Thanks Nick for the bit of free advertising at 2:35 for my Ice Age Floods guidebooks. Honored that you’re still using that bookmark I gave you over 10 years ago. Bruce
thank you professor I love watching your videos I find your teaching enjoyable and humorous at times so thank you. you even are able to make things understandable for a old guy who never has been to smart
For just a moment, I am imagining the land under water, Siletzia Pillows forming in front of me. Takes the current, crazy-world stress right out of me! Thanks.
Wow. Love the splitting in those pillows. Asterish. Thanks for more Siletzia insights. The view from the top was great! Thanks Nick and Marli for another fun hike!
Thanks again for this great video! Yrs ago, as an OSU student (Class 77) Ive been up on Marys Peak, but never as one interested in geology as I am now. I was “wiped-out” to learn of these PILLOW BASALTS up on Marys Peak. -who’d have known!? I was totally amazed about this-though, I maybe should not have been, since I’ve managed a rudimentary understanding of causes for mountain formation. Thank you again for the great lesson I’ve learned today.
I love these videos so much, amazing pillow basalt and even more amazing view at the end, thanks for doing this, showing places as someone like me back East will prolly never see in person
My dad was a Radio/TV engineer in Eugene in the 1960's. I was under 10 at the time. I got to go with him to Kezi TV channel 9 on top of Coburg Hills, NE of Eugene. And many other places. I was fasinated by geology then and still to this day. I have a load of places I've been since I the early 2000's. I miss exploring the Cascades and the Coast Ridge mountains. Coast as well. Noticing places like near Yahates, Oregon where you can find more Siletzia accretion. Basalt columns road cut off n Hwy 101! Thank you again for your hard work and your supporters from all over! I look forward to perhaps another video from Portland, Oregon convention center geology meeting in October this year? Thanks Nick Your friend, Kenny 😎👍
On a clear day from Mary’s Peak, you can see seven snow-covered volcanic peaks and the Pacific Ocean. That combined with the pillow rock tells the story of scraping the top of the ocean plate while the lower layers dive under to form volcanos. Not just Cascade volcanos but hundreds of small ones on the floor of the Willamette Valley and into the Coast Range.
Dang this is an old hunting ground and picnic area I used to go to all the time back in the 70's I never knew anything about geology then.. It is good to go back now and see with different eyes the places I am so familiar with.. Thanks Nick.. I doubt I will every get back to mary's peak in person again.. it is good to see her one more time..
Every time Nick puts up a new video, I find myself cracking open Google Earth to see if I can find where he is when recording. Can't help it. My need for spatial and geographic context is apparently uncontrollable. Thank you for all you do for us Nick.
Just now getting a chance to catch up! Wow! Amazing broken pillow basalts to see how they developed! Several layers on some. A moment of ancient history captured!
Love your flood talks, lived in hope Idaho in the 80s, always saw the roadside info board, never could fathom it, then drove back home to oregon a few times and it dawned on me. Willamette valley owes eastern WA some gratitude for all the great soil. The grass seed area of Salem foothills is hundreds of ft thick of this soil. Butted up against silver falls incredible activity which is a whole other story. I live in Roseburg, s. Of Eugene where pillow basalt 8s essentially all there is on the s. Umpqua in the middle of 3 zones, west is Callahan ridge, a huge Silesia plug. Roseburg , the floor, oak savanna , then east going up north. Umpqua is multiple zones. I'm a mere enthusiast but if u ever need a guide/driver , soo much area that is off the radar. Buy u are correct, most of the basalt is unremarkable. The coast & central oregon very remarkable for rock hounds , I just love all the different processes
Morning from Los Angeles!, I went to college at OSU and coyboy camped overnight night once there. We woke up to a see a sea of clouds covering the view about 300ft below us. The coast range is an amazing source of water with the amount of precipitation it gets. Also it used to grow the biggest Doug firs before we logged them all
Thank you Professor ! It is quite exciting to look at the pillow lavas - above the water level ! Thank you for moving the recording device slowly, so that your fans are able to mentally process all that visual beauty of geology.
