I started rewatching the "Nick from home" videos, and I can't believe how much went over my head at the time. I was absolutely floored with all of the inferences in the first episode. At my advanced age I really do appreciate tagging along . THANK YOU VERY MUCH NICK!
50 and feel the same, I'm east coast but I really can't get over how complicated the land is out there. Then they finally figure it out just to find they are 100% wrong eg the twist and most or Washington came from mexico
We’ve been rewatching the Nick from Home series again too. Gosh it was so funny and interesting. It was a lifesaver to us during the worst of the Covid. So comforting somehow and we learned a lot.
Being only slightly younger than Nick, himself, and, therefore, the map he inherited, I feel the same way as you. I doubt I'll ever make it to WA to walk these trails myself, but THANKS, NICK, for letting me tag along with you!
I would guess Freedom of speech doesn't come up much while in the field. But your gift of sharing Geology, in a geologically gifted region reminds me how precious that freedom is.
Love your old '61 map. I moved to Seattle in '62 at age 14 from VA just south of DC. (I will be 74 in May) I have bounced around WA since then and am in the wenatchee valley now. Well my hubby and I did side track to KS and CO for 16 years but we moved home in '08. I have always loved the WA granites. I dreamed of counters of it. Unfortunately the house I bought has black granite from I have no idea where. I am trying to get stronger. I managed a walk around hobby lobby Tuesday. Doc says the cancer is stable but needs 18 more months of treatment. Last summer I was bed bound. My goal is to show up at a parking lot popup. I love your shows.
Hiked up Northrop Canyon a number of years ago to the old homestead there. What a story there with the old homestead and their neighbors! The Grand Coulee workers left a side-hill covered in old tin cans. I need to go back again and hike it to the lake a couple miles above the old homestead. Kinda-closed to hiking in the Spring? for the raptors but its a great hike for bird pictures and seeing an old farm and all the Marmots and grey-digger ground squirrels there :-) A beautiful canyon and history-trip even if you're not into the geology.
This is absolutely magnificent, Dr. Z. The image-stabilization rig as well as the crisp resolution combine to make for a fascinating eye-feasting environment. I hadn't previously been able to articulate why old, washed-out VHS-copied geology documentaries were so frustrating to watch, because it's all that existed at the time. But this is terrific!
I've said it once, and I will say it again ... OH how I LOVE these impromptu field trips!!! I've been to the Grand Coulee Dam -- spent 3 days there during a "New Year" break in the mid-90's. At the beginning of this video, I was thinking that since the dam is so close, maybe Nick could take a little drive there -- I'd love to see it again .... and he DID!!! And, yes, I am also one of those "elderlies" whose knees probably wouldn't make it too far anymore, but I sure love being able to do it the "armchair" way!!! And since I have been there and have seen the surrounding land, I love knowing more about what else is there besides all the basalt!! THANK YOU NICK!!!
Hi Nick! I started by watching your CWU videos and loving them, you're like one of my favorite Americans - i love your energy, it's super male American. No really, i even saw your "formation" video - the one about your own formation as a geologist, and it was fantastic. You're a good guy, i really like you.
Yay, North Cascades stories!! So dating is needed to understand what part of the exotic terrane stories are in Northup Canyon. Dr Eddy to the rescue? Lol, and there you said it LOL. Love this program! Jeff Tepper dating suggests Wrangelia -ish?
you got to love it. I always got more question, then answers after one of you walk abouts. This makes my head hurt in a good way. Thanks, I think? ALL stay safe
I once visited Northrup canyon, for my paternal grandmother was descended from the homesteaders who the canyon is named after. It was summer, and I walked the low path.
Beautiful walk, a bit different from the Middle Fork Snoqualmie, eh? About the same length of a drive from Ellensburg too! I could just about smell the sage starting at 17:00. Thanks for taking us along!
As a young guy 11 years old, I used to get these free topographical maps from the US GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. I had my own rock set and GEOLOGICAL microscope. I live here in NYC..Manhattan schist was a favorite of mine back than.. I still enjoy this subject to this day !
