Learn how Supervolcanoes caused the World’s Largest Landslide in Wyoming 

A few viewers have commented that there are larger landslides that are under the ocean. That is absolutely true and I should have mentioned it. However, I think we should not compare them to each other as they are so different. Massive under water slides occur MUCH easier due to pore pressures. The Heart Mountain slide is truly the most astonishing and amazing in my opinion.

I'm a 13-year-old girl from Chicago, and I absolutely love your videos! I don't understand why most people in my generation have such little interest in the natural sciences. I love all of them, geology in particular. It makes me feel like something as every day as a rock has its own unique story behind it, and that story can be brought out through careful investigation and curiosity. You show such genuine passion in your videos, it's easy to impart some of that passion to the viewers of your channel, myself included! Rock on!

Myron, I want you to know some things. This quality of educational content is something I haven't run into before. Something that makes your work extra special is how genuinely excited you seem to share this with the world. Having grown up around foresters and geologists, I know that excitement exists, but it doesn't always come out publicly. Thank you for it, truly :). I was fortunate to work at the Illinois State Geological Survey while in undergrad, and spent a summer with a Devonian paleontologist who opened my eyes to the world of geology. It'd always been a side-hobby of mine, but never a focus. There are some days where I almost regret getting a GIS degree instead of one in Structural Geology, haha. Now I get to work as a cartographer and find your videos extremely inspirational. I'm lucky to live in a house with two other geographers who equally appreciate your channel. Just the other day we sat down and watched through this entire video in one sitting - a FRIDAY night spent digitally in the beautiful Bighorn basin. With my post-undergrad career starting up, I'm trying my best to start incorporating geology in my mapping work. I'll always be visiting your work to find inspiration and new locales to explore. All that being said - thank you for these videos and inspiring so many. Now living around the Denver metro area, a trip up north is perpetually enticing for me.

My God!!! You're so strong, sir. I'm a geology student and I have a test tomorrow but I'm here watching your video. I am AMAZED by you. The way you teach is so so smooth and understandable, I could listen to you teach geology all day. Wish you good health, sir. 👍🏻🍀

i have been awed repeatedly throughout this video. what a colossal task you gave yourself! no wonder it took you multiple days . i love your enthusiasm for the geology and the past geologists. since i am older now and cannot walk, you have given me an opportunity to see the kind of nature i always loved to see. furthermore , my many years of interest in geology always got me to detour and travel when i was out west. THANK YOU

My Geology professor, Ed Chatelain at Valdosta State University, talked about Heart Mountain in his Structural Geology course, posing it as a question. How could this mountain have ended up so far from its base? Students: no clue. Lab Assistant (me): It slid‽! I’m so glad to hear the bigger story. Thanks Myron! And always, thanks, Ed.

When a good teacher or expert in their field is passionate about the subject being taught, they make it so interesting to those listening that they want to want to learn even more. You sir are a very good teacher. This is fascinating and that massive landslide was something I knew nothing about previous to watching your video. What a day that would have been. Thank you for making it.

Myron, how wonderful it is to wander around Wyoming with you and NO ONE ELSE! Hikes like yours are almost impossible in our crowded islands - so called Great Britain but not that big at all - though with some interesting geological features because of plate tectonics and pure chance. As an adult I've sat on mountain tops that were laid down as sediment in long lost seas and while munching on a sandwich - ruminated on the fossil shellfish in the rocks and imagining the tape of history being replayed in my mind's eye. Many years ago ( I think I could probably give you a few!) I was thrashed for talking in class and not paying attention to teacher - I was further ridiculed because I thought the Americas were once joined to Africa. So incensed was I, that I cut up a school atlas and stuck all the pieces on a suitably sized ball. I left that ball on teacher's chair and treasure her face that stays with me today! I would love to dig her up and tell her about 20/30 mile blocks of rock that can move at 100mph. I also wrote to our Geology Museum - and they did write back - saying not to be so silly. The world needs more teachers like you.

I wish every state had a guy like you! I bet it'd make a lot of people take road trips and find a new appreciation for their home.

