I don't care what evening company you're entertaining, what party you're at, or who your audience is, saying "rhyolitic ignimbrite" is going to be a hit! 😁
Agreed. I’m going to start telling people my actual hobbies now when they ask. Eg, i’m really into terrane wcretion prior to seletzia. Fun to see the look on their faces
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with the world. I am a stay at home mom you are teaching me so much and it’s free. I watch the ads for you. Thank you so much for your time. You are truly a good teacher.🌞🌞🌞 I live vicariously through your travels
I was a stay at home mom, and I am still a homemaker. I wouldn't trade my memories for anything, and it's wonderful to have the freedom with my time to pursue my passions. The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. Good for you, and I wish you the very best for all your days. God bless you! :)
I feel very Blessed to have been able to raise my children 🪬and spend time together. My children are now grown and I have time to follow and study my interest 🌞 I’ve always had dreams of Egypt and Painted Rocks ( unsure the connect ?) but I have always wanted to stand next to these beautiful rock formations 🗿🗿🗿🪬🪬🪬🌞🌞🌞 and one day I shall - till then I listen learn and follow our teacher 📚Thank You Mr. Willsey
With all the hyperbole click bait on YT, it's so great to find presentations like this! Thanks for all the great work you are doing. There are far too many sapiens on this planet that are disconnected from our planet and universe with little to no understanding of it.
1:06:20 - 1:06:40 THAT is the single biggest reason why I keep coming back to your presentations, Shawn. Fundamentally you're a teacher, and the layman wants to understand the story in terms they can get their head around. That is SO important. People like me aren't going to remember all of the words and descriptions inherent in geo-chemistry but they can certainly absorb the story behind how these landscapes came to be and accept the facts you present that prove that it happened that way. You're a great _teacher,_ Shawn, lots of geologists out there on UA-cam trying to present this stuff but only two or three who are approachable enough to make it _understood_ by the layperson and you're one of them.
Thanks for the compliment, Brian. I do pride myself in making the Earth's stories, processes, and wonders accessible to EVERYONE. My books and now UA-cam channel are an extension of that philosophy. Your kind words convey exactly what I am trying to accomplish.
I grew up in Arco and I remember going to the Craters on field trips. It fascinated and scared the crap out of me at the same time. Ever since then I've had a fascination with volcanoes. It's nice to see someone based in Idaho talking about the unique geology of the area.
This is so fascinating! I wrote my dissertation on hotspots 40+years ago when at Manchester University, UK and this is such a great example of hotspot evolution over tens of millions of years. Just brilliant Shawn. Thankyou.
Great video . Wish I had seen this before I took a bike tour out of Twin Falls, to Sun Valley , Stanley, war o and back to Twin Falls, great tour! Thanks!
As I've driven through the west I've often wondered how the landscape features came about. Sean your videos are exactly what I've needed. Thank you. Now I have to get back to Idaho and explore these sites. Saw Shoshone falls last year on my road trip to the Canadian Rockies.
Well done. What you presented was a nice addition to what I have learned, so far, about the fascinating geomorphology of the northwestern continental U S. Amazing area. Thank you
Thank you, you added in so many cool details which made this so very interesting. I have some familiarity with the area from having lived and worked there but never have had such great teaching as this.
Great presentation! I really enjoyed it. I'm a homemaker, and I like to learn everything I can about the natural world. Geology and volcanism are among my favorite subjects.
Another great video. The explanation of the stages of the hotspot and how these explain what is going on atop and beneath the snake river plane, was great. I've been trying to understand that for years.
I took a class on National Park geology 40 years ago and really took to it. Been an interest of mine since. Love your presentation skills and knowledge base. Lived in Mountain Home as a kid and now live in Washington state. PNW geology is the best. Just subscribed.
Thanks for joining. I hope you enjoy exploring the existing videos while I work on new ones. My style is pretty informal and largely unscripted but the knowledge and enthusiasm are hopefully engaging.
Thanks Shawn for the lecture, I've learned a lot of geology from you. I was reading about Yellowstone at its USGS site and they're not concerned about a caldera eruption at all. Their biggest fear is a big quake like Hebgen Lake's 1959 7.2 quake or a big phreatic eruption like what made several lakes there. I guess a phreatic eruption is why some earthquake swarms are watched carefully, but most are tectonic. I think a New Mexico basaltic eruption is more likely than one in Idaho, but I live here so that's just hopefulness.
Thank you for this presentation. Answered a few other "wonderings" that I've had. I've had so little visual of the geology that developed/occurred within the US as I've been in Wisc. most of my life. Lived in Wyo for 5 1/2 yrs. (by my 2 sons) and have visited them and their area over 25 yrs. Currently, I purchased the Roadside Geology of Idaho co-authored by you. It should be fasinating.
I really enjoyed this presentation especially as I am going to southern Idaho right now. I look forward to seeing some Vitrophyre on the US 95 near the brake check area/overlook south of Nampa. I finally know what that big black rock is. I found that this lecture answered a lot of questions for me. I have about rhyolite and I have watched a lot of your other videos and have learned a great deal from you.
