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One of the most awe-inspiring places I've ever visited; an American treasure for sure. I knew a little bit about the geology but learned a ton here in just a few minutes. Excellent content. Thanks!
The entire Sierra Nevada is both awe-inspiring and humbling. I used to live in Mammoth Lakes, which of course is right on the rim of the Long Valley Caldera; and the high point of my trips back & forth between there and L.A. was Owens Valley and US-395 just west of Bishop. To look out and know that what towers before you 2 miles into the sky was once miles below the surface and was white-hot, almost liquid magma, you're like if that doesn't humble you, you're dead. Fall down. That plus the expanse of Bishop Tuff left from the LV Supervolcano eruption, 100s of feet thick, that you have to drive up and over to get to Mammoth Mountain -- you just can't wrap your head around the sheer SIZE of it all, and the VIOLENT geology that took place there and _continues_ to this day. This area is my favorite spot in CA, and probably the entire country - even though I have Mt St Helens in my backyard.
What an amazing place! Physical disabilities prevent me from seeing it first hand, so thank you for taking me there virtually. My husband and I both really enjoy your videos. Thanks Shawn!
Clouds Rest is another incredible feature. That was the most thrilling spot I've been to in Yosemite, and I've been to Glacier point, Taft point, The Yosemite Falls ledge, half dome, Three Brothers, and El Capitan.
Yosemite is a Temple of Geology, a grand Cathedral of Nature! I’ve visited it about 75 times, and never tire. Thanks Shawn, for such an excellent pilgrimage!
Being a former back country backpacker we ran into erratics going over a ridge at LaMarck Col; Kings Cyn. It was amazing and this is what me into taking geology courses.
It's fun to think about those higher melting point xenoliths slowly churning in the magma deep in the crust, or maybe those glaciers relentlessly scraping away at those mountains, then dropping their load of erratics. Truly awesome. Thanks
Glad to see you on some gorgeous, interesting sunny rocks! Contacts, xenoliths, big erratic boulders, exfoliated fractures (that explains some granitic formations in Leavenworth)! So helpful! Thank you Shawn so much.
Yosemite: The Other Y Park. Yosemite valley has got to be one of the most dangerous places to walk and drive - nobody's looking where they're going. Wish I had more than three rainy days to spend there. Great vid, thanks!
What a fantastically stunning geologic wonderland that is many millions of years old. You can see the bowl shape of the valley area a glacier once took at 9 :00 minutes in. Thanks for the tour of the "sexy" rocks professor.
One of the most amazing places with spectacular scenery and beautiful rock that can be experienced within a few feet of the parking lot! A midpoint in the transition between the valley and the high country- I don’t know that I’ve ever gone by without stopping. Thanks
Few people realize it but the San Jacinto Range and the Sierra Nevada are all part of the same batholith -- which is one reason why the geology is so similar between the two ranges. The only thing that breaks up the batholith is the Transverse Ranges crustal block, which split the batholith and now separates the two ranges by the Mojave Desert.
The valley gets so crazy anyway and I love the Eastern Sierra, so my favourite Yosemite visit has ended up the drive up Tioga with a nice long stop at Olmsted (and maybe a dip in Tenaya Lake if the air is warm enough!). It's an awesome view with so much sense of the motion the glacier took down the valley. Thanks for the video! There's some awesome geology up the creeks around Bishop and Independence too, with some steep fun hikes straight into country like this. Hope you do get some time to see more of it all!
I don't know what Shawn included in his itinerary, but I hope it included Long Valley and the Sierra Escarpment next to the Alabama Hills. It is so humbling, you just want to kneel down and take it all in -- its sheer expanse, sheer size, plus the VIOLENT geology that took place to form what's in front of you throughout that entire 100-or-so mile stretch.
@@nothanks3236 I would say only in the summer months, and not after a winter like the one they had this past winter. The snowfall was so incredibly massive for those four months it did a number on CA-120, and they're still making repairs as far as I know. After a TYPICAL winter they'll open Tioga Pass in May, and it usually stays open till October.
agree with only summer (sometimes late like this year) and fall. it's great and dramatic but from the west is fine, you just avoid going into the valley itself. towards glacier point is good, so is tioga rd if you come up 120 from the west. but yosemite in general just gets busy in high season, for sure anywhere you can get with a car.
Its always better to come into the sierras from the east. From SCal without exception use hwy 395 and avoid the great california valley if you can. Tioga pass is often closed for the duration of winter. As long as Tioga is open, you should be good to go.