I have camped in the exact spot that you were standing when starting the video. This is so cool to learn about a area I love and have always wanted to know information about it from someone who understands geology really well. Thank you for this video. I loved doing photography from that spot on Mary's peak. I enjoy it more than the peak. Personally.
Oh Nick, thank you for coming to our area! We live just north of Mary’s Peak in Blodgett. We need to take another trip to the peak now that we’re “geologists”. When our kids were young, they liked to slide down that grassy hill on pieces of cardboard. Or just roll down.😂 It’s such a beautiful place, isn’t it?
I've seen outcrops formations similar to these in a cave on the Mediterranean island of Malta also the outer surface texture of these rock outcroppings resemble the texture of massive blocks on Megalithic wall courses of peru. Thank you for sharing
Thank you for all your amazing field trips. Beautiful scenery, great company, and learning something new. Only thing better would to be there in person. Thank you.
I have seen pillow lava on the hillside just east of the old townsite of Blewett. It struck me as odd when I found it 20 years ago. I thought it was an ancient stream channel when I found it. I will go back and get GPS coordinates!
Love the NICK on Oregon Rocks! Stunning absolutely stunning! This pillow basalt! That’s Moss & lichen on it…every where here in Oregon. I am a Spokane olde time girl in Coos Bay. O my look at that view from Mary’s Peak! Thank you Nick!
Another very welcome entry in the sporadic "Nick in Oregon" series! Geologically, of course, most of Oregon is part of the same story that formed most of Washington's geologic history, so the lion's share of Zentner's content is very applicable to Oregon. But it's always really fun to have Nick visiting and highlighting some of the local features we can explore and think about right here at home.
It's amazing the missoula floods almost went that far up. The Kalapuyans (Native Americans of that area) have a story about Marys Peak and a big flood, perhaps the last Missoula Flood.
Morning from Peridot AZ. Learning soo much from this Channel and on my own here below the Natanes plateau! Thank you. I can't go hiking without wondering then researching!!!@
Glad you found this place Nick. A real gem and geologic window. I know this place well and have always found it a haven of peace and mystery. Tell the story well my friend!
I visited that outcrop during my very first class in geology. I was so confused by all the crazy terms - accretion, Siletzia, aphanitic, zeolite - but what a great hike!
Thank you Nick for reveling Mary's Peak and other areas in Oregon and Washington as Siletzia accretion. Looks like your doing your homework for Baja/BC series this fall! Judkins Point East Eugene, Skinner Butte downtown Eugene I believe are Basalt formations. Spencer Butte South Eugene a forearc volcano? I sent pics of I-5 Siskiyou Pass to your Facebook page awhile ago. Klamath Basin uplift?? More Baja/ BC story?? I'm from Eugene Oregon. I am a truck driver. Up and down I-5, US 97 central Oregon now these days. I appreciated your visit to Obsidian Crater of n Newberry Crater last year! Keep up the great work Nick! And your tribute to Nat King Cole, for Liz too! 👍🪨🍩☕
What a view! Neat video, Nick; thank you. The fractured little pillows look like prehistoric organic fossils...really pretty. I can imagine Marli (and all?) finding this spot, and taking photos. 👍🌿❤🌱
Great to see these Siletzia pillow basalts! I really appreciate learning how old they are…. Nice to have some still rounded and others broken so we can see inside. Great views from the top. Thanks Nick! 😄👍🌻🌻🌻
What a very interesting area. This Summer I’m going to try and go to the places in your videos and see some of the areas you have discussed. Great videos Nick and always learn a ton from you. If I was closer to Ellensburg I would definitely take your Geology Courses.
Happy UA-cam suggested this video to me, would not have known the internet’s best lecturer had his own channel…. Nick, you could probably teach on ANY subject and I’d be happy to learn…
Wow, basalt pillows, never heard of such things and quite amazing the radiating columns inside them, I would have thought they had hollow cores or an object more like a concretion. I kept glimpsing something that could have been iron concretion or meteorite where you were closely looking at the broken pillows, it was certainly out of place from the basalt. What an amazing location yet again and the view from up high always impresses me.
