Within large stretches of Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico is an alien-like landscape that marks the setting of almost every Western film AND ROADRUNNER CARTOON in existence. There, fixed it.
1 of the many reasons why I love living in the SW is the geology. Living in AZ I have learned so much about our state but heading north you can see the changes going from the desert into the Colorado Plateau. Last year we purchased a home in Cedar City UT and this summer I plan on learning more about the geology there. It is such a beautiful part of UT . Thank yu for the information.
The Arizona Transition Zone is very interesting, there you get a mix of basin & range, lower desert, volcanic and plateau environments over very few miles.
I’ve lived in Spanish fork Utah all my life and i love its place in north central ish Utah right by the unita mountains/Rocky Mountains is really nice as well and you aren’t awfully far from Arches Manti Zion Bryce Canyonlands St George Kings peak Brighton cedar city midway Salt Lake City price heber city park city and I’ve really been interested in meteor crater impacts astronomy paleontology archaeology geology and Utah has plenty of that with all the exposed rock layers all the Dino fossils dark spots for night sky photos and the upheaval dome crater and Native American history here with all the tribes and archaeological evidence that the first humans entered Utah around 10,000 to 12,000 years ago which is amazing and all the famous dinosaurs that used to walk these lands etc
@@DuneJumper We spend a lot of time on Southern Utah and we love driving up HWY 89 to 89A which crosses the Colorado river valley then up to the North Rim of the GC. You can see where the uplift starts. Just gorgeous.
Have you watched Nick Zentner's lectures on how the Rockies formed? Goes into a lot more detail about the Farallon affected it, the Farallon's folded ribbon fragment under the east coast, as well as how the large chains of archipelagos off the pacific coast accreted and then migrated north along the coast to Alaska. Truly fascinating how it all interacts! Would love to see if you could summarize it all into your style of videos!
I watched the video ( ua-cam.com/video/I9Xk1O17dzg/v-deo.htmlsi=G60pYn-z5CNJTQfT )! Very informative and interesting. It incorporates new information from the new science of mantle tomography.
@@MangosVinylCuts Oh! Could you write back here with the name of that video. He has such a collection of videos now, I sometimes get lost amongst them when looking for a particular one. He has a number of videos in which he talks to greater or lesser extents about this issue. I'd like to be able to watch the one that you specifically mention.
If I remember correctly, the Farralon plate also had Continental Archipelagos that were scraped onto the NA Plate as it subducted. So that might also explain why the Rocky Mountains appear to be so far away from the Boundary - because they didn't used to be THAT far. I think, also, the separation of Pangea that created rifts in New Mexico, (and elsewhere) might have weakened the crust somewhat in the area and favored buckling that would result in mountain building. So, between the Continental Archipelagos, and the Buckling rift, the Colorado Plateau might have just been the slab of crust that was stuck in the middle. Maybe that large area of inactivity is why that lithosphere bubble favored the area?
The exotic terranes in this part of North America only extend eastward to a line from roughly Spokane down through eastern California. There are many terranes and not all are attributed to the JdF (Farallon) plate. The Rockies have always been far from the continental shelf, which is why the hypothesis with the Farallon plate requires flat-slab subduction.
@@TheDanEdwards thank you. I could have been clearer. It was explained to me that the majority of the PNW was from the Farallon Plate - which would explain the Rockys distance from the boundary up that way. But you are right, this far south would require additional explanation. This whole area of the world is so exciting to me. So much history and mystery in its formation.