Spectacular!! Thanks Shawn for showing it to us all. By the way I have a large glacial erratic (boulder) in a field near to where I live in the UK and based on its mineralogy, I know its been moved 12 miles from its original site. Fascinating stuff.
Great to see those videos, makes me daydream about my years as a young biologist in the park splitting my time between there and Kings canyon. It's been a long time since I have been back.
What stood out immediately when the video started was the exfoliation exhibited so nicely at that point. It has helped over the past 20,000 years or so to lose all the deep glaciation and the sheer weight of the ice over these areas to help the rock expand; but the batholith itself continues to uplift, and as it does these plutons will continue to exfoliate as they rise up. It's hard to wrap one's head around, just the fact that you're standing atop what was such a massive magmatic complex 10s of millions of years ago, that stretches for 100s of miles southward. You start to feel _really_ small when you stand in Owens Valley looking up at the Sierra Escarpment towards Mt Whitney and realize that was all once miles underground and white-hot, almost liquid magma, and is now just solid granite towering 2 miles _above_ you and stretching forever in both directions. "Awe-inspiring" is almost too weak a description.
Mr Shawn, Thank you for the link to Captain Jacks' strong hold. Read about this in a US Grant bio. Never have I been there, so it is interesting to see the topography. Also, the Modoc Wars are mentioned in some Louis L'Amour novels. Most of my volcanic trekking has been in the along the US 395 from Mojave to Bishop CA. I did some specialty geothermal well work in the Coso naval bombing and Lazer testing area. I remember heading North on 395 before just before Little Lake and seeing a very large lava flow stretching quite a distance. These flows are so tall they dwarf by 10 fold the high power towers in the old railroad bed. Geo. speaking an educational viewing drive ti Bishop. Cinder cones, Lahars, quite massive ones. Sulfur vents and deposits. Thank you agaon.
Half Dome granodiorite is Yosemite's youngest plutonic rock, at an average age of 84.1 million years (Late Cretaceous, Santonian stage). It's part of the Tuolumne batholith or intrusive suite. It's an equigranular, panidiomorphic mosaic composed mainly of plagioclase feldspar (45%), quartz (25%), potassium feldspar (15%), biotite (5%), and hornblende (5%), with accessory minerals such as titanite and magnetite (both 1%). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half_Dome_Granodiorite
This was a nice review of the granite in Yosemite. Have you been to Granite Bay, CA around Folsom Lake. To me the granite there seems a lot like the granite of Pikes Peak. A guide said that the granite of Pikes Peak was only found there. But to me it looks a lot like the granite around Folsom Lake ( where I grew up)
Great seeing the types of granitic rocks side by side in the field. Are the “erratics” really such when from same source as the main formation. There is no button to make contribution. Kathleen
Amazing but for all the time I spent in Mammoth Lakes and growing up in CA generally, I have never once visited Yosemite. I was right there next to it but never went there, and a lot of that had to do with the fact that from the east it's pretty much inaccessible for 8 months out of the year on account of snow. Rarely is Tioga pass open, which if it had been the few times I did try to visit there, the east entrance it was barely a 45-minute drive from Mammoth.
Great informative video. As a mountaineer a really appreciate learning about the geology of the rocks I encounter on climbs. There is some vivid examples of exfoliation on the left of 120 approaching the Point if I recall correctly. However, it cannot be the real Olmstead Point because you aren't being mobbed by Marmots! 🙄
Olmsted Point is indeed an amazing place. Then travelling east one comes to Tenaya Lake and Fairview Dome, at which point Tuolumne Meadows opens up before you. Further east, Tioga Pass and Mt. Dana, a roof pendant. El Capitan granite seems much lighter in color. More of a true granite?
,,,...tnx...,,just think,,,a youtube site that brings me down to earth,,,,😮......................,,a place i'd love to visit,,,probably wont though,,,...pat&family,,,land o'lakes,wi.
Go to the Valley mid-week before Memorial Day or after Labor Day. Crowds are a given there, but it lightens up a little at those times. Far fewer visitors go to the high country. Most of those are near the Tioga Road around Tuolumne Meadows. That leaves plenty of beautiful places, especially in the designated wilderness. Glenn Aulin, Lyell Canyon, May Lake, Saddlebag Lake, and even Cathedral Peaks are lovely and much less crowded.
@@TheRealTomWendel Thanks. I'm looking to maybe plan a trip out that way (I'm on the east coast) next year, sounds like I should prioritize hitting the designated wilderness areas since the crowds won't be up there...
The ones with the pinkish color would certainly make you think they're welded tuff, but they're not; it's just weathering. All of the plutons rising in Yosemite are granites.