Born at Ephrata in 50, lived in Grant Co /Coulee Country until 97, have walked, ridden, driven all over this area, this canyon is my favorite spot! Saw the biggest black bear I ever saw in Eastern Washington on the canyon floor about mid canyon in a bunch of choke cherries!
Wow what a view and a nice place to walk in the outdoors. clearly see where the chocolate cake ends . Thanks for filming it. and showing us where it is at. Oh and Happy Easter.
Thank you for these videos Nick. I used to truck through this area of Washington and was always fascinated by it. Difficult to wrap our heads around the deep time involved here.
If you want a real interesting (and big) chunk of granite to check out, then look into the wallowa batholith in north eastern Oregon. My rough understanding is that the batholith is being pushed up, and in doing so has exposed a really impressive layer cake of geologic history. Some peaks (like twin peaks) have orange/brown columbia river flood basalt 9000 feet up!, others are topped with large grained salt and pepper granite making you feel like you're in the sierra nevada mountains (eagle cap), one of the tallest peaks is a stunning white marble (matterhorn), others are a yellow or brown shale/sandstone (hurwall divide). Lots of interesting pockets of geology too, there's a black marble quarry somewhere in the wallowas where you can apparently find bivalve fossils. Hiking toward the center of the range you arrive at the heart of the batholith where most of the granite is exposed, and the views are just stunning with all the layers and colors being exposed in every direction. If you head to the east eagle creek trailhead and hike up the valley, you'll notice how the mountains are painted with diagonal layers, it's so noticeable that you can see the layers clearly on google maps. As an added bonus you can head over to hells canyon and descend into the depths to complete the geological tour, makes for a really fun 2-3 day road trip.
Thank you Nick. Your videos are always so well done and interesting. You have taught me so much and it all has been so enjoyable. I has always enjoyed nature and now I can also understand how it was formed too. Please keep them coming. Your the best .
Great episode on Eastern Washington state geology. Flood basalt lava seeps up from cracks in the granite base millions of years ago to provide a higher layer of landform. That also happened on and off for millions of years . All of this was exposed by the flooding that occured after the last ice age . We can see what was under the last of the flood basalt now. A great walk through time with my favorite geology teacher and those wonderful maps from those who studied the area. I was recently attacked for my believing that ice can hold back the amount of water that caused a major event of large amounts of former ice turned to water spilling across Washington state from Idaho's Lake Missoula. Sent him to Nick Zentner's Huge Floods site.😊
Incredibly enjoyable video. Thank you! I enjoyed it all-- the geology, the plants, the trees, the spectacular views, and the hike. I wish I could join you. I hope you get the dates of those granite plutons!
You are a true master of your art. I have learnt more about Geological formations and the history of our planet in the last 2 months than any other time. I love your passion and your abilities to relay information in a fun and informative way. Just so excited to see whats next. Thznkyou, thankyou...thankyou.
Winter still? Yeah, I've had a dusting of new snow on the ground in my yard for 12 of the last 17 mornings. We're a long way from flowers blooming here in Minneapolis, though the promise/forecast is for (finally) 60s next weekend. I'm waiting, impatiently, for June. Does the country in this video appeal to me? Absolutely, but this is not a good time for an old man to be thinking about moving. I can't afford to live there. Meanwhile, just enough "real" geology in this episode to be intriguing in its own right. Thanks for bringing me/us along, Nick…
So interesting to be able to come along with Nick as he brings the natural and book learning worlds together. It would be great to go on one of the field trips, but this is as close to that as I'm likely to get. (Unless I win the lottery, I guess.) Thank you, Nick, for bringing us along.
This was such a lovely video to watch. I definitely need to add Northrup Canyon to my list of places to visit next time I'm in Eastern Washington. It's nice peering underneath the German chocolate cake. Looking forward to seeing how this area fits into the wider Baja BC story this fall!
Great episode, please look into more underlying questions we develop having watched all of these! Explicitly calling out that is the interface between CRBs and what was there before is a deep underlying curiosity I wish we could answer more questions about, and Really Grateful to see you address and explore explicitly! Thank you Nick, I wish and hope more dedicated people in their fields would bring things like this to everyone in an accessible unpretentious way!