Took a awesome geological trip and never left the house!!! So in depth and so thourough in plain english. Great Teacher, love your vids. Another channel said: THERE IS A DIKE FORMING IN IDAHO THE MAGMA CHAMBER THAT FEEDS YELLOWSTONE ! ??????? Questions Hence why i found the vid you made. Im already subscribed. Watched and hooked to the end. Learning everyday absorbing new info . Cant thank you enough, proffesor. Hats off to you 😊
Fantastic presentation. I wish I had been aware of your channel several years back when my wife and I would make annual trips to Picabo, MacKay, and the surrounding area. I just about ran my wife crazy with non-stop, " I wonder what caused that" or " I wonder how long ago all of this occurred." We were in Picabo when, sadly, the two ladies got lost at Craters of the Moon and perished. It was during the shutdown of 2013 I believe. Bring a compass and plenty of water. Island Park is another one of my favorite destinations. Gorgeous and interesting country. The caldera is huge. The last time in the Ketchum area the ladies relaxed in The Wood river where hot water boiled up in the river...so weird, freezing cold river water then all of a sudden hot water almost too hot to sit in. Are you familiar with the Valles Caldera in NM? If so what are the chances of another eruption from it? As I understand it, it was a huge, violent eruption, leaving a 14-mile-wide caldera and completely obliterating the cone. Sorry for the length of this but I am so excited to finally hear a geologist cover the area that is so fond of my heart. Thank you for your patience.
Wonderful presentation would be very interested in learning how Ash created teepee rocks, blacktail reservoir near the entrance has same thing I drive by it all the time and it's been a source of frustration trying to figure it out thank you
I bet most people don't know that Idaho's eastern border was supposed to be the Continental Divide. What happened was a certain group of people found gold and silver in Virginia City and surrounding area along with the metals at Butte. That group spent a bunch of money to move the border to the top of the Bitterroot Range. I have seen many of the places you talked about. I am amazed at all the lava fields across the state. I plan on going to the northern part of Idaho this year. I have never gotten there even though I lived in the Btterroot Valley in the 60's and early 70's. Enjoy your videos and thanks again for the Bruneau video!
Fantastic presentation. I 5h8nk i might see the beginning of the first book on the Bonneville Flood... I have commented before about features that are different, but to a layman can appear similar. To that end, if i had seen the Slackwater Ripples wothout your explanation, icwould have thought it was lamellae.
Please, take Missoula.... signed, an eastern Montanan :) It's really astonishing how much of the continent's subsurface is basalt flows. Life was tough in that open-air BBQ ;)
Hey Shawn, this is very informative and super interesting, and you deliver nice and clear. I hope you retrieved your daughter and her friend out of the pot hole before you left 😂. Thanks for your time Shawn. Jim from Dartford UK
Thanks for learning with me and your compliment. I did a few live streams in December on the Mauna Loa eruptions in Hawaii and one on the M6.4 quake in California. I am up for doing more. Let me know what topic you are interested in and I'll see what I can do.
What a wonderful presentation to an obviously very active geology group. Over the years, I've been to each Idaho region. Your introduction to the state is very helpful. I've been many years ago to Craters of the Moon. I have, in recent years, heard about the hot spot being crossed by the North American continent. This really went into the kind of depth I have wanted to learn about the hot spot locations. I have also heard about mammoth lakes in CA being either a super volcano or from a hot spot. I'm wondering if it would at one time have been over the Yellowstone hot spot as these Idaho locations were. I have learned so very much from this video. I had been debating about your geology underfoot book. So today I have ordered it. I have 3 of the roadside series books. I may soon add Idaho to that collection. Between my buying geology and my daughter bringing history and anthropology books from her college electives, I have quite the stack of books to read. Thanks very much for this video. I love your field videos, but I would also enjoy more of this type of video.
Let me know what you think of Geology Underfoot in Southern Idaho. It was a long slog but a real labor of love. Hope you can visit some of the locations discussed in the vignettes. The new Roadside Geology of Idaho book is great too and valuable when traveling Idaho's roads. If you want a signed copy, you can order one here: shawn-willsey.square.site/
New to your presentations and knowledge of our mother earth, thank you. I live in Duck Valley here on the Idaho Nevada border. I d would like to know more about the caldera/volcano that sits above the town of Owyhee Nevada. We are very grateful to you
Then I'll tell you what. I drive back and forth a lot from Nampa Idaho to Burley Idaho it is great to hear you explain the valley the plane and what's around you have opens up my eyes and my mind to more that's around that I want explorer. Saying that thank you very much
The Idaho / Montana state line does not follow the Continental Divide Lost Trail Pass is where the surveyor was paid to lose his trail The original intent was to follow the Continental Divide
Thank you so much for your video. I get to the Yellowstone area quite often as my former boss has property on the Henrys fork near Mack’s in. One question I have is the kings bowl is it a maar crater? I visited some of these craters in north eastern Baja Mexico a number of years ago. In the Pinatubo (sp) volcanic field . The interpretation at the time was very similar to your description a crater formed by the interaction of basaltic lava and ground water
No King's Bowl is not a maar. I'm not sure how I would label it as it was a fissure eruption that at some point, interacted briefly with groundwater, producing explosive conditions that reamed the fissure wider and threw blocks of rocks around the vent.
I was born in Sun Valley, and have always wondered about a lot of the geology of the Mammoth ice caves. Has there been any studies done on it that I may look into?
