Another thing, I want to show my appreciation for you showing Portland in a positive light considering the egregious news coverage we’ve been hammered with as of late. Portland always felt like a “Mr. Rodgers” city to me as well.
with all the problems in the world, i find it relaxing to check in on your youtube channel for some very interesting insights into the landscape of the NW US. Thanks!
This is so cool. Full circle for me. Years ago I was curious about this exact information and searched RU-vid for Portland geology. Didn't find much, so I searched for pacific northwest geology and found Professor Z. I've been a huge fan and geology lover ever since. Now I have an answer to my original question, and a whole lot of context within which to understand that answer way better than I would have back when I first looked for it.
The new OHSU building to the south was built over a spring, they tapped it to provide all grey water for the building. The OHSU budlings up on the hill built on deep pilings drilled down through that factured basalt rock.
that was an awesome video very informative , i commute from Beaverton to Ridgefield and often wonder about how them hills currently got here also worry crossing so many bridges. Thanks
Great little walking tour of PDX! Thank you!! Lived there almost 20 yrs. during a couple small quakes plus the bigger Mt. Angel/Spring Break Quake (sharp and jerky, epicenter south of PDX in Mt. Angel area) and the Portland reverberations of the Nisqually quake (very rolly/wavy...you could see the ground roll/wave).
Porkland fault..) Can't wait for that 3.5billion$ courthouse to be tested by a 9. I want to see how well our state parasites know how to swim..) Hopefully not at all..)
Thanks! I live in the Willamette Valley. As an avid hiker, and so interested in local geology, I bought Marli’s book! BTW, the bird you heard singing is a White-crowned sparrow! Very sweet bird. Love your lessons!
Thank you, Nick, for coming to Portland and doing this short video. I'd love to see ones from Newport Or. up through the Olympic Peninsula. I've enjoyed your talks about eastern Washington.
Thanks Prof. Zentner. I know of one exposure of CRB in the West Hills. There is columnar basalt exposed near OHSU. Near the Marquam trailhead behind City water tanks.
I had never thought about the Tualatin Mountains as part of the same tectonic regime as the Yakima fold and thrust belt. To the south of the Tilicum Bridge, the Eocene Waverley Basalt (Siletzia Terrane) crops out in Lake Oswego and Milwaukie. This regional tectonic story provides the folding and uplift mechanism to bring these basalts to the surface. Erosion helps too.
Thank you for that. I have visited Portland several times. I live in Minnesota but have often thought of moving to Portland. So I researched it several times. I also saw on you roadside map that the Missoula flood came raging through Lake Oswego area.
This is the exact sort of information I was looking for on how the Portland Hills Fault ties into the regional geology of the area. Super informative, thank you so much for making this!
I was up on the Hill (big building by antenna at 2:21) during Nisqually. That is when we established the rule that anyone between me and the door needs to be moving faster than me. So the story I have heard is that while the Hills may have started as basalt, the upper 30 or so feet is silt that has blown in and is pretty unstable. There is a great vid of a housing lot where they cut back all the trees, and following a severe rain, when the owners went to check on construction, the lot literally peeled off and chased them down the street. I therefore live on the eastside which doesn't tend to move on its own.
Right on Nick , Now I know a little bit More . People of Portland see a big Dilbert looking guy , I think your pretty Safe there . The scenery looks magnificent :) QC
Interesting to hear about these hills which I knew as the “West Hills” when I lived at the base of the hills on top of the fault. Really glad you turned me on to Marli’s book so I can now read about the features that I went past and over for so many years.
Now -- as for the geology of the West Hills -- This is an amazing piece of news. I would never have suspected a fold-&-thrust story for the West Hills. I just figured that the Portland Fault drew a nice straight escarpment high enough to be carved out by the numerous Missoula floods that would barrel down the Willamette Valley. The fold-&-thrust story now makes perfect sense -- and the rate at which this longitude is rotating compared to central WA I can see why it has a more NW strike than the ridges in central WA.
Wait, was this notification an April Fools prank from a friend? No, it's real! As a long-time Zentnerd that lives in the Portland Hills, I am beyond ecstatic that The Nick Zentner is talking about here!