I visited Grand Coulee Dam a couple years ago before any geology education (which you provided) and was in the presence of high walls of granite at the observation parking lot near the dam. I did not know what I was looking at but now I feel a lot more in touch, even though many mysteries remain but that more fun to be had in the learning. I WANT TO THANK YOU, I LOVE YOU BIG BROTHER!!
Aging mountain biker here in Colorado. Never got to ride the NW, but the single track opportunities look mighty interesting. Now I wish we had a geologist along when riding the Rockies and the Utah deserts! Great videos and love the lectures!
My husband's dad provided the gas and oil needed to create that amazing Grand dam with all the trucks and huge equipment. What an amazing undertaking of building this, utilizing granite as the base, as you pointed out! Michael has walked on Steamboat Rock growing up, of course not realizing everything you pointed out in today's video You've brought so much to light about the ground we walk on, surrounded by delightful mountains made of granite
Not a "geologist", even less of a botanist, here. From what little of my high-school geology I can remember, Basalt is fine / no grained? because it cooled relatively quickly, as opposed to Granite, which cooled slowly, having clearly-visible grain structures. Thus, the interesting geometrically shaped columnar forms in Basalt compared to the almost amorphous "blobs" of granite. Given how geologically lively that part of the world has been during its "travels and the time-scales involved, What chance that some of the now-visible granite formed "underground" as expected and was subsequently uplifted, rotated and eroded, then "topped off" by a later rush of "overland" lava that formed the columnar Basalt. All to be later rearranged by tilting, faulting, folding etc, before being "shaved" by Ice-Age "fingers" and subsequent floods? How many Ice Ages? As for the paleo-magnetic thing: The US Navy did an enormous amount of sea-bed geomagnetic research in the late 1950s / early 1960s. The plots of polarity came out looking like a wobbly chess-board. The magnetic alignment "frozen" in the rock when it cools and solidifies, is "locked" to the prevailing field polarity. The eventual conclusion was that the only way this could be was that the entire planetary magnetic field reverses polarity with monotonous regularity. The "patchwork" look was because the steady outflows of undersea lava captured this and "set it in stone". I suspect that such "flips" do not happen overnight. So, given the vital role of the planetary magnetic field in deflecting cosmic nastiness, being exposed to the full glare of solar "goodness" for weeks or months (years?), would be a "life changing" (erasing) event. Marine critters less affected, apparently, Life-forms that survived all that cooking would be the one most able to cope with it. Ever wonder why the body creates essential Vitamin D in the skin? The skin that is the "organ" that receives all that sunlight. The Vitamin D that is essential for good bone construction and maintenance? Rock On!
Okay, okay, okay. The surprise ending was a great, if not the greatest teaser. It totally changed the perspective and light of the whole video. Masterful (again).
Thirty+ years ago, my wife and I would stay at Reynolds Resort in their rustic cabins and fish Buffalo Lake; we stayed up there about four or five times. Bit of a drive from Seattle, but worth the drive as there is plenty to see. We watched the Laser Show on the face of the dam one year; I wouldn't mind seeing that again. The vantage point really doesn't reveal the enormity of the dam; it is almost one mile wide (57' short of a mile across the top) and 550' tall.
Great to have a look at what’s hidden under the CRB. Makes me remember all the various granites around Scotland I looked at in the early 70s. Your commentary makes things much clearer than I seem to recall my geology professors did then. I love your walks, so keep sharing with us please. Thanks Nick 🐻
Much of what I've been seeing and learning seems just like the rock and terrain of the area when I walk out my front door. Makes me want to say our areas are "siblings." Come visit the Kern River Valley up at Wofford Heights, California. It would be very exciting to learn if these areas are a kind of "related" areas. Truly enjoy watching and learning from your channel.
Basically, yes. The granites of the southern Sierras are the cores of old, extinct volcanoes, and the forces which caused them are still working from northern California up through Washington State.
Great video! Northrup Canyon is beautiful and will be more so once it warms up a tad. It's on my list! It's fun to know we can see what's under CRBG. Q: Why is the granite around Grand Coulee Dam so fractured? Q: might we copy Jeff's age dating list? I really appreciate your posts, Nick. Love you too. ❤️ 🤟
Granite fractures easily when heated. The cooling flood basalts likely heated it. Keeping this in mind, never build a firepit with granite rocks as it tends to shatter and explode. Also freeze-thaw cycling cause granite to breakdown as well.
