Nick Zentner | April 6, 2024 2024 Downtown Geology Lecture Series. Lecture 3 of 3. Recorded at Morgan Auditorium in Ellensburg, Washington, USA. • Ice Age Floods A to Z ... www.nickzentner.com/ 0:00 Chalkboards 25:02 Slides
We in the audience kept nudging each other as he pulled all the points (some were new to us!) together. The energy in the room was off the charts. It's so exciting to be part of working and alive science! Nick welcomes all of us...how exceptional is that?!?!
And there I was…my wife agreed to date night on the rocks and came with me to this lecture. We had a great time. Now she knows my “secret” source for info to play family geologic tour guide driving around the PNW. Thank you Nick for all you do!!!
Jerome Lesemann's mentor, Prof John Shaw, was my next door neighbour in Edmonton. I remember sitting on the sidewalk with John watching the Spring "Glacial Breakup" along the gutters and into the drains, examining the micro-flood plain "rivers", micro-"erratics" and micro-ice jams and extrapolating to the great ice age floods. Passionate in his love for Geology, he taught me a lot.
The progression from backyard lectures to a new research paper being published is a great example of the butterfly effect. Thanks Nick! This was a fantastic summary presentation.
What I love about this lecture is it brings the Moses Coulee story into many other geology stories (ancient rivers, Columbia Basalts, clockwise rotation, ice age floods). Well put together.
I have been with you since Larry the Ladder was your co-star. In these last three lectures you crushed it! I would say that even the most diehard geologists can’t say ‘impossible’ and look at themselves in the mirror! Congratulations on leading the charge! Looking forward to more great material from you!
When you got to the letter from Aaron Waters at the end, and the final line "Yours is the glory - and I salute you!" I will confess I got emotional. Your lecture series is not only a fitting tribute to this amazing man and his accomplishments but a gauntlet thrown down to the present day geologists to match the high bar set by Bretz. What an accomplishment! It was also thrilling to see the new work by Joel Gombiner and Jerome Lesemann highlighted in this finale. Congratulations to all!
I have watched every episode of your work this winter Nick and each time I think you've reached a pinnacle of presentation you go and surpass yourself! Your humility and willingness to share the credit is particularly appreciated. I wonder how many new geologists you've triggered?
Way to boil the whole A-Z series down and insert new evidence! AWESOME! Thanks again. To all of the research teams all over the country...GREAT CONTIBUTIONS! Loved thus lecture series.
I have thoroughly enjoyed watching this series. I still wish I could have been there in person for the camaraderie. But I can learn in a variety of locations thanks to modern technologies. I still think Nick is a catalyst that brings people together to explore new aspects of well as old ideas to clarify our understanding of ice age floods. I have learned so much with the ideas from this past winter and these lectures continues that trend. Thanks Nick and all the Zentnerds who have enhanced the learning.
Thanks! I was sitting here trying to find something interesting to watch, then BOOM! this video pops up. So glad to watch this lecture series. It's great.
This is a masterpiece of the best that the internet and, in the highest sense of the word, amateurs of science can achieve. I can't wait to see what's going to happen going forward.
I’m all for amateur interest and work in the sciences, but as far as this lecture goes, it should be said that while Nick may not sport the rarefied capital-P “Professor” as an official job title, he is definitely not an amateur-he is a multiple-degreed geologist with unique laurels among his professional community and a senior lecturer in the subject at the school where he teaches.
Nick, you did a great justice to the new case study on Moses Coulee done by Joel Gombiner and Jerome Lesemann AND the lifelong work by J Harlen Bretz on Spokane Floods!😃💞💗✨I hope more younger geologists continue to do the field works to unlock the mysteries of the Ice Age Floods!!😏✨💗I thoroughly enjoyed watching your versatile Downtown Lecture series of '24, Nick, thank you so much!!
Nick aced this lecture. The delivery, explanation, science, recognizing other contributers, Jerome Leseman, Skye Cooley and others. A gifted teacher and someone that loves what he does. I first started watching his videos during Covid, the backyard presentations and onto the Crazy Eocene and his videos walking in the hills around Ellensburg. He has sparked an interest in geology I never thought I would have. I had the pleasure of meeting him at CWU a year and a half ago. We simply knocked on his office door; a handshake, a brief chat - that was it. No doubt many more lectures await his fans. I look forward to it eagerly.
