Thanks as always, Basaltic columns are always interesting as they form many landmarks such as the Miles Canyon, the Giant's Causeway and those basaltic columns found in Washington, presumably due to the Columbia River flood Basalt. As stated in the video, the conflicting motions of the North American plate and the Pacific plate (southwest versus northeast) causes massive amounts of stretching, sliding, and weakening in the western parts of North America. I have not watched Professor Nick Zenter's series on this, but the tectonics of western North America are very interesting. They are very deep rabbit holes of information! There are even significant discontinuities in the mantle below. Thanks to fellow commentor Dragath1 for telling me about it.
When I was a kid, we went to the Devil's Postpile (near Mammoth Mountain in California) every year. My grandmother had a picture of four of us cousins all sitting on one of the giant fallen columns.
I am grateful for the detailed explanation on how this place formed! It has been erupting millions of years without going extinct, which is a mind boggling long time. I think this place is gorgeous and would be wonderful to visit!
Yeah its been active for a while though from Nick Zentner's A to Z livestream series Alaska with the exception of a few fragments of older continental origin that likely got acquired via tectonics with NA to seems to primarily be the product of the volcanic archipelagos NA hit between ~170 and 50 Ma so the crust is more of a patchwork of terrains many of which have gotten folded onto each other.
I drove tour bus through Whitehorse for years always making a picture stop at the Miles Canyon overlook. I really enjoyed talking about the geology of the Yukon on my tours. I hope you're able to make it into Kluane Park and get to see Mt. Logan!
Beautiful area is Yukon, been up there twice, once drove the Dempster to Inuvik. Loved Whitehorse area, we stayed at Takhini Hotsprings just north of town. Hope you got up to Dawson City, the mining history there is palpable everywhere. The massive restored Dredge No4 is cool to visit, it has a 50ft (15m) long, 10ft (3m) diameter trommel (rotary separation screen).
Hey you are in town! Welcome to Whitehorse & the Yukon 😊 Of possible interest; I was able to hear the Honga Tonga eruption last year while snow clearing at 5 am while running a loader while wearing two sets of hearing protection. I was half expecting to hear the blast due to how similar in scale it was the the Tsar Bomba shockwave. Your channel was a fountain of knowledge during that event.
Here in Mexico there are not too many basalt columns, but rather old large ignimbrite plains and canyons in the volcanic zone, but especially in the Sierra Madre Occidental chain.
Thanks for the video on volcanism in Yukon that part of the continent is an interesting place that I'd like to visit someday such a tectonic mess of primarily relatively young Mesozoic arc material which based on Nick Zentner's A to Z Baja BC livestream series appears to be remnants of the volcanic arc complex(es) which North America crashed into during the Mesozoic after breaking off from Pangaea much like how Australia is in the process of smashing into Indonesia and has already plowed into New Guinea. Its fascinating how Alaska formed from the folded arcs which can still have their original configuration traced out using ophiolites and seismic tomography. In this case Alaska and I think parts of British Columbia appear to be and arc that got folded up into basically a giant Z as they smashed into NA which raises the question of how this location fits into that picture. Personally I would not be surprised if these basalts are erupting along the sutured folds of the giant Z as that should be near the end of the "letter" arc. After all plates tend to deform utilizing preexisting weak points in the crust.
Tectonic mess! Yes that is so accurate. It boggles my mind how on one side of the valley is ancient lava flow, then on the other side of the valley there is remnants of an ancient coral reef. And to top it all off, all of this area was under a glacial lake during the last ice age, and when the ice dam that was holding the lake back finally burst it left all kinds of weird landforms in its wake.
Very true. There even seems to be evidence of oceanic plateau accretion in the area! As we all know, oceanic plateaus are more buoyant than the ambient oceanic crust, especially in the first 20 million years or so after their formation. This means that they are much more likely to be preserved as accreted terranes compared to the oceanic crust. This means that they contributed significant amounts to the growth of the continental crust. As you pointed out, the Mesozoic terrane accretion of North America is similar to the ongoing accretion onto Austrailia. Given the buoyancy of the Ontong Java Plateau due to it colliding with the Austrailian plate only 20 million years after it formed, I think the uppermost part of the plateau will get added to the landmass. Now I am not a geologist nor geophysicist, but I think that due to the accretion of the oceanic plateaus in the Pacific to both Asia and Austrailia, I would not be surprised if the collision of Afro-Eurasia and Austrailia will generate a large amount of new continental crust due to the processes described above.