The Portland Hills and the greater Portland area where the playgrounds of my youth. i'm a Geology geek who hasn't seen his beloved Portland in years. It doesn't get much better than this !:-) 🙏⚡️
Thank you Nick again. The Portland hills are just another Yakima fold. Lived there from 2012 to 2017 and never knew. Last year you taught us that the channels in front of our Edmonds home were just another
Scabland... and last week you climbed a mountain in the Catalinas in the backyard of our Tucson home. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and love of life!
There is a tunnel under the hills that the max runs through it’s under the zoo and there is a tube down there with all the soil/ rock samples in those hills with the entire geological story on the wall
Thanks you for taking the time to speak about this. With this in mind, I have a lot of questions about how this fits in with other nearby features. That book looks like a good start.
Yay!!!! We are so lucky that your boys Chose Oregon and Portland!!! That helps explain the terwilleger curves and that sharp cliff, as well as the different perspective on the terroirs of Tualatin, Parrot Mountain and Eola Amity!!! Thanks for visiting us!!!
Yeeeeeessss! Thank you for coming to Portland and talking about our hills. I missed you on that bridge by about 24 hours. I took a bike tour along the river today. Would have blown my mind to run into you there and I’d likely have ruined a couple minutes of your video, so probably better this way. I’m no birder, but I call those little guys Song Sparrows, aka LBBs (little brown birds). Was just reading the new research on the gales creek fault, and wonder how (or if) that relates to the portland hills anticline. They sure are awefully parallel to each other. Hmm, something to chew on. Hope you enjoy the rest of your travels, and come again soon!
Thanks for this lesson, Nick. I've driven I-5 many times, and have spent time in Portland. I grew up in Eugene, and have relatives scattered about Washington. Some of them own orchards in the Wenatchee area. I have always wondered about the geology of the ridge lines and the various humps around town. I have taken relatives to the hospital on top of the ridge you were looking at and walking towards. That's the Veteran's Hospital and the Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU) and the OHSU hospital. Off to the left I can just make out the tram line from the OHSU Hospital down to the medical offices building on the riverside.
Wow, I never imagined as we drove I-5 up those hills they were basalt. Being young and unknowing I would have thought glacial moraine if I had thought about it at all. I have to admit that. Portland traffic always has terrified me and I just want to get out of the city as fast as possible. Thanks for the lesson. I have the new roadside WA and MT books. I need to get back to your courses and start reading those books.
I can relate to Yakima Fold Anticlines. I live in Union Gap on the north side of Ahtanum Ridge looking towards Yakima. Rattlesnake Ridge is same Anticline but on other side of 'The Gap'. I can see Yakima Ridge and Valley in between. My grandparents lived in Portland, not far from the bridge you are on. I remember lots of hills, rivers, bridges, getting lost looking for grandparent's house. They lived on a steep hillside. Backyard was a series of 3 terraces. Front yard was a series of 2 terraces. Driveway was very steep and even the street below was divided into 2 lanes and terraced with retain wall. They had rock walls made out of red volcanic rock full of air holes like pumice. Gravels were also red volcanic rock. I can remember Mt Tabor, the volcanic cinder cone. I would collect red rock and stick it into my pockets to bring back to Yakima. What is the age of the volcanic cinder cones around Portland? Did they happen after Columbia Flood Basalt or before? I don't recall (I was a young kid) back then if cinder cones were on top of the ridges, or only by themselves.
Imagine being in that spot during the Pleistocine. I think you'd be under a couple hundred feet of water during the Missoula floods. I've personally seen a boulder from the Idaho batholith 50 miles south of there near Albany. They think it rafted in on an iceberg that floated up the Willamette River when it was a backwater eddy of one of the floods. Crazy cool!
Interesting. I've enjoyed your short geology shows on OPB television and hope you might consider doing some shows about the odd geology we have in and around Portland. Thanks!
Wow. Forgot that the German Chocolate Cake came out this way. Fun making these connections with you and our trusty Roadside Geology Team! Thanks, Nick for another great video hike!