Myron, I found your channel about a month ago and I'm hooked! I'm having a fun time working my way through your videos. Thank you so much for your time, effort and generosity of knowledge! Your enthusiasm for the geology really comes through. I am definitely putting some of these areas into my list of places to see and adventure in when I retire in a couple of years. Love the drone footage too, this is just really well done! Geology stories like this are so mind blowing, and humbling.

I love how geologists read a landscape, and through careful work can map how it happened. Good stuff

As an instructor of 30+ years, first of all...nice job! I moved to Wyoming 6 weeks ago. I'm still in the jaw-dropping awe, of mother nature phase. I clearly see the forces at work as I explore the areas and try to imagine just how it could have happened. last week I drove down to the Flaming Gorge area, some geological loop in the Sheep Creek section. You have given me a great amount of knowledge and insight. Most of all, look at the detail....but step back and look for the scale of the area.

Wow this was one of the coolest science stories and videos I've ever seen. Really amazing Mr. Myron. I can only imagine the hard work that went into making the props, the filming, and the editing. Bushwhacking up a creek to a cliff face is the fun part though right? You are covering some absolutely fascinating stuff on this channel. Really looking forward to more. Thanks!

I’m a geologist and I learn so much watching your videos. I did my field camp in Wyoming and remember seeing and discussing Heart mountain. I spent the following summer after field camp at Grand Teton working as a park ranger and have been back out to Wyoming about a half dozen times since, backpacking in the Tetons, Wind River and Bighorn mountains. I’d really like to do some hiking to those places in this video. Also, I like how your videos are off the beaten path and talking about places that are not well known.

I was a student of Ed Beutner's at F&M many years ago. I'm sure your review of past literature turned up some of his later research on a non-catastrophic/episodic emplacement of the Heart Mtn. allocthon. Interestingly, when I went to field camp in 1979 at the YBRA camp in Red Lodge, we were introduced to Heart Mtn. as a catastrophic event, aided by slide planes pressurized by Absaroka volcanic gasses. That area is very special to me. Thx for the trip down memory lane.

The production value of this video is OFF THE CHARTS. Incredible filmmaking.

Your videos are incredible. I'm so happy I found this channel. Theres all sorts of space documentary series like this, but not many geology videos and I'm just as fascinated with earth science as I am with space stuff. This series rivals anything on TV. Thank You. If you ever need a young enthusiastic and athletic man to help you with your travels and filming I'll drop everything I'm doing and help you.

I found your channel this morning and am now binge watching everything you have! You are truly an amazing source of knowledge; thank you for explaining everything so well. “Let me get my whiteboard” on the slope(and everywhere!) I love it! Much of my family lives in Fremont county and I visit at least twice a year, every time I am amazed by the geology of Wyoming. Thank you for expanding on my understanding of what I am seeing.

I would just like to have you with me every time I hike, to explain the geology. I love to see and speculate and read about how the geology came to be for an area. This video, and your others, open up whole new ways of thinking about it. Thank you so much for enriching an already rich source of learning and awe.

Bravo, Sir! As a lifelong resident of Wyoming, this is something I was never aware of until stumbling upon your amazing video. I'm going to share this with my son and his family. I'm sure they'll be amazed, educated, and entertained as I was. Very well planned, filmed, and put together. That's not an easy task! Thank you!

MANY THANKS for this video, Myron. Have always had a fascination for Geology but with little knowledge of the subject. Your videos are fantastic, and I find the stories of how geologists found out about how the geological processes happened as fascinating as the geology itself. This video probably the best one so far, and I didn't know anything about this whatsoever before watching.

Really appreciate the time and effort you have put in to this. Really enjoyed it!

I love the journey and the piecing together the puzzle to figure out what happened and how it happened. Kind of how they figured out that the west flank of the big island collapsed causing a tsunami thousands of feet high when they found corals on the top of another island. That was definitely on my mind in Hawaii.