Love basalt column formations. We have one a a few miles from where I live that has a 70' waterfall over the side of the columns! One thing I haven't figured out yet about the mountain where I live is how the predominant features can be both andesitic tuff and red clay. -Zamboanga volcanic complex.
Wow this is really fascinating! Who knew that there were volcanoes like that in BC and Yukon? Thanks so much for bring all of this really interesting geological history here to RU-vid for everyone to see in these regular videos. Just fascinating!!
I went with a few locals to water ski Miles Canyon about 30 years ago. Stereo in the jet boat was cranked. The locals that were fishing were not amused It was like the helicopter scene in Apocalypse Now.....only on water skis. :)
Here is a possibility for you. Look at the edge of the East Texas Embayment, particularly in the area of Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas. Far underneath the ground is the remains of the Ouachita Mts. To the east is the East Texas Basin and to the west is the Ft. Worth Basin. What is interesting is the Cretaceous and earlier formations as they overlay the Ouachitas. There is a stair step as these layers are exposed from east to west. As you travel from the East side of Dallas to the West side of Ft. Worth, older and older formations are exposed. An interesting item is how the Trinity River cut through these rocks at Dallas and into the East Texas Basin. Where White Rock Creek drains into the Trinity, there was once a hanging waterfall at this location. There is a characteristic bluff of Upper Cretaceous chalk highly visible south of downtown Dallas where IH20 goes from Dallas into Grand Prairie. Just about 75 to 100 miles to the East, this same formation is about 5,000 below the surface. Underneath the Austin Chalk is the Woodbine Sand which in the Dallas area is an important water aquifer yet about 125 miles or so to the east is the East Texas Oil Field producing from the same formation.
Ah! Keep on going to Alaska and I’m 90 miles in on the Alaska Highway in Tok! How cool you’re in my neck of the woods! Still want to hear about Mt. Sanford and the Wrangell Volcanic Field.
Hmm...While readingthe latest comments on Volcano Cafe, I cam a comment from a user named mjf. The comment included a link to a research paper that suggests that the Youngest Toba Tuff supereruption occurred in 3 separate phases over a period of 50,000 years. The paper was made due to subtle chemical ifferences within the deposits of the Youngest Toba Tuff supeeruption. The most voluminous, violent and intense phase of the eruption was the second one, which is likely composed of 6 eruptive events that occurred over 10,000 years. I do not know how this new possibility will affect the volume estimates of the supereruption (Other than the fact that the estimates will now have to be divided) and thus its status a a VEI 9 supereruption, but as stated in the paper, this new possibility might reactivate the hypothesis of the Youngest Toba Tuff supereruptions causing a 1,000 year long cooling period and the acceleration of the Earth into the most recent glacial period. It is stated in the paper that a series of massive explosive eruptions with a final, gigantic eruption over a period of several millenia might have more adverse and severe effects on the planet's climate than a single, short lived supereruption. The possibility that the Youngest Toba Tuff supereruption might have occurred in phases is not entirely new. Previous analyses of ice cores showed that several sulfur spikes occurred around the time of the Youngest Toba Tuff Supereruptions. On top of that, the Huckleberry Ridge Tuff eruption from the Island Park Caldera in Yellowstone National Park was recently reanalysed to have occurred in 3 major phases, separated by years to decades. One of the phases most likely erupted the bulk of the Huckleberry Ridge Tuff. I am not a geologist nor volcanologist, but I would not be surprised it it is the same case with Toba. That being said, this paper is relatively new (I came out only a week and 2 days ago). Numerous studies and analyses would have to be conducted, until we can be mostly sure of the possible multi-phase nature of the Youngest Toba Tuff supereruption. Thanks for reading, and see you all later.