Down on the highway below the Peak is a lava flow that occurred after the highway was cut into the side of the mountain. It is not very wide, and if driving too fast you can miss it. Shows some minor recent activity in the area.
As someone who is "aware" of geology I learned a lot, 1) good hike for the sake of hiking, 2) Siletzia and its history 3) checking basalt for "crystals" and even though I live on the other coast, all actionable items. I believe Bermuda is a hot spot with pillow basalt although people think of it as some sort of coral reef. Anyway, 15 minutes of internet wandering and learned a few things, thanks.
Thanks. Even having grown up in Eugene I know Mary's peak on as a silhouette on the horizon as seen fro I-5. The radial fractures in the pillows are impressive. Given the rapid cooling of being extruded into ocean water the small crystal size makes sense to me.
13:30 Behold, Siletzia! You’re looking into Western Benton (OSU) and Lincoln Counties (Newport,) home of the Yaquina River estuary. All of what you see was inhabited by the Siletz Native Americans. Siletzia was named in honor of that tribe who lived in its very center. I’ve lived here my entire life and I still can’t get enough of that Coast Range green.
Thank you for this very interesting video! Curious about the significance of the lack of crystals in the pillow formations. My grandson, from the tribe-cities in Washington, will be taking a geology class in high school this year. He really seems to have an interest in the subject so I took him to Marys Peak and we found the spot you found. truly fascinating! He was climbing all over the site having a great time! My grandfather spent the last 25 years of his life as a prospector and rock hound in Pend Oreille County Washington. I was around 12 or 13 at the time and he would take me with him climbing all over Granite Peak seeking treasures hidden the rocks which were visible only to him! I was always amazed at his ability to know what was hidden inside different rocks! Anyway, I find myself hoping my grandson continues to develop his interest in geology! Thanks again for this video!
I'm always fascinated by the way flood basalts cool and crack into columns. In these pillow basalts it's obvious that they also cool and crack, with what I will call "rays" from the center of the pillow.
So when you mention it as the result of underwater vulcanism, I am playing back many instances of films of underwater volcanoes I have watched in the past, and the "snake" pyrotechnic devices oregon children play with on 4th of July as an alternative to the proscribed firecrackers. A disk that when lit, produces coils of ash as part of the chemistry of burning whatever the compound is that the snake is made out of. Interesting to see what it looks like after it cools (and millions of years of existence). I have been to the top of Mary's Peak - even landed a helicopter there - but did not know of this geologic detail.
If you find yourself near wilsonville Oregon there is the summit apartments that has an small hillside with old volcanic tuff in it. It tumbles out in small to softball sized pieces. Might be up any geologist’s alley. Or rock hounds.
Hi Kirk, we have to drive down our road a bit to see the peak. We love to see it. The old folks around here used to say you couldn’t plant until the snow was off the peak. Don’t know if that’s true anymore.
Hello, Nick, You're in my stomping grounds. I wanted to tell you there is some exposed columnal basalt ( I believe ) you can spot to the left of highway 126 just after crossing the Willamette River just before you get into downtown Eugene. There is what appears to be a small quarry there, have never tried to find the way there, unfortunately. It would be easy to find, should only be a few blocks after highway ends into surface streets. Located @ the West end at the base of Skinner Butte, if you're interested. Skinner Butte Park also has fantastic views of the city of Eugene. You can actually see the flat spot on the West side of the butte looking at Google Maps. Wish I could shake your hand and thank you in person for all the wonderful hours of entertainment and learning. From one of your biggest fans ( I'm a total Zentnerd :) Enjoy your family time, Sir!!
QUICK UPDATE to my previous comment; I zoomed in farther on Google Maps on Skinner Butte Park and that area I have only seen from highway 126 on my way to work is called " The Columns " I'm curious what basalt flow this came from ( as are others in this area, I'm sure ).The road runs right at the base of this area.