Yeah there are a n umber of exotic terrains most of which are shifted North outside of the section south of the Siletza terrain which make up most of California. Death Valley area and the rest of those forming Grabens and valleys east of the Sierras if I recall is where you start getting native cratonic material, there are older sections of continental crust further to the west but they are exotic (If I recall correctly it was likely connected to what was either Australia or was it Antarctica? back within the Supercontinent Rodina, but don't quote me on that. The key point is the sate of formation for those igneous and metamorphic core complex rocks matches up with the major mountain building associated with the Assembly of Gondwana a collision which North America was not involved in but I digress.) Anyways a key point to take away from Nick Zentner's A to Z Crazy Eocene and Baja BC series is that the narrative of flat slab Farallon subduction model doesn't fit the data in many respects especially seismic tomography paleomagnetism sedimentary source tracing of zircons and igneous petrological and metamorphic core complex exposure dating. The fact that GeologyHub is still passing this model is kind of sad as while its probably what he learned in school it doesn't fit the evidence anymore(and even back then it relied on ignoring the Paleomagnetic data which wasn't as bad as it sounds due to the then still high uncertainties on Paleomagnetic data but those numbers have been narrowed in in range as the science has matured. There are questions related to how the crust has shifted as no one has found any clear suture points where the translation occurred but it seems more of a situation where there likely wasn't really a single fault driving the translation plate tectonics isn't that neat and tidy. The seismic tomography provides the most visceral explanation for why the flat slab model has to be false since there is a continuous lineament through the upper mantle if not even deeper which lines up with the zone where lithospheric drip is occurring which extends up to Yellowstone in the North where it suddenly sharply heads west(at an angle which seems typical of Oceanic triple Junctions) until just east of the southern Cascades it starts moving southwest through a series of translational offset zones reconnects with the Gouda Ridge off the coast of California and from there the Gouda ridge eventually the Juan de Fuca ridge. The zone also continuous to the south down into New Mexico and Arizona before reconnect with the East Pacific Rise where the same mantle discontinuity continues along the entire extent. Notably the passage of this zone of discontinuity through North America fits like a Glove to the entire Colorado Plateau and Basin and Range Provinces To further bolster the case that the East Pacific Rise is the culprit GPS data shows that every bit of crust within the aforementioned upper mantle discontinuity is currently exhibiting sustained clockwise rotation which has been ongoing for at least 50 million years and which seems roughly coincident with the relative difference in plate motion between the North American and Pacific plates. Yellowstone's arrangement at a triple Junction like spot along the ridge like discontinuity is also supported by the igneous petrology of Siletzia which can be geochemically traced back to 58 Ma out in the ancient Pacific Ocean as a ridge line hotspot like modern Iceland. To add to this we can finally get a mechanism for why the earlier epoch of extension and its resumption had such a long offset since from below it looks clearly like NA has continued southwest over this existing oceanic Juncture and so long as it gets continued to be pulled SW the Juncture where Yellowstone sits continues to carve deep into the Craton and the piling up Subducted slab walls. With this Seismic tomographic information the resumption of uplift 15 Ma can as described in Robert Hildebrand's model be effectively identified as the point where the building strain and upwelling heat flux from below finally became too much for the North American Craton to bear causing the Craton to start tearing itself apart severing the Colorado Plateau from the Continent. This also unlike the flat slab model gives us a geophysical model which can make predictions about the eventual fate of North America, namely that so long as NA keeps moving SW basin and range extension as well as Colorado plateau uplift will continue to extend northwest into the continental interior along existing points of weakness in the crust. This in turn happens to naturally provide an explanation for some observed oddities such as the number of recently reactivated SW NE trending faults through the continent New Madrid and Wabash Valley seismic zones and even the volcanism along the Jemez Lineament. In this picture these faults are all absorbing strain from this primary ridge continent collision as should NA keep on its current trajectory the craton will splinter apart with seismic and eventually volcanic activity propagating eastward. can't help but speculate that the current zones of weakness likely are where they are probably because this process is getting help from the Adirondack hotspot which started to rise around 9~10 million years ago with the bulk of the heat flux located about 2/3's down in the Upper mantle in what looks suspiciously like a mantle plume head naturally suggesting that North America proper is on the verge of beginning to seriously break up.
@@TheDanEdwards There has been a major NW translation for meant terrains but not all of them. Virtually all of California (everything from where the Sierras are in the process of getting ripped off the Continent as the western most crust that is definitively NA is on the East side of the divide. Yes there are older continental rocks to the west but they are surrounded on all sides by exotic terrains and show metamorphosis and igneous intrusions associated with major continental mountain building consistent with the timing of the formation of Gondwana a collision which North America was not involved in. That said even accounting for that the Rocky Mountains are still relatively far to the east and the crustal extension can only account for part of that motion. However there is very strong evidence that this doesn't have to do with the Farallon plate and that is because with Seismic tomography we can see subducted slabs in the mantle slowly sinking and recrystallizing abnormally cold and dens regions in the mantle with still active ones leading straight back to the active oceanic trenches where the current slabs are subducting. This method if we hypothesize that slabs generally sink at a relatively constant rate indicates we can see the active subduction trench history back to the Triassic. The surprising reveal is that there is no subducted slabs west of the eastern margin of the Colorado plateau. To the North of the Snake rive plain we can trace the Farallon back until it connects with the slab wall to the east of the Colorado plateau as well as further to the south where we can trace back the Cocos plate subducting under central America but in between? Nothing except the enormous vertical slow sheer velocity discontinuity within the solid upper mantle which extends to the depths of the planet and connects to ocean ridges wherever it's surface continuity emerges from under North America in both directions, a boundary which also fits the combined Basin and Range and Colorado Plateau like a glove with all of these regions showing GPS data indicating they are moving with respect to NA in a clockwise manner along the relative difference in direction of motion between NA and the Pacific Plates. This is backed up by the dating of igneous and volcanic rocks which suggest NA crossed the eastern most extension of the EPR 50 Ma where there had been a hot spot fed oceanic plateau contemporaneous with its sister ridge line hotspot plateau Iceland both of which have their oldest rocks dating to 58 Ma. Dated in this case via the now discontiguous Northern section known as the Yakutat terrain, rather than the southern section Siletzia which only has rocks that have been able to be dated back to 52 Ma. Crucially both show the mixed elemental signature of a hot spot Ocean Island Basalt source composition with an added mid ocean ridge Basalt component. Since the override there has been no more Farallon plate but the continental crust which has passed over it has been repeatedly extended first by unzipping the Laramide mountains seen via the contemporaneous regional expression of the Tertiary Ignimbrite flare up and the exposure of formerly deep metamorphic core complexes, a trend which can easily be explained if NA has passed over a largely fixed Mid Ocean ridge + Hot Spot deep mantle discontinuity. (I should note for completion that there are two zones of NE-SW trending transform offset slow sheer velocity discontinuities in the upper mantle at the edge of the modern Juan De Fuca plate which connect it and the Gouda microplate to the associated mid ocean ridge continuation. Based on the pattern I suspect this is due to NA dragging the Subduction zones and subsequently pulling the associated ridge sections with the continent.