Geologists should be bold. Nick Zentner almost single-handedly revives discussion of Bretz's pre-late Wisconsin 'Spokane Flood', while Lesemann and Gombiner announce their discovery of voluminous floods moving south from beneath Canadian ice into coulees of north-central Washington. Canadian floods helped shape portions of the Channeled Scablands. Spectacular!
Magnificent! You've done it again, Nick. You have presented an incredibly complex story spanning millions of years in such a way that makes it comprehensible to the layman, no easy task! In the three night lectures in Downtown Ellensburg You've compressed sixteen million years of massive geophysical events into about five hours +/-. The most difficult aspect of understanding it all for someone like me with the pea-sized brain of a broken down old fighter pilot is imagining the processes by which progressively earlier events have been buried or eroded away by later events, and, oh by the way, due to plate tectonics and continental drift "the ground is still shifting beneath our feet"and rotating clockwise, wrinkling the landscape we're seeing at the surface.....phwew! That's a lot to keep straight in our minds while it all looks rock solid and immobile to our observing eyes today! As conductor of this kaleidoscoping movie soundtrack symphony, you do it better and more interestingly than anybody Ive ever seen! Congratulations!
This was a great series Nick. My sister was telling me some of her friends were camping in the Scablands. She suggested watching some of your material while they were there, They told her they watched before they left home.
Thank you Nick for this wonderful 3-part lecture. Though you’re not one to draw attention to yourself, may I comment what many already feel. An orchestra of great musicians is none for the conductor bringing all to cohesion. “A toast to YOU sir, unsung hero of unmatched talent as conductor.” I tip my hat to you sir🎓🎩
Nick, thanks not only for your live streams, your A-Z series, your lectures, but for making geology accessible for those of us who aren't geologists. Yes, I have to look up some terms (and then realize the definition has been given) and I appreciate my state even more. I am so glad I found you on RU-vid. I missed the first 2 (watched them in replay) and have been glued to you since. I've said it before, I'll say it again: I wish I'd had you as a prof in college. Thanks again.
I had the same reaction at the same time in this replay as I did live. You say, "RU-vid and these sessions you can fall asleep to" and I'm wondering, "How did you know? I thought these livestreams were one way only!" Oh, it is weird being the same age as old people! But I always go back and replay because you've shown me how to love this stuff.
I had a marathon for breakfast and lunch, a great dinner with wife and dogs, and for dessert, I get to pick up where I left off with the third lecture. One of the things I like the most about this series of lectures (having been unable to make time for the A to Z) is your drawing together the strings of the story, poking about for new perspectives, all the while leaving open all the unknowns, and giving me a kind of summary of what it's all about. Another thing I like is your celebrating, in retrospect, the geologists and others that you've worked with, and how their work and your work with them figures into the story. Take Brian Atwater--well, I just had to go back and take a look at "Atwater at Steamboat Rock", which I found riveting, primarily because you just let him walk and unfold the story of why he brought you there--with that stunning landscape all around, above and below--while giving your own reaction to what you were hearing and seeing. Not that I understood much of anything that he was talking about, so I had to rely on the way he talked and the incredible experience behind everything he has done up till and including right now that shaped his dynamic presentation. Thank you, Nick. Thank you, Brian. That was great. Now, on with lecture number three . . . I can't wait.
Nick, you and your associates are magnificent!!!!! This series of lectures is brilliant!!!!!! I caught a couple of the live streams last winter and what struck me strongest was that you folks were developing geology live, on-screen before my eye, and ears. And these three lectures pulled a lot of loose threads together into a sensible, easy to observe, 'Why didn't i see that before, it's so obvious!' manner. I think that people can get so wound up in what they are studying that they have difficulty looking beyond it. Their concentration becomes so focused, they lose the ability to see anything above or below their layer. Quite honestly, I have been astonished that Continental Drift was accepted so quickly, it took only 40-50 years!?! People do hate change. They hate it in any form, yet change, like tectonic plates moving, is inevitable. Though, I think the belief that the earth is flat may be a symptom of mental illness. I mean, Really!!! These lectures were an intelligent, fascinating homage to the excellent scientists who have worked so long and hard to uncover answers to our questions regarding the history of the earth. From the first to the latest, it is good they receive recognition for their efforts to lessen our ignorance. I believe that every new thing we learn will eventually connect to previous truths and each is a step to help us in our quest to move beyond our home to new planets. We need to keep learning, to be open to new ideas, to understand where we have come from before we can move forward. I love that you are bringing people together to share and learn and expand our knowledge. These are the people who will lead us into the future...and I blame that on you! 😉
It's almost like the USGS and US geologists think geology stops at the 49th parallel. 🙊🙉🙈 Of course they don't really think that. But USGS geologists do have a primary mission. Geology inside the US.