Thanks for doing this Nick, what a great gift this is to the community. This camera work was much better, and I hate to be critical since you're doing so much already but I hope it's helpful, you still could slow down on the camera work, spend about twice as long on each spot as you did here and it would be perfect. If I lived out there I'd volunteer to work on it with you 8)
Fascinating that this was under the Pacific! I'm assuming tectonic plate uplift brought these to their current place 1000 ft above sea level? Eugene area? Sorry. Corvallis. OSU and UofO fans would never call this the "Eugene area" 😳 I've seen videos of these forming - currently. Lots of active undersea volcanoes.
"My" UA-cam algorithm is feeding me geology videos and because I have watched Nick's (Dr. Z's) classroom videos I am fed this one just a day after it was uploaded. This stuff is fascinating and if I had a chance to do it all again, and had a prof like Nick, I would have certainly been a geologist. One downside is that I tend to collect stuff and my house, basement, and garden would be full of rocks and minerals.
I’m heading to Vancouver Island next month to find some Siletzia pillow lava. Apparently on the southern tip of the island. I imagine it will look a lot like this.
There are some large rocks and boulders around the edges of the parking lot at the top that have some pretty cool zeolites in them. Assuming those rocks are from Mary's Peak, I wonder if just this particular outcrop you were at was uncharacteristically 'meh' for crystals.
I did find some clusters of quartz or calcite type crystals up in pockets on that rock wall. Besides that the rock is very uniform and not much mineralization diversity. (Which is always a bummer. I love finding diverse areas of different mineral compositions)
The Hawaiian pillows are mixed with gravels and sands formed when the lava enters the surf zone. Here it looks like the pillows are not intermixed with gravels and may have formed in deeper, still water. I wonder what what triggers the serpentization of pillow basalts.
Thanks Nick for the bit of free advertising at 2:35 for my Ice Age Floods guidebooks. Honored that you’re still using that bookmark I gave you over 10 years ago. Bruce
thank you professor I love watching your videos I find your teaching enjoyable and humorous at times so thank you. you even are able to make things understandable for a old guy who never has been to smart
Glad you're enjoying a trip to my immediate area. When I first arrived in Oregon, I went up Marys Peak so I could look around the valley where I live.
Here from Vermont and appreciating the opportunity to see this marvel with others. Thank you.
For just a moment, I am imagining the land under water, Siletzia Pillows forming in front of me. Takes the current, crazy-world stress right out of me! Thanks.
Thank you for making videos of western Oregon!
Wow. Love the splitting in those pillows. Asterish. Thanks for more Siletzia insights. The view from the top was great! Thanks Nick and Marli for another fun hike!
Thank you Nick, you made my day with another video of interesting geology to start it off. Please keep it up. The pillows are amazing.
Thanks again for this great video! Yrs ago, as an OSU student (Class 77) Ive been up on Marys Peak, but never as one interested in geology as I am now. I was “wiped-out” to learn of these PILLOW BASALTS up on Marys Peak. -who’d have known!? I was totally amazed about this-though, I maybe should not have been, since I’ve managed a rudimentary understanding of causes for mountain formation. Thank you again for the great lesson I’ve learned today.
I love these videos so much, amazing pillow basalt and even more amazing view at the end, thanks for doing this, showing places as someone like me back East will prolly never see in person
My dad was a Radio/TV engineer in Eugene in the 1960's. I was under 10 at the time. I got to go with him to Kezi TV channel 9 on top of Coburg Hills, NE of Eugene. And many other places. I was fasinated by geology then and still to this day. I have a load of places I've been since I the early 2000's. I miss exploring the Cascades and the Coast Ridge mountains. Coast as well. Noticing places like near Yahates, Oregon where you can find more Siletzia accretion. Basalt columns road cut off n Hwy 101!
Thank you again for your hard work and your supporters from all over!
I look forward to perhaps another video from Portland, Oregon convention center geology meeting in October this year?
Thanks Nick
Your friend, Kenny
😎👍
Excellent camera work right from the fist perfectly saturated image. You are really getting the hang of it Nick. Thank you for another quality lesson.
