Nick and Jason (Motojw Photography drone pilot) visit Lodgestick Bluff above the Columbia River in central Washington. Filmed on July 18, 2021. / motojwphotography
This is an *incredible* video, Nick. Excellent job documenting this. I noticed those looked like pillow basalts as well, and my theory is, during a horizon between lava flows (ie a paleosol horizon), there was time for a forest to take root and grow rather old. This could have been a flood plain perhaps, since most of the flows seem to be pretty flat-lying, but essentially whatever river created the flood plain may have been dammed by a lava flow, creating a lake behind the lava dam, submerging the trees and creating a "drowned forest" (you can see good example of these in modern-day earthquake/landslide-dammed lakes) The trees were perhaps under the water for many years before another lava flow came in, but not long enough for the wood to rot away completely-and this lake must have been pretty deep, for the lava to create pillows, rather than exploding in contact with the water and simply vaporizing it-and the pillows that that formed gently entombed the trees, which were probably already white and ghostly even before the lava came in. Since pillow lava is instantly quenched in water, it did not burn away the log, leaving a tree mold, or even char the outside of the log. Just a theory, but seems probable! So cool, thanks again, loved this!
There's a problem with that hypothesis. There was plant growth between flows, but as I understand it, there are different types of trees from several different habitation zones...all in the same level in the stack of basalt flows. Not all the tree types would have been growing in the same area or elevation. It is a fact that a lake of sufficient volume had to be involved, but I don't believe the evidence supports the lake drowning a single forest. Also, from what I gather, the logs were partially or fully petrified before the lave encased them. A given area could change enough over time to go from swamp to forest, but that would require a sampling of trees to constantly be washed into a conveniently placed lake, which then stuck around for a few thousand more years, but even that would not result in the placement of many species of trees in the same layer of basalt. I think there was some event, probably volcanic, which basically blew thousands of trees down over a fairly wide area. Later, it may have been lahars, or 'regular' floods, but some of the resulting snags got washed down into a lake which had formed much like you described. The trees got waterlogged and sat at the bottom in heavily mineralized water for thousands of years before the lava encroached.
@@nevyen149 Yes, that makes sense. You mean, like the logs that clogged Spirit Lake after Mt. St. Helens 1980 eruption, but in a lava-dammed lake, right?
Thank you so much for your wonderful video and geology lessons. It would be near impossible to appreciate the petrified lodge poles without the technology of the drone. Thank you both for your efforts.
This was amazing! Thank you Nick and Jason and the nice people who let you come to their property. It was just so beautiful! I wish I could touch that tree just to make sure it’s really petrified. 😂
I remember Jason from the field trip. He was great and took q and a. This is a really great excursion, too. Thank you Jason and Nick. And thank you to Dave and Jeannie.
Thanks Nick and Jason for the video and thanks to the Bishops for access (for Nick and Jason). I love these kind of drone videos and images with a voice over from Nick.
Well thank you, Jason and the home owner, Bishop's? You have answered my question on just where IS the Lodgestick. Great video and a wounderful house Thank you to Dave and Jeannie for the view. Yes with the drone I think we can see a few more possible Lodgesticks. This was a great supprise .
This is a great video! I'm surprised there are so many views but so few likes. I'd give it two thumbs up! Nick you should seriously consider creating and narrating a documentary of Washington geology.
Love the personal historical account narratives. Great great storytelling talent you have, Nick as you do realize you make history, live. Many thanks, Jason for the amazing shots and contributing to the beauty of Nick's programs.!! Wow and he sings and plays guitar, oyeee!
Thank You Nick! The people you are collaborating with really are helping to create a more vivid picture and story. Really liking digging into the details and solidifying POI we have seen along the way!
Wow! This was lots of fun. It is so amazing to see the tree way up the cliff! Watching drone footage is so amazing because you get to see stuff that you would pretty much never get to see. Also, watching your videos is great because you do all of the work to get us to places most of us wouldn't get to see. So thanks, Nick, for all of your efforts to help us see the beauty and uniqueness of our beautiful planet! And by the way, that house is totally cool and in a totally cool place!
Super video, thanks for the views. I'm surprised they haven't explored the wall for additional trees. The TV just had a special on the Sandstone Amphitheatre in Colorado. As a novice drone flyer, I appreciate how well he did with the wing. Great stuff!!!