Love it Nick! This is fascinating to me and it's how I get back home to visit Washington from down here in south Oregon Coast. The first time I visited Gran Coulee Dam was 71 years ago it was only 7 years old then. You do the math! LOL
Absolutely! This counnty/area is appealing !!! Interesting both in geology and seeing the scenery! A few hrs drive for me so don’t get there often. Thank you Nick!!
Thank you Nick! So cool to know there are at least two different types of granite in Northrup Canyon. It's such an interesting and beautiful place between the CRB contact points, ~50-100 MA granites, birding and human history. Beautiful Aspen groves in the fall on the canyon floor and in the winter a large Bald Eagle roost. Waterville Plateau looks COLD with all the recent snow.
This was a great one Nick! What an amazing place. Makes us wish we weren’t so old and decrepit and could see it in person. Probably more interesting to visit it with you anyway, Nick. Thank you so much!!
These geological wonders have always amazed me! I appreciate your explainations. My family has done many of these hikes you are taking us on. Northrup canyon in June was a mess of mosquitos and snakes haha.
Hi Nick! You may be aware that there was extensive magnetotelluric (MT) data acquired in the early 1980's by several e-methods contractors in the Columbia River Basin. The object of the prospect was to get a bedrock profile of the Columbia River Basalt and any likely sites of interest for petroleum exploration. Another interest was the potential long term storage of nuclear waste for Rockwell-Hanford. Rockwell was a group participant, and they may have shared the data with local schools or the USGS. Just a thought---- Capt. Mikey
So great to see you and learn about Northrup Canyon. Wow, seeing what was before and under the German Chocolate Cake. There is a spot going East of Arlington on I-84. It's similar. I'm going to take another look of it when home this summer.
I started rewatching the "Nick from home" videos, and I can't believe how much went over my head at the time. I was absolutely floored with all of the inferences in the first episode. At my advanced age I really do appreciate tagging along . THANK YOU VERY MUCH NICK!
I am the same. I just turned 69. I am born and bred in Central Washington. I love his videos.
50 and feel the same, I'm east coast but I really can't get over how complicated the land is out there. Then they finally figure it out just to find they are 100% wrong eg the twist and most or Washington came from mexico
We’ve been rewatching the Nick from Home series again too. Gosh it was so funny and interesting. It was a lifesaver to us during the worst of the Covid. So comforting somehow and we learned a lot.
@@todrobinson3733
Just Snaps My Mind as Well !!! 😱
Being only slightly younger than Nick, himself, and, therefore, the map he inherited, I feel the same way as you. I doubt I'll ever make it to WA to walk these trails myself, but THANKS, NICK, for letting me tag along with you!
Thanks to your influence I'll be joining the Geological Society of the Oregon Country.
I would guess Freedom of speech doesn't come up much while in the field. But your gift of sharing Geology, in a geologically gifted region reminds me how precious that freedom is.
Easter blessings, professor 🙏🕊️💟🌼
Touring around Washington State vicariously through you is thoroughly enjoyable Nick ;-)
WE LOVE ALL OF THE KINDS OF WALKS YOU TAKE US ON ADVENTURES WITH YOU & OTHERS. LOVE YOU TOO.
Love your old '61 map. I moved to Seattle in '62 at age 14 from VA just south of DC. (I will be 74 in May) I have bounced around WA since then and am in the wenatchee valley now. Well my hubby and I did side track to KS and CO for 16 years but we moved home in '08. I have always loved the WA granites. I dreamed of counters of it. Unfortunately the house I bought has black granite from I have no idea where. I am trying to get stronger. I managed a walk around hobby lobby Tuesday. Doc says the cancer is stable but needs 18 more months of treatment. Last summer I was bed bound. My goal is to show up at a parking lot popup. I love your shows.
Hiked up Northrop Canyon a number of years ago to the old homestead there. What a story there with the old homestead and their neighbors! The Grand Coulee workers left a side-hill covered in old tin cans. I need to go back again and hike it to the lake a couple miles above the old homestead.
