A great website for finding Wyoming Geology; I found the large spheres on it. www.geowyo.com/ Wyoming geology, Concretions, Bighorn Basin, #geology #myroncook #wyoming
Considering that these objects are from a geological stratum which was, at the time, a shallow warm-water sea, my first guess would be that these are fossilized stromatolites. Even their interior ring structure is consistent with fossilized stromatolites. What eliminates this as a possibility?
I truly enjoy rational, realistic analysis of geologic features like this. You'd have tens of thousands of views if you'd claimed it was ANY kind of fossil, and I'm constantly giving those the "don't recommend" treatment. Here's to reality ruling the day. We need it to.
What I wouldn't give to follow you around for a week or two while you talk about what you see and how it came to be. I would never be able to keep up with you due to mobility issues because of a stroke I had about 15-20 yrs ago. I worked really hard to get back what I lost from it and almost have it all back, but my age caught up with me, 67, and try as I might I don't think I can recover all of it. But I do wish that I had had a teacher or someone with your knowledge that maybe would have awakened this new found interest in all things geology. I live in the SE corner of Arizona now where there is such a huge amount of rocks and minerals, I am 35-45 miles from Morensi, one of the biggest copper mines in the USA and every time I get to go out in the desert I am amazed at how many colors I find just laying around on the desert floor. I love it here!
Mr Rogers first came to mind for me, but then I also thought Bob Ross could work too,. He kind of has the qualities of both, which is one of the biggest compliments I can give.
@@victtorhenriqueferreiradas7472 Myron is a nice guy and offers a good explanation, but it has too many hypothetical variables... not really conclusive. I think Roger would wrap this up in seconds as biology... and I'd find it hard to disagree.
Yes! I’ve seen smaller versions of these on a RU-vid video on the Irish sea coast that’s got these things weathering out; these ancient mud balls with secondary spheres inside them that often have a petrified crab or mollusk inside. One term used I’ve heard is “pregnant rocks”. Awesome find! It’s HUGE!!
Mudfossil university and Tyson’s Mudfossil Adventures provide insights on these being biology, the remains of some giant remains of some creatures? Interesting take anyways.
they all were created in the z pinch effect ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-mPcF40vBqzs.html lots of great electric geology here,,,,, something is lifted off the ground in supersonic winds during these events that is charged in opposition to the particles in the air around it attracting them to the crab or thing pinching all around it in searing heat and then deposited on the ground once the winds subside after the thunderbolts have stopped
I majored in geology at the University of Alabama, graduating in 1972. I loved it and did well. But I was in ROTC and they shipped me off to pilot training. After an Air Force career followed by another in the airlines, I retired and found geology again. I still love it and your videos are helping me relearn it as well as learn exciting new things. Your love for geology is apparent in every word, image and diagram, and your teaching skills are extraordinary. Thank you.
Then explain how I can get Catalase reaction from Sandstone? Catalase enzyme can only be produced by Biologicals! its not geological and I prove it over and over again. Silicon Dioxide Cannot produce the enzyme. its called Nucleophilic Substitution and most geological theory is 100% wrong! James Hutton was 100% Wrong! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2SLffR6RYqs.html
All cool stuff, but let me show you something you might find fascinating.. Most of geology is theory. One of those theories is Tafoni and how its formed over eons of erosion? but this is not correct, erosion actually removes it and I can prove it... In this video you will clearly see that what they are calling Tafoni is a coating or a membrane not caused by erosion, it is clearly seen..I have thousands of hours with boots on the ground research disproving many geological claims that simply are not true because of peer review guidelines to fit a Narrative. Really sad to watch people REGURGITATE and not do any real research. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DOXy5YAQYWw.html
Knowing the final answer from the start but eliminating other possibilities just to teach others patiently is your geological gift, Sir. Tuning our eyes into detectives.
Your description of the "seed" is exactly how clouds form. Some microscopic particle (dust pollen, ash, etc), called a cloud condensation nuclei, will be the focal point for water molecules to start attaching to something and building into tiny droplets light enough to stay suspended as a cloud. When they keep growing, it turns into rain. So cool to see so many parallels in the sciences.