On a clear day from Mary’s Peak, you can see seven snow-covered volcanic peaks and the Pacific Ocean. That combined with the pillow rock tells the story of scraping the top of the ocean plate while the lower layers dive under to form volcanos. Not just Cascade volcanos but hundreds of small ones on the floor of the Willamette Valley and into the Coast Range.
I lived in Corvallis for years, and have spent a fair amount of time up on Mary's Peak. Beautiful views AND interesting geology!
Dang this is an old hunting ground and picnic area I used to go to all the time back in the 70's I never knew anything about geology then.. It is good to go back now and see with different eyes the places I am so familiar with.. Thanks Nick.. I doubt I will every get back to mary's peak in person again.. it is good to see her one more time..
Feeding my need as a Zentnerd. Thank you once again professor!
Every time Nick puts up a new video, I find myself cracking open Google Earth to see if I can find where he is when recording.
Can't help it. My need for spatial and geographic context is apparently uncontrollable.
Thank you for all you do for us Nick.
I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one!
Me too!
You are not alone, I think most of the people who watch are the same. I think I will be going to see if I can “hike” the trail too.
I hope you did notice this GPS location of the quarry in the description of the video :-)
Thank you Nick that is the best example of pillow lava I’ve ever seen
Just now getting a chance to catch up! Wow! Amazing broken pillow basalts to see how they developed! Several layers on some. A moment of ancient history captured!
Thank you Professor Zentner
Love your flood talks, lived in hope Idaho in the 80s, always saw the roadside info board, never could fathom it, then drove back home to oregon a few times and it dawned on me. Willamette valley owes eastern WA some gratitude for all the great soil. The grass seed area of Salem foothills is hundreds of ft thick of this soil. Butted up against silver falls incredible activity which is a whole other story. I live in Roseburg, s. Of Eugene where pillow basalt 8s essentially all there is on the s. Umpqua in the middle of 3 zones, west is Callahan ridge, a huge Silesia plug. Roseburg , the floor, oak savanna , then east going up north. Umpqua is multiple zones. I'm a mere enthusiast but if u ever need a guide/driver , soo much area that is off the radar. Buy u are correct, most of the basalt is unremarkable. The coast & central oregon very remarkable for rock hounds , I just love all the different processes
Morning from Los Angeles!, I went to college at OSU and coyboy camped overnight night once there. We woke up to a see a sea of clouds covering the view about 300ft below us. The coast range is an amazing source of water with the amount of precipitation it gets. Also it used to grow the biggest Doug firs before we logged them all
Go Beavs!
Thank you for the video and sharing your time. That is some amazing lava. Your the best
Evwry epside is a massive win for us eother stuck working or stuck halfway across the globe. Kudos from "down the road" Stanwood Wa
"Cute (!?) pillow basalt"? What the hell Nick - they are incredible. So beautiful.
Thank you Professor ! It is quite exciting to look at the pillow lavas - above the water level !
Thank you for moving the recording device slowly, so that your fans are able to mentally process all that visual beauty of geology.
I have camped in the exact spot that you were standing when starting the video. This is so cool to learn about a area I love and have always wanted to know information about it from someone who understands geology really well. Thank you for this video. I loved doing photography from that spot on Mary's peak. I enjoy it more than the peak. Personally.
Oh Nick, thank you for coming to our area! We live just north of Mary’s Peak in Blodgett. We need to take another trip to the peak now that we’re “geologists”.
When our kids were young, they liked to slide down that grassy hill on pieces of
cardboard. Or just roll down.😂 It’s such a beautiful place, isn’t it?
Thanks, Nick. Haven't been in that area for more than 40 years, but I have fond memories of a sunset at Coos Bay.
Nice thanks. Siletzia exposures near where I live in coastal Lincoln City can be more vesicular and often are densely packed with cool zeolites.
Lovely pillows - don't look there age at all. Thanks for showing us Nick (and Marli)!
I've seen outcrops formations similar to these in a cave on the Mediterranean island of Malta also the outer surface texture of these rock outcroppings resemble the texture of massive blocks on Megalithic wall courses of peru.
Thank you for sharing
Thank you for all your amazing field trips. Beautiful scenery, great company, and learning something new. Only thing better would to be there in person. Thank you.