Kinda-closed to hiking in the Spring? for the raptors but its a great hike for bird pictures and seeing an old farm and all the Marmots and grey-digger ground squirrels there :-) A beautiful canyon and history-trip even if you're not into the geology.
Thank you Professor Zentner
Love going on walks with you. Thanks for sharing with us!!!
Thanks very much for your amazing (and informative) videos ... very much APPRECIATED ...
I just love the passion Dr. Zentner has about the geology of the NW. He inspires passion in others.
This is absolutely magnificent, Dr. Z. The image-stabilization rig as well as the crisp resolution combine to make for a fascinating eye-feasting environment. I hadn't previously been able to articulate why old, washed-out VHS-copied geology documentaries were so frustrating to watch, because it's all that existed at the time. But this is terrific!
Geology and scenery just incredible. Thanks for taking us on this walk!
WOW ! SO INFORMATIVE !
THANK YOU DR. Z !!!!! 😆 👍 💪
Nick thank for taking me along. Interesting geology, beautiful scenery.
I picked up a tick already this year...
Not there, but just saying, I think it's too early!
At least rattlesnakes don't like this cold ;)
I've said it once, and I will say it again ... OH how I LOVE these impromptu field trips!!! I've been to the Grand Coulee Dam -- spent 3 days there during a "New Year" break in the mid-90's. At the beginning of this video, I was thinking that since the dam is so close, maybe Nick could take a little drive there -- I'd love to see it again .... and he DID!!! And, yes, I am also one of those "elderlies" whose knees probably wouldn't make it too far anymore, but I sure love being able to do it the "armchair" way!!! And since I have been there and have seen the surrounding land, I love knowing more about what else is there besides all the basalt!! THANK YOU NICK!!!
Amazing as always and much appreciated. Education from someone who cares is a real experience. Until time does us in thank you Mr Zentner.
I can only imagine the difficulty of building a wagon road through that mess of rock. Thanks for the tour.
I can't tell you how much I enjoy these videos!
Hi Nick! I started by watching your CWU videos and loving them, you're like one of my favorite Americans - i love your energy, it's super male American. No really, i even saw your "formation" video - the one about your own formation as a geologist, and it was fantastic. You're a good guy, i really like you.
Yay, North Cascades stories!! So dating is needed to understand what part of the exotic terrane stories are in Northup Canyon. Dr Eddy to the rescue? Lol, and there you said it LOL. Love this program! Jeff Tepper dating suggests Wrangelia -ish?
you got to love it. I always got more question, then answers after one of you walk abouts. This makes my head hurt in a good way. Thanks, I think? ALL stay safe
Thanks Nick. Happy Easter
I once visited Northrup canyon, for my paternal grandmother was descended from the homesteaders who the canyon is named after. It was summer, and I walked the low path.
Beautiful walk, a bit different from the Middle Fork Snoqualmie, eh? About the same length of a drive from Ellensburg too! I could just about smell the sage starting at 17:00. Thanks for taking us along!
Dont make us start wishing November was here already by teasing us with Baha to BC and all were going to learn from it.
Granite is wonderful rock to study. Without it none of use would be here.
Thank You for taking us with You!
Nick, thank you for these videos. I have learned so much. 👍👍
As a young guy 11 years old, I used to get these free topographical maps from the US GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. I had my own rock set and GEOLOGICAL microscope. I live here in NYC..Manhattan schist was a favorite of mine back than.. I still enjoy this subject to this day !
Thank you.
Born at Ephrata in 50, lived in Grant Co /Coulee Country until 97, have walked, ridden, driven all over this area, this canyon is my favorite spot! Saw the biggest black bear I ever saw in Eastern Washington on the canyon floor about mid canyon in a bunch of choke cherries!
👌 Thanks Nick ❣️Love it 🥰 Love you 🤩
Good morning.
Wow what a view and a nice place to walk in the outdoors. clearly see where the chocolate cake ends . Thanks for filming it. and showing us where it is at. Oh and Happy Easter.
Thank you for these videos Nick. I used to truck through this area of Washington and was always fascinated by it. Difficult to wrap our heads around the deep time involved here.
Thank you for taking us to the Grand Coulee and pointing out the granite pluton. (Those granites look perfect for making into hand tools).
