankful.

Wonderful video Shawn - thank you! This may be my favorite one so far. It is amazing to realize just how quickly a major landscape change can take place when a landslide is involved.

Thanks Shawn. Well done. Thoroughly enjoyed it and your other videos. Wish I could role back the clock 45 years and taken your classes…I might have become a geologist instead of an engineer. Again Thanks!!

Great video.

Super cool. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

great video. I had to take a TUMs before it was all over. I learned. It made me wonder about the huge chunk of cliff that fell at lake Whitney, but looking at that aerial after watching your video made me think that the entire "hill" was slowly rotating into the lake, probably for some similar reason of a weaker plane eroding away under the huge limestone cap. Thanks for making this video.

Significant geological movement in the eye-blink span of 15 years is mind-boggling. Fascinating place I wouldn't have even known about. Thanks.

Super interesting. Your explanation of this event is clear and easy to follow. Amazing processes and nice looking country also. Thank you for the outing.

Ha ha, don't make me angry by panning too fast, Shawn. Another crazy good video sir! Appreciate the explanation of the likely factors involved in these ground movements. 10 cm per month or 120 cm per year seems significant enough to me.

Hello from Maine! I’m in a graduate program in Trauma Informed Emergency Management at UMaine Augusta. This semester we are learning about natural hazards. Thanks for the field trip is mass wasting!

Thank you Shawn, this program was awesome. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the tour

Great video, For those of use who can't get out it's especially welcome to be taken on the geological walking tour. More so when I've no chance ever of visiting the USA Many thanks!

Thank you, Shawn! Your videos are, as always, great!

Thank you for taking the time to show us these geological formations. The Earth is fascinating and a pleasure to see. It’s better when you have an idea of what you are seeing.

LOVE this sort of information, thank you

Thank you so much. All the best,

Fascinating content!!!! Ty from NH♥️

Thanks Shawn!

That was really cool! Thank you so much for this excellent video! ❤

Thanks Shawn, excellent video

I grew up in Twin and was always fascinated by the geography. I’m enjoying the education, as revisiting the area vicariously.

Hi Shawn, So far, this is one of your best videos! Fantastic Slide Formation. Perfect Presentation.

Cool. Idaho sure rocks and rolls. There is lots of interesting stuff going on down there along the snake with the history of yellowstone.

enjoy these videos more than I thought I would.

Impressively detailed and explained. Clarity of the videos is excellent. Thank you for posting. I felt that I was wandering through the slide myself. I look forward to following your adventures.

I just found these videos, I love them! Always been a bit of a rock hound, and am learning a lot. Thank you!

Awesome! I can apply what I've learned here to many features I've noticed here in Central Oregon, especially crooked river canyon!This video made me smarter!Thank you!

Thank you Shawn, you always have interesting content presented very well, I really enjoy them

I'm a lifelong Idahoan, lived in Southern Idaho for the first 23+ years of my life and I never knew this existed! Thank you for the video, Shawn.

This is such an exciting video. I was out exploring this area recently and it was a phenomenal experience. Finding this in depth explanation of this geological wonder makes it even better!

As someone from another part of the world, southern England, I am fascinated by the geography and geology of the USA. Your presentations are informative and interesting and have watched your videos with fascination. Some slow pans of the surrounding scenery would be good too. Thanks for uploading and the clear explanations

This is so interesting!

Thank you so much shawn for bringing us this interesting and valuable knowledge 🙏

Awesome Wow! Crazy its happening right before our eyes. Thank you for sharing. Going there for sure will be part of some adventure one day. Thanks!

Some interesting places over there. Thank you for sharing and this very educational video.

Thank you for the detailed history lesson. Interesting to say the least!!

Thanks for this awesome video, Shawn. There are similar, albeit older, landslides in many canyons within central Arizona.

Just found your RU-vid channel...!!!.. Love your videos...!!! Love learning about Idaho's geography..!!!

This is amazing.

Very cool and a cliffhanger to boot..

Nice hike with good explanations.

Born and raised and still living in Southern Idaho and have never heard of the Sinking Blue Gill! Thanks for sharing very interesting. Love the videos keep em coming!

Absolutely remarkable.

A very good illustration of successional transformation.....Nature at work, and how our efforts to make change, are absorbed, and altered to fit Mother Nature...Wonderful Video. Thank You.

Awesome. I like geology and traveled to a lot of places. Never made it to bluegil. Thanks

thanks Shawn love your content

Very interesting. Thank you.

Such a cool thing to see. Reminds me of places where people have built homes too close to the edge near a river. After which a tremendous rainfall then tragedy ensued.

Very informative nice job

I ❤ your geology videos prof. Willsey especially those in the field. Dr. Riazi from Tehran

Great video

Kind of scary! Thanks Shawn!! ❤❤ watched two times

Thanks!

From Google Earth you can really see the scale of the irrigated crops and the effect of the drainage causing or accelerating the slides. Another great field class!

These videos are so interesting, thank you. I have no plans to go back to school, so degrees in geology are out, but I always crave something a little more localized and specific than what documentaries can provide. Thanks!

Thank you. I enjoyed your video.

Another amazing educational informative video ..............Thanks Shawn ...............281 like .... so much effort on your part .......

Thanks

That lake will lubricate the footing nicely! Very interesting location. Nicely explained...

A fascinating place. Would love to go exploring. I haven't been to Idaho since 1991.

Amazing! Geology in Motion.

