Enjoy some panoramic drone footage of the famous Rainbow Basin just north of Barstow, California, USA. Can you spot the syncline? Song: Random Rab - Lives to Live
Awesome views! You are right on it. To get the whole picture, it had to be from the air. What a story the area is trying to tell. I could almost feel the upheaval and movement the terrain was experiencing. Thanks Todd.
Thanks Chris! Palm Springs huh? Yes, just north of the 10 freeway you can fine lines of palm trees that mark naturals springs that are created by strands of the San Andreas Fault.
I did Occidental College field class there. UCLA students who were at another campsite enbeved and tossed amo in the fire… in the morning a few had tents on the peaks.
I can spot the syncline but what _really_ has me intrigued is the multiple sediment layers that look like each is sliding down in one direction like a deck of cards. I'm gonna have to read up more on this place. I'd been through Barstow several times decades ago but had never heard of Rainbow Basin.
Todd, why do so many of these mountains have those jagged dragon spines? Are these what Nick Zenter called arete? I think in his geology 101 he talked about this type formation.
Great question Janice. They do look similar to arete, however there is no evidence of glacial erosion at this location. The sedimentary layers were crumpled up like pushing a carpet across the floor and some of the layers are very resistant to erosion, specifically the lighter-colored layer of rhyolitic tuff!! That's right these lake deposits have intermittent, relatively thick, layers of volcanic rock (from nearby volcanic eruptions); this was how they were able to date these deposits. That rhyolitic tuff, resisting erosion, is the formation that looks like 'jagged dragon spines".
at 1:26 is that white line of jagged rocks coming out of the browner sandy rocks the rhyolite--i almost thought it was a pegmatite dike but i guess those aren't so much out in that area. Also close to where I am near Caspers Park is the Rancho Mission Viejo Reserve land, where there is a hill there that they call rainbow mountain because of the multitude of colors and layers it displays. It would be cool to figure out what all those layers are and when they were deposited and where they came from.
