The many times I have driven that road in my life, and never gave a thought of where all the rock formations came from ...... I now know the how and why of it all. Thank you Professor for opening my old eyes to the State I live. Regards/greg
Love the way that andesite looks! Beautiful area to! I love Geology and it’s all because of you! Too old now at 62 to make a career out of it, but I am never too old to learn! Thank you!
Many years ago my father and I stopped at a roadside cutting in the Great Dividing Range south of Toowoomba in S E Queensland Australia. He showed me a seam of columnar mud about 6 inches high sized of my young finger. He suggested to me that it was a hot flow once that cooled slowly into the typical hexagonal shape. The mountains there are plutonic within 50 miles S there are basaltic flows some columns dominating. Dad was an amateur geologist and a well borer able to examine local formations at depth. I enjoy your vids. And try to apply your observations to my country
These are nifty walks, Nick! I'm so glad to see what andesite looks like. On my list for first walks when I return. Gorgeous views made better by understanding. Thank you! 😁❣️
Thanks, I used to cycle up this road when I lived in Yakima. Always admired the rock formations but never knew the story. Well, now I do, 30+ years later.
Another great video and geology lesson, thanks Nick. FWIW a hat-mounted Go-Pro may reduce the risk to your phone and free-up your hands for crossing rivers and traversing treacherous mountain goat trails -- camera controllable via the phone, which you can then secure safely. Solicit your students for a Go-Pro demo sometime, snowboarders use'em every day at the local ski hills.
That bridge looked ultra sketch, but what an amazing place. Wow,,, those are some massive columns... makes me hungry for knowledge and german chocolate cake 😂
Not easy to truly appreciate the immense forces and periods of time necessary to create this landscape, or the efforts of geologists to understand it all. Don't thank us, Nick. Thank you for sharing so generously.
Having 2 caregivers, one from Wisconsin like you who is very interested in the rocks, but both with kids who are interested in the rocks. Thanks for the hike.
What a nice treasure to come upon a year and a half later! I'm catching up on some older videos of yours I haven't seen yet. I am retiring in 10 days, and hope to get out to your neck of the woods in the next couple of years. This area will definitely be on my list! Thanks @NickZentner, great video as always! Looking forward to the Ice Age Flood A-Z series next month 🙂
Nick, some years ago I found cobbles of what appears (?) Tieton andesite (complete with the needle-like sodium plagioclase crystals) in lower Trout Lake Creek on the S side of Mt Adams. The creek is totally crammed with the stuff. Since Goat Rocks is now separated from Trout Lake by several major drainages/ridges (and 35 miles)... not to mention a younger and loftier Mt Adams... it would seem south-trending flows from Goat Rocks once reached what is now the Trout Lake drainage. The cobbles are undoubtedly reaching the Columbia River now, via the White Salmon River... Thank you for the great video...
Honesty Nick, you and others that hike those kind of trails, must be part mountain goat. I truly appreciate the effort you enjoy doing in order to present us with these fabulous videos. Places that I could never go, and seeing things about our fabulous earth. Thank you so much.
When you say satisfying to share it with us, I respond thank you for doing that. You bring knowledge, goodness, and in escape to me at an important time. I started hiking about three years ago and have gone through a lot of things and you bring a depth to my hikes. Look up all sorts of geological videos now, but you are my favorite personable down to earth dude.
Thanks for this, loved it. As a PSA to the Zentnerds please be aware that a proper way to end an excursion to the Tieton Andesite is to head on up to the delightful and distinct Naches Heights AVA and enjoy some wine.
These are marvelous videos presenting the info in a way that I can understand. Great hat too ! "Geology is the study of pressure and time " - Red from Shawshank Redemption ( paraphrasing slightly).
Prof, this is all very cool! Glad you have filmed it for us, because my fear of heights is so bad I wouldn't have been able to use the bridge or get up the hill side!