That was cool! Got the vertigo when you xd the bridge

Thank you for sharing the beauty of the world 🌎 stunning views - your Blessed to be among the rocks and earth - sending you and yours positive energy from Sunny Florida 🌞🌞🌞thanks for a truly educational video

Oh, Shawn, my heart was in my throat as you navigated the holes and fractures! (Knew there would be trouble when you ignored the fence up top.) Had to keep reminding myself that the camera was extended beyond your feet. But what amazing terrain and geological history in this area. Great field trip!

This was so fun and interesting! (Do I say that every time?!?) We are lucky you love to teach, you do a super job. That it's recent movement is especially cool. Bruce Bjornstad's videos of the Hanford Reach slump point back to irrigation and groundwater runoff, too. Thanks, Shawn.

Nice but glad I played on 2x. Thanks for the share

just finished Mike Cothern's book which was really enjoyable and it led me to your cool video. our community is lucky to have you around

Very cool.

Very interesting

Great work, thank you. "Terra firma that's not so firma." Love it as someone who grew up in Idaho during the 50s-70s and spent a lot of time around Mountain Home, Glenn's Ferry, and the Owyhees. I would enjoy a Malad Gorge video in the future. I've driven over it a thousand times over the decades and finally turned off the interstate in the fall this year. They have detailed interpretive signs along the driving tour. I'll drive up to Bluegill Slide in the Spring.

Great video, it would be interesting if you could get updated information from the USGS on the current movement. Thanks for the informative video.

Next best thing to being there, well planned and executed tour. I figure RU-vid recommend you to me because I'm a part-time Zent-nerd.

❤❤❤❤that's so cool!!❤❤❤❤

I live in Idaho. Never knew this. Thanks for the lesson. I live near "Hell's Half Acre". I'm sure you're aware of the area. Thanks, again.

super interesting and can't wait to get there- but Sand Butte south of Preacher bridge off HWY 93 west of Carey and east of Richfield is super interesting- I took me two years and 4 attempts to get to it.

And it's still amazes me seeing this slide you're walking around even though when I was a kid we got to see big landslides too I can understand why you like it so much there as you get older you'll see more then just that slide you'll see a lot of other things in the landscape..... You know I lived in Missoula Montana and studied lake Missoula I actually found where the real structures of the dam sat that held back lake Missoula the foundations of the dams are still there in places...... It was a big damn that held back lake Missoula and I got to drive through the spillware area and I got to see the damn footings on both sides of the canyon miles away from Missoula it held back a lot of water............. Truly amazing

*thank you.* *Let the Sunshine In...*

Hey chief, watch your step on terra-not-so-firma! We’ve all grown accustomed to these field reports. Hate to suffer a disruption on a misstep!😂Great stuff as usual. Thanks.

outstanding--my reclusive retreat is the Owyhee county creek drainages. in 50 years I have found endless treasures ---from Oregon to the highway to jackpot and in the north near Homedale to the Nevada boarder is heaven. Sinners welcome to the chapel of the ineffable force of the universe. Would be wonderful to hear the geological specifics on Balance Rock.

Home sweet home! Finished my PADI certification just a few miles from there.

Is the Sinking Canyon at the northern tip of the Basin and Range Province? It's clear from G. Maps that it's on the southern edge of the Snake River Plain, itself an artifact of the Yellowstone Hot Spot. If the Canyon is within the Province one might speculate that the long term crustal thinning process would contribute to the creation of these landslides and escarpments. Thanks for this great video tour. Be safe!

You are doing really great work; Thank You a little pocket money is on its way. Glad I ran into you when looking at Blacktail Canyon Great Unconformity. Hello from Arizona

From what I've seen of the topography of the Snake River basin (while on a vacation trip to Craters of the Moon) is that the aquafier in this region is very high. Now you say that there was a large lake over this area eons ago. The slumping of this land mass makes sense then, noting the make up of the soil layers also. The entire area looks to be pretty unstable. (glad you noted staying away from the edges). Too many edges to take my grandkids to view...ha,ha. As you walked , I see some shear areas on the side walls. What was that material makeup? Clay mix? (would have liked to seen that up closer). But, thank you for this interesting "adventure".

Sun Valley born, grown up in Hailey, and shoshone. Lived in Twin for almost a year and a half before boot camp. I have always been fascinated with the outdoors after moving south as a child and seeing the vast differences from the forested part to the lava fields. Have you seen the mammoth ice cave that cinched it for me but my time in the service put a big hold on broadening my education, till just a few years ago. But I digress, I was wondering if you are doing or go could point me in some good info on the snake river hot spring around the boise, mountain home, and Buell, area. There used to be a really good place were as a kid our parents took us that a natural pool were you could swim (they used a log of some kind that was around 1 to 2 ft thick which made it quite different for a local swimming hole. But now I have heard they turned it into an alligator farm but I haven't been able to verify that. well thanks again for all of these very edifying vid's and keep them coming!!

How did the gravel layer form? It's hard to believe how far that has dropped in 25 years. Amazing.

That's some pretty rough ground....what they called "badlands" in the old days? Beautiful....

Yes, I've had my adventures somewhat like this, though mine were on the top of an abandoned gravel pit and the broken lands amounted to perhaps 30 by 40 feet and the greatest crevasse perhaps 4" wide but week to week you could make out progressive movements so maybe a useful model if seriously studied (one additional commonality were some rock doves/pigeons taking advantage of some slight protection offered).

Shawn. From what I have seen in your video, it's a like the way the Grand Canyon was formed. That's what I am seeing 👀

Isolated slump blocks with strata intact are called Toreva blocks, after Toreva, a small city on the Hopi Reservation in Arizona.