I’m floored (no pun intended) You have hooked me Myron, beautifully described etched in visible evidence. I loved the artistry reference your kind passion was in keen focus! I’ve grown up the PNW area and felt Mt Saint Helens pop like someone chucking a basketball with great force against the side of my home over 300 miles away it was also noted for a landslide but nothing like the one you just described to me. Thank you for your time and your effort sharing your love of geology with us, it enriches my soul.

You are so blessed to have this scenery and geology around you. Thank you very much for this video, I really like your way of explaining in fairly simple terms, but with out being condescending, I like how you took us on a journey with you explaning the processes from the resting point of Heart mountain and to it's origin.

I worked on two oil well drilling sites in 1982 and 1983. I lived near Helena , Montana at the time and referred to Wyoming as the "deep south". Saw Heart Mtn everyday. Wyoming landscape is stunning to me since I love the open spaces of our western states.

I haven't enjoyed a virtual trek into the outlands so much! That the underpinnings of those mountains acted like teflon or water is mind blowing. Undersea slides have got nothing in common with what had to take place in Wyoming. And I missed it all when visiting the area fifty years ago - rats. This old disabled former rock hunter has found a new favorite buddy in Myron Cook. Thank you for sharing your time, energy, intellect, and ability to make occasionally tough ideas digestible for us amateurs and non-geologists. I'm gonna be a patron. Keep making videos as long as your knees hold out. God bless.

Thank you so much! You took an event of a magnitude that is difficult to comprehend and guided us through it with excellent narration, visual aids, and video. I had an uncle who was a college professor, who left me with a lifelong interest in geology. Your enthusiasm reminds me of him.

Thank you for this Myron! One thing's for certain, I will never again drive Chief Joseph, Yellowstone to Cody, or the Beartooth, looking at them the same way as before. As you were setting up the detachment scenario I was thinking that there had to be something to lubricate that low angle surface, and then you explained it. It's like sliding on wet ice with almost zero slope. It's amazing to think that huge blocks from the Thunder Mountain area in Yellowstone ended up east of Cody. Fascinated as I am with geology from my youth, I was always left scratching my head a bit about this area as I drove through on my way up to the Pryors for wild horse photography. Your presentation helped a lot.

I absolutely love your videos. I'm a local pilot and always give some kind of geological lesson to my medical crew in the back as we fly around this beautiful state. I've always been curious about the Pumpkin Buttes, roughly 60 miles east of the Bighorns and just southwest of Savageton, WY. From what I understand these buttes originated from the peaks of the Sourthern Bighorns and are now 60 miles away. I'd be very interested in any video you might do on that area and the formation of the extensive coal bed in the area. Great videos, thanks!

You make learning awesome! I love understanding many, many things and this was interesting enough that I rewound the video a few times to make sure I didn't miss anything!! I'm not formally educated but I still am fascinated by the natural processes that can be found everywhere. Thank you for a great video and all the hard work that went into it!!

Absolutely love the content. You are the Bob Ross of geology. I felt alittle confused at first. But with you diagrams it all made perfect sense towards the end. I found especially fascinating the part about the heat being generated during the slide, essentially lubricating the plane.

Myron! What a fantastic and informative lesson. This is the second one I've watched in a row, the first one of yours only being about 29 minutes. I enjoyed the first one, and then I decided to watch this one too. Totally fascinating. As a National Park Ranger, natural history is fascinating to me, and while my specialty in the National Park Service is Structural Fire Prevention, I still love geology, geography, and history. Your videos are by far some of the most interesting and well composed on RU-vid! Thank you for taking the time to create these wonderful lessons! ~Blake Scott NPS.

Sir, you are beyond a good teacher. You make learning fun. I have always loved geology but now I actually understand it (well,for a rock nerd anyway) Many blessings to you. For us too old to wander you provide a wonderful visual view along with the teaching.

WOW! This is by far the MOST astonishing YT channel over the geology and geography I've ever encounter yet! So interesting!!! It was always too hard for me even to watch 10 minutes videos! But here is you watch 40-80 minutes ones like in a finger snap! WOW! Very very very great job, Sir!!!