I have seen pillow lava on the hillside just east of the old townsite of Blewett. It struck me as odd when I found it 20 years ago. I thought it was an ancient stream channel when I found it.
I will go back and get GPS coordinates!
Love the NICK on Oregon Rocks! Stunning absolutely stunning! This pillow basalt! That’s Moss & lichen on it…every where here in Oregon. I am a Spokane olde time girl in Coos Bay. O my look at that view from Mary’s Peak! Thank you Nick!
Another very welcome entry in the sporadic "Nick in Oregon" series! Geologically, of course, most of Oregon is part of the same story that formed most of Washington's geologic history, so the lion's share of Zentner's content is very applicable to Oregon. But it's always really fun to have Nick visiting and highlighting some of the local features we can explore and think about right here at home.
It's amazing the missoula floods almost went that far up. The Kalapuyans (Native Americans of that area) have a story about Marys Peak and a big flood, perhaps the last Missoula Flood.
Morning from Peridot AZ. Learning soo much from this Channel and on my own here below the Natanes plateau! Thank you. I can't go hiking without wondering then researching!!!@
Thank you Nick
Don't see pretty scenery like that in Yuma Arizona. But there is pillow s around here.
Accretion edges of continents are so interesting. I am also fascinated by the fracture surface.
Glad you found this place Nick. A real gem and geologic window. I know this place well and have always found it a haven of peace and mystery. Tell the story well my friend!
Did you find the hornblende (?) near the top? Try just south of the main parking lot, as I recall.
I visited that outcrop during my very first class in geology. I was so confused by all the crazy terms - accretion, Siletzia, aphanitic, zeolite - but what a great hike!
We just watched you on Nick’s show the other day for the third time. We just loved it! You’re our favorite guest!!
@@laureneolsen8624 Is he a rock star or what!
@@skyecooleyartwork He sure is!!
Interesting the fracture pattern of the inside the pillows. Must be the sudden chill. Thanks Nick beautiful day there. Glad you had a good trip to AZ.
Just imagine this used to be under water 55 million years ago!!! Amazing!!! Geology is so cool! The closest we can get to a time machine….
See? Climate change is real. It just took 55 million years to get here, and we’ll all drown by 2100 say the geniuses.
Completed with stunning vista at the end. Please keep them coming Nick. Nice pace. N&C Bath UK
Thank you Nick for reveling Mary's Peak and other areas in Oregon and Washington as Siletzia accretion. Looks like your doing your homework for Baja/BC series this fall!
Judkins Point East Eugene, Skinner Butte downtown Eugene I believe are Basalt formations. Spencer Butte South Eugene a forearc volcano? I sent pics of I-5 Siskiyou Pass to your Facebook page awhile ago. Klamath Basin uplift??
More Baja/ BC story??
I'm from Eugene Oregon. I am a truck driver. Up and down I-5, US 97 central Oregon now these days. I appreciated your visit to Obsidian Crater of n Newberry Crater last year!
Keep up the great work Nick!
And your tribute to Nat King Cole, for Liz too!
👍🪨🍩☕
This is literally the spot I go shoot. Nice to learn more about the local place I spend time.
What a view! Neat video, Nick; thank you. The fractured little pillows look like prehistoric organic fossils...really pretty. I can imagine Marli (and all?) finding this spot, and taking photos. 👍🌿❤🌱
Beautiful scenery! Hello from SW Arkansas!
Great to see these Siletzia pillow basalts! I really appreciate learning how old they are…. Nice to have some still rounded and others broken so we can see inside. Great views from the top. Thanks Nick! 😄👍🌻🌻🌻
If you can see Mary's peak: it's about to rain. If you can't see Mary's peak: it's raining.
What a very interesting area. This Summer I’m going to try and go to the places in your videos and see some of the areas you have discussed. Great videos Nick and always learn a ton from you. If I was closer to Ellensburg I would definitely take your Geology Courses.
Great to see that you are taking us on another hike and telling us information about our western side of the Pacific Northwest.