Me, who knows very little about geology, was thinking concretions the entire time. What a great way to explain the concept, hearing out and ruling out all theories even though you likely knew the answer immediately.
Once again, Myron performs that time warp thing where 24+ minutes passes like 15 minutes and I'm always surprised to see we're again at the end of a video. Thank you, Myron.
Im a sophomore in college and taking Geology 101 right now and since its all online, this particular professor dosent have lectures. Just read and answer questions. You just made so much so much more clear to me. Excited to have found these vids and plan on watching a bunch to help supplement school stuff. Thank you.
That tells you a lot about the education system. It's a waste of money and inferior to what you can learn for free. Stop feeding the corrupt system and drop out. If everyone did so the system would be forced to correct itself and bring value back to those who are, right now, stupid enough to pay for it.
I found your channel last night browsing different things to watch. I really appreciate your enthusiasm and the really kind way you present each subject. You make the stuff so easy to understand by your detailed explanations. I shared your video to my brother who is a geologist. I know he will enjoy your videos as well.
Just found your channel. Just watching this video makes me feel so much smsrter. Thsnk you for imparting your knowledge and wisdom with so much kindness and patience. Look forward to watching soanyore of your videos!
My first thought was, "I have a rock like that!" It was given to me by an elderly man my mother knew. He thought it was pet wood, and he gave it to me because I collected rocks and fossils I found around my area, in Tennessee. I always thought it didn't look like that to me, so I finally posted pics on a rock ID page on facebook, and it was identified as a concretion. Mine is about as big as the small ball underneath, and cut in half. So the ball part has a sandstone feel to it, but the sliced part is solid and smooth. Pretty cool!
As a geologist I can’t agree more with your initial opening point of seeing more when outdoors. Everywhere on earth holds so much information and can tell so many stories but most people can’t appreciate it. Very glad I grew up with a dad who’s a geologist and taught me the ropes at a young age which sparked my interest in geology
Thank you for this fascinating and wonderful video. Your presentation was really excellent, I loved every minute and had a great time watching. Thank you and well done
This was so fascinating. At first, I thought it was some type of geode. I don't remember learning about rock concretions, so I was excited to learn something new. It's a profound feeling to walk and think about how the landscape, including rocks, was formed so very many eons ago. I hike a lot along the southern shorelands of Lake Ontario and can't help but bring home various stones and wonder about how they were created and how they ended up here. To be fully "awake," we humans need to know lots of history, including the history of the earth. Thx.
Really great video Myron. You're really good at taking vast amounts of information and delivering it in a very calming and easily understood form. I've never been in to geology but I've subscribed because I really like your teaching method. Thank you.
Hell yeah! Ive been waiting to come across a channel like this! I took a geology class in college and ill never get over it. It was the coolest class ive ever taken and i was debating whether to switch majors bc i loved it so much! Unfortunately i didnt and i think about it every now and then but watching your videos makes me feel like im back in that class and that brings me a lot of joy so thank you Mr. Cook!
I've found concretions that are very similar except the inside "Ball" was only the size of a Baseball in Canada's high arctic, north of the mainland (The arctic islands). I was working as a helicopter mechanic supporting all types of research as part of the overall, "Polar Continental Research Project". This was back in the early 1990's . Your video was really well put together. Thank you. Mike.
Badlands are absolutely amazing landscapes that make you feel like you're walking on a different planet! This particular area of Badlands very much reminds me of the Makoshika Badlands near Glendive, Montana. The landscape in the Makoshika Badlands has very similar formations and landscape colors.
Damn. Been on the Front all my time in Montana but those badlands were on a top visit list if I ever got out that way. Riiight. But last year I got to move to a remote farm miles SE of Ashland, bordering Custer National Forest. The canyons are amazing! 100% better than the landscape expected. You likely know it better ... creek valley bottom, rolling prairie to forested canyons. Finally got through the rattlers to explore around and shocked to see a lot of "mini-badlands" areas that look like Utah, complete with hoo-doos. So many, incl myself, dismissed eastern Montana but cannot imagine any better place ... and I lived in East Glacier for 3 years. Even around Weibaux is amazing. Still in the Big Sky?