AMAZING! So incredibly fascinating. At the beginning of the winter A-Z series I was trying to figure out where you were going with everything and this lecture series does a spectacular job of tying everything together in such a beautiful way, from the floods to the people involved in the research. Thank you so much! One thing I learned not related to the A-Z series or this lecture series is don't question Professor Zentner's logic or train of thought, sit back, trust him and just learn. Damn how I wish I could have attended these three lectures.
Thank you Nick for your fantastic lectures. I ran across your lecture on the cascadia earthquake back in 2015 out of pure happenstance, before I even lived in Washington. Now that I'm here I love learning about the rocks I see all around me. This series was a masterstroke. Thank you for all you do and I can't wait to see what is next to learn!
Mr. Nick Zentner....you are a great speaker its 1130pm just finished watching Dallas win over Vegas in overtime....on ice....now im learning about the ice floods...LOL....thank you....
Great stuff Nick! Huge request: do this type of episode on the interface between the ice and channel heads of CrabC-Telford… and CheneyPalouse. I would love to hear your thoughts and other’s’ ideas that are zeroed in on specific geomorphology from Spokane to confluence of Columbia and Spokane. So many possibilities and mysteries in that stretch related to ice edge, older ice, and subglacial flooding. Thanks so much, and sorry for being greedy 🙏
Nick, having just watched this latest trilogy, especially this final episode, about the ice age floods of Eastern Washington in general, and so much on Bretz in particular, I feel as I did when I first read "Rising From the Plains" by John McPhee, many years ago now, which was about so much more than the geology of Wyoming, but the amazing story of David Love and his family. The David Love story was so touching and fascinating--feeling like I'd gotten to personally know a truly great human being, and wished I could have known him--I just hated it when the book ended. And so it is with what you have done with Bretz, you have humanized a great scientist and great mind, whose contributions are pretty stunning, and a man as interesting as the landscapes he passionately sought to understand. I have a feeling he won't be ignored much longer after this great series, thanks to you and those that assisted you this year. I sure hope I can meet you in person someday--I can't begin to tell you all the reasons why here--and the fact I now am a former Nevada government attorney, early retired and living and doing a lot of music performing in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, would not immediately suggest we have anything in common, but the fact is that I have had a very strong side passion most of my life for maps, landscapes, geomorphology and much more seriously the last few years, for geology proper--enough that, like many of your fans, I wish I could start college again and major in it. My formative years were spent in a lot of country you know well. For example, I couldn't believe it when I saw a video you did from the head of the Pahsimeroi Valley at Ellis, Idaho, a place I have driven by so many times and never realized what was there. Your master's thesis was at a place not far from my Grandfather's farm in Southern Idaho near Mud Lake. So much of my life I hungered for more knowledge of the landscapes that I grew up with--but there was not much available. Now, after 40+ years of asking questions (I bought the very first Roadside Geology book of the Northern Rockies, by Alt and Hydeman, Idaho and Montana combined, while in high school, which I carried with me in the late 1970s and early 1980s, on my many long drives every direction from my hometown of Salmon, Idaho), I feel like I have at last hit the motherlode, well between you and Shawn Willsley, and Paul Link--so much now that I can hardly digest it all. So thank you so much. And speaking of my current home in Puerto Vallarta--I have hiked some in the Sierra Madre del Sur, which is south of town (much further north you get into the basalts of Mexico's transvolcanic belt) . The Sierra Madre del Sur appears to be a large batholith, lots of granite and gneiss, and when you hike up the ridges and look into the canyons, it looks just like the Salmon River country of central Idaho--well except the vegetation is different. Your Baja BC series made me wonder whether the rugged mountain complex that is the SM del Sur has anything to do with that story. I don't know--getting information on Mexican geology isn't very easy, even if you read Spanish. But it has made me wonder whether 80 or 90 million years ago, I could have looked out and stared at the Pacific Ocean from Patrick Butte, north of McCall, Idaho before the Devils and Wallowas accreted, as I can today from the batholith above Mismaloya. 🙂
So wonderful to be able to watch even if I was not available to attend! Thank you so much! Very nice job of tying up lots of loose ends and giving credit where credit is due! Bravo!!!! Loved all the old photos and especially, you capturing the backstory of Jerome and Joel. Valuable record…
Because of Professor Zentner's passion and depth of knowledge, I take my family on a tour when they first visit. Beginning at Wenatchee, we drive to Quincy, then Ephrata, then up the channel to Dry Falls. After a break at the Dry Falls visitor's center (where I once met Randall Carlson), we return back on Hwy 2 to Waterville. Just outside of Waterville, we either take the Badger Mountain road, or continue to the Pine Canyon descent to Orondo. I probably overwhelm my guest, but for this I enthusiastically blame Nick On The Rocks!