The Rocky mountains are far from California because of the expansion of the Basin and Range province, not because new land was added onto North America. The High Sierras of California are formed from Volcanic Batholiths formed by volcanos fed by subduction of the Farallon plate that's continuing today in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia.
Sadly this model has been falsified or as one article link on Nick Zentner's A to Z crazy Eocene series put it flab rollback and its variations (which flat slab subduction seems to qualify as) have been overused as filler explanations for any tectonic process near an active boundary we don't fully understand. In this case due to Seismic tomography we can see the Subducted slabs in the mantle and the youngest slab south of the snake river plain is east of the Colorado Plateau down towards Mexico. Instead there is a continuous zone of linear segments within the Mantle which connect directly with the East Pacific Rise as a continuous slow sheer velocity discontinuity when extends deep down into the depths of the planet and the general topological shape of this ridge seems to fit the enclosed Basin and Range and Colorado Plateau like a glove with all the subducted slabs well east of this zone.
@@Dragrath1Nick seems to favor the explanation that a bunch of thrust faults caused the Sevier and Laramide orogenies. There faults were the result of an oceanic plateau or island arc (Wrangellia?) colliding with the North American plate about 100 million years ago, with most of the terranes accreted on to the western margin of North America. He thinks the Farallon flat plate subduction narrative is too young to have caused the Rockies to be uplifted.
Thank you! I have spent my long life wondering how this happened. I listened very closely. Lithospheric drip: well, when something takes a long time to understand, one always needs a surprising mechanism to explain it. I love it.
Could you cover some of the unique geologic features of Western Australia? The Mitchell Plateau, Horizontal falls, and the Prince Regent River would be some good ones!
One of favorite places on Earth, and it's all essentially sedentary rock. Wind, water, volcanics has sculpted this flat, undersea land one exposed, into some of Earth's most beautiful scenery. It's been a controversy, but lifting along with its neighbor has always been the simplest answer for its uplift. It's what I was taught 50 years ago. Tim, great presentation again. Thanks.
Just found your channel, love your content. Also, I love that you sound just like Derry Murbles, the host of “Thoughts for your Thoughts” on Pawnee Public radio from Parks and Rec.
You present this topic as it being well understood and this theory being broadly supported by the geologic community today. Last I heard of it, it was still widely debated. Zentner Baja BC A-Z series a year ago. Any new research papers on this? I live in New Mexico and every day drive by roadcuts which tell part of this story, which I can´t wrap my head around. Just wild! Thanks.
This is quite incredible. I need to try to find more about that lithospheric drop as this is the first time I am hearing about it. it appears to be quite a complex process and it makes me wonder how well we can prove it happened this way. Thanks to bringing this to our attention.
What, a collapsed cave fromed from Karst Topography? Eh, not that interesting in a geology setting. The larger network of underground rivers in the Ozarks that the Grand Gulf was part of is more interesting.
Such great timing! I'm camping in Canyonlands N.P. and have been exploring this area for a few days. I'm a big fan of your show and it's cool that you've landed on this topic while I'm here. Thanks for all the vids!
As a landscape photographer - and just as a kid on several roadtrips - I can seriously say that the American west is a truly _incredible collection_ of places. One of my favorites is where Nevada, Utah, and Arizona connect. The Colorado Plateau meets the Great Basin, the Mojave Desert, and the southern edge of the Western Rocky Mountains/Wasatch Range. In this crazy region, several distinct places exist, all totally unique. Vastly different terrain, different elevations, different colors, different climates, and different ecological zones that go along with them. All seriously _gorgeous_ in their own way. Impossible to explain.