This stuff is amazing Myron, and I’m very anxious to see more of your exploration. Related to the initial surprise of the bowling ball in its layered stone “shell”, it appears to me that it is the result of significant thermal events (and perhaps not unrelated to the volcanic characteristic mentioned earlier. A very hot (or very cold) sphere could create a layered shell as a result of the differences in thermal expansion and/or contraction. I’ll be watching to be sure!
Well this just cleared up a mystery for me. Was hiking at a rest area near Thermopolis Wyoming and found a bunch of those. Just much smaller. Couldn't figure out if they were lava bombs, fossils, etc. Now I know. Thank you for that knowledge
In this crazy, high-speed world, it is always such a pleasure to slow down a little, and take in all that Dr. The Earth has to say, and to reflect on the wonderful learnings he imparts in such a peaceful, friendly, and almost grandfatherly way. Thank you so much, Myron, you're an inspiration. I knew exactly what these were from the moment you showed us. Here in New Zealand, we have a lot of locations where concretions form - especially from the Miocene era. And many concretions feature crabs, whale bones, and even early penguins, when they're prepared. The concretions near where I live (Canterbury) are extremely hard, and often very difficult to prepare. You can easily see a concretion contains a crab fossil if you can see three small light-coloured elipses on opposite sides of the concretion. Usually the claws are preserved, but the outer portions of the legs have disappeared as the concretions haven't grown large enough to encapsulate the entire creature. I seem to recall from my dim dark distant past, that concretions are formed by ion migration, and that they take a very long time to grow inside the sediment in which they're based.
I watched a video a while back about a beach in NZ that has enormous concretions lying around, some of them split and broken so you can see layers inside, and sometimes the fossilized "seed" that they started from. Really amazing and wonderful! From watching that video I guessed that the structures here are also concretions and was pleased to find that my guess was right. I agree that Dr. Cook has a wonderful teaching style and his videos are a pleasure to watch and learn from. The skillfully recorded strange (to me) and beautiful landscapes add to the experience.
Great story telling and videography. The drone views were very helpful. The examination of multiple hypotheses was educational. I have not done much field work in the last 30 years as I do more remote sensing, but the multiple working hypotheses method is key to geology and other sciences.
Great video and explanation! BTW, those are called cannonball concretions. They are pretty common in the geological record. As you said, they are linked to a “seed”, something originally made of organic matter that went through a process called bacterial sulfate reduction. Turns the organic matter into carbonate.
Organic matter being rendered into carbonate by a process called bacterial sulfate reduction. Just like the information in the video, that is quite fascinating! I wonder why the reduction process of sulfur would lead to the creation of carbonate?
@@higherresolution4490 Carbonates are an oxidised form of carbon. Organic matter is the reduced form of carbon. So to create carbonate from organic matter, you need to oxidise it, and to do so, you need to find another molecule (an external oxidant) that will serve as an electron acceptor and therefore will change from an oxidised to a reduced form. It's sort of a give-and-take chemical reaction (known as a Redox chemical reaction). To cut a long story short: in the upper part of the sedimentary column, where there is O2 present, it is indeed O2 that serves as this electron acceptor. In the deeper part of the sedimentary column, there is no more O2 present, so it is sulfate (SO4 2-) that is used and in the process reduced into H2S.
Thanks, Myron. I love your videos. I've loved geology since my first geology course in 7th grade. Unfortunately, that was in 1958. Fortunately, I'have done some reading and taken a few recent field trips. And your videos are an important part of my continued learning. Obviously, with over 60K subscribers, I'm not alone in you being an important source for education.