The Sierra is dominated by plutonic magma formations, so you won't see much evidence of surface volcanism. You can find andesite at Castle Peak, Donner Pass area. The area was covered with magma from the volcanic activity that dammed Tahoe and increased its depth some 600 feet. But those flows pale in comparison to the mass of the granitic plutons that make up the Sierra batholith.
If it was an irratic the rock would be from many miles away maybe but if it the same as the rock its sitting on then its from a rock fall at a waterfall. roundish rocks are usually from water systems
si·er·ra sē-ˈer-ə : a range of mountains especially with jagged peaks. Etymology. Noun. from Spanish sierra "a range of jagged mountains," literally, "a saw," from Latin serra "a saw" (Wikipedia). It's 'sierra', not 'sierras', because it's one range, not many.
You can support my field videos by clicking on the "Thanks" button just above (right of Like button) or by going here: www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=EWUSLG3GBS5W8
One of the most awe-inspiring places I've ever visited; an American treasure for sure. I knew a little bit about the geology but learned a ton here in just a few minutes. Excellent content. Thanks!
The entire Sierra Nevada is both awe-inspiring and humbling. I used to live in Mammoth Lakes, which of course is right on the rim of the Long Valley Caldera; and the high point of my trips back & forth between there and L.A. was Owens Valley and US-395 just west of Bishop. To look out and know that what towers before you 2 miles into the sky was once miles below the surface and was white-hot, almost liquid magma, you're like if that doesn't humble you, you're dead. Fall down. That plus the expanse of Bishop Tuff left from the LV Supervolcano eruption, 100s of feet thick, that you have to drive up and over to get to Mammoth Mountain -- you just can't wrap your head around the sheer SIZE of it all, and the VIOLENT geology that took place there and _continues_ to this day. This area is my favorite spot in CA, and probably the entire country - even though I have Mt St Helens in my backyard.
What an amazing place! Physical disabilities prevent me from seeing it first hand, so thank you for taking me there virtually. My husband and I both really enjoy your videos. Thanks Shawn!
I'm in the same boat. I love videos like this that allow me to see places I can't get to.
@@marymactavish 🙂
Gee professor, I wanta hurry up and die so I can come back as you, you got the life. What wonderful locations you go to.👍
Clouds Rest is another incredible feature. That was the most thrilling spot I've been to in Yosemite, and I've been to Glacier point, Taft point, The Yosemite Falls ledge, half dome, Three Brothers, and El Capitan.
I agree - awesome view of Clouds Rest -- one of my favorite YNP hikes!!
Yosemite is a Temple of Geology, a grand Cathedral of Nature! I’ve visited it about 75 times, and never tire. Thanks Shawn, for such an excellent pilgrimage!
Being a former back country backpacker we ran into erratics going over a ridge at LaMarck Col; Kings Cyn. It was amazing and this is what me into taking geology courses.
It's fun to think about those higher melting point xenoliths slowly churning in the magma deep in the crust, or maybe those glaciers relentlessly scraping away at those mountains, then dropping their load of erratics. Truly awesome. Thanks
It is an absolutely stunning and beautiful location. 👍
Glad to see you on some gorgeous, interesting sunny rocks! Contacts, xenoliths, big erratic boulders, exfoliated fractures (that explains some granitic formations in Leavenworth)! So helpful! Thank you Shawn so much.
There is glowing orbs seen at night 💥
Yosemite: The Other Y Park. Yosemite valley has got to be one of the most dangerous places to walk and drive - nobody's looking where they're going. Wish I had more than three rainy days to spend there. Great vid, thanks!
Yosemite is truly an awesome place. Thanks for taking us along.
Another great site to explore. Thanks Shawn. 👍
What a fantastically stunning geologic wonderland that is many millions of years old. You can see the bowl shape of the
valley area a glacier once took at 9 :00 minutes in. Thanks for the tour of the "sexy" rocks professor.
One of the most amazing places with spectacular scenery and beautiful rock that can be experienced within a few feet of the parking lot! A midpoint in the transition between the valley and the high country- I don’t know that I’ve ever gone by without stopping. Thanks
Thank you for this little field trip!
❤ beautiful Shawn! Thank you
I love nerding out on your geology lessons. I’m going to go ponder the Morton Gneiss next week. I can hardly wait.
Yosemite is very similar to the Idyllwild area of the San Jacinto Mountains were I live in So Cal.. Which is nice.
Few people realize it but the San Jacinto Range and the Sierra Nevada are all part of the same batholith -- which is one reason why the geology is so similar between the two ranges. The only thing that breaks up the batholith is the Transverse Ranges crustal block, which split the batholith and now separates the two ranges by the Mojave Desert.