Thanks Nick for an interesting outing in Oregon
Thanks as always. All the best to you and yours.
Happy UA-cam suggested this video to me, would not have known the internet’s best lecturer had his own channel…. Nick, you could probably teach on ANY subject and I’d be happy to learn…
Great video Nick! Thank you for sharing!
Lovely to be able to look down onto clouds.
It blows my mind that the pillow cross section looks like that, but then I'm thinking, of course it would cool that way. That is so wild!
I believe the fractured cross sections are "blast rose" formed at the bottom of a bore hole when the quarry (or road cut) explosives were detonated.
Wow, basalt pillows, never heard of such things and quite amazing the radiating columns inside them, I would have thought they had hollow cores or an object more like a concretion. I kept glimpsing something that could have been iron concretion or meteorite where you were closely looking at the broken pillows, it was certainly out of place from the basalt. What an amazing location yet again and the view from up high always impresses me.
More info on pillow lava at ua-cam.com/video/o1Y2mu0qrus/v-deo.html
I always love a discussion about Siletzia!
Down on the highway below the Peak is a lava flow that occurred after the highway was cut into the side of the mountain. It is not very wide, and if driving too fast you can miss it. Shows some minor recent activity in the area.
No views, 1 like, plus mine! Yay! A geology fix . Thank you, Nick, so much from a freezing England.
Beautiful scenery, way cool formation. Thanks for sharing with us!
4:15 Yep, that's pillow lava. Amazing!
As someone who is "aware" of geology I learned a lot, 1) good hike for the sake of hiking, 2) Siletzia and its history 3) checking basalt for "crystals" and even though I live on the other coast, all actionable items. I believe Bermuda is a hot spot with pillow basalt although people think of it as some sort of coral reef. Anyway, 15 minutes of internet wandering and learned a few things, thanks.
Thanks. Even having grown up in Eugene I know Mary's peak on as a silhouette on the horizon as seen fro I-5.
The radial fractures in the pillows are impressive. Given the rapid cooling of being extruded into ocean water the small crystal size makes sense to me.
13:30 Behold, Siletzia! You’re looking into Western Benton (OSU) and Lincoln Counties (Newport,) home of the Yaquina River estuary. All of what you see was inhabited by the Siletz Native Americans. Siletzia was named in honor of that tribe who lived in its very center.
I’ve lived here my entire life and I still can’t get enough of that Coast Range green.
Thank you for this very interesting video! Curious about the significance of the lack of crystals in the pillow formations. My grandson, from the tribe-cities in Washington, will be taking a geology class in high school this year. He really seems to have an interest in the subject so I took him to Marys Peak and we found the spot you found. truly fascinating! He was climbing all over the site having a great time! My grandfather spent the last 25 years of his life as a prospector and rock hound in Pend Oreille County Washington. I was around 12 or 13 at the time and he would take me with him climbing all over Granite Peak seeking treasures hidden the rocks which were visible only to him! I was always amazed at his ability to know what was hidden inside different rocks! Anyway, I find myself hoping my grandson continues to develop his interest in geology! Thanks again for this video!
I'm always fascinated by the way flood basalts cool and crack into columns. In these pillow basalts it's obvious that they also cool and crack, with what I will call "rays" from the center of the pillow.
Thank You Nick...Beautiful Views.
So when you mention it as the result of underwater vulcanism, I am playing back many instances of films of underwater volcanoes I have watched in the past, and the "snake" pyrotechnic devices oregon children play with on 4th of July as an alternative to the proscribed firecrackers. A disk that when lit, produces coils of ash as part of the chemistry of burning whatever the compound is that the snake is made out of. Interesting to see what it looks like after it cools (and millions of years of existence). I have been to the top of Mary's Peak - even landed a helicopter there - but did not know of this geologic detail.
cool to see some siletzia pillows. thanks..
If you find yourself near wilsonville Oregon there is the summit apartments that has an small hillside with old volcanic tuff in it. It tumbles out in small to softball sized pieces. Might be up any geologist’s alley. Or rock hounds.
Beautiful landscape. Thank you for sharing..