@@myroncook in the rincons above saguaro monument east above tucson - the light (granite?) is almost like a parking curb and continues about the same distance around the back, like a giant concrete pipe, stuck in the black rock (granite??). amusingly, the shadows to the left of the curb hint that there are three evenly sized steps in the rock ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-z_X-WShv6i4.htmlm25s the next image.. sandstone wall mysteriously sweeps perpendicularly across gully. earlier in there i have a quartz vein with a 90 degree angle and a third vein at 135 to both. but that concrete curb is like a fairy garden.
So cool to think that you likely were the first person to come across this in the modern age as I would imagine anyone coming across this would have certainly photographed it or shared it with others. Great find!
Thank you, Myron!! This is my first video of yours that I've seen. I love geology, although im no geologist. But, like you, I see every around me and explore when I can. This video was very fun !!!
I really appreciate how you pulled back on the geologic terrain & gave a great overview of the overall geology you were exploring; giving excellent context to the geologic phenomenon you were discovering. It allows the layman viewer to really get a greater understanding of the geology that would otherwise take more formal study. I'm surprised that this technique isn't used more generally in other geological programs. Well done.
I'm so envious of your geological perspective - I'm always interested of the geology of an area, but often have no idea of what I'm looking at. I have roadside geology books, but there are somewhat general. The property I live on is volcanic, and we've found some rare pieces of what looks to be vitrified petrified wood. We've speculated that our property may be an ancient lahar. Interesting video - thanks!
These videos are fascinating to me! Thanks!!! I live in Longmont Colorado and we have so much cool stuff near here that I've never really paid close attention to other than admire its raw beauty from a distance. I think I'll be hitting the hills as soon as it gets a little warmer and look a lot closer to our surroundings than I have before! Thanks again for your great insights! I'm sure I'm not the first to say this but you are the Bob Ross of geology!
This the best thing on RU-vid by far for me. I got interested in Geology a couple of years ago and have always wanted to learn how to interpret landscapes; but applying what you learn from textbooks to what you see around you and making the appropriate associations is kind of a talent that I lack. So these videos are like field geology lessons in landscape interpretation and they are all fascinating. They also incorporate something that I learned in my childhood reading Chekhov's short stories: that for a story to be good it doesn't need to be dramatic; often the best stories are the ones with subtleties and nuances that create the greatest impressions since the reader feels like an active participant in making of meaning. So some examples used by Mr. Cook here are very ordinary-looking features that have very interesting stories behind them. In William Blake's words "the holiness of minute particulars."
Reminds me of giant Moqui marbles. They are brownish black balls composed of iron oxide and sandstone that formed underground. The word moqui comes from the Hopi Tribe. The Hopi were previously known as the Moqui Indians until the early 1900s. It said that the Hopi ancestors spirits would return to Earth in the evenings to play marble games with these iron balls. Pretty cool find whatever it is! I forgot to add they are also called Moqui Balls, Thunderballs and Shaman Stones. There's a small piece of hematite in the center and if you take 2 of them put them close and you just might feel the resistance like 2 magnets going back to back.
Wonderful video and glad to have found your channel. The day science can open their minds to the concept that our realm is not what we've been told, much more will make sense and fall into line. We are on a living "planet", and remnants are everywhere if we look with new eyes.
Loved this video! I live in south-central MT. There are millions in one massive sandstone outcropping. Most are marble size, a few goofball size. One I found is 3' around. Extremely heavy! So thankful to hear an explanation ❤
As a geologist I really appreciate how you explain what you see and it has helped me learn how to communicate geology concepts better. Thank you Myron.
This is my 2nd video of yours I'm watching. You are brilliant in the way you explain things to knuckleheads like myself. Really enjoy and appreciate this, so I am now subscribed. Thanks. Happy New Year to you, your family, crew and fans.
There is a very similar formation near the Colorado/Utah border along I-70. It's also prominent along the old highway 6/50 that's slightly north of the interstate. Always wondered about them. Love your videos!
Good evening and good Friday, Professor Cook. So thrilled about this new episode in Wyoming. I've found some outstanding lagerstatte fern fossils in concretions from the Mazon Creek beds in Northern Illinois. All the best from North Carolina.