10:06 I’m curious: it seems more likely that the two portions of the basin and range remain connected, but due to erosion, the SRP has set on top a superficial erosion horizon. I will investigate your assertion further!
Excellent talk Shawn. Of course much of the geology was familiar having previously visited there with you on your video field trips and this one today has been a very pleasureable recap. There was an interesting question asking why the Rhyolite gets its red colouring..... I learned recently about a mineral called Sanidine, a high temperature equivalent of K-spar which supposedly gives Rhyolite its red/ pinkish colour.....Your thoughts on this theory ??
Could be. Or could be oxidation of iron. While felsic rocks like rhyolite have less iron than mafic rocks, there is still enough for oxidation to impart a color. But some potassium feldspar minerals (like microcline or orthoclase) are pink in color. Sanidine is colorless to white so it will not make the rock red/pink.
Maybe you can go down and do a look around at the Centennial March Conservation Area just North of Nevada in the Sagebrush Flats for a dried up agricultural site that predates modern times. Keep up the good descriptive videos. I enjoy the trips of you going since I can't afford to just drive where ever any more. Sharing with my home schooling family for geology.
@07:04 I was thinking... what is that future eastern Idaho? I see eastern Oregon trying to become greater Idaho for all good reasons that make sense, but I had not heard of this.
The tribal name Shoshone (pronounced 'show-show-nee') came from their word for tall grasses, 'sosoni.' I find it interesting that Idahoans leave off the final 'e' sound, opting instead for 'show-shone,' especially considering that the Shoshone tribe lives primarily in the Idaho/Nevada/Utah/Wyoming area, i.e. along the Snake River.
So you never talked about the extensive lava tubes which we navigated underground for many meters when we visited the Craters of the Moon park many years ago. Is it possible for lava tubes to form in flood basalts or are they only formed in or near shield volcanos (because of the slope).
As for why the heat source is still there in the snake river plain from the papers I was introduced to via Nick Zentner's previous A to Z livestream series on the crazy Eocene and Baja BC and the rabbit hole chain of the literature that followed it appears that like Iceland the Yellowstone hotspot had been located along the East Pacific Rise prior to both of them becoming overridden by North America which can be seen in the chemical signature of the accreted oceanic plateau known as Siletzia and Yakutat which are now understood to be two pieces of the former ridge line plateau out in the Pacific ocean. From seismic tomography of the upper mantle the thermal upwelling signature of slow sheer velocity propagation can still be observed below the western US where it ultimately connects the Juan De Fuca Ridge to Yellowstone and the East Pacific Rise as it cuts through northern California, south eastern Oregon, Idaho Colorado, western Texas New Mexico and Arizona in the process with the junction around Yellowstone looking very similar to what is seen around Iceland and the Azores respectively. Notably this pretty much perfectly underlies the Basin and Range and the Colorado Plateau with all the fast sheer velocity anomalies being confined to the north and east of this boundary and the clockwise rotation of the crust being seen along this region and the Cascadia Subduction zone which are both more or less anchored to the East Pacific Rise frame of reference. The consequence of all this is that the Yellowstone plume is not simple the snake river plain remains the easiest outlet for the plume material though the heat flux of the plume appears to be melting through the subducted slabs on the underside of North America and melting/tearing off the section of the former North American craton known as the Colorado Plateau it will probably erupt more lava into Idaho again in the future. The East Pacific Rise is practically a hotspot on its own even discounting Yellowstone as the thermal discontinuity extends deep into the mantle and it is currently the fastest spreading ridge on Earth with a spreading rate depending on location of 6-16 cm (3-6 in) annually. In fact the overlay of recent Basin and Range volcanism is an extremely good fit for the underlying ridge continuous discontinuity with older volcanism matching up with this boundary in time as North America has moved over the ridge. In this newer emerging picture I can't help but speculate that the otherwise mysterious geologically recent reactivation of the New Madrid and adjacent reactivated old faults of the midwestern US might be connected to the strain of this deep mantle structure pushing up against the old North American Craton as it continues to get pulled southwest up and over the EPR/YSHS frame. I mean it is kind of like the way rivers cut through a river plain just flipped on the side as the "river" is a heat flux of the hot spot and the continent is moving over it. That can't be kind to the craton!
A few summers ago I went up passed Anderson Ranch and along Fall Creek and came across a ton of lava rocks. Is there an old volcano in this area or is it part of the Snake River Plains volcanos?
Where is Fall Creek at? I've been in that area a bit. There are several volcanoes and basalt lava flows a few miles downstream of dam and around the town of Prairie.
@@shawnwillsey Between Prairie and Trinity mountains. I was somewhere between there and the reservoir. I want to say it is somewhere near forest road 103 or 159. Near Trinity Mountain Rd.
Thank you for the great presentation! There is one thing I would like to get straight in my mind. Ignimbrite. Please confirm or correct my understanding of it. As the ash and debris flow down the side of the volcano, the already hot matter further heats through the friction of all of it rubbing together heats it enough for it to melt and fuse. The entire mass, while moving, acts as a fluid and follows the laws of fluid dynamics. As it slows and cools it solidifies into a solid mass with some of the rocks and minerals within the mass changed structurally and chemically. Is that pretty close? Prior to this I thought ignimbrite was a rock, in the same manner that granite and dolomite are separate forms of rock.