I wish these talks/lectures were available when I lived in the Tri-Cities. We used to bird hunt in the Yakima and Columbia canyons, and the area always fascinated me. Arizona geology is fascinating, but so different than WA. I thought Richland was HOT in the summer, but, Valley of the Sun limits outdoor time.
Great lesson. Try driving up the 1500 road up to the microwave tower. Tough last mile of road up to the microwave tower but great views of the entire Rimrock basin, Goose Egg Rock, Rainier, Adams, and if you walked through the trees to the north great views of the Rattlesnake basin, Devils table, etc. All that burned last year, so much of the landscape will be revealed now.
Just a note for a potential future field trip. There's an incredible out crop of Andesite on Juvenile road. Turnoff is just before the tunnel entering Rimrock lake. It's a lava tube with an entire valley of broken littered Andesite joints. I took my middle school Geology class there this last fall.
Love these videos. Great quality and very informative. It’s nice to know how my favorite stomping grounds were formed and gives me more appreciation of the spectacular views. Thank you Nick and keep them coming.
Thank you for the video! I was just in the area yesterday. I learned the "Tieton andesite" from riding thru Cowiche Canyon trail and saw a sign. Googled it and found you. Stopped to check out the same suspension bridge on the way back to Seattle. Beautiful area. Have to go back to explore more!
I loved this episode or lesson. I love the maps, the history and the rock breaking views of rock samples. This style of class is my favorite. I can just see, with my imagination, the power of forces to erode such large volumes of rock and debris. Where did it all end up?
So the columns have little do with confinement-as you know the Columbia River Flood Basalts extend over huge areal expanses, both on highlands and within paleovalleys alike, and they are rife with columns throughout. The columns form as a result of an insulated flow (insulated by its own hardened flow top) of enough thickness that the internal molten material cools in a homogenous, controlled way, simultaneously across its expanse. Lava contracts when it cools, and as this homogenous molten material within the flow cools simultaneously long a direction normal to the cooling surface, (ie the air, as well as simultaneously from the ground, in the other direction, it forms temperature isograds in sheets that transform from the ground surface to the free surface towards the flow top, and as the overall volume of the flow contracts homogenously towards the center, along these paths, columns begin to form by joints opening where the shrinking lava breaks away from itself in all directions. These joints form polygonal networks simply because it is the most energy efficient way for the rock to cool and crack. The cracks form in stages, from both the surface and ground directions, inward, and each time the crack extends, it leaves a horizontal striation on the face of the column that is being formed. This creates that “Krinkle-cut” appearance. There is a great lecture and demo videos by Stephen Morris on RU-vid on how this process occurs in lavas, and he demonstrates it live with corn starch, which also forms columns just like lava. Another similar process is the formation of soil peds between mud cracks, as muds dry out and their cracks propagate downward.
@@mrfranksan confinement is not a necessary condition. A (hypothetical) lava sheet flow that extended in infinite dimensions in terms of x,y area would still cool in a direction normal to the free surfaces, along the z axis, both from the air above the flow top, and from the ground underneath, and as it cools, crystallizes, and increases in density, its volume would shrink uniformly, and polygonal jointing would result, with no confinement whatsoever.
Thanks, Nick for another great geohike! A lot of good views of local geology at work, and a chance to see how the German Chocolate Cake got covered by something in some places! Enjoying these!
Quite apart from the geology, what a visually beautiful place. Funny to hear you going on about losing the sun. Here in Phoenix AZ I'd be delighted if we "lost the sun" while hiking.
Nick, I'm so glad you were able to share the Tieton Andesite with us today! This was an awesome look at the crystalline structure of the flow, as well as the columns. You had a really neat graphic once from your "Columns of Basalt Lava" episode of Nick on the Rocks that helped explain why the bottom half of a lava flow can wind up as columns, while the top is somewhat chaotic and disorganized. A good watch for anyone who is curious! I'm glad you got some good weather for this hike. I wish I could have seen the Goat Rocks volcano in it's former glory. Some say it may have rivaled Rainier in size! Then again I think just about every Geologist wishes they had a time machine. :) Thank you for this lovely hike. Looking forward to the next one!
