A as are you 7 decades of living on this rock we call Earth. From the age about 8 or so I and my brother explored much of the banks of the Columbia. I think of the basalt cliffs we free climbed. Wonderful to learn now how they came to be.
As a long-time subscriber, I wanted to take this opportunity to express my appreciation for your backyard series during the dark days of the lockdowns. It gave me something to look forward to every day and kept me grounded (pun intended).
Wonderful field trip! At 75, it is harder and harder for me to prowl around like this, so even though this is in my backyard I appreciate the virtual tour with an excellent guide. It must be very rewarding as a teacher to bring students into the field and watch the wheels start to turn as they search for clues in their surroundings and really begin appreciate how awe inspiring this landscape really is and the back story of how it came to be.
It’s so easy to forget the fact that, aside from being a gifted communicator, you’re a teacher through and through. Looks like you’ve got another good bunch of students! Great to see young eyes on old rocks and questions. Thanks Nick.
Dear Prof. Nick, you keep taking me (and so many others) on unexpectedly fascinating geological journeys that, prior to the start of each series, I wasn't sure would be terribly interesting; however, you keep shattering my expectations and opening doors to so many wonderful worlds. So, I've come to the conclusion that it's not just the topics, but the way you tell each story that makes the subjects come alive in a vivid and enjoyable way. Thank you for what you do.
I knew and shouted out "vesicles" when he asked....and can spot entablature features...sometimes. Gotta love that Elephant Mountain formation? My years of watching you Nick have paid off!
I would take this class just to have Nick as a teacher.. who knows maybe I will lol. I live in Oroville and constantly have questions about what I’m looking at. Thank you so much for making these videos Nick! I love how just staring out at the land scape you can come up with your own ideas and questions about how things fit together. Then if you combine the botany with the geology, suddenly “boring” landscape becomes a play ground. Even just a simple hill of glacial till can be so fascinating.
Was watching thinking 'Didn't the hammer go missing over there?' I must have missed the recovery story, but happy that you confirmed I don't have old timers.
I have been a fan of yours for only a couple years, but I have loved so much of your stuff. I am not engaged in a scholastic geology program of any kind, but I love knowledge of all types and you are such a great educator, and warm individual. I watched all your stuff about the great floods, with special interest for The Kalispell flood, because I know the area and my relatives live up there. That was my starter drug, and then I started watching a lot of your videos. I am currently slowly going through the Baja to BC series because it's so mind blowing, but not being in school myself, it is difficult with Termanology and I constantly look things up. That is actually great, because I am learning. My favorites are your field lectures ❤ I get to hear your stuff, and I see other human beings, who I am usually afraid of, but other human beings engaged in the same topic and I love the sense of community. Super awesome stuff brother✌️👍❤️😎
I love those videos in the field, and when there are students with you Nick, I feel almost like one of them, invisible, silent, curious, all eyes and ears and enjoying myself.
At my age (78), it's great to be taking my first geology field trip. As an Australian living in NZ, it's fantastic to see such wonderful American landscapes.
I really appreciate your videos. More than that, I appreciate how enthused you always are even after many years of teaching these things and learning new things yourself. It’s contagious and almost feels like it’s your first time there!
Oh shoot, I forgot to mention some thing. You're awesome map which you are holding up reminded me. I really dig how you use technology, in the new sense of computers and what not, but you also use very basic tools like a drawing or a piece of paper, or several pieces of paper taped together to demonstrate in a very basic way a visual concept. That is awesome and I feel very helpful to everyone
I wish I had the opportunity 55 years ago to be on this field trip. I would not be as financially accomplished as I am now, but the intellectual satisfaction of understanding Bretz and the floods would have been worth it. Your students are lucky to have a teacher who wants to engage with them in the field as you do.
I think the way to get to where Nick took the students is to find on a map, Crab Creek Marsh Unit #3. They walked northeast from the parking area and eventually were standing near the site where Nick lost a rock hammer there.
If you could find a You-tube mammoth mountain channel, there is one and maybe they shot their 25 ft high berms melting, you can see the rate at how they melted, from underneath. Love seeing the working minds of these interested students! Bravo! Nick!!
At 27:25. So the " O " Lobe maybe multi-tasking 1) Pushing the Columbia to the east. 2) Providing water and till to the new eastern river course. 3) Providing water that finds its way to the prior river course.
Somebody can go through the process and task of Teaching. But if nobody is learning, then, is that teaching? @Nick You are a mentor as you make sure that learning is fun. You dont teach, you as a mentor, facilitate the young minds to open up and learn in the process. This world needs more people like you in every school and every collage.