Thank you very much sir, for your awesome videos. You remind me of my youth and recent, I am always with my eyes on the rocks and on the nature and wondering everlasting. Finding weird rocks I never saw before. Wishing I would be able to travel further and further out there, like to the Americas. So it is a privilege to watch your work and hobby pass here. So thank you very much sir, it saves me a lot of trips out there and takes me beyond borders I never dreamed of being able to. Great work!
I kicked up a rough looking stone marble with my motorcycle in a field as a kid. It rattled like it had another marble inside. I kept it for years till I was pondering it and decided I needed to break it open. Another marble much like its host but solid. I keep it in a little plastic bag. I was told by a smart fellow it sounded like a concreation. It's fun to follow threads of a mystery and finally come to a conclusion years later.
Thanks Myron, for another wonderful video! Years ago I took a side trip coming back from Moab and ventured north of I-70 up Floy Canyon where there were concretions that were long and broken like logs about 3-7" diameter. Some are taking up residence in my rock garden collection.
Myron is a very unique name and I want to thankyou personally as for your very interesting content you present . I wish you would have made videos when I was homeschooling my children would have learned so much I'm still going to send your videos to them because I've learned so much. Thankyou
We have those by the ton out here in Ferron UT. When I first saw them sticking out of the cliffs it was a real wow moment. They have crystal cores here and they can get huuuuuuge. Volkswagon sized specimens sometimes roll down the slopes below the cliffs and stop out in the flats, where they disintegrate over time. I thought they were from the frontier formation. Good to know I was right!
I REALLY enjoyed the viewers guesses on what this could be. People can have such good imaginations. I like the participation of the group and you connecting with their ideas. I had no idea geology could be fun.
Thank you, Myron. I loved rooting around the traprock in New England and seeing how it appeared and formed shapes, so I was fascinated by these concretions. I would have said they look like some kind of geodes at first or some sort of gaint sand pearls. You're a great teacher!
I've wondered about these and had some wrong ideas about them, but you just put an exclamation mark where a question mark once existed. Thanks again Myron.
Very cool! :D Thanks for sharing, I love nice formations like these. Your explanation was great, I'm not knowledgeable about these things but it made sense. :)
Thanks once again. Often, when I am traveling out West even with others, we often agree on the interesting and beautiful land we see, but not everyone is interested in "how" or "why" we see what we are seeing. It always fascinates me, not just in what I see as the aesthetic quality of our landscape, but in answering why we are seeing what we are seeing, and how very differently it would have looked, thousands, millions or even billions of years ago, right on the spot I am standing on at that time.
This was my first geology video I've come across or even entertained the idea of watching and I was surprised. I'm always looking at formations and wondering how they got that way or other geology questions but never took the time to really get the answers. Now after watching I want to know the answers to my questions. That way I can sound smart when we are out and about if nothing else. Thanks for the very informative video.
I was just up in the Spearfish/Sundance area last week for some fieldwork in the Bear Lodge Mountains. We were out searching for rare earth-bearing carbonatites. It was my first time in the area and I was impressed with the natural beauty on display. My home region of eastern Washington is mostly buried in layers of flood basalt, which isn't very interesting after more than 40 years of staring at it. A few years back I was up in the Hanford area where the Ringold Formation is exposed along the Columbia River. There I came upon concretions much smaller than what you found. I was surprised by how hard they could be compared to the surrounding material. I wouldn't even call Ringold lithified; it's still soft enough that you can basically dig in it, but it has concretions that are rock hard. There they tend to take on a more flat oblate shape which is probably due to the thinner laminations in some of the layers. Anyway, great video!
Like you are with geology I am the same with plants. I love spotting tiny little jewels of plants as well as grasses and worts and anything. I also enjoy looking at the geology and wondering esp when you find fine sand and sea shells half way up the sierra. I know from other features that this land was once under water. The clay in the olive and citrus groves is full of water worn stones and congromelates. Handy for building the little country houses like the one I rent.
I would say it is a concretion much like the ones we find locally in the Woodford or Sycamore limestone formations in southern Oklahoma. My father was a Geologist who took many a college student out into Southern Oklahoma to learn surface geology. I learned a lot of geology from him and I still use it as I travel. Great way to learn more about the world around us. Love your video.
