CWU's Nick Zentner presents 'Yakima River Canyon Geology' - the 9th talk in his ongoing Downtown Geology Lecture Series. Recorded at Hal Holmes Center on May 29, 2013 in Ellensburg, Washington, USA. www.nickzentner.com
Great lecture series! I recently rode my motorcycle through the canyon discovering all the areas described. My 90 year old Father, my sons and home schooled granddaughters are hooked on your RU-vid lectures. Thanks Professor Zentner!
I really enjoy your presentations. After a stint in the U.S.A.F 1962 - 1966. I worked for Lamont labs of Columbia University. The job was as an electronics tech on board their Oceanographic Ship R.D. Conrad for two world cruises. The classes you do are awesome and bring back vivid memories of the time on shipboard. The photo lab, The seismic Profiles, The towed Magnetometer, the air gun profiles, the PDR's are all commonplace to me. You bring this back to life again for me. Thank you. I had a superb time working on shipboard for 2+ years.
I've never been to Washington state, I've never before been interested in geology at all. But thanks to CWU and Nick Zentner I am now fascinated with the geology of a place I've never been. A true testament to his ability to capture and educate an audience.
The same happening to me while I'm from Central Europe. I've never been to that continent and now I know more about Washington state's geography than about my homeland's.
I have lived in WA. st my whole life. Have down this drive through many times and seen all the features the Professor talks about. I am blessed by the beauty of WA. The volcanoes I love the best. Where I live now I'm surrounded by them. I see Mt Hood everyday while Mt St Helens is the closest a mere 45 miles north of me.
I really enjoy these lectures. If I could go back in time, I would have been a geologist. Too late now! But I can spend my retirement travelling to see all these wonders of nature.
I used to work in the Entiat Ranger Dist. Up on the road to Big Hill there was on week in 1976 when the road in one spot was very muddy. My truck left deep tracks with high ridges. I used to stop to check that area so I noticed this condition in the road. Days later these tracks dried hard forming hard dirt ridges. This was nothing new, people see such tracks all the time. I thought nothing of it. That next night it rained for a long time. A day or so later I stopped at the same location and saw that the water drainage had formed little valleys or canyons. Nothing new about such things. BUT, what caught my eye was that two of the tiny canyons had cut across the raised ridges in an 'S' pattern, making tiny meanders and stream bends right across the preexisting ridges. I wondered how this could happen, but it seems if the water was high enough and forceful enough it could imprint meanders across preexisting ridges. I was studying geology at the time and this tiny episode shook me.
Wow. Nick, I really appreciate your lectures. I have learned so much . I have watched a lot of your lectures.. I just wish I had a teacher like you when was young.
I love the charts of the plate movement. I have seen you information on that in later videos, but this video has those lovely graphics. Awesome! 'He's from Portland . . .' 😂🤣 I have many friends in Oregon and some of them do seem to have heartburn with WA.
This lecture is very a passionate, impressive, informative and just an excellent riveting body of information. Thank you Sir, for your hard work on this great video.
Let's hear it for Y Lee Coyote. I once was fortunate enough to explore the oxbows in the Yukon where it bends around the southern end of the Nulato Hills and turns west once more in its run to the Bering Sea. Magnificent terrain.
Nick Zentner: Thanks to you Nick I know more about the geology of the North West then I do about my home state New York! I live in western NY and most of our geology is exposed either in the Genesee or Niagara gorges. The rest is buried under glacier till and massive drumlins which is a bit boring! BTW I have traveled the coast highway in Oregon from Coos bay to Gold beach and I wondered about the volcanic deposits I saw near the beach. Now I understand how they got there thanks to you!
I’m from Brisbane, Australia and I’ve been Google Earthing Washington since I stumbled on this lecture series researching the San Andreas Fault and the ghost forest and orphan tsunami.
Wonderful on the new park along the river. Perhaps the part could be an active real time measurement site of an Oxbow being developed or at least the progression of the outside curve and regression of the inside. We have rivers doing that in Texas. Once the rivers became more tame, you have ice dams and sometimes mud flow but in Texas it is typically tree (east texas) and bolder/rock outcropping that gets it going. Someone will spill in some rock to make a beach and protect their little 20k acres. The people across the way get deflected water and their bank erodes. All sorts of suits resulted and expert testimony .... What a mess. In my 'back yard', I have a 12' deep 4' wide creek in sandy loam. It flows well and stays in the bank until a hurricane comes and a tree blocks the way. The tree by itself just holds back brush and creates a jam. Then the volume hits 5' over the banks (water mark on my trees) as another channel is cut in a lazy wiggle. Then the city comes on my property to use their pipeline for an attachment, fix the creek and here it comes back until next time. Runoff from the highway and long property lines pouring into the small creek valley from both directions.
This plate tectonic stuff is mind boggling! How can this happen WITHIN a plate on the earth's crust? Are there plates within plates? This movement causes wrinkles that BLOCK the movement of the plate? How deep are these plates? I am enthralled with these videos, I was sure you would be using them and sure enough, you've got these animations that take my breath away!
Learned so much watching his videos really! answered so many questions that I had carried with me since I was in grade school why? because I love geology too :)
I've had a couple of similar 'ah ha' moments in my life, where I just knew what I needed to do (comparable to your meanders observation from the plane). It's cool how life works that way. I'm glad you had yours!
Even better example of the Mississippi is Kaskaskia, Illinois. Former capital of the state, it now lies fully west of the Mississippi and is not accessible from Illinois. To get there you must enter Missouri either north or south of the town and come in that way. I believe it was a New Madrid fault quake that altered the river's path.
Good lecture! Is it the exotic terrains which are moving along the "plow" of the North American plate? If we visualize the "plow" not as a flat front but a tilted edge thicker(denser?) down in Northern California and Oregon causing the exotic terrains to continue their journey NE. ? Working much like a wood splitting wedge or a plow.
Thanks for the comments. Am working on a brand new exotic terranes lecture for Winter 2018. The oceanic plates that have delivered the terranes have approached from SW to NE....therefore shifting terrane bits northward after docking here.
Great lecture and video - but we had a terrible time with the audio - due to hearing loss - can you add CAPTIONS FOR THE DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING? ... We had to turn our volume up to screaming levels to hear Nick, and we missed a few things.
Legend might be from seeing beaver dam breaks washing out areas. Wildlife and forests are nowhere near what they used to be when Indians worked the lands. Having had dogs that chew rocks for fun I'd have the coyotes and beavers chewing through the ridges for easier travel along the river to get to Corvallis.