There's a kazillion countertops just waiting to be quarried!
If you want a real interesting (and big) chunk of granite to check out, then look into the wallowa batholith in north eastern Oregon. My rough understanding is that the batholith is being pushed up, and in doing so has exposed a really impressive layer cake of geologic history. Some peaks (like twin peaks) have orange/brown columbia river flood basalt 9000 feet up!, others are topped with large grained salt and pepper granite making you feel like you're in the sierra nevada mountains (eagle cap), one of the tallest peaks is a stunning white marble (matterhorn), others are a yellow or brown shale/sandstone (hurwall divide). Lots of interesting pockets of geology too, there's a black marble quarry somewhere in the wallowas where you can apparently find bivalve fossils. Hiking toward the center of the range you arrive at the heart of the batholith where most of the granite is exposed, and the views are just stunning with all the layers and colors being exposed in every direction. If you head to the east eagle creek trailhead and hike up the valley, you'll notice how the mountains are painted with diagonal layers, it's so noticeable that you can see the layers clearly on google maps. As an added bonus you can head over to hells canyon and descend into the depths to complete the geological tour, makes for a really fun 2-3 day road trip.
Pretty walk for Sunday morning, Thanks Nick!
Thank you Nick. Again very interesting.
My kind of show..thank you Nick..from the edge…Kamiakin Rift
Thank you Nick. Your videos are always so well done and interesting. You have taught me so much and it all has been so enjoyable. I has always enjoyed nature and now I can also understand how it was formed too. Please keep them coming. Your the best .
Great episode on Eastern Washington state geology. Flood basalt lava seeps up from cracks in the granite base millions
of years ago to provide a higher layer of landform. That also happened on and off for millions of years . All of this was
exposed by the flooding that occured after the last ice age . We can see what was under the last of the flood basalt now.
A great walk through time with my favorite geology teacher and those wonderful maps from those who studied the area.
I was recently attacked for my believing that ice can hold back the amount of water that caused a major event of large amounts of former ice turned to water spilling across Washington state from Idaho's Lake Missoula. Sent him to
Nick Zentner's Huge Floods site.😊
It was awesome to open UA-cam and see 2 videos in one day. Thank you Nick👍🏻👍🏻
Happy Easter. Thanks for another great video on granites. Looks like a very nice hike.
Really enjoyed getting back to geology from the field. Maps and rocks and scenery! Thanks so much 😃
This is just great. Not sure if my old legs will take me clear up here, but by golly I'm going to try. Thanks so much, Mr. Nick.
I am in Yakima. Thank you so much for your wonderful videos.
Incredibly enjoyable video. Thank you! I enjoyed it all-- the geology, the plants, the trees, the spectacular views, and the hike. I wish I could join you. I hope you get the dates of those granite plutons!
Happy Easter Nick and I have to ask is the Northrop canyon granite from the caldera of a ghost volcano 🌋
Same here in Illinois Nick still very cold in the 30’s at night and I’d we are lucky the 50’s during the day.
You are a true master of your art. I have learnt more about Geological formations and the history of our planet in the last 2 months than any other time. I love your passion and your abilities to relay information in a fun and informative way. Just so excited to see whats next. Thznkyou, thankyou...thankyou.
Enjoyed this so much. Thanks again.
Beautiful country. Thanks for showing these granite exposures through the German Chocolate Cake. Very noticeable contrasts.
granite is where Helium is produced
Same over here in Northeast Nevada Professor Nick. May be a short summer! ;) Grand Coolie! Thanks for taking us there and giving a look at the pluton!
Love these videos out in the field Nick, keep 'em coming!
Winter still? Yeah, I've had a dusting of new snow on the ground in my yard for 12 of the last 17 mornings. We're a long way from flowers blooming here in Minneapolis, though the promise/forecast is for (finally) 60s next weekend. I'm waiting, impatiently, for June. Does the country in this video appeal to me? Absolutely, but this is not a good time for an old man to be thinking about moving. I can't afford to live there. Meanwhile, just enough "real" geology in this episode to be intriguing in its own right. Thanks for bringing me/us along, Nick…
So interesting to be able to come along with Nick as he brings the natural and book learning worlds together. It would be great to go on one of the field trips, but this is as close to that as I'm likely to get. (Unless I win the lottery, I guess.) Thank you, Nick, for bringing us along.
