CWU's Nick Zentner presents 'Palouse Falls and Dry Falls' - the 11th talk in his ongoing Downtown Geology Lecture Series. Recorded at Hal Holmes Center on June 12, 2013 in Ellensburg, Washington, USA. www.nickzentner.com
Wish we had someone here in South Africa with your charisma and passion to explain the wonderful geology of this area. Most of what I’ve found on RU-vid relating to Southern Africa is drier than the Sahara Desert in its telling. You bring the subject to life
I wish there were geology lectures like this available for all places in the world. No matter where I go I always wish I had a geologist with me to explain the story behind what I am looking at.
Hey Nick, Love your lectures, very well presented. I live over in N. Idaho right in the middle of a flood path on the bank of a old Pend Oreille river channel that currently makes Hoodoo Valley. I'm amazed by all the different colors of polished river rock I have on my place from a beautiful green and purple to tan and white, as well as a lot of granite. One subject that you have never talked about to my knowledge is the Spokane Aquifer. I think it would be a great lecture on how it was formed and how it works. Oh if you could post the link to the the BBC story with Alice Roberts. I'd like to watch it too.
I've been watching Nick's lectures for a couple of weeks now. I absolutely want to hike all across the state of Washington now. Such a fascinating state!
Some republican is bound to get offended by something Nick says or does and he'll be banned by some politician or some state like Florida or Texas. Sad.
I have watched every one of these lectures. Absolutely educational and entertaining. I live in Florida and now want to move to Washington. When I was a kid I wanted to be a geologist. I collected rocks and studied basic geology. I’m 62 now and want to come see this in person.
+Nick Zentner. I recently flew over eastern Washington in my way home from Seattle, and as I had a window seat, I got to see the formations in the earth you discussed here. My father and I were discussing possibilities for the reasons behind the creation of the escarpments, and your lectures help greatly to explain the details of the ice age floods. I love to see geological features and know how they are created. Thank you for making these videos and posting them to the web.
This was Awesome. Being able to visualize it is powerful indeed. I Must also go and see the Alice Roberts one. Because she is also a great Science communicator of ours.
Sir, I studied psychology at Marshall University, pre-med at WV State University, pre-med and art at WVU. Finally after 10 years of changing majors I got BFA in Painting and Printmaking. Went to Notre Dame on scholarship to study painting and art history obtaining my MFA in 1977. Obviously, as a result of this unusually extended course of study, I had a lot of professors in both the humanities and the sciences. And it Sir you are among the very best I was blessed to experience.. Your lectures are simply marvelous. Thanks so much! I live in West Virginia but you have kindle a desire to traverse the continent and see the exciting areas you describe! Thanks again!
33:38 - the top of that ' ridge ' in the center of that image was the level of the land surface for the entire region [ which comprised the rolling hills of which he spoke ] prior to the 91 Missoula Floods, and so looking at either side of that ridge you get an idea of the phenomonal amounts of erosion which those floods created from after the Bonneville Flood at 13,700 BC through to just before 10,900 BC in a period of about 2700 years implying that a Flood occurred on average every 30 years.
What a great instructional video! Such a great intro to someone who knows nothing about the geology in this part of the world. I'm brand new to WA (I moved to the Tri-Cities just 3 weeks ago) and am super eager to get out and explore all of these places (have wanted to visit parts of the scablands since I first learned about it during a NOVA episode). Looks like my first priority will be buying those 2 books--On the Trail of the Ice Age Flood (I and II)! Nick is an AMAZING lecturer! He should do a Ted Talk :-) I just wish I lived close enough to attend these lectures.
Welcome to Washington and thanks for the feedback! I'm speaking in Kennewick in early August. Email me if interested in details. If you haven't yet, visit HUGEfloods.com for tons of great stuff. That site is run by a Pasco guy.
***** Nick! Yes please! I'd love to know when/where you'll be in Kennewick. I made it to Palouse Falls 2 weeks ago and 3 weeks ago to Dry Falls. I'd love to do a photography study of the basalt... I got that book about hiking around the flood areas. I'd love to find some exceptional examples of basalt columns.
astrokmb1 7105 W. 10th ave at the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Kennewick. Aug 6 at 7:00 pm. Lakeside Gem and Mineral Club. I'm sure you'd be welcome. 'Ellensburg Blue Agates'.
One thing that has always fascinated me about Palouse Falls is the row of teeth to the north of the actual fall as evident at the 40 min mark during Tabbart's fly over... is this merely the roots of the basalt flow that was being eaten away by the floodwaters?
It's possible to hike to the bottom of Palouse Falls from the viewpoint, Stubbs. Have done it a couple of times with a friend. Steep descent, but if I can do it, you can do it!
Nick Zentner. Mr. Zentner, thank you Sir, very much for putting these lectures together, but mostly, for presenting these classes with a good amount of zeal, and at the same time, presenting these events as funny episodes. I just love your presentations so much Mr. Zentner, that my wife is starting to "categorize" them. I wonder Mr. Zander if she is allowed to copy your lectures via youTube for free, to then, in turn, make a showing of your work and of the Geology involving the great North/NorthWest of )our CountryI
Now I look for these things all over Central Washington. In fact, I was wondering, are the large rock formations around Mansfield, WA erratics or from something else? There is one that is 3 stories tall heading west into town. Grimes and Jameson Lake are interesting as well.
I'm from Indiana, home of the well, not very interesting geology. We have about 300 feet of relativity flat Canadian top soil we use to grow corn. Below that bedrock that used to be a shallow Ocean.