QUESTION: I thought Basin and Range stretch/extension was fairly exclusively W to E, not N-S. Please explain in more detail especially how/why the N-S extension is occurring. Thank you! So much! (Biochemist - UCLA hoping to earn a PhD in GeoChemistry tho I would settle for a Masters but I’ve already been collecting masters so I’ve set my sights on my PhD and I would be happy with just Geology though I am brilliant at chemistry! I need help with where to apply. I live in So Cal and prefer warm weather and my finances need quite desperate help as well! Help with ideas if you can please! Much obliged! (PS my favorite hiking and exploring place is the Lassen National Volcanic Center! It’s MY volcanoes! Much to the chagrin of the NPS. Hahahahaha thank you!!!!
Rhyolite is primarily made up of light colored siliceous plagioclase feldspars, quartz, and muscovite mica, with very little dark mafic minerals (amphiboles, biotite mica, and hornblende-a type of amphibole), which is why it's usually so light in color.
It's interesting that McDermitt caldera isn't buried in basalt. The caldera is, what, ~16 million years old, and is quite visible by satellite and topo maps.
If the last three eruptions all overlap each other would that indicate the plate is stuck? If the plate sits over a hot spot, and the prior eruptions indicate the plates position OVER the hotspot at the time of eruption, that would seem to indicate the plate itself is somehow 'stuck' which would allow for multiple eruptions to occur in one spot. Just a theory of course. Be a hell of a whollup if it were true and the plate jolted.
Lewis & Clark pronounced Shoshone with a long e sound. How do we know you ask? Because they wrote it "Shoshonee" with two e's. So then why do some pronounce it as Sho-shown'? Is it because different Shoshone people pronounced it differently?
All very good questions and something I faced this past summer when I was in Shoshone Canyon near Cody, WY. Everyone in southern Idaho calls Shoshone Falls "show-shown" but up in WY it is "Show-show-knee" I try to adopt whatever the local pronunciation is.
I live in idaho falls and have been a prospector/rockhound and lapidary artist for about 3 and a half years now and frankly people really underestimate this general area. There is still so much that hasnt been explored thoroughly and so much still to find and just SO much mineralogical diversity. Like in the past three years ive found what im pretty sure is a kimberlite pipe and a previously undiscovered fossil bed with fossils of large vertebrates(as well as amber and all sorts of neat stuff)… So much so that finding any help or figuring it all out by myself has been very challenging… but yea idaho is basically the most mineralogically diverse place on earth and i think we also have the greatest rate of mineralogical dispersion, and maybe the most complete fossil record(not positive about that one though).
I don't care what evening company you're entertaining, what party you're at, or who your audience is, saying "rhyolitic ignimbrite" is going to be a hit! 😁
Challenge accepted
Agreed. I’m going to start telling people my actual hobbies now when they ask. Eg, i’m really into terrane wcretion prior to seletzia. Fun to see the look on their faces
"Rheomorphic ignimbrite" would be an even bigger hit. 😎
@@winkydink2162 😂 Well obviously! If you're not looking to just be cool at the party, but to also get lucky!
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with the world. I am a stay at home mom you are teaching me so much and it’s free. I watch the ads for you. Thank you so much for your time. You are truly a good teacher.🌞🌞🌞 I live vicariously through your travels
Thanks for your kind comments and I'm glad that you enjoy learning with me. Be sure to share your knowledge with your kids. Pay it forward!
I was a stay at home mom, and I am still a homemaker. I wouldn't trade my memories for anything, and it's wonderful to have the freedom with my time to pursue my passions. The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. Good for you, and I wish you the very best for all your days. God bless you! :)
I feel very Blessed to have been able to raise my children 🪬and spend time together. My children are now grown and I have time to follow and study my interest 🌞 I’ve always had dreams of Egypt and Painted Rocks ( unsure the connect ?) but I have always wanted to stand next to these beautiful rock formations 🗿🗿🗿🪬🪬🪬🌞🌞🌞 and one day I shall - till then I listen learn and follow our teacher 📚Thank You Mr. Willsey
With all the hyperbole click bait on YT, it's so great to find presentations like this! Thanks for all the great work you are doing. There are far too many sapiens on this planet that are disconnected from our planet and universe with little to no understanding of it.
Thank you and I couldn't agree with you more. Glad you liked this.
1:06:20 - 1:06:40 THAT is the single biggest reason why I keep coming back to your presentations, Shawn. Fundamentally you're a teacher, and the layman wants to understand the story in terms they can get their head around. That is SO important. People like me aren't going to remember all of the words and descriptions inherent in geo-chemistry but they can certainly absorb the story behind how these landscapes came to be and accept the facts you present that prove that it happened that way. You're a great _teacher,_ Shawn, lots of geologists out there on UA-cam trying to present this stuff but only two or three who are approachable enough to make it _understood_ by the layperson and you're one of them.
Well said 🌞
Thanks for the compliment, Brian. I do pride myself in making the Earth's stories, processes, and wonders accessible to EVERYONE. My books and now UA-cam channel are an extension of that philosophy. Your kind words convey exactly what I am trying to accomplish.
I totally agree!
I grew up in Arco and I remember going to the Craters on field trips. It fascinated and scared the crap out of me at the same time. Ever since then I've had a fascination with volcanoes. It's nice to see someone based in Idaho talking about the unique geology of the area.