This was such a lovely video to watch. I definitely need to add Northrup Canyon to my list of places to visit next time I'm in Eastern Washington. It's nice peering underneath the German chocolate cake. Looking forward to seeing how this area fits into the wider Baja BC story this fall!
I agree! Ready to book a campsite at Steamboat Rock State Park for a weekend of discovery!
❤️❤️❤️I hiked that canyon with my ex and our dogs a few years back. An incredible hike. Very beautiful!!❤️❤️❤️
Great episode, please look into more underlying questions we develop having watched all of these!
Explicitly calling out that is the interface between CRBs and what was there before is a deep underlying curiosity I wish we could answer more questions about, and Really Grateful to see you address and explore explicitly!
Thank you Nick, I wish and hope more dedicated people in their fields would bring things like this to everyone in an accessible unpretentious way!
I visited Grand Coulee Dam a couple years ago before any geology education (which you provided) and was in the presence of high walls of granite at the observation parking lot near the dam. I did not know what I was looking at but now I feel a lot more in touch, even though many mysteries remain but that more fun to be had in the learning. I WANT TO THANK YOU, I LOVE YOU BIG BROTHER!!
Hugely enjoyable! Thanks, Nick. Happy Easter from us in San Diego!
Aging mountain biker here in Colorado. Never got to ride the NW, but the single track opportunities look mighty interesting. Now I wish we had a geologist along when riding the Rockies and the Utah deserts! Great videos and love the lectures!
My husband's dad provided the gas and oil needed to create that amazing Grand dam with all the trucks and huge equipment.
What an amazing undertaking of building this, utilizing granite as the base, as you pointed out!
Michael has walked on Steamboat Rock growing up, of course not realizing everything you pointed out in today's video
You've brought so much to light about the ground we walk on, surrounded by delightful mountains made of granite
Northrup Great , Thank you for these videos Nick :) QC
Not a "geologist", even less of a botanist, here.
From what little of my high-school geology I can remember, Basalt is fine / no grained? because it cooled relatively quickly, as opposed to Granite, which cooled slowly, having clearly-visible grain structures.
Thus, the interesting geometrically shaped columnar forms in Basalt compared to the almost amorphous "blobs" of granite.
Given how geologically lively that part of the world has been during its "travels and the time-scales involved, What chance that some of the now-visible granite formed "underground" as expected and was subsequently uplifted, rotated and eroded, then "topped off" by a later rush of "overland" lava that formed the columnar Basalt. All to be later rearranged by tilting, faulting, folding etc, before being "shaved" by Ice-Age "fingers" and subsequent floods?
How many Ice Ages?
As for the paleo-magnetic thing: The US Navy did an enormous amount of sea-bed geomagnetic research in the late 1950s / early 1960s. The plots of polarity came out looking like a wobbly chess-board. The magnetic alignment "frozen" in the rock when it cools and solidifies, is "locked" to the prevailing field polarity. The eventual conclusion was that the only way this could be was that the entire planetary magnetic field reverses polarity with monotonous regularity. The "patchwork" look was because the steady outflows of undersea lava captured this and "set it in stone". I suspect that such "flips" do not happen overnight. So, given the vital role of the planetary magnetic field in deflecting cosmic nastiness, being exposed to the full glare of solar "goodness" for weeks or months (years?), would be a "life changing" (erasing) event. Marine critters less affected, apparently,
Life-forms that survived all that cooking would be the one most able to cope with it. Ever wonder why the body creates essential Vitamin D in the skin? The skin that is the "organ" that receives all that sunlight. The Vitamin D that is essential for good bone construction and maintenance?
Rock On!
I love the smell of sagebrush. You don't mention it. I spent a lot of time north of Pasco, hunting, fishing and working on farms.
Neglected to wish you and your family Happy Easter!
So it's a yellow cake with chocolate frosting? LOL
Okay, okay, okay. The surprise ending was a great, if not the greatest teaser. It totally changed the perspective and light of the whole video. Masterful (again).