My wife and I have traveled through these areas several times on motorcycle trips. I have long marveled at the sedimentary stratification and thrust uplift of the mountains along Chief Joseph Hwy. You have answered so many questions, but also provided more than I could ever imagine. Thank you Sir. You have a new follower.

Great video sir. I like geology very much but unfortunately ended up as an accountant. But your videos gives me back what I lost in my life. Thanks a lot Sir.👷‍♀️🙏🙏

Thanks for sharing this amazing story! It boggles the mind to think of what it might have been like when the 20x30 mile area slid away at 200 mph or so! This earth we live on is a dynamic place!

The sizes heights and distances just blow my mind. Thank you for a survey of a most fascinating and astonishing geological marvel.

I just came across this video, I have watched two more of your videos and found them very interesting. I really like the way you explain geological features. You make it very easy to follow. I was wondering if the Absaroca volcanics were part of the Challis Magmatic Episode? Thank you for your time in bringing us these great videos!

Myron, I've now watched all of your videos. I hope you'll make more. It's so great to learn about the geology of the Big Horn Basin, a place I thought I knew until I watched these vids! The scene you describe 50mya is pretty intense... I think you're right that we're fortunate to NOT be living back then! Cheers

I like very much your style, you are very good hiking and explaining at the same time! I don't know Wyoming but it looks like gorgeous. Twenty years ago I went through California, Nevada and Oregon up to Idaho and it was a wonderful geological and aesthetic experience: the history of the Earth is before you as a huge open book. Your enthusiasm is contagious.

This was amazing, thank you Mr. Cook for all your work on this. It was pretty obvious that this was a labor of love for geology for you.

Thank you for teaching me you are a good teacher.

Really nice video! You gotta love technology, a lot easier to see and explain.

Thank you for making science interesting and easier to understand. Im planning a visit to Yellowstone next year so Im trying to take in lots of info about the area and its unique features. I cant wait to see some of surrounding features.

I get a better education on YT than i ever did in college. Thanks, Mr. Cook!

You climb mountains so that we don't have to. Thank you for your interesting lectures.

Just brilliant. Thank you. As someone who was born and lived the first twelve years of my life in PowellI I have been completely ignorant of any explanation for all the places near there that amazed my eyes and childish imagination. This is like coming full circle. Looking forward to more of your work!!

Keep going Sir...., this is what type of geological video that I want and always looking for

An amazing story, scarcely believable to us living in peaceful geological times, but told clearly amidst grand scenery - fascinating.

23:06 Wow, I was just looking on a satellite map of that exact precipice as it had caught my eye as a place for a future visit to check out some geology. I had been scanning those red layers up the map from southern Utah when I had come across it. Probably on if the best folds in NA. Well what caught my eye was the vertical bedding planes at the north side of the Clark there, then the folds caught my eye subsequently. I did this all from the comfort of my west coast home. Thanks Myron for taking me there and letting me see it from ground level. How spectacular! Also, the rest of the video, so great, especially the whiteboard and the drone shots.

Kudos to you!!! Your wonderful style of presentation gives us the Real Hands/Feets-ON process of discovery!! Very well done--incredible geologic story & amazing how much of it is STILL VISIBLE to those of us Rock-Nerds persistent enough to get out there & find it!! Thank you so much for sharing with us, in such a successful way!!!

I am so happy ,I came upon you, thank you for sharing your expertise in geology/ geography. I am a big map lover and love all of Earth's terrains all over the world. Excited to learn more about the beauty we have on earth and what I see. You give us the history and beginnings of that beautiful mountain .

Great presentation. What a beautiful place! Thank you for sharing.

Smooth as silk at 60fps. And presented in a smooth as silk natural voice. Thank you so much! I always thought the collapse of the Hawaiian volcano shield into the Pacific was the largest landslide ever. Edit: I like your shirt.

I saw huge blocks with slanted layers just like the ones in your video, when traveling west of Thermopolis (where our family lived), to the Yellowstone region. I often wondered how they were formed. Thanks to your video, I now understand. Also thanks for the addendum to your video, which was very helpful.