Thank you so Much Shawn. I am now planning a trip to Idaho as soon as I can.
This is so fascinating! I wrote my dissertation on hotspots 40+years ago when at Manchester University, UK and this is such a great example of hotspot evolution over tens of millions of years. Just brilliant Shawn. Thankyou.
Wow! That's awesome. Glad to bring it all full circle.
Great video . Wish I had seen this before I took a bike tour out of Twin Falls, to Sun Valley , Stanley, war o and back to Twin Falls, great tour! Thanks!
As I've driven through the west I've often wondered how the landscape features came about. Sean your videos are exactly what I've needed. Thank you. Now I have to get back to Idaho and explore these sites. Saw Shoshone falls last year on my road trip to the Canadian Rockies.
Several Summers ago, my husband and I went Geocaching in and around The Craters of the Moon. It was facinating learning about this area.
Masterful presentation that is engaging on so many levels. Very well organized. Loved "future eastern Idaho."
Well said @David k. ✌
Very interesting. Makes me want to visit Idaho again now that I know so many of the cool features. Thank you.
Great video! A lot of work goes into these videos. Always appreciated! Thanks for sharing! 😊
Thanks!
Well done. What you presented was a nice addition to what I have learned, so far, about the fascinating geomorphology of the northwestern continental U S. Amazing area. Thank you
Thanks!
Thanks so much for your kind and generous support. It is very appreciated.
@@shawnwillsey I appreciate your sessions so much!!
Thanks Shawn from up north in CDA. Love your videos. Very educational.
Thank you, you added in so many cool details which made this so very interesting. I have some familiarity with the area from having lived and worked there but never have had such great teaching as this.
You are very welcome. Thank you for your kind compliments.
Great presentation! I really enjoyed it. I'm a homemaker, and I like to learn everything I can about the natural world. Geology and volcanism are among my favorite subjects.
Another great video. The explanation of the stages of the hotspot and how these explain what is going on atop and beneath the snake river plane, was great.
I've been trying to understand that for years.
I took a class on National Park geology 40 years ago and really took to it. Been an interest of mine since. Love your presentation skills and knowledge base. Lived in Mountain Home as a kid and now live in Washington state. PNW geology is the best. Just subscribed.
Thanks for joining. I hope you enjoy exploring the existing videos while I work on new ones. My style is pretty informal and largely unscripted but the knowledge and enthusiasm are hopefully engaging.
I love the geology and microbiology of hot springs!
Thanks Shawn for the lecture, I've learned a lot of geology from you. I was reading about Yellowstone at its USGS site and they're not concerned about a caldera eruption at all. Their biggest fear is a big quake like Hebgen Lake's 1959 7.2 quake or a big phreatic eruption like what made several lakes there. I guess a phreatic eruption is why some earthquake swarms are watched carefully, but most are tectonic.
I think a New Mexico basaltic eruption is more likely than one in Idaho, but I live here so that's just hopefulness.
Eruption at or near Craters of the Moon is Idaho's most likely scenario.
Really great presentation Shawn! I’m in the Twin Cities area and always wondered about the far future location of Yellowstone.
I just moved to twin falls from western Washington, it's very interesting to have come across your channel!
Welcome to southern Idaho. Stop by CSI sometime and say hi.
Remembering a number of popular stops on the way to see the American eclipse. Great overview thank you.
Thanks Shawn, amazing stuff and really cool...
Very interesting Shawn, "Volcanoes build mountains - super volcanoes erase them." That is quite evident in the Snake River Plain. Thanks!
Great presentation.
Another great video!!
Simply fascinating!
Thank you very much.
I'm from the area and have never noticed nor heard of Black Magic Canyon. Good stuff, good sir.
Very well done! Thanks
Very helpful overview.
absolutely love your maps n graphics. ❤
thx for the excellent presentation 👍
Thanks. These presentations are a little more scripted and polished than my field videos.
Thank you for this presentation. Answered a few other "wonderings" that I've had. I've had so little visual of the geology that developed/occurred within the US as I've been in Wisc. most of my life. Lived in Wyo for 5 1/2 yrs. (by my 2 sons) and have visited them and their area over 25 yrs. Currently, I purchased the Roadside Geology of Idaho co-authored by you. It should be fasinating.
Hope you enjoy the book!
Brilliant! Thank you!!
You're very welcome!
Admirable knowledge.
Very interesting and informative enjoyed video..💛🇨🇦🇺🇲💛
I really enjoyed this presentation especially as I am going to southern Idaho right now. I look forward to seeing some Vitrophyre on the US 95 near the brake check area/overlook south of Nampa. I finally know what that big black rock is. I found that this lecture answered a lot of questions for me. I have about rhyolite and I have watched a lot of your other videos and have learned a great deal from you.
Thank you for a)l the information!
Took a awesome geological trip and never left the house!!!
So in depth and so thourough in plain english. Great Teacher, love your vids.
Another channel said:
THERE IS A DIKE FORMING IN IDAHO THE MAGMA CHAMBER THAT FEEDS YELLOWSTONE !
??????? Questions
Hence why i found the vid you made. Im already subscribed.
Watched and hooked to the end. Learning everyday absorbing new info .
Cant thank you enough, proffesor. Hats off to you 😊
Welcome aboard and enjoy the existing videos.