A very enjoyable tour. Thanks.
Thanks for visiting the view off my front deck
Hi Kirk, we have to drive down our road a bit to see the peak. We love to see it. The old folks around here used to say you couldn’t plant until the snow was off the peak. Don’t know if that’s true anymore.
Hello, Nick, You're in my stomping grounds. I wanted to tell you there is some exposed columnal basalt ( I believe ) you can spot to the left of highway 126 just after crossing the Willamette River just before you get into downtown Eugene. There is what appears to be a small quarry there, have never tried to find the way there, unfortunately. It would be easy to find, should only be a few blocks after highway ends into surface streets. Located @ the West end at the base of Skinner Butte, if you're interested. Skinner Butte Park also has fantastic views of the city of Eugene. You can actually see the flat spot on the West side of the butte looking at Google Maps. Wish I could shake your hand and thank you in person for all the wonderful hours of entertainment and learning. From one of your biggest fans ( I'm a total Zentnerd :) Enjoy your family time, Sir!!
QUICK UPDATE to my previous comment; I zoomed in farther on Google Maps on Skinner Butte Park and that area I have only seen from highway 126 on my way to work is called " The Columns " I'm curious what basalt flow this came from ( as are others in this area, I'm sure ).The road runs right at the base of this area.
It’s the mist in the air that waters the moss as much as the rain.
ALWAYS enjoy your trips Nick, so fun and educational
Those are some nice rocks. Thanks!
Thanks Nick, much appreciated
Thanks for doing this Nick, what a great gift this is to the community.
This camera work was much better, and I hate to be critical since you're doing so much already but I hope it's helpful, you still could slow down on the camera work, spend about twice as long on each spot as you did here and it would be perfect. If I lived out there I'd volunteer to work on it with you 8)
Oh how I love these impromptu field trips!
Watching you break rock after rock, I was thinking how remarkable they were in their un-remarkableness.
Pillow basalts are one of my favorite geological formations. A shame we don't have any in the southeast US. Thanks for sharing with us Nick!
Thanks, Nick. Those were impressive pillows.
Fascinating that this was under the Pacific! I'm assuming tectonic plate uplift brought these to their current place 1000 ft above sea level?
Eugene area? Sorry. Corvallis. OSU and UofO fans would never call this the "Eugene area" 😳
I've seen videos of these forming - currently. Lots of active undersea volcanoes.
I like the view from the top.
WOW! What a view from the top!! Honestly it was kind of disappointing how aphanitic the pillows were, but they sure do look spectacular in outcrop.
Great spot to watch the Perseid Meteor Shower from, too 😉
"My" UA-cam algorithm is feeding me geology videos and because I have watched Nick's (Dr. Z's) classroom videos I am fed this one just a day after it was uploaded. This stuff is fascinating and if I had a chance to do it all again, and had a prof like Nick, I would have certainly been a geologist. One downside is that I tend to collect stuff and my house, basement, and garden would be full of rocks and minerals.
I’m heading to Vancouver Island next month to find some Siletzia pillow lava. Apparently on the southern tip of the island. I imagine it will look a lot like this.
Looks nice up there. Thanks, Nick.
Hey Nick, if your in the area, you should head up to horse rock ridge. It's in Shotgun Creek rec site.. theres a nice fissure wall there.
There are some large rocks and boulders around the edges of the parking lot at the top that have some pretty cool zeolites in them. Assuming those rocks are from Mary's Peak, I wonder if just this particular outcrop you were at was uncharacteristically 'meh' for crystals.
I did find some clusters of quartz or calcite type crystals up in pockets on that rock wall. Besides that the rock is very uniform and not much mineralization diversity. (Which is always a bummer. I love finding diverse areas of different mineral compositions)
The Hawaiian pillows are mixed with gravels and sands formed when the lava enters the surf zone. Here it looks like the pillows are not intermixed with gravels and may have formed in deeper, still water. I wonder what what triggers the serpentization of pillow basalts.
Would it help, hurt or hinder to use the sharp side of your hammer 🔨 to open the stubborn rocks 🪨 ?