Wonderful video. Although a botanist, I have always loved geology. In the 1980's I worked on "Vegetation Associated With Diabse Dikes & Sills in the Gettysburg Basin, PA" for my PhD in plant ecosystems at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. During my work, the Triassic Basin became a Jurassic Basin with an international geology conference. I had a fair brush w/ paleobotany and a Devonian paleobotanist (Dr. Pat Gensel) on my doctoral committee.
Wow. Incredible video. I heard you reference this in another video and now I get to see it. I have a drone myself but not the talent displayed here. Thanks
N.P. Campbell (1975, p. 68) mentions "the remains of a large vertical petrified log known as the Gray Lady" in basalt cliff along Selah Creek near an old road tunnel off Firing Center Road. Still there?
Thank you for getting the couple and Jason to collaborate in making this video. Ever since you mentioned that tree, it has been a curiosity to me. I didn't see the other small tree you mentioned, but I did see a hole to the left of the tree at the base. Wondering if that hole could have been another tree that broke away, or just a piece of pillow lava that fell out of the wall? Another ancient lake that formed in between the lava flows. Such varied terrane during those times.
Since I first began hearing you talking about this "lodgestick" I've been wondering how I can get there, how I can see this, would I have to rent a boat? THANK YOU FOR THIS! Now I don't need to. This is a better view than any human has ever seen this log. And I never realized how close I was to it (well I didn't even know it existed) going to see rock bands at Gorge @ George Ampitheatre. Thanks Jason and thanks Nick for another great video!
At the 9:40+ section of the video during the slow motion top to bottom of the tree, it looks as though there are many pieces of petrified wood also encased around the log.
Way cool program! To think about those ancient forests that once stood there, which seem to have more layers of basalt beneath them… and how the forests must have been in a way different climate. It’s all just mind boggling. I always think Nick needs to get a drone for his own walks around geology.
From Captain T.W. Symons (1882, p. 45), "Nearly precipitous bluffs…composed of columnar black basalt, which takes many wonderful shapes…rivaling the Giant's Causeway of Ireland in weird beauty. The columns are in every conceivable position, sometimes piled up like cordwood, in some places erect, and others inclined; some great masses are twisted and bent, forming niches, arches, grottos, crowns, etc. In one of these niches…there lies in an inclined position a stick of timber, barkless and white with age. It never grew there. It is a thousand feet from the top of the bluffs, and could not have been put there from above. The only way in which it could have reached its present position was by being caught there when the river was thousand feet higher than it is now, drifting in and lodging, and being left there…My pilot, "Old Pierre", an Indian pilot and voyageur of the old Hudson Bay Company, said that this log was a landmark in the days when this company transported their furs and merchandise up and down the river in bateaux…Indians always considered that the log was left there when the river was up at that height…It may be that the log is petrified, but I had no means of getting at it to determine."
MAN I AM A SUPPER GEEK ,that was sooo cool ! thanks Nick and Jason more drone footage please! surprised no one have repelled down to get a better look wonder what kind of wood ? did you see the root was it also petrified also ? thanks again
A question. There appear fairly clear layers to the volcanic deposits, above and below the tree spot, but the one just at that appears to be somewhat bulged, would that reflect the topography at the time, a lumpy landscape (where vegetation clusters including trees could have occurred, at least till that next wave of eruptions came along to fill over it, killing trees, some of which end up petrified.
One possible explanation is that the trees were logs floating in a lake. The logs were multiple species swept into this lake by a flood from the Cascades to the west. The basalt flow encroached on this lake from fissures in the east. When hot liquid rock enters water the outer surface cools rapidly, forming shapes called pillow lavas. These encase the log in solid rock without incinerating it because steam has carried away most of the heat. The lake boils off leaving a thick layer of solid, warm rock marbled with the remnants of trees. Later basalt flows bury the earlier episodes which are insulating their embedded logs from incineration. Some flows cool slowly, forming columnar layers because they didn't touch a large body of water. Millions of years pass, allowing petrification to proceed undisturbed. My opinion of this great footage is that the lodgepole is surrounded by pillowed lava but other elevations on the cliff face show columnar shapes, but the latter are not near the log. *SUGGESTED VIEWING* ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nfbMxrPnYcc.html