I love your videos. I was born in Powell and lived much of my childhood in the Big Horn Basin. I’ve been gone from there a long time, and I love seeing the places where we roamed as youngsters. What I love even more is now learning from you so much about the places and features I always loved but had no real clue about their magnificent history stories. Thank you SO very much.
Here in the Canadian Gulf Islands the sandstone shoreline has features like this eroded by the wave action of the shoreline. It makes caves of various size , sometimes with the ball in the middle. Nice to learn about how they were made.
Around 1964 deer hunting in the high Sierra Range my brother and I was standing on a large granitic rock that was smoothed by glaciation with what looked like a school of black fish swimming together. I was about 14 and my brother 16 and we were amazed and tried to figure out what occurred. I remember we did see flow structure but of course being kids and standing on solid rock couldn't figure how that could be. That planted the seeds of geology and both of us became geologists. Thank you Myron for keeping the interest and wonder of geology alive by your fantastic videos and skill at creating an interesting story.
I accidentally found this Great information. I'll never make it to Wyoming this side of life. But love you breaking down the cause and effect of the rocks... 🙏🏿🙏🏻🙏🏽 And Good hunting and exploring and sharing to you and your wife 😉
Not only an awesome learning experience for the scientist in each of us, but delightful production value with establishment shots and movement which helps to tell the story. Very nicely done. 😎♥✝🇺🇸💯
I live in southwestern PA. I have found small rocks that were hollow inside or ones with darker cores. I think you just gave me the explanation that I hadn't known for many years. Thank you, this was a very interesting video.
Video reminds me of Aruba, which offers a variety of some of the most fascinating and revealing geology to see. Worthwhile place to visit for those intrigued by these things. In one area there's an unexplained perfectly layered limestone terrace where the top layer is older than the strata below. Also there's Hooibergite found only on this small island. The tourist also avoid these parts of the island
I love this. Absolutely fantastic, makes me kinda wish I had been a geologist. I don't know if I'd have been any good at it, but hiking around beautiful landscapes like this and wondering how they came to be just seems like a dream
I live in Albuquerque and have been getting outside and exploring for years. BSEE so not a geologist. but New Mexico has lots of geology around and I have tried to figure out. Your video's help out a lot, so much to learn. So much volcanism and the underlay layers below the lava here.
I first heard about nodules in a Star Trek episode - they were the Horta's eggs! But seriously, from a scientific POV, I first heard about nodules (back in the '70s with National Geographic) in the Pacific Ocean near smokers and that they contained high concentrations of minerals that might be mineable.
Always worth waiting for. Thanks for another video. I live in Rochester, New York at the eastern end of the Niagara Escarpment. Lots of interesting geology around the Finger Lakes and Western New York. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niagara_Escarpment
We found these by the thousands when doing trailwork on the Rainbow Bridge near Navajo Mountain. There is a section of trail we textured with several thousand of these. I believe they were called "Mochi marbles" or something. I was told they are made in the sandstone due to some pattern of iron oxide forming a sphere that erodes much slower than the surrounding stone. You can practically pull them out of vertical rock and they are distributed through several layers too. Very interesting.
I wondered if they were concretions having learned about them from your other video on what looked like petrified wood. Thanks for teaching me something new for this old brain to contemplate!
Absolutely fascinating! If I could make one suggestion (to anyone sharing a pic or video of some interesting & unusual discovery), if possible could you add something to the frame of each object to give size reference? That will also greatly assist in identification. May not be practical to always carry a 12” ruler but anything you have on hand - set of keys, Cell phone, backpack even. :-) I was guessing everything from the size of an old record cover and marble to a giant geode with natural bowling ball…it wasn’t until @6:09 when you reached out and touched it that I was sure of the size. But even the ones after the first, I was unsure how big they were. Still in awe, but could have possibly been even more so! :-) Amazing finds and thanks for sharing, I LOVE these kinds of videos!!!
