Join me as I explore a volcanic plug of dacite columns and associated lava flows of a volcano that erupted in Southern California some 15 million years ago! Music: The Elovaters
Before the developers came in, this area was pretty much wilderness. We used to ride our dirt bikes here as well as leap into the lake from it's rather high cliffs. This area was a rock quarry at one time hence the lake. Glad to see it's been preserved. Fun video mate.
WOW! How friggin cool! I was thinking while watching a recent Nick Zentner video of Cascade geology, ‘it’d be cool if someone covered SOCAL geology in similar fashion”. BOOM! Thanks for posting! Very well done!
Awesome! Didn't know there were columns in the plug. When you showed the spherical weathering shot, I thought you had found a skull!!😂 very informative and you make it easy to understand. So glad you survived!! Mom
I am an armchair geology fan and absolutely love your videos! I live in Southern Orange County. Would you ever consider hosting a field trip? Any ideas on if any geologists do local tours?
Thank you! That's an interesting idea, I'll let you know if I decide to do that. I attended a geologist-led hike at the Aliso & Wood Canyon Wilderness area in Aliso Viejo years ago, but I don't know if they host them anymore. There are 4 geologic formations there!
I'm a mailman who has been delivering mail in the area where this volcano is. I've wondered for years the history of this volcano as I drove by it daily in my mail truck. Lately I became curious about this area and found your video. It was just what I was looking for. Now I know so much more regarding the area I have been delivering mail for years in. Thank you.
Wow. Great find Todd! As you told the story and then explained, light bulbs kept lighting for me. Columnar Dacite. I have seen the Columnar Basalt in the NW, but, I never thought about Dacite cooling and developing columns. Geology is made cool by teachers like you. Great Video! Oh, and thanks for not falling off the wall.
This is the best feedback you can give me; light bulbs lighting up is my goal. I endeavor to make, what could be complicated concepts, easily understandable to those not necessarily well-versed or familiar with geology.
need to show the grapevine basalt triangle holding back all of the LA-Baja peninsula movement - and reason for the Richmond earthquake swarms ... as you show part of it is torn off and spun around in your video model. And how it was formed, and what is its immediate and future existence with tectonic forces being applied by the Pacific Plate, North American plate, and such remants of the Farallon plate underneath it ...
These videos are great. I have been watching geology videos here for a long time now, and these have helped me grasp geologic processes in the real world better than any other videos I have seen. They have also made my hikes way more interesting. Thank you!!
Never heard the description of the transition from subduction to transform described and shown so clearly. That info-graphic should be required in all SoCal intro to geology courses.
Another great explanation and visuals. Would love to see the story of what happened from the badlands in Riverside thru the Hemet valley into Parris. 🤙
Thanks for such an informative and educational video. Loved the effort to hike up to the various locations for closeup observations. 115 like ...........
@@geologicallyspeaking Thanks, found some basic information: Columnar jointing forms in lava flows, sills, dikes, ignimbrites (ashflow tuffs), and shallow intrusions of all compositions. Most columns are straight with parallel sides and diameters from a few centimeters to 3 meters. Some columns are curved and vary in width. Columns can reach heights of 30 meters. Most columns tend to have 5 or 6 sides but have as few as 3 and as many as 7 sides.
I am encouraged to see inspired, enthusiastic science teachers, especially in geology, I majored in that at Chaffey College in Cucamonga. 69-72 My professor was a great photographer and knew his material..
I live at the west end of the Columbia R Gorge. Very lucky to see all the basalt layers and columns. This video was very informative. The Nick Zintner RU-vids are amazing.
I live about an hour from Carlsbad towards LA county.. got a crazy story..I have been having (literally) the same dream for 20+ yrs (since I was 10yrs old). And it’s about lava, and it’s not a pretty dream. So I grew up terrified of volcanoes! I truly hope that volcano wake’s up. Or any dormant volcano in Cali! Have fun exploring! And you need to go to Morro Bay. Another gorgeous town with a dormant volcano and I think it’s a lot younger too 😂
Scary dream. Don't worry, no evidence that these volcanoes in SoCal will flare up. The only ones that might would be on the southern shore of the Salton Sea, but they're small and would be extensional eruptions. I've been to Morro Rock several times, which is also a volcanic plug. What's interesting is that it is one of nine volcanic plugs (some say 23!) that trend NW-SE almost in a straight-line across the landscape!