Wonder if Soap Lake was made of soapstone? LOL I just love these videos. I love geology although I don't know all that much + I'm older than dirt! I spent my rockhounding time in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, 2 weeks at a time until retirement. Now I can barely make it to the mailbox.
Nick, It would be interesting if you could do a lecture/video about when and how the glacial floods took different paths down the existing Columbia river channel vs the Moses Coulee vs The Grand Coulee and the scablands as the Okanogan lobe advanced and retreated over time.
Thank God for brilliant teachers like Nick. So much valuable and interesting information. Fascinating. I thought I could learn something about this subject by watching The Smithsonian's Aerial Washington. All I saw was Microsoft, Boeing and a couple of the Mountains. No mention of Eastern Washington except a short segment on the Yakima Valley and the cleanup of the Hanford works. Absolutly nothing else in Eastern Washington before going back to Seattle Also, in the Smithsonian's Aerial American Waterways. Again, no mention of the Columbia River, Coulee Dam....NOTHING! Very disappointing. Thanks again, Nick
Question: Is it true that the sea floors of the oceans of the world are made of basaltic crust? And if that is true, then are they as fractured and cracked as the flood basalt on land???
Hey Nick, great video. I happened to see the Alice version before I saw this and frankly preferred your version. Can't see any scientific advantage to seeing Alice at the end of a rope. Way better content in your version.
Thanks for the comment, Peter. The Alice productions reach a wide audience with high production values. These lectures probably work for geology enthusiasts only - on a shoestring budget. Both have a place.
Continuing education stuff. Community college. Retired seniors largely finished with their capitalist vocationalism since finding amusement in learning about stuff. Nick Zentner's official brief would be to operate that particular branch of the University's activities, but he would also have a hand in teaching and lecturing for career degrees. Those old fuddies would know a fair bit about Washington, Oregon, Montana, etc and all the roads and highways there and the geology of it, whereas I from outside the USA could not tell east from west in that region or where the hell I was at any point or what the hell I was looking at.
Hi Nick I have enjoyed all your geological videos on RU-vid - BUT my questions are as follows: I hope that you would agree that the same amount of water on earth and its atmosphere has remained the same quantity since the creation of this planet in this solar system. There is no possible way that it could be diminished - as all evaporation is recycled as rainfall some were on the earth. The same water that the dino's drink - we recycle and drink - then flush. Being that this is true - without dispute - How could all the water that is allegedly creating these Massive ice caps - that are hundred of feet deep and thousands of square miles - how can they possible be created? How can that much water be evaporated and All Fall as rain/sleet on ONLY the top of the globe? Especially when the remainder of the earth is at least more moderate in temperature? What caused these ice caps to melt with so much rapiticity that could cause such massive flooding to cause this extensive erosion of these massive rock formations? That seems to me to be factually impossible to create - to begin with - and far more impossible to sustain for even a decade - little alone for thousands/millions of years. Even IF the earth moved further away from the Sun - It would appear to me that the total earth would be effected - not just the top third of the earth. But even there - there is no evidence that the earth’s solar rotation has ever changed its normal 365 day cycle around the sun. None! is there? There is also extensive evidences that top of the world had tropical vegetation and warm blooded animals that are even now found under the present ice fields. So how did this happen? Ice caps and tropical climates are not compatible with one another - they are opposites with extreme temperature with a possible 100 + degrees difference. For me there are many unanswered questions that just do not jive with reality - and just saying it happened does not give me justifiable evidences. Also how in the world can you even guessitmate the ages of different time periods of animals - vegetation and minerals- in millions of years? What are the evidences? Who left any record to verify that these actions actually occurred? NO PERSON! So how are ages determined?How did: top soils - clay - sand - of various composition's - and different rocks develop? What are your views on the Genesis World Wide Flood that destroyed the Antediluvian world- and its relations to your geological studies and views? Please reply - or make a justifying video for us all to understand these vast discrepancies that Do Exist. Thanks neighbor D Tuttle -Topeka-Tecumseh Ks. The land of limestone and shale.
Thanks for watching, Del. Too many questions to address here.....but personally, I am active in the Catholic Church plus I am a geologist. The age of these rock layers are carefully determined in the laboratory - they are not guesses. I will make a lecture about the process one of these days.....it's important to present, even though I know that it will be a major problem for many. There is also excellent evidence that the continents of our planets have been at different locations through time. Beyond that, I am not sure I can satisfy you with long answers.
Something to think about. Take a look at any University affiliated with a Church of any denomination. Then see if the Geology department teaches that the Earth is 6000 years old. I have looked and can't find that one exists any where in the World. Also, your questions are so diverse and extensive it would take a whole class and text book to explain them. You have internet access look it up.
Take a basic high school chemistry class. Water is H2O Hydrogen and Oxygen. The hydrogen and oxygen can be separated back into separate molecules. It is demonstrated everyday in schools around the world I can't believe you are that ignorant.
I can't believe how ignorant your comment is about water. You realize that the oxygen molecules can be separated from water and combined with carbon to create CO2 Carbon Dioxide or CO carbon monoxide. The Hydrogen molecules can be separated from water to become Hydrogen gas which is explosive or it can be combined with sulfur to make Hydrogen Sulfide. Everyone of your comments is just plain stupid.
Did I miss something here? I heard almost no discussion and no visuals on the amount of water that it must have taken to produce these features, only a mention of a lake and an ice dam. Was volume even mentioned? Maybe I got what I paid for too!