Takes me back to mid-August, 2022. I just stood in awe at the base for about 5 minutes. Love the field trip to the actual place. I would take the most conservative hike back from the top, but that's me at age 78. Might be different at 18 or 20. I suggested to the Parks & Rec director in Othello that the local schools ought to have a similar field trip (they didn't in August, 2022) - maybe less geologically-detailed, but nonetheless pointing out the same story.
Are we going to get any LiDAR mapping anytime soon that you know of. From seeing what LiDAR can do. It is going to be exciting to see how the northwest truly looks geologically..
To have had feet on ground there a few times now means everything. Especially intriguing are Jerome's ideas.... Fun seeing the class and you out ... puzzling and thinking. 👏🏻❣️
Truly the greatest geology professor on the planet. Your the best nick, I've been living solo in my su are outback for a little over 2 years now, I fall asleep literally every night listening to one of your lectures or I let the backyard vids play all night lol, I'm a super nerd 🤓 of siesmic proportions 😂😂😂 lol your the best nick. Someday I'll get the chance to come to Washington
Nick this may be long but bare with me….. As a background I am geotechnical engineer and inspector in central Washington I have learned much from you and have begun to understand the alluvial deposits in my area. Our offices are in Tri Cities and Pullman and we have projects in Ellensburg, Bridgeport, Brewster, Ephrata, Moses Lake and all in between. Hundreds of drives through dry falls, along the 395 north of Pasco, along HWY 26 east to Pullman, along the Columbia River by Wenatchee, and even up north past HWY 2 past dry falls on my way to Brewster where I see landscapes effected by Glaciers. What I’m trying to get at is I’ve seen such a vast range of landscapes and erratics that have been affected and moved by massive amounts of water, all if widely varying locations. It wasn’t until Randall Carlson and Graham Hancock was introduced to me that I began to entertain the idea of 1 flood connecting it all. I just don’t see how the floods from once source could vary so much even with the Okanagon ice lobe. And say it was from glacial lake Missoula spilling dozens of times, wouldn’t the slack waters and sediment deposits from Lake Lewis have intermittent organic layers between floods? But if it was one big flood with surges that backed up over weeks, would this cuz the 30 or so sediment layers found?
I love your talks, I give talks trying to explain Ordovician (450 million years ) mature sandstones in my neighbourhood. My local Geo group is researching a lump of old rock surrounded by much younger rocks. But in the old rocks there are very puzzling features. My friend is Emeritus Profesor at Birmingham University, we are both often at loggerheads about the Horst of the Ordovician and the relationship with the Triassic and Carboniferous surrounding the horst
I'm looking off in the distance as Nick begins this video at the columns of basalt. Yes, Mr. Zentner, sir. I heard every word you said. Can we walk over there for a quick peak at that?
The person Jerome studies under was working for a long time on the concept of massive amounts of water coming from under the Ice lobes which is consistent with the formation of drumlins under the ice lobes and several other features. There are several UTube videos on another channel about this, starring Jerome as a guest speaker.
Nick I honestly would sell everything I own except my car just to move to ellensburg to have you as my professor, I'd give anything to be out there in the filed with you and the rest of the students, all the work over the past several years and all the backyard videos and your solo trips hiking and visits with merl and backwoods gary and all the others, truly a dream of mine to be there with you, ellensburg and cwu are my ultimate destination, and the pacific northwest in general, I love Washington, funny I know more about Washington geology than my own backyard here in the red River gorge ky 😁
This walkabout was fascinating to the enth degree an totally amazing. We have nothing in scope and majesty that you have. Where I live in N.S.W. it all on micro scale to what you showed today. You could drive from ancient uplifted coral beds ,to small glacial erosion evidence on a creek bed to basalt columns to basalt flow on top sandstone or clay to evidence of lava extrusions all in one day. You informal discussion was fascinating and.very interesting.
Im not new but I've never wondered this before... Where did all those huge chunks of GRBs end up? I've looked at satellite pics, and past the mouth of the Columbia into the Pacific and they're not apparent. I assume they've been sedimented over.
Nice scenery, great video. Nick, have you listened to Graham Hancock's possible explanation of the great floods in Washington starting about 12,800 B.C.? Thanks again for all you post.