Thank you for posting your video. Me and a bunch of geology enthusiasts visited the location just because of your video. Six of us Zentnerds explored the volcanic plug. Your video helped a lot.
Just flipped your channel . And I tripped out on the fact you were in Carlsbad . I live and have been in Carlsbad since 84 . I found just by chance and watched the video .keep it up . Maybe talk about the old hot springs that are around the lower dam towards the coast .that's how aqua hedionda got its name.n
After diving/swimming at the lake, we'd head over to the RR trestle at Agua Hedionda Lagoon in Carlsbad to dive into the water. Best thrill was waiting for a passing train and jumping off just as it's wind shock wave hit you. Seemed like you sailed out 20' from the trestle. Good times.
Definitely, many wonderful memories! Grew up in Carlsbad over the hill from the quarry, wish I knew them it was a volcano great view and great party spot.
Thanks Tod, great episode. Just grabbed me a really beautiful piece of Sandstone from Sand Dollar Beach on my way south from Big Sur last week. Check out the beautiful metamorphic green shiny bluff along the south of the beach (composed of serpentinite and talc?). Worthy of one of your excellent videos.
Finally made it. What a cool hike and amazing geology. The factor columns were a first for me. However I couldn’t find the flows down the hill. Was hoping to see those also. Maybe next time. Thanks for the info.
I posted an episode from here as well and plugged your channel in the pinned comment. Thanks again for all of the great info. Hope we cross paths sometime.
Yes! Thanks for bringing it once again bro. Excellent location choice. I had to look up the difference between tonalite and granodiorite midstream watching this LOL…pretty similar, guess the latter is “intrusive” and the former is plutonic, so hopefully help distinguish in situ. You ever make it out to Saline Valley? Really hope that your YT success continues to grow and you keep these videos coming, they are fantastic!!!
Very interesting video ! Watching this from Norway. We have such magma / lava columns in parts of Norway too, not basalt. Strangely not even recognized. Been talking to top geologists about it, they hardly believe me. Much of the Earth's surface have yet to be explored by a discerning eye.. 🧐 🌍
Glad to have found another geology channel covering southern California. I've been a follower of Prof Nick Zentner covering the Pacific Northwest, Jeff Williams covering mostly gold mining geology in Arizona and Nevada, plus there is Myron Cook's channel in Wyoming. Another YT channel covering SoCal is Joseph Wright, but his videos are few and far between. I've never heard of southern California volcanoes other than the cinder cones and lava fields out in the desert, so this one near Carlsbad is a surprise. I have found boulders that look like red lava up Whitewater Canyon north of the I-10 in the Mt San Gorgonio foothills, and wonder how they got there as the nearest volcanic hills are about 15 miles away and northeast of Pioneertown. I wonder if these boulders are related to the nearby Red Dome up Whitewater Canyon! Also near the entrance to Whitewater Canyon, I remember as a kid finding fossilized clams on the ridge labeled as Painted Hills. The elevation there is around 2200 feet now, but could this have been the shoreline of an ancient inland sea?
Thanks for watching! I'm a big fan of all those channels you mentioned. I love your musings about White Water Canyon; I've been there only two times, briefly, and didn't have time to really explore. So much geology, so little time.
Quite the field trip. Great visual to explain the transformation! Really cool perspectives. So much to see in your area....I'm starting a list.... 👍🏻 Spheroidal weathering...huh! Joshua Tree boulders are so beautiful. As always, thank you Todd.
I have always been fascinated by columns. I lived in SoCal for 50 years and never knew that I could find columns in Carlsbad. Thank you! Are there other volcanos in San Diego County like this?
I was so surprised too when I found out about this. I'm not familiar with any more columns in San Diego, but there is an outcrop of andesitic columns in Laguna Beach right on the coast (Crystal Cove State Park).