Thirty+ years ago, my wife and I would stay at Reynolds Resort in their rustic cabins and fish Buffalo Lake; we stayed up there about four or five times. Bit of a drive from Seattle, but worth the drive as there is plenty to see. We watched the Laser Show on the face of the dam one year; I wouldn't mind seeing that again.
The vantage point really doesn't reveal the enormity of the dam; it is almost one mile wide (57' short of a mile across the top) and 550' tall.
Great to have a look at what’s hidden under the CRB. Makes me remember all the various granites around Scotland I looked at in the early 70s. Your commentary makes things much clearer than I seem to recall my geology professors did then.
I love your walks, so keep sharing with us please. Thanks Nick 🐻
Thank you. Very fascinating.
Much of what I've been seeing and learning seems just like the rock and terrain of the area when I walk out my front door. Makes me want to say our areas are "siblings." Come visit the Kern River Valley up at Wofford Heights, California. It would be very exciting to learn if these areas are a kind of "related" areas. Truly enjoy watching and learning from your channel.
Basically, yes. The granites of the southern Sierras are the cores of old, extinct volcanoes, and the forces which caused them are still working from northern California up through Washington State.
This is awesome. Thank you!
Greetings!
Thank you Nick for outlining the bedrock of our beautiful state. I'm looking forward to your next class on Baja BC.
Great video! Northrup Canyon is beautiful and will be more so once it warms up a tad. It's on my list! It's fun to know we can see what's under CRBG. Q: Why is the granite around Grand Coulee Dam so fractured? Q: might we copy Jeff's age dating list? I really appreciate your posts, Nick. Love you too. ❤️ 🤟
It did look brittle at the blast cut section. Curious too!
Granite fractures easily when heated. The cooling flood basalts likely heated it. Keeping this in mind, never build a firepit with granite rocks as it tends to shatter and explode. Also freeze-thaw cycling cause granite to breakdown as well.
From Angola NY, I thank you again for a very informative and scenic video to start my day. I'm looking forward to the next as always. Take care.
Love it Nick! This is fascinating to me and it's how I get back home to visit Washington from down here in south Oregon Coast. The first time I visited Gran Coulee Dam was 71 years ago it was only 7 years old then. You do the math! LOL
Absolutely! This counnty/area is appealing !!! Interesting both in geology and seeing the scenery! A few hrs drive for me so don’t get there often. Thank you Nick!!
Thanks again Nick.
I really enjoyed this hike. It was refreshing to see all the granite.
Thank you Nick! So cool to know there are at least two different types of granite in Northrup Canyon. It's such an interesting and beautiful place between the CRB contact points, ~50-100 MA granites, birding and human history. Beautiful Aspen groves in the fall on the canyon floor and in the winter a large Bald Eagle roost. Waterville Plateau looks COLD with all the recent snow.
This was a great one Nick! What an amazing place. Makes us wish we weren’t so old and decrepit and could see it in person. Probably more interesting to visit it with you anyway, Nick. Thank you so much!!
Great video love the country and the Wagon road!
Love you too proffessor thanks for your great work
Nick, as always, Excellent presentation. I am heading over there this very week. Am waiting for your Lake Chelan episode.
great start to the day....thank you
These geological wonders have always amazed me! I appreciate your explainations. My family has done many of these hikes you are taking us on. Northrup canyon in June was a mess of mosquitos and snakes haha.
Hi Nick! You may be aware that there was extensive magnetotelluric (MT) data acquired in the early 1980's by several e-methods contractors in the Columbia River Basin. The object of the prospect was to get a bedrock profile of the Columbia River Basalt and any likely sites of interest for petroleum exploration. Another interest was the potential long term storage of nuclear waste for Rockwell-Hanford. Rockwell was a group participant, and they may have shared the data with local schools or the USGS. Just a thought---- Capt. Mikey
Great view of granite and the German chocolate cake!
Outstanding field trip!
So great to see you and learn about Northrup Canyon. Wow, seeing what was before and under the German Chocolate Cake. There is a spot going East of Arlington on I-84. It's similar. I'm going to take another look of it when home this summer.
Thank You Nick.
Thank you Nick.