If you stand at the US border alongside the Columbia River, at the point where the "Pend Oreille" enters the Columbia, there is nothing there but open terrain with some 100 m cliffs and a span of about 1km between each side of the Columbia. Now... Head North towards Trail BC alongside the Columbia ... within 2 km you will begin seeing lap lines on the hills on either side of the Columbia. The further north you travel the lap lines - become 5+ lap lines each 50 m Higher than the next lowest. My question... At the border there is no sign of any dam that allowed for the lap lines just a few km's north. I have yet to see or hear of any reason for the absence of a dam at the most likely spot to create the lap lines further north. Anyone have an idea?
Given the vast (thousands of square kilometers) coverage of these PNW basalt flows, does the curvature of the earth have a role in shaping columns as they cool? For example, is the cross-section of a column slightly smaller at its base than at its top?
Can you find a spot for all of the backed up water to flow if the Canadian gyros dams have to come down in the Columbia river? Especially the MICA dam, pretty sure the Columbia Nuclear plant and the Hanford Plutonium site are major risks 😁🤷🏼♂️💙
The layering appears to be a slow process with cooling in phases. The annual snow at elevations feeding rivers today is very small compared with the annual water output of a continetal sized ice sheet and more water routes should exist. It is like a delta and created high areas of isolation and the lakes might be the only place where water was calm enough to cross, and this was normal for at least hundreds of years.
one of the thing that catches my attention is. Many academics fail to appreciate the southern edge of the coast to coast glacial ice sheet. They keep making this wild scenario picture of an Ice Age Glacial cliff of a mountain straight up high of sheer ice. Personally, I don't believe that the Ice Age southern edge was prestine straight up 3000 feet of Glacial Ice walls. Myself, the southern edges of the North American Glacial Ice sheet was an irregular plain of endless blind canyons. Many of them were the result of northern runoff passageways to anywhere that water wanted to spill over to and through. Granted the Scablands was an interesting spill for certain. That one was a lot of retention waters plus I believe hundreds of miles of above the surface Ice Sheet ponds finding a place to bust through. Saying this, there must have been many Ice Age Surface Spill Overs washing away everything in sight. This could explain why you don't find much mega fauna evidence or any evidence of humanity. Who in the right mind would want to live close to the Glacial Ice Sheet when Hell Cometh Your Way.
27:30 water under the dam? Colombia not diverted? Think how over this last winter, Snow plow piled snow in the gutter, but water flow cut under the pile insted of being diverted, same same. The warm( relatively speaking) water of the Colombia was a cutting laser. As the ice advanced, it melted, then refroze on the farside. The ice sickles did this to my ice melter tape after braking loose, migration through the ice.
The Pillars have a Crystalline six sided formation? Perhaps this is an indication that the whole formation originally grew like quartz crystal from electrified magama, and had become exposed during the ice age floods?
Are there Dendridic tree ring records for Ginkgo trees and if there is, can dating the flood basalts be verified using that record as an additional line of evidence.
Alright time to step into the story everyone is talking about. How do we explain the Sage Wall. Is there anyone explaining this. Sorry very new to this haven’t done much research. But all I see is questions. So would be good to hear some answers. But can we explain this! Have a good day!
I wonder if someone has tried to hydraulically model this possible flood event to determine how many CFS was required to flood this location (channels)
Great that Nick got his students out scrambling all over the landscape, thinking geologic thoughts that can be ground proofed directly. ProTip: not a criticism of anyone in the video (some of whom are new to this), but it's better to not get into the habit of pointing with sharp-tipped things -- scissors, trekking poles, ski poles, ice axes. (Note that Nick usually points with the butt end of his rock hammer, even though it's not so long or sharp.)
If inland seas kept dumping their contents through the middle of Washington, where was the ocean the kept filling the seas? That old giant ice sheet has some secrets to it.
26:41 Considering the Triple Point of Water (TPW) & seasonal cyclical fluctuations in temperature during the Quantenary Period & higher elevations north and east & a water pressure of 0.43 psi per foot in height & that ice not only melts on top, but anywhere warm air and low air pressure increases above TPW; I would expect regular floods until the Ice Sheets were gone. Topographically I see #1 evidence of a Major Flow from melting of the Laurentide Ice Sheet creating the Mississippi Valley and later a meandering present day river. #2 The Columbia River Basin formed by the Missoula Floods and by volcanic activities under the Cordilleran Ice Sheet in Southern British Columbia. The Clovis People lived from 13kya to 9kya and are below the Black Carbon Layer. This seems likely to be caused by bolide impactors (one in northern British Columbia), which would have increased melting. Post Glacial Sea Level Rise from 20kya to 8kya averaged 10mm compared to present day 3.2mm. A 10mm global sea level rise had to equate to great floods locally near any ice source.