Fantastic presentation. I wish I had been aware of your channel several years back when my wife and I would make annual trips to Picabo, MacKay, and the surrounding area. I just about ran my wife crazy with non-stop, " I wonder what caused that" or " I wonder how long ago all of this occurred." We were in Picabo when, sadly, the two ladies got lost at Craters of the Moon and perished. It was during the shutdown of 2013 I believe. Bring a compass and plenty of water.
Island Park is another one of my favorite destinations. Gorgeous and interesting country. The caldera is huge. The last time in the Ketchum area the ladies relaxed in The Wood river where hot water boiled up in the river...so weird, freezing cold river water then all of a sudden hot water almost too hot to sit in.
Are you familiar with the Valles Caldera in NM? If so what are the chances of another eruption from it? As I understand it, it was a huge, violent eruption, leaving a 14-mile-wide caldera and completely obliterating the cone. Sorry for the length of this but I am so excited to finally hear a geologist cover the area that is so fond of my heart. Thank you for your patience.
Nice 👍🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂 video
Wonderful presentation would be very interested in learning how Ash created teepee rocks, blacktail reservoir near the entrance has same thing I drive by it all the time and it's been a source of frustration trying to figure it out thank you
Teepee Rocks is on my list. Waiting for snow and rain to let up so roads are passable.
I bet most people don't know that Idaho's eastern border was supposed to be the Continental Divide. What happened was a certain group of people found gold and silver in Virginia City and surrounding area along with the metals at Butte. That group spent a bunch of money to move the border to the top of the Bitterroot Range.
I have seen many of the places you talked about. I am amazed at all the lava fields across the state. I plan on going to the northern part of Idaho this year. I have never gotten there even though I lived in the Btterroot Valley in the 60's and early 70's.
Enjoy your videos and thanks again for the Bruneau video!
Very cool insights. Thanks for sharing.
'Rhyo-' from the Greek 'rhuax,' lava flow. And '-lite' from the Greek, suffix meaning 'rock.'
Fantastic presentation. I 5h8nk i might see the beginning of the first book on the Bonneville Flood...
I have commented before about features that are different, but to a layman can appear similar. To that end, if i had seen the Slackwater Ripples wothout your explanation, icwould have thought it was lamellae.
Hi learning alot, when on your walks do jpu ever see geodes, that would be really cool, thankhou for all your hard eork
ua-cam.com/video/L8Kcv3ambx0/v-deo.html
Please, take Missoula.... signed, an eastern Montanan :)
It's really astonishing how much of the continent's subsurface is basalt flows. Life was tough in that open-air BBQ ;)
Hey Shawn, this is very informative and super interesting, and you deliver nice and clear. I hope you retrieved your daughter and her friend out of the pot hole before you left 😂. Thanks for your time Shawn. Jim from Dartford UK
Do you do any live feed lectures? I would be interested. BTW love your content, keep it up I'm a fan
Thanks for learning with me and your compliment. I did a few live streams in December on the Mauna Loa eruptions in Hawaii and one on the M6.4 quake in California. I am up for doing more. Let me know what topic you are interested in and I'll see what I can do.
What a wonderful presentation to an obviously very active geology group. Over the years, I've been to each Idaho region. Your introduction to the state is very helpful. I've been many years ago to Craters of the Moon. I have, in recent years, heard about the hot spot being crossed by the North American continent. This really went into the kind of depth I have wanted to learn about the hot spot locations. I have also heard about mammoth lakes in CA being either a super volcano or from a hot spot. I'm wondering if it would at one time have been over the Yellowstone hot spot as these Idaho locations were. I have learned so very much from this video. I had been debating about your geology underfoot book. So today I have ordered it. I have 3 of the roadside series books. I may soon add Idaho to that collection. Between my buying geology and my daughter bringing history and anthropology books from her college electives, I have quite the stack of books to read. Thanks very much for this video. I love your field videos, but I would also enjoy more of this type of video.
Let me know what you think of Geology Underfoot in Southern Idaho. It was a long slog but a real labor of love. Hope you can visit some of the locations discussed in the vignettes. The new Roadside Geology of Idaho book is great too and valuable when traveling Idaho's roads. If you want a signed copy, you can order one here: shawn-willsey.square.site/
so much for the golf course!
New to your presentations and knowledge of our mother earth, thank you. I live in Duck Valley here on the Idaho Nevada border. I d would like to know more about the caldera/volcano that sits above the town of Owyhee Nevada. We are very grateful to you
Shawn keep up the good works. I love geology as well.
Then I'll tell you what. I drive back and forth a lot from Nampa Idaho to Burley Idaho it is great to hear you explain the valley the plane and what's around you have opens up my eyes and my mind to more that's around that I want explorer. Saying that thank you very much
Awesome. Hope it makes your driving along I-84 a bit more interesting.
Interesting.
This was a banger
I've been cracking up over (Future Eastern Idaho) for a solid five minutes.
Hey you touched on a bit of mn. Would love to see a full video on it.