Any chance you can do a video on a geologic oddity in Thailand? The Hin Sam Wan or three whale rock formation in northern Thailand? Apart from that I love the content!!
Fascinating video! I have heard of the locations, but I always forget about the volcanoes that once existed there. Could you do the volcano called Little Black Peak? The Valley of Fire state park in Nevada and/or ?New Mexico? is adjacent to the Malpais lava flow which originated from the volcano mentioned above. Thank you and safe travels!
Something might be a cool topic for a video is the volcanic origins of the Wichita Mountains in Southwest Oklahoma. I am looking at them out my hotel window here in Altus.
There is an interesting earthquake swarm going on in the Gulf of Fonseca in Nicaragua. There is some volcanoes in the area. Would be interesting to hear your thoughts about this being tectonic stress related eurthquakes or potentially volcanic in origin. Thank you in advance!
I'm assuming you are an American. Your passport gets you into Canada visa-free (180 days, can be extended for longer stays). Since you are driving you will need your driver's licence too.
That was the plan. But it’s not a 36 km hike to the vent. You can drive to within about a kilometre from it, then It’s bushwalking. 3 hour hike at most. 2 minutes by drone!
@@PlayNowWorkLater I like the term bushwalking and I will use that term in the future. I tried to bushwalk to a volcanic vent a few months ago and I have commented about this before, there was a spot in the ground bubbling and releasing gas through the snow a few miles from it. We turned around, unsure where other mysteries might lie under the snow. I recently saw another RU-vidr doing this, but in the summer, walking over areas where at random places there's volcanic vents. Be careful!
@@adriennefloreen that sounds like a fun adventure. Luckily the vent in Whitehorse has been extinct for several million years, so no worry about getting hurt. There are several hot springs close by and one of them is VERY hot, but still safe to be around. There are other younger volcanoes GeologyHub mentioned in this video, by Alligator lake, they are a bit of a hike in and are definitely on my to do list for hikes. It’s amazing being around all this cool geology. And adventure awaits. Always.
yukon 3190km of bear salmon gold and lava, i'm in :D this beast is sometimes 2kilometer wide... since its quite a desert region thanks to ice covering most of the year, few people know how savage and powerfull the yukon is...near a million square kilometer of drainage aera,1 kilometer wide most of the time. who know how many countries and valley he took since last glaciation? :p
Respectfully I ask. @ 2:16 I cannot research this anymore.. With ALL due respect, because we all watch you to learn from you. I see the rifting that spreads the earth. But I cannot find anywhere, that shows or describes the earth subducting… Can you refer us to any site or publication / paper please. Thank you, Stan
The earth doesn’t subduct.. Mostly just oceanic plates subduct.should be plenty of papers on subduction of oceanic plates. Could be useful to learn about oceanic vs continental crust….
Subject Idea, Channeled Scablands and other PNW mega flood features like coulees giant gravel bars, moraines, glacial lakes, strand lines etc. Could be a themed mini series.
I suggested that too! There’s a bunch of remnants of Glacial Lakes in the Yukon too. Not quite as dramatic as the scablands, but there was an ice dam that broke around 200 years ago, draining a lake, and it’s still being told in local Native storytelling.
@@PlayNowWorkLater I see, this is looking down the glacial valley towards the lake. I was searching on Google Earth with the assumption the view was up a valley and the body of water would be behind the camera. Thanks! And it seems we humans have managed to kill or at least radically alter Kluane Lake. :(
@@JonMartinYXD the lake has dropped in level a few feet in my lifetime. It is fead by glacial water. And those glaciers have been slowly getting smaller and producing less water over the years. One River that was feeding into Kluane Lake dried up completely a few years ago. You can Google that. It was a big deal at the time. Made international news. The Slims River. Living up here we really do see the effects of climate change
I was just checking out then Icelandic basalt columns and they seem a lot smoother than the ones here in Whitehorse. Probably a much more recent eruption in Iceland, less aging. Pretty impressed by the Icelandic ones
@@PlayNowWorkLater My guess is, it depends of the lava mineral composition and the rate of cooling. Probably, the depth the lava came ftom. But I might be mistaken.