Thanks much. Good explanations. The first time I saw spheroidal weathering was at Yosemite. An easy hike up Sentinal Dome shows a huge example of the granite being weathered in a spheroidal shape. The granite sluffs off in curved sheets, big and small. Thanks also for including the Felsic to Mafic chart. Good Job.
You have family here if so next time your in town check out the waterfall below there to the north. There was another quarry there next to the I 78. Now there's a Walmart and a kohls well drive to the kohls sign and look over the fence. It was way better when I was a kid although still cool to check out. We would follow the river west through the marsh . There's still a couple of lakes there too. Actually now that I think about it the whole area is interesting. Also check out De Luz Canyon, really cool.
very much enjoyed this video!. they say most of geologic history is recorded in sedimentary rock, but here we have some recorded in igneous rock, very interesting !
This is great. Hardly ever hear about volcanos in Southern California. I'm collecting facts about California, superlatives (biggest trees,oldest trees, tallest trees that sort of thing) maybe for a book? I read recently there are 20 volcanoes in California,some active, including the second biggest stratovolcano in the U.S. (after Yellowstone), Long Valley Caldera. Correct me if I'm wrong Just read about many eruptions millions of years ago in Clear Lake near where I live....considered somewhat recent. Clear Lake is the oldest lake on the continent. The volcanic field here in Sonoma and Lake Counties is the biggest or at least one of the biggest geothermal fields in the world,magma still beneath and steam fissures, a smaller copy of Old Faithful and a Petrified Forest of old giant redwoods one of the finest examples in the world. Once I took a field geology class all the way up the San Andreas fault,mind-blowing all the way to where it goes on the ocean around Bodega Bay. And the first seismograph in California at San Juan Bautista Mission with the jagged lines of the 1906 earthquake. Fascinating! We live in a unique and beautiful State!
@@geologicallyspeaking On the way to Obsidian Butte or back from it, go through the San Andreas fault zone via Box Canyon at Mecca, CA. It runs between Mecca and I-10. Lots of thrusted and folded sediment layers.
Maybe you said and I missed it. Has this volcano been mined for aggregate? That's not a "crater" that we see -- is it? Why are the dacite columns exposed?
@@geologicallyspeaking Thank you for confirming one of my occasionally correct hypotheses about geological features. :) This isn't the place for my following comment, but there really isn't a good place. I live in Anza (more exactly, Terwilliger), in interior Riverside Co., CA. I've never seen a study or authoritative book or paper about our region. Most books just throw it into the general province of Peninsular Ranges, and then they go on to describe the mountain ranges and batholith. I once read that the elevated, rolling terrain of Anza, Terwilliger, and Parks (Lake Riverside Estates) valleys was once continuous with the extensive peneplain surface of southern San Diego Co., which continues into northern Baja C. Methinks there's a PhD dissertation in our area awaiting a geology student. One specific feature I'd like to draw your attention to is Cahuilla Mountain. The mountain is notable for the sheer "granite" outcrops exposed on its south side. This feature is readily visible to the north from Hwy 371, and it's even visible from Temecula from elevated locations. It appears to me -- just my uninformed opinion -- that the mountain once presented a generally rounded profile, but that the south side of the mountain actually collapsed, exposing the mountain's "granite" core. It looks to me like the terrain between Hwy 371 and the mountain is a large landslide. But I don't know. It'd be nice if some geologist would take a look at it.
Out here where i live in diamond bar /pomona ca there is also an old volcano on the elephant hill site you should come do a video....Vee and Gary re: Pomona. South of Pudding stone reservoir (aka Frank G. Bonelli regional park) is Elephant Hill. A volcano located just east of the I-57 by the railroad tracks. W.Mission road cuts right through the center of it, you can see the cone shape from inside of the volcano as Mission turns into Diamond Bar. Gypsum can be found in the road cut. This is the epicenter that cause the pudding stone to rise and create the hills and formation to the north of the I-10. Info came from Geology class 1977.