The Idaho / Montana state line does not follow the Continental Divide
Lost Trail Pass is where the surveyor was paid to lose his trail
The original intent was to follow the Continental Divide
Thank you so much for your video. I get to the Yellowstone area quite often as my former boss has property on the Henrys fork near Mack’s in. One question I have is the kings bowl is it a maar crater? I visited some of these craters in north eastern Baja Mexico a number of years ago. In the Pinatubo (sp) volcanic field . The interpretation at the time was very similar to your description a crater formed by the interaction of basaltic lava and ground water
No King's Bowl is not a maar. I'm not sure how I would label it as it was a fissure eruption that at some point, interacted briefly with groundwater, producing explosive conditions that reamed the fissure wider and threw blocks of rocks around the vent.
I was born in Sun Valley, and have always wondered about a lot of the geology of the Mammoth ice caves. Has there been any studies done on it that I may look into?
Hmm. Not that I am aware of. It is a lava tube in a basalt lava flow like many others in the Snake River Plain.
Evil Knivel put the Snake River on the map! What was the geology where he almost bit the dust?
10:06 I’m curious: it seems more likely that the two portions of the basin and range remain connected, but due to erosion, the SRP has set on top a superficial erosion horizon. I will investigate your assertion further!
Excellent talk Shawn. Of course much of the geology was familiar having previously visited there with you on your video field trips and this one today has been a very pleasureable recap.
There was an interesting question asking why the Rhyolite gets its red colouring..... I learned recently about a mineral called Sanidine, a high temperature equivalent of K-spar which supposedly gives Rhyolite its red/ pinkish colour.....Your thoughts on this theory ??
Could be. Or could be oxidation of iron. While felsic rocks like rhyolite have less iron than mafic rocks, there is still enough for oxidation to impart a color. But some potassium feldspar minerals (like microcline or orthoclase) are pink in color. Sanidine is colorless to white so it will not make the rock red/pink.
I can use this info for a similar formation around 400 my large rhyolite formation in eastern Victoria. Thank you.
Maybe you can go down and do a look around at the Centennial March Conservation Area just North of Nevada in the Sagebrush Flats for a dried up agricultural site that predates modern times. Keep up the good descriptive videos. I enjoy the trips of you going since I can't afford to just drive where ever any more. Sharing with my home schooling family for geology.
Thanks for sharing with others. Much appreciated.
Yellowstone will not move but will just get colder.
@07:04 I was thinking... what is that future eastern Idaho? I see eastern Oregon trying to become greater Idaho for all good reasons that make sense, but I had not heard of this.
WOW! I look at Idaho so differently now!
They are working on our state's Roadside Geology revisions now. Hopefully soon.
Has any one done a video on roadside geological look into the southfork of the Clearwater river east of Grangeville from kamaha to Elkcity.
Idaho highway 14 is featured in a book I co-wrote, Roadside Geology of Idaho. Should help you with info in that area.
@@shawnwillsey Thank you .
The tribal name Shoshone (pronounced 'show-show-nee') came from their word for tall grasses, 'sosoni.' I find it interesting that Idahoans leave off the final 'e' sound, opting instead for 'show-shone,' especially considering that the Shoshone tribe lives primarily in the Idaho/Nevada/Utah/Wyoming area, i.e. along the Snake River.
Thanks for clearing that up. I always pronounced it Sho sho nee until I went to the falls last year and was corrected.
So you never talked about the extensive lava tubes which we navigated underground for many meters when we visited the Craters of the Moon park many years ago. Is it possible for lava tubes to form in flood basalts or are they only formed in or near shield volcanos (because of the slope).
As for why the heat source is still there in the snake river plain from the papers I was introduced to via Nick Zentner's previous A to Z livestream series on the crazy Eocene and Baja BC and the rabbit hole chain of the literature that followed it appears that like Iceland the Yellowstone hotspot had been located along the East Pacific Rise prior to both of them becoming overridden by North America which can be seen in the chemical signature of the accreted oceanic plateau known as Siletzia and Yakutat which are now understood to be two pieces of the former ridge line plateau out in the Pacific ocean.
From seismic tomography of the upper mantle the thermal upwelling signature of slow sheer velocity propagation can still be observed below the western US where it ultimately connects the Juan De Fuca Ridge to Yellowstone and the East Pacific Rise as it cuts through northern California, south eastern Oregon, Idaho Colorado, western Texas New Mexico and Arizona in the process with the junction around Yellowstone looking very similar to what is seen around Iceland and the Azores respectively. Notably this pretty much perfectly underlies the Basin and Range and the Colorado Plateau with all the fast sheer velocity anomalies being confined to the north and east of this boundary and the clockwise rotation of the crust being seen along this region and the Cascadia Subduction zone which are both more or less anchored to the East Pacific Rise frame of reference.
The consequence of all this is that the Yellowstone plume is not simple the snake river plain remains the easiest outlet for the plume material though the heat flux of the plume appears to be melting through the subducted slabs on the underside of North America and melting/tearing off the section of the former North American craton known as the Colorado Plateau it will probably erupt more lava into Idaho again in the future.
The East Pacific Rise is practically a hotspot on its own even discounting Yellowstone as the thermal discontinuity extends deep into the mantle and it is currently the fastest spreading ridge on Earth with a spreading rate depending on location of 6-16 cm (3-6 in) annually. In fact the overlay of recent Basin and Range volcanism is an extremely good fit for the underlying ridge continuous discontinuity with older volcanism matching up with this boundary in time as North America has moved over the ridge.