Well, Myron. That was awesome. Thank you for all your work and time to share your knowledge. I am from Lander.(the Bear Guy) and i really love Geology. Thanks again!!!

😍😍😍😍😍what STUNNING land!!!! Ty for taking us along! The landscape is telling us a historical storyline that we normally do not pay attention to!

Fascinating story. Your diagrams and drone footage really illustrate how it all came about. Thank you.

Love the video! I’m glad I know now, I always thought of heart mountain as the top of a volcano flying through the air and landing in its current spot. This information makes much more sense.

Thank you for your video of Wyoming history. Seeing all the different colors of dirt/rocks you can tell there was a lot of upheaval of the ground. Having traveled the route from Gillette to Casper many times (Dr. Appts.) you can see many interesting land formations along the way there also. Beautiful state Wyoming, so diverse.

One of the best videos on all of RU-vid, and I mean that!

Thank-you very much for sharing such amazing knowledge, great presentation of a fantastic event !

Outstanding video, stunning visuals, this is the first time I’m hearing of a mega slide in Wyoming, I had saw videos of 3 mega slides in Utah of similar size, and slid under the same conditions, they actually deposited a multi inch think layer of obsidian at the contact layer due to the melting of the volcanic material , I love these long form in depth explanations of geology

I really enjoyed this presentation and learned a whole lot! You are a good teacher.

Just found your channel, and I love it. Beautiful scenery and well studied knowledge.

Amazing and beautiful education / Thank you Myron

This is amazing. A wealth of information. I absolutely love everything about this video! Thank you for all the effort you put into this presentation. Best part, you don't take a whole 5 minutes talking about your sponsor or your Patreon supporters, or "hit like, subscribe and that bell". That kind of thing is a cancer on the Internet, so seeing a knowledge rich video like this with none of that BS is such a breath of fresh air.

Amazing and fantastic video! Thanks for very well explained and easily understandable contents.

I came across your YT channel pretty much by accident just a few days ago, watched your two latest videos and then went back and I am making my way through all of them, one by one. This particular video describes an even that I would have not though to be possible. It left me pretty much speechless. Towards the end of it - since I found it so 'over the top of my imagination and intuition' I started asking myself questions what other signatures of such a massive landslide could there be - what did all the heat do? And then just minutes later you just go on and explain exactly that. I am looking forward to the rest of your existing videos and then your future work. Your ability to explain complex events in simple terms combined with a very natural and pleasing narration-- plus the excellent video work (I am assuming there is a videographer involved, he/she does a great job) just makes it hard to stop watching. Thank you you for your work.

I dont know if you are a professor teaching geology or not, but you definitely should be. So good step by step explanation of difficult processed! Thank you, love your videos.

Is there any chance that there could have been an inland ocean or large lake in the Bighorn basin at the time of this massive slide? I love your videos I grew up in Montana and remember the fascinating drive from Cook City to Cody via sunlight basin. Now having watched this video I hope to return and see it through the eyes of a geologist. Thank you Myron ✌🏾💪🏽🙏🏾

Thank you again Mr Cook for all your hard work. Its obvious you've spent many many days, miles and muscles (the summit hike) to present all this extraordinary information. Keep up the good work!!

What a delightful presentation. A few years ago, I stumbled upon the original paper presenting the CO2 pillow concept and was amazed at the speed, distance, and 2° angle. You have a gift in the way you present the delight of the discovery and the beauty of the earth. Thank you for using your time to give to others.

The same hot spot under Yellowstone was under SW Washington, NE Oregon, and Western Idaho. Millions of years ago, fissures appeared and released Flood Basalt that traveled all the way to Columbia River. It buried parts of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. I live in Central Washington. Numerous layers of Flood Basalt are over 1 mile thick. In some places it is over 2 miles thick. The Yakima River Canyon is great place to see many layers in plain view.

Thank you

How I love your content. Mom took me on my first fossil hunt when I was 6 years old. Today I am 74 years young. I'm not claiming geology is the fountain of youth, it's just the fountain of truth!