Why does basalt cool into more linear columns like crystals, is it the silicon content or something else? The dacite looks much different than the basalts, andesites, and rhyolite that I see in the PNW, it is white and there is no white rocks anywhere around Eastern Washington.
there are some amazing fossils at very bottom of Torrey Pines cliffs at low tide, south of the state park parking lot. The San Diego coast has risen and receded numerous times. There are beach stones all over. be cool to get some information on that.
How does this compare to Cucamonga Peak? I am from Ontario, CA, and studied geology at Chaffey College where I was taught Cucamonga Peak is a volcanic plug. When I would try to expain that to friends they didn't believe me. Also, how do the Pisgah crater and lava tubes relate to the San Bernardino Mountains?
Would you come down to Rosarito Baja California Mexico, I live on a cliff over looking a beach on the coast and the storms that have brought big waves and high tides has unearthed some very interesting rocks, artifacts , I think fossils... I don't know a lot about geology , I was never a rock hunter till now and that's because this private beach is littered with all kinds of incredible treasures.. The thing is the sand is starting to come back in and pretty soon it will all be covered up .. I've collected a few things but there's so much down there and I'm sure if I knew what to look for, I feel without a doubt there was an ancient city just by the artifacts I've collected , and they are surprisingly very preserved.. I'm the only one down there collecting things , cause there's no public access, but I love to get a geologist or would it be a pediologist to see if they agree about a lost civilization , I'm no professional but everything im finding says " YES!"
So would I, but these typically form well-underground hidden from our view. It's only once the layers above them have eroded away that we are blessed to see their grandeur.
Es un buen video y su contenido geológico felicidades, observe en una toma del video que se encontró unas estructuras arredondeadas, puedo deducir que se trata de pillolavas, originadas en un ambiente marino, hoy en día se encuentran erosionadas, así también creo que ese volcán tuvo varias erupciones a través del tiempo por tener varios tipos de rocas felsicas con algunos rápidos enfremientos de la lava volcánica, un buen saludo desde México DF.
¡Saludos desde el sur de California! Sí, debo admitir que pensé que esas formaciones también eran almohadas de lava, pero por lo que he leído, se trata de patrones de meteorización esferoidal.
There's the remnants of a volcano turned inside out in the Berkeley of Oakland Hills. I never knew that. Considered a rare glimpse of an inside-out volcano. I'm not sure what they mean by that. Berkeley OR Oakland Hills. I want to take geology again!
I added an annotation on the screen when I said "from the bottom up" that it could also cool from the top, down. You're right, in this instance since it was a volcanic plug, the cooling and subsequent jointing probably began from the top down; however, if columns occur within a lava flow over cool country rock, the cooling and subsequent jointing could occur from the bottom, up. Also, surprisingly this isn't basalt! It's dacite! Similar composition to granodiorite, however since it cool relatively quickly (compared to a magma chamber miles below the surface), the mineral grain sizes are imperceptible to the unaided eye.
that red mineralized rock with clasts of rounded 4iver rock looks alot like what ive been working on... I would like to see what a sample of that compared to the red Rock in the pinnacles near Paso Robles.the same material on The western side of mt whitney.... compared to the red stone in the San Juan mountains in Colorado I would like to see that all listed out I would bet there's very little difference and the same trace minerals what I'm saying is they're all connected and that's probably not a volcano igneous yes volcanic no at least not in the way that you think
Great question Ralph and I added an annotation to correct what I said about this particular volcanic plug which most likely cooled from the top down. However, think of a thick lava-flow flowing over a landscape, the bottom of the lava flow is in contact with cool ground and, in that instance, the lava could cool from, not only from top down, but also, from the bottom, up.
@@geologicallyspeaking Thanks. I recall my geology teacher talking about columnar joints forming in a lava layer that had 'wet feet'. I assumed that meant 'wet' like in soldering - hot liquid state melt. When I gingerly approached the teacher about that, she indicated that it had something to do with a wet steemy footing. I didn't press the issue. I just figured she didn't know about the soldering/welding terminology. I didn't want to embarras her in front of the class. But I've never bothered to check up on the assumtion I made. We here in Oregon have a lot of lava flows sitting on top of pillow lava layers, so it could be a matter of lava flowing into shallow sea water - thus the 'wet feet'.