Love your presentation and angle and tone you give to your lectures Nick! I'm been learning so much from you and your guests and your viewers. Just to mention things I wish I had seen in your amazing lecture would be context of the Ice Age in Geologic time and how the blue and red floods were tied to this 2-million year old Ice Age, and that before that we didn't have ice sheets for millions and millions of years. That would also put the 150,000 years from the blue floods further into context.
I love how there are still discoveries being made. The root of science, in observation, expanding the knowledge base. What else lies out there waiting to be revealed?
Canada has beautiful giant mountains and vast gorgeous valleys. The ancient ice sheets loved calling them home. The huge mega glaciers got thumped into E.Washington. Multiple squirters of catastrophic proportions, multiplied by how many mega hoses were activated at concurrent times
Nice to see new ideas in my adopted geological hotspot. And see how the minds interact, get ideas, sharpen them and even change. Won't happen here, we don't de geology in clay and sands 200 feet down at the mouth of the river Rhine, Netherlands. :)
I really want to go to Moses coolie now. My personal geology interests are Volcanology and Hydrogeology. I have actually recently made a glacial discovery that was from the Garibaldi Glacier that I'm still working on mapping deposition of a particular marble. Hopefully I will be able to find the source of the marble. For those wondering, it's a beautiful smokey grey and I have named it MASE Marble (Most Awesome Sister Ever). Wow, I'm genuinely surprised that the Moses Coolie started forming from where I grew up. Growing up in southern BC, and being rather adventurous, I have been to every channel in BC. I can tell you that they are all different from one another. It's actually kinda strange if you don't know or understand geology. That's why I'm into geology actually. I had questions that my parents couldn't answer so....
Hey Nick, Great series. Just finished it and i really like your teaching style, old school, no bs. Yet, changing your outlook based on current discoveries. Ive been following your work for a few years now and find it quite interesting. My question is: What are your thoughts and opinions on Randall Carlson and his work in the same fields/geologic events?
I believed as soon as I went up there and looked. Highway 172 is flat as it goes past Yeager Rock. But if you go south on Road I in three miles you are in upper Moses Coulee. And there is no obvious way to get that much water in that spot from the east. So it wasn't the Missoula flood. Whether the water came under the glacier or cascaded off the top I don't know. But it came from the north and did not dig a channel through where Highway 172 sits. Great lecture.
Nick, Did you know there is a contemporary subglacial lake example more than 2-1/2 times the volume as the proposed Lake Missoula? “Lake Vostok (Russian: озеро Восток, romanized: ozero Vostok) is the largest of Antarctica's 675 known[3] subglacial lakes. Lake Vostok is located at the southern Pole of Cold, beneath Russia's Vostok Station under the surface of the central East Antarctic Ice Sheet, which is at 3,488 m (11,444 ft) above mean sea level. The surface of this fresh water lake is approximately 4,000 m (13,100 ft) under the surface of the ice, which places it at approximately 500 m (1,600 ft) below sea level. Measuring 250 km (160 mi) long by 50 km (30 mi) wide at its widest point,[1] it covers an area of 12,500 km2 (4,830 sq mi) making it the 16th largest lake by surface area. With an average depth of 432 m (1,417 ft), it has an estimated volume of 5,400 km3 (1,300 cu mi),[2] making it the 6th largest lake by volume.” -Wikipedia
How does plate tectonics fit in with these explanations? 150,000 years ago, 1 million years age, where was the real estate that became Moses Coulee? What NSEW orientation did it have?