A truly fascinating and mind boggling event. A CGI presentation of the slide as it occurred would be fantastic too but I bet it'd be expensive to create. Thank you so much for taking the time and energy to explain this event.

Besides the Heart Mountain landslide, I recommend reading up on the recently-discovered Markagunt and Sevier gravity slides in Utah…they about the same size as Heart Mountain (~2000 sq mi displaced terrain). The Markagunt and Sevier gravity slides are thought to be related to inflation of calderas in the region during the Mid-Tertiary ignimbrite flare-up. Really interesting structural geology and fascinating pseudotachylites. This is a great video-your work is really appreciated! Question: does the detachment actually make a sharp angle (as drawn in the video) between it and the heardscarp of the slide, or is it actually more of a listric, curved scarp?

Wow. Just found your channel. I eagerly await more videos.

Your videos are always so easy to understand and very interesting. The visuals are great and I always learn so much information from you. Awesome video Myron, hopefully your doing well and enjoying the beautiful landscape of Wyoming.

This is an amazing presentation. Thank you for this work. I visited heart mountain and saw this slide but love the detail you presented. I was a geology student and love seeing this. Looking forward to more content

Thanks for sharing, I’m a native to Wyoming and this is fantastically intriguing

I really enjoy hearing how a geologists thinks through how our earth has formed. It is something you don't get in college classes. Absolutely fascinating and I love how you take us on these incredible journeys! I have learned so much from you! Thank you so much, Myron Cook, for sharing your amazing knowledge!!!

Thanks for your efforts and well done. As a kid growing up in New England I had a very hard time getting a grasp on the local geology due to its complexity from multiple orogenies and glaciatians. Now I know Wyoming is the place to see it all.

This was fabulous. I appreciate your making this video as clear as possible about things we can only imagine as we look at the evidence left behind. Blows my mind. Thank you.

I’m a geologist and visited this area during field camp. Great presentation!

Absolutely fascinating!. I love the geology of the American Northwest. Thank you for a wonderful presentation.

Having recently moved to South Africa where there is such interesting geology, I would love to have someone with your clarity to make it come to life. Your videos are excellent as you patiently build the picture and hold our interest.

I live in Iceland and most Icelancers are constantly experiencing the transformation of their country. This is very interesting, as this is something happening in a very old countrysite, while Iceland is a very new landmass; very different forces at play. Iceland sits between diverting tectonic plates, so everything is moving in opposite general directions, as opposed to colliding landmasses.

This is fricken fantastic! Thank you so much for putting this video together. I really appreciate being able to actually see the full story.

I wondered about the geology of our area, thank you for explaining it so concisely. I understand it so much better now.

Fascinating video, thanks for your efforts to bring geology alive. The time frame of these events is mind-boggling.

Thanks Myron for a fantastic and fabulous explanation of these geologic features. I had heard of these detachments around Yellowstone but never understood story until watching your informative and interesting video. I appreciate your videos greatly.

Another cracking geological voyage with Captain Myron at the helm, absolutely fascinating stuff! Was just wondering, the scenery looks amazing as you're out and about in the field, I noticed you were carrying bear spray or something, are there wild animals you have to be wary of especially as you seem to go solo...would be interested to hear a short breakdown of what you have to take on a field trip and how you plan the route etc. Its obviously a very rugged isolated landscape with an element of danger involved...thanks for all your hard work with these videos, I can't stop looking at rock formations/layers when I'm in the hills!

Mr. Cook, Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and enthusiasm with me. It is a wonderful presentation. I'm glad to know there is a teachers like you, and proud to say I attended your class today... Thanks, again

You are what I’ve dreamed of as I’ve traveled in the West. A geologist tour guide to explain all the amazing features as I drive along. I’ll settle for the videos.

What a well thought out presentation. I am a geology hobbiest. I got lost at times, but you brought me back in. Thank you for this.

Its very soothing and at the same time exciting to hear you explain the intricacies of how this earth evolved and changed. Thanks for another great lesson in rockology 101.