Blue sky, Hi !☺️ I agree, these hikes are so interesting, when it's explained so clearly what we are looking at, and how & when it was formed. 🇬🇧☺️🌋🇬🇧💕🇺🇲☺️ 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦
Your hikes through this country and the teaching that you do is wonderful. I may never see this in person but I have witnessed these wonders though you. Many thanks.
18:55 There’s an untold story about the Cascade alpine ice caps 500-1000 feet thick, extending down the spine of the Cascade Range all the way down to at least Mazama “with an approximate age of roughly 80,000 years according to Deligne et al. (2017), corresponding to the Wisconsin glacial period.” -Wiki; evidence that the Cordillera Ice Sheets didn’t have abrupt ends as is commonly told, instead, they extended far South down the Cascade Divide. Tuyas were formed under these alpine ice caps, with walls of basalt or andesite hundreds of feet high that were extruded through ice. @150-200 miles South of the Tieton River are three such Tuyas in Oregon’s Western Cascades- Table Rock in Marion County (not the one in Jackson County,) and Hogg Rock and Hayrick Butte next to each other along Hwy. 20 @Santiam Pass in Linn County. They’re between 4800-5500 feet in elevation and have developed hiking trails to their summits, offering spectacular views the surrounding Cascade Range. 4,881’ Table Rock IMHO, is the best and largest Tuya with 500 foot basalt columns.
The Missoula Floods were by far the largest Ice Age events, but they were accompanied by thousands of “Mini-Missoulas” throughout the Cascade Range, with spurs down tributary canyons. High elevation ice age dammed lakes are the only way the Southern canyons could’ve been cleaned out in such short periods of time.
Nick! Thank you for taking me (us) their I will never be able to go their my self as the time machine keeps on thicken. The only way I can repay you is to say thank you for your precious time, every video you do is a place I would love to go. Thank you for your time. Paul
What a great video Nick! Your photography just keeps getting better! What a beautiful place too. We would love to go that way again someday and really look at those beautiful columns. Thank you so much for showing it to us.
Would the water carved the valley? Or would have glaciers caused it? Anyway its beautiful stuff! There hard rock, would think there would be more remaining.
Interesting thought. Where's the fallout zone? An end moraine or fall out area like the Soap Lake area. Millions to trillions of tons of rock don't just disappear. The ice age floods were in that area, but only as a backflow (as seen 5 to 10 miles north east in the gravel pit on 410 highway). Other than a few small rock scraps in the Yakima River in Yakima, there's not much evidence of what happened to all that rock.
That's amazing river erosion. Any association with these older ghost volcanoes and the current volcanoes? Are sources generated from plate friction, no hotspots?
@@NatureShy Not a clue. I think it was sometime last summer...maybe into the fall, but it may also be an older episode I just watched at that time. Some other Zentnerd will probably know and comment later.
Imagine native American teenagers and older children (with young knees and lots of energy) clambering over these areas and have fun in the old times. It would be paradise for physically fit kids.
This was really interesting. how much has the actual landscape and valley tops eroded over these time periods ? I am wondering how much ice and snow was covering this area during the eruption period. I admire geologist’s ability to read the landscape. I can recognise typical u shaped glacial valleys. But I still look and the land and wonder how much it has changed . I live in the north of Ireland and the area were I live was once covered in thousands of acres of oak forest . It’s now mostly grazing land for beef and dairy cattle. The world must have been a paradise before we destroyed most of it.
@@glennmitchell9107 i am not vegetarian but I consume meat occasionally. I see first hand what intensive farming is doing to my local environment. One of our main rivers used to be the most polluted river in Europe. Caused by silage and slurry run off into the rivers. Now farmers are encouraged to inject slurry into the ground. Look at how much natural forest has been destroyed around the world to graze cattle for beef. It’s still a big problem.
I should have been a geologist. Just thinking about the deep time and discovering the little dramas that occur on this tiny ball of iron and rock, is... comforting.