I love the geologic history of rocks, and land forms, but what I kept seeing were the trees that were thriving, on what is apparently bare rock.
The valley gets so crazy anyway and I love the Eastern Sierra, so my favourite Yosemite visit has ended up the drive up Tioga with a nice long stop at Olmsted (and maybe a dip in Tenaya Lake if the air is warm enough!). It's an awesome view with so much sense of the motion the glacier took down the valley. Thanks for the video! There's some awesome geology up the creeks around Bishop and Independence too, with some steep fun hikes straight into country like this. Hope you do get some time to see more of it all!
I don't know what Shawn included in his itinerary, but I hope it included Long Valley and the Sierra Escarpment next to the Alabama Hills. It is so humbling, you just want to kneel down and take it all in -- its sheer expanse, sheer size, plus the VIOLENT geology that took place to form what's in front of you throughout that entire 100-or-so mile stretch.
Is hitting Yosemite from the east the better option to avoid the crowds down in the valley proper?
@@nothanks3236 I would say only in the summer months, and not after a winter like the one they had this past winter. The snowfall was so incredibly massive for those four months it did a number on CA-120, and they're still making repairs as far as I know. After a TYPICAL winter they'll open Tioga Pass in May, and it usually stays open till October.
agree with only summer (sometimes late like this year) and fall. it's great and dramatic but from the west is fine, you just avoid going into the valley itself. towards glacier point is good, so is tioga rd if you come up 120 from the west. but yosemite in general just gets busy in high season, for sure anywhere you can get with a car.
Its always better to come into the sierras from the east. From SCal without exception use hwy 395 and avoid the great california valley if you can. Tioga pass is often closed for the duration of winter. As long as Tioga is open, you should be good to go.
Very interesting landscape ....thx for the geology lesson 👍
Spectacular!! Thanks Shawn for showing it to us all. By the way I have a large glacial erratic (boulder) in a field near to where I live in the UK and based on its mineralogy, I know its been moved 12 miles from its original site. Fascinating stuff.
Very cool!
The great Sierra Nevada batholith! Beautiful! Thank you.
Glacial erratics is a great term. Saw a bunch at Sinks Canyon, Wy.
Thanks for your time in making this!
Thanks!
Great to see those videos, makes me daydream about my years as a young biologist in the park splitting my time between there and Kings canyon. It's been a long time since I have been back.
What stood out immediately when the video started was the exfoliation exhibited so nicely at that point. It has helped over the past 20,000 years or so to lose all the deep glaciation and the sheer weight of the ice over these areas to help the rock expand; but the batholith itself continues to uplift, and as it does these plutons will continue to exfoliate as they rise up. It's hard to wrap one's head around, just the fact that you're standing atop what was such a massive magmatic complex 10s of millions of years ago, that stretches for 100s of miles southward.
You start to feel _really_ small when you stand in Owens Valley looking up at the Sierra Escarpment towards Mt Whitney and realize that was all once miles underground and white-hot, almost liquid magma, and is now just solid granite towering 2 miles _above_ you and stretching forever in both directions. "Awe-inspiring" is almost too weak a description.
Thank you Professor.
I haven't been to Yosemite yet, but it's definitely on my bucket list.
Very fun. Thx Shawn.
Altitude prevented me from doing Yosemite. I'm glad to see this through your eyes.
Grt geo-ed adventure. Thx Prof. ✌🏻
One of my favorite places too!
Mr Shawn,
Thank you for the link to Captain Jacks' strong hold. Read about this in a US Grant bio. Never have I been there, so it is interesting to see the topography. Also, the Modoc Wars are mentioned in some Louis L'Amour novels. Most of my volcanic trekking has been in the along the US 395 from Mojave to Bishop CA. I did some specialty geothermal well work in the Coso naval bombing and Lazer testing area. I remember heading North on 395 before just before Little Lake and seeing a very large lava flow stretching quite a distance. These flows are so tall they dwarf by 10 fold the high power towers in the old railroad bed. Geo. speaking an educational viewing drive ti Bishop. Cinder cones, Lahars, quite massive ones. Sulfur vents and deposits. Thank you agaon.
Love California’s geology, thank you for this awesome video! Can you do Dish Hill, Marble Mountains and Amboy Crater by the Mojave Desert?
Oh boy. I've got a pretty full itinerary. What would you like to see or learn at each of these locations?
@@shawnwillsey Which direction are you heading?
Ansel Adams and John Muir...