It made it all the way to the ocean in places, and well down the Willamette Valley. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_River_Basalt_Group#/media/File:Columbia_River_Flood-Basalt_Province.jpg And of course the gorge beautifully exposes layers of it behind the waterfalls, but you were probably well aware of that. Anyway, always a blast to have Zentner deepening our geologic knowledge of the very ground we habitate
Every time I watched your videos I couldn't help; but wish we had someone of your caliber teach us about OR geology. When I saw this title I believe it took me less than a second to tune in. Thank you!
Very nice! Thanks for the context and including Salem (where I live)! Now I can go back through some of your videos and get a better understanding of what my home is built on.
Ok, Nick, now I have something to compare to about the quality of your 4K video! And, yes now I really see the difference. On this video, I really feel like I am walking with you on the city street of Portland! That's how I see it when I go there with my eyes!! Yes, recording with your 4K whatever is better, much better!😄✨💛 And, thank you for the geology lesson, Nick!😘✨💛
Thanks for this, Nick! I’ve been interested in Geology for a couple of years for selfish botanical reasons, but also from an overall ecology standpoint. Thanks to Crime Pays But Botany Doesn’t, I’ve been even more interested for the past two or so years and your videos have helped a lot! This one is super helpful since I don’t have to drive tens or hundreds of miles to see the features, but I can take that exact light rail tram to that bridge in just a few minutes and look at that exact view with that exact book and see it for myself. Thanks again. 💚 PDX
Great stuff Nick, I’ve lived in the Portland area all my life, the views from the West Hills as they are commonly called, are spectacular a clear day, with views of Mt Hood, and Mt St Helens. Just watch we’re you park in downtown and some of the out laying areas, very similar to Seattle’s crime issues and homeless problems.
Wow thanks next time I go to portland I want to walk on that bridge too. thank You for pointing that out to us. that lava flow of the German chocolate Cake is everywhere!
Fascinating! Oh I love the Geology of Washington & Oregon. Very impressive! So glad you got to visit you son & give us a lesson on Columbia River Basalt! I am down south in COOS BAY on the Cascadia Subduction Zone & the Jaun De Fuca Fault. A little shaking goes on around here too. Safe travels!
Thanks again. This is an interesting connection between Oregon and Washington. Growing up in Oregon and living in Washington I always imagined there was a dramatic contrast between in the geology of the 2 regions. The major difference is the glaciation of the Puget basin compared to the flat, alluvial Wllamette Valley. Are the basalt buttes that pop up further south in the valley related to the CRB?
Nick, Please come to the Mision Valley again. Montana holds the key to all the clean water, that you all hold so deeply. If they kill the water here in Flathead lake, it flows down. Do a chalkboard in our local theater. I have admired that there is no politics in your education of us and I wish people would cherish what you love.
I have only recently… May be for two weeks, gotten into you. Maybe three. I was turned on to you by a friend of my sister who lives in Alaska now and came from Washington. Ever since you have been one of my solids and I love your personality and the information. I almost giggled when you said something about the big city not being your element. I live just north of Los Angeles, and thinking of Portland as a harsh city environment is kind of humorous to me. I feel you. I don't like lots of Busy city myself, but I have to say that if one is going to be in a city… Portland, Seattle, etc., pretty much top of my list for groovy Ness. On that note, I think you for the city views of the architecture! That bridge is amazing, and the buildings surrounding it, although they are big city, have a lot of style to them.Thank you overall man
Thanks for all your vids and re awakening my fascination of geology. From school I remember "igneous rocks", metamorphic and sedimentary. I'm a 53 year old from Glasgow Scotland (famous for drumlins). I now live in Aberdeen AKA The Granite City. If you ever do a lecture tour of Europe, I will be in the audience as happy as a kid at xmas.
I live in Wilsonville - what I know as Stafford Hills - is really - Tonquin Scablands. The north/south hill in Milwaukie (oatfield road) is called the Oatfield Fault. Never knew that. Lived on it for 20 years.