In this newer emerging picture I can't help but speculate that the otherwise mysterious geologically recent reactivation of the New Madrid and adjacent reactivated old faults of the midwestern US might be connected to the strain of this deep mantle structure pushing up against the old North American Craton as it continues to get pulled southwest up and over the EPR/YSHS frame.
I mean it is kind of like the way rivers cut through a river plain just flipped on the side as the "river" is a heat flux of the hot spot and the continent is moving over it. That can't be kind to the craton!
A few summers ago I went up passed Anderson Ranch and along Fall Creek and came across a ton of lava rocks. Is there an old volcano in this area or is it part of the Snake River Plains volcanos?
Where is Fall Creek at? I've been in that area a bit. There are several volcanoes and basalt lava flows a few miles downstream of dam and around the town of Prairie.
@@shawnwillsey Between Prairie and Trinity mountains. I was somewhere between there and the reservoir. I want to say it is somewhere near forest road 103 or 159. Near Trinity Mountain Rd.
Thank you for the great presentation! There is one thing I would like to get straight in my mind. Ignimbrite. Please confirm or correct my understanding of it. As the ash and debris flow down the side of the volcano, the already hot matter further heats through the friction of all of it rubbing together heats it enough for it to melt and fuse. The entire mass, while moving, acts as a fluid and follows the laws of fluid dynamics. As it slows and cools it solidifies into a solid mass with some of the rocks and minerals within the mass changed structurally and chemically. Is that pretty close? Prior to this I thought ignimbrite was a rock, in the same manner that granite and dolomite are separate forms of rock.
Ignimbrite is not a rock type. It is the term for a pyroclastic flow deposit and can include several resulting rock types.
@@shawnwillsey Thank you!
Is the curvature of the Snake River Plain due to North America rotating through time, of the rotation of the Basin and Range province?
No. Western SRP is a graben, caused by faulting.
QUESTION: I thought Basin and Range stretch/extension was fairly exclusively W to E, not N-S. Please explain in more detail especially how/why the N-S extension is occurring. Thank you! So much! (Biochemist - UCLA hoping to earn a PhD in GeoChemistry tho I would settle for a Masters but I’ve already been collecting masters so I’ve set my sights on my PhD and I would be happy with just Geology though I am brilliant at chemistry! I need help with where to apply. I live in So Cal and prefer warm weather and my finances need quite desperate help as well! Help with ideas if you can please! Much obliged! (PS my favorite hiking and exploring place is the Lassen National Volcanic Center! It’s MY volcanoes! Much to the chagrin of the NPS. Hahahahaha thank you!!!!
Rhyolite is primarily made up of light colored siliceous plagioclase feldspars, quartz, and muscovite mica, with very little dark mafic minerals (amphiboles, biotite mica, and hornblende-a type of amphibole), which is why it's usually so light in color.
The potholes mentioned in Taylor’s Falls MN were a product of the mid-continent rift.
20:32 so the theory is the SRP is a linear remnant of a caldera? Wow.
Yes, in a way. Think of the hot spot as a blowtorch that obliterates the pre-existing landscape and rocks.
It's interesting that McDermitt caldera isn't buried in basalt. The caldera is, what, ~16 million years old, and is quite visible by satellite and topo maps.
Best candidates for 535 AC volcanic winter when Constantine ruled?
This guy explains things well, and his public speaking is engaging. Sorry, Idaho, but he needs to have a wider audience.
If the last three eruptions all overlap each other would that indicate the plate is stuck? If the plate sits over a hot spot, and the prior eruptions indicate the plates position OVER the hotspot at the time of eruption, that would seem to indicate the plate itself is somehow 'stuck' which would allow for multiple eruptions to occur in one spot. Just a theory of course. Be a hell of a whollup if it were true and the plate jolted.
Who thought that something this interesting could happened outside of New York City 😂
Lewis & Clark pronounced Shoshone with a long e sound. How do we know you ask? Because they wrote it "Shoshonee" with two e's. So then why do some pronounce it as Sho-shown'? Is it because different Shoshone people pronounced it differently?
All very good questions and something I faced this past summer when I was in Shoshone Canyon near Cody, WY. Everyone in southern Idaho calls Shoshone Falls "show-shown" but up in WY it is "Show-show-knee" I try to adopt whatever the local pronunciation is.
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Once the Hotspot reaches northern MN, I think it'll reactivate the failed rift that gave us the iron range
immagine a rain of ash that turns to moving lava, probably at a thousand miles an hour... over miles and miles.
Hi
There is much research done and knowledge gathered about Yellowstone but who can explain sulfur tributaries over 200 miles away ?
:)
Are u icelandic or so.ewhere else? Let's stop booking promotions?
I live in idaho falls and have been a prospector/rockhound and lapidary artist for about 3 and a half years now and frankly people really underestimate this general area. There is still so much that hasnt been explored thoroughly and so much still to find and just SO much mineralogical diversity.
Like in the past three years ive found what im pretty sure is a kimberlite pipe and a previously undiscovered fossil bed with fossils of large vertebrates(as well as amber and all sorts of neat stuff)… So much so that finding any help or figuring it all out by myself has been very challenging… but yea idaho is basically the most mineralogically diverse place on earth and i think we also have the greatest rate of mineralogical dispersion, and maybe the most complete fossil record(not positive about that one though).