Half Dome granodiorite is Yosemite's youngest plutonic rock, at an average age of 84.1 million years (Late Cretaceous, Santonian stage). It's part of the Tuolumne batholith or intrusive suite. It's an equigranular, panidiomorphic mosaic composed mainly of plagioclase feldspar (45%), quartz (25%), potassium feldspar (15%), biotite (5%), and hornblende (5%), with accessory minerals such as titanite and magnetite (both 1%). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half_Dome_Granodiorite
Great Video, you could do 50 videos on Yosemite alone. Thx!
This was a nice review of the granite in Yosemite. Have you been to Granite Bay, CA around Folsom Lake. To me the granite there seems a lot like the granite of Pikes Peak. A guide said that the granite of Pikes Peak was only found there. But to me it looks a lot like the granite around Folsom Lake ( where I grew up)
I have not been there.
I love the large Feldspar phenocrysts in Toulmne . Plagioclase Feldspar?
Potassium feldspar.
Great seeing the types of granitic rocks side by side in the field. Are the “erratics” really such when from same source as the main formation. There is no button to make contribution. Kathleen
Hi Kathleen. Yes, as long as they are carried by the glacier away from their source, they are considered erratics.
Amazing but for all the time I spent in Mammoth Lakes and growing up in CA generally, I have never once visited Yosemite. I was right there next to it but never went there, and a lot of that had to do with the fact that from the east it's pretty much inaccessible for 8 months out of the year on account of snow. Rarely is Tioga pass open, which if it had been the few times I did try to visit there, the east entrance it was barely a 45-minute drive from Mammoth.
Great informative video. As a mountaineer a really appreciate learning about the geology of the rocks I encounter on climbs. There is some vivid examples of exfoliation on the left of 120 approaching the Point if I recall correctly. However, it cannot be the real Olmstead Point because you aren't being mobbed by Marmots! 🙄
Olmsted Point is indeed an amazing place. Then travelling east one comes to Tenaya Lake and Fairview Dome, at which point Tuolumne Meadows opens up before you. Further east, Tioga Pass and Mt. Dana, a roof pendant.
El Capitan granite seems much lighter in color. More of a true granite?
Hey Shawn!, All !.,😊
,,,...tnx...,,just think,,,a youtube site that brings me down to earth,,,,😮......................,,a place i'd love to visit,,,probably wont though,,,...pat&family,,,land o'lakes,wi.
yeah, baby, sexy rocks!😂Haha!
Yeah, sexy rocks -- love it!!
I really want to go to Yosemite but it's always SO crowded...
Go to the Valley mid-week before Memorial Day or after Labor Day. Crowds are a given there, but it lightens up a little at those times.
Far fewer visitors go to the high country. Most of those are near the Tioga Road around Tuolumne Meadows. That leaves plenty of beautiful places, especially in the designated wilderness. Glenn Aulin, Lyell Canyon, May Lake, Saddlebag Lake, and even Cathedral Peaks are lovely and much less crowded.
@@TheRealTomWendel Thanks. I'm looking to maybe plan a trip out that way (I'm on the east coast) next year, sounds like I should prioritize hitting the designated wilderness areas since the crowds won't be up there...
Ah! Thanks for the exfoliation explanation--we see it flake as such, but there's a reason-
Some of those irratics look like tuff, or pyroclastic ash flow material but you would know better being right there. Cool area to explore.
The ones with the pinkish color would certainly make you think they're welded tuff, but they're not; it's just weathering. All of the plutons rising in Yosemite are granites.
The Sierra is dominated by plutonic magma formations, so you won't see much evidence of surface volcanism. You can find andesite at Castle Peak, Donner Pass area. The area was covered with magma from the volcanic activity that dammed Tahoe and increased its depth some 600 feet. But those flows pale in comparison to the mass of the granitic plutons that make up the Sierra batholith.
Definitely not tuff. All of these are intrusive igneous rocks.
If it was an irratic the rock would be from many miles away maybe but if it the same as the rock its sitting on then its from a rock fall at a waterfall. roundish rocks are usually from water systems
Very little fracturing of the main body of rock?
@0:41 no love for Clouds Rest
si·er·ra sē-ˈer-ə : a range of mountains especially with jagged peaks. Etymology. Noun. from Spanish sierra "a range of jagged mountains," literally, "a saw," from Latin serra "a saw" (Wikipedia). It's 'sierra', not 'sierras', because it's one range, not many.
Shawn please show us where the GOLD is . ✨🇺🇸✨🏔️🏔️🏔️🏔️🏔️
Thanks!