I like the light rail. Bit of a train fan myself, how about a series called Nick Goes Off The Rails where you follow trains and examine the exposed geology they cut through? :)
If you're really that new to NW Oregon geology, then some time when you're travelling from Eugene to Portland do this: take I-205 through Oregon City. Going North on I-205 through West Linn, you'll start climbing a hill right after exit 6. Toward the top of the hill on the northbound side there's a viewpoint that overlooks the Willamette Falls, which is a 40-foot basalt shelf in the river bed. On the opposite side of the river there's basalt cliffs that stretch for several miles (Oregon 99E is at the base of these cliffs, making them very accessible). As you leave the viewpoint, you'll descend through a cut right through more basalt, where there's a clearly visible layer of soil about one foot thick, sandwiched between basalt layers that are ten feet thick in places. (I think it's all Columbia River basalt, but I can't be sure of that. Black, hard, layered, sometimes forms cliffs -- at this point any pretense I have of being a geologist falls away).
Perfect spring day for a field class about the Portland fault Thats interesting so do they all run with the same orientation so the further west you go there's more force on the fold?👍
I'm in Phoenix AZ. Awaiting the return of the Blast Furnace that will render the place a hell hole for the next six months. Looking at the grey skies and what looks like rain off in the distance, and all the greenery and the people out walking and jogging in sweatpants etc, I'm thinking Portland sure does look inviting.
Haven't been in Portland in many years, but will get there again this summer, following the Oregon Trail for the 4th, and what I presume will be, the last time (I'll be 78 when I arrive in August). Then I'll turn around and detour through the channeled scablands, which I've never seen in person (RU-vid only - thanks, Nick and Bruce) on the return leg to Minneapolis. I'm with Qltnut when it comes to what I remember about Portland traffic.
Bittersweet memories of my Three years there and now... This city is either spot-on and beautiful or dead wrong and ugly... Glad I walked every neighborhood back in the p 90s as a starry eyed youthful man
I wish I knew you were coming . I found a very interesting rock wall near ohsu. I would love to get your take. My older brother thinks its a melted building no matter what I say. its just basalt pillows. Anyways. glad to see you in town.
If I knew you were in the PDX area I would have invited you to the Friday evening meeting of the Oregon Agate and Mineral Society! First and third Fridays of most months.
Oh gosh, just had a nightmare flashback when you mentioned Portland traffic. Spent a month on Hwy 26 to the coast one day a couple of years back. Worth it though. Oregon's a beautiful state with some great people!
Could the ridges be considered part of the “fold and thrust belt” inboard of the subduction of the Juan de Fuca plate along the Cascadia Fault zone? Or could it be an extension of the “accretionary wedge” Coast Range? Or is it a product of those two AND the “Clockwise rotation?”
I grew up in that region (!) but now can see it differently (Marli excuses us for being distracted by the busy highway scene, ha!). And FYI a friend put Oregon's Grand Ronde River and Grand Ronde basalt flow together today, as we discussed the layers of basalt in WA. 😉 👍 Love you back. Thanks!!
Rock question, what is the difference between a Teanaway gray and an Ellensburg blue? When I look up Teanaway gray, I find information about the Ellensburg blue. I apparently have a Teanaway gray so am confused.
I've lived in the N. Willamette valley for 30 years, know the CW rotation and anticline story very well, and never made the connection! I wonder if that also explains the prominence of Saddle Mt. in the coast range, which is also of CRBG.
I grew up in Yakima near the southern hills that wrap their earthy arms around the town,, and always wondered about the geology of the area, and even bought a book about it atthe YVCC bookstore, but Never got around to really trying to read it and understand what was going on .... you might be interested to know that Mt. Tabor is an extinct (let's hope!!!!!) Volcano and you can walk down inside it. :) Have a great day and visit with your kids. :)
I've watched a bunch of your Community geology lectures so I knew exactly what you were talking about! I cannot remember the title of the series, but highly recommend them.
Is there any evidence of similar formations in the Seattle/Tacoma area where rotation created similar structures, but they were then bulldozed by the Puget Ice Lobe? I did a construction project several years ago just south of Tacoma and the soil was glacial till from rocks the size of bowling balls to sand.
I've been in Portland coming on 5 years, but don't know much about the geology, so this was fascinating. I hiking with some people tomorrow up to the Rose Garden and then on up into what I (think I) know now as the Tualatin Mountains. I've never heard the term German chocolate cake for this area, though. Can someone give me a basic explanation of what and where exactly it is? And why it is called that? Thanks
You commented on the bus and the light rail but you missed the tram! In the last minute, just before the bird footage, you can see the tram approaching the final tower on the way to OHSU.