A question: at 57:25 time stamp a Bretz/Bowmen map shows the Withrow Morraine (Red) south of the Spokane glaciation , which to me would indicate that at least in this area the younger glaciation is bigger than the older glaciation. Am I misreading this map ?
Here is a ? for maybe Joel or Jerome; If 16mya the Columbia ran southish out of Canada to Wallula. Then the CRB's pushed in, original terrain sunk. Wouldn't the Columbia have ponded? And topped somewhere? Eventually going around the CRB. When the older ice ages came and pushed to the CRB wouldn't the Columbia River have become subglacial outflow and channeled into the nearest low spot of the CRB? Or created valleys on top of the CRB's, ie Grand Coulee and Moses Rivers, Crab Creek. And following that younger ice ages again deflected(if at all) the Columbia into the coulee system, further cutting the coulees. When the Mega floods came the coulees were delineated, easy to follow and further erode.?
Breath taking. Can I ask for some guidance from some helpful person? The clockwise rotation. I'm familiar with it. I watched Nick's evening lecture which talked about it. One done probably around 2018/9. BUT I don't think an "explanation" was given. There might have been, my recollection is somewhat hazy. I believe it was still being discussed in the sense of "here is a thing we have now discovered as a result of the installed ranks of GPS devices". So..can anyone point me to a lecture, or "to camera" talk, or class room session, where Nick might explain what the theory or theories are which explain WHY it is happening. Or,, alternatively, if someone is able to give a quick paragraph to explain to me. I'm not being lazy about looking. I'm really hampered by a movement disorder, and stuck in bed, using a mouse with my right hand, to navigate around the internet and youtube, and slowly slowly writing, via the on screen keyboard. Any help would be very appreciated.
Hilarious how the stunning clouds at 32:01 are mimicking the very things you've been showing and talking about regarding geologic history above the border. They look like a series of trenches or valleys in the sky!
“How?” did we get all that water under the ice seems like the next big problem. Growing up in the heart of ancient Lake Agassiz my concept of an ice sheet receding / melting is that it happens along its southern edge, with resulting runoff going where it can. Further north, I can envision a time when melting conditions might exist at the surface, but even the snow banks in my yard melt from the top down and run away downhill. At least in areas north of Agassiz it seems there is good evidence for much of the ice melting & draining away to the north / arctic areas. The ice sheets are gone, so we don’t know what the surface elevation was in all places. I suppose there could have been areas where lots of accumulated surface water was trapped? Leading me to wonder what would happen in the case of cracking in this mile thick ice, and warmer surface water doing what gravity dictates. My first thought is that it would simply freeze to match the temperature of the buried ice? The catch pond in my back yard was maybe a foot deep when it froze solid this past winter. Rapid snow melt & and an early spring rain left a foot of water on top of the ice still frozen to the ground below. One day I was looking at the pond when the chunk of ice frozen to the bottom, within seconds, broke loose and was suddenly floating. The Catastrophist in me wonders what the same thing might look like on an ice sheet scale?
@@Bitterrootbackroads Thank You for the reply. I can not give you a proper response. I understand the items you hve described. I moved from North Dakota in 1967. .
@@Bitterrootbackroads How do I word this? Kootenay Lake Large lake , outflow becomes Columbia River west pf Spokane,, due North of Spokane, a split goes east of Spokane Thanks for the continental divide trick.
I have always wondered if the floods tore the Washington scabland all apart like they are currently doesn’t it stand a reason that the Waloula gap was far smaller than it is today and the floods have eroded it to its current size.
If Moses Coulee was sub-glacailly cut... exposure dating... results there and exposure dating of head and tail of the other Coulees combination cutting with huge differences in ages.
I wondered how you would extrapolate 26 live lectures into these 3 lecture series. You are an impressively gifted lecturer and dynamic teacher. One can really feel how building a sense of community with your viewers influenced and help recreate the historical backdrop to challenge current geological views. Giving credit to past and current geologists whose field work would challenge and refine geological theory. Inspiring your viewers to do hours of research on finding field notes and information on these geologists and sharing it with everyone. You inspired one viewer to use google earth and put in the field locations of Bretz which I have adapted to follow a world traveler. What an incredible learning experience for me and what an inspiration for future geologists. 🫶🏼👍🥂
..these persons are kinda like 'off-stage' rock stars, in real life.. Thank you for the trajectory of directions these meet-ups have gone; with some help from main players, who realize a bigger morph, has been happening here, too!🌤😇💮