"as, at that time, what was known as the Farallon tectonic plate..." Yes, 80m years ago, tyrannosaur geologists had correctly identified this subduction of the "Farallon plate" (earlier named by geologists from the hadrosaur group).
I grew up in payson az, which has a beautiful view of the mogollon rim. My favorite place in the world was 45 minutes outside of payson, a place where you can sit on the edge of the Colorado plateu. I always wondered how it formed, thank you for this video
I'm learning that the Kaibab Plateau is a very special place. Most people will know it as the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. The Kaibab Plateau is an isolated 2 to 3 thousand feet uplift on top of the Colorado Plateau uplift. Because it is so high there is little heat to cause evaporation, and soils are moist everywhere. But, there is still Arizona sunshine.
If you ever get a chance, could you please possibly do a video on the topic of Subduction Zone Initiation (how subduction zones are born)? I’ve been fascinated by the topic and I was reading about possible subduction zone initiation on the Macquarie fault system south of New Zealand and in the Gibraltar Arc between Spain and Morocco. There are tons of scientific articles on the topic, but very few “plain English” articles and videos on the subject. It’s a very important part of the Wilson Cycle of ocean basin formation.
I sent an email to you asking about the strangely ignored basalt lava field north east of Cedar City UT a long time ago....I dunno if that influenced you into making this video, but I am thankful either way. I couldn't find anything in Cedar City explaining it, all anyone talked about the second you mention volcanoes is Cedar Breaks and it was irritating. Thank You.
If you need an example of flat slab subduction in our current world, you have to look to...North Korea. Underlying All of Korea is the Pacific plate that was subducted under Japan. For years nobody knew why Mount Paektu on the Chinese/North Korean border existed, nor why it's so big (Taller than Mt St Helens). When the data came in from deep earth scans pretty much everyone was surprised when they found the Pacific plate's point of diving under Asia not under Japan, but under China and North Korea.
I would be interested in hearing your take on the “hit and run” model of Rocky Mountain Orogeny, as I understand it challenges the shallow subduction model.
Really interesting I live out here. From what I can see there is a small segment of the uplift adjacent Mesquite Nevada. The map you display should extend the CP to the west.
Personally I have not been to many desert regions outside of the Southwestern US. However, many travelers who have been to other desert regions around the world will tell you that the Colorado Plateau is arguably the most beautiful desert region in the world!
I live in Colorado yet I have no idea why there's mountains so far inland. The mountains sure are pretty and fun to crawl around on though. That's pretty much all I know.
Finally. An explanation that one can follow. I have watched SO many videos that purport to explain the link between the flat slab subduction and the uplift, and they were all quite useless. I eventually felt that this was because none of the video makers actually understood what they were, in theory, explaining. I was also aware that there are no few geologists who are saying that Flat Slab cannot account for all the things that it is claimed to. So I had wondered whether one of the reasons all the other "explanations" were so poor, was due to the entire theory being poor. But that seemed hard to credit. I was as flummoxed as all get out IN all those badly done explanation, there's not one mention of "drips". Not a dicky bird. Don't know why, but whatever the reason, that image, and a lot of the other information, makes it all much clearer. And it sounds great. A Lithospheric Drip - my friend date one. The other vids. would also say, "so, there's this shallow subduction going on...and then....yeah, material falls away and hot material rushes in." Which may have been technically not incorrect, but isn't an explanation. Now, as I said, I'm aware there are dissenting voices, competing views, and all that good argument that is aimed at advancing knowledge, not denying it. But that's WELL above my addled head. From my point of view, I at least wanted to understand the theory before I wrestled with the reasons why it isn't true, or is only a part of the story. So, Mr GH: First class. Cheers. EXCEPT...why is the Farallon Plate/flat slab etc...no longer needed to create those drips. THAT was not at all clear.
Go find Nick Zentner's lecture "How did The Rocky Mountains Form?" I think you would enjoy it. It's a part of his downtown geology lectures. He challenges the idea of flat slab subduction being the chief cause, using new findings from more advanced remote sensing techniques to paint a picture that is very different but not completely contrary to the currently widely accepted theory.
You should watch Nick Zentner's lecture How The Rocky Mountains Formed. He proposes a new theory on the formation of the rocky mtns, involving an island arc off the west coast of the USA colliding with the continent, and he somewhat challenges the idea of flat subduction being the chief cause of the rocky mtn's formation. It's a very interesting lecture for sure and freely available on UA-cam :) His whole "Baja BC" idea is very interesting too, well worth a look at IMO.
A bit of a tangent here, but have you looked into Baja BC much, GH? Ever since I read the rather compelling case for it laid out, it's constantly got me rethinking the geology of Western NA
The Santa Fe Mountains in SouthCentral NM has former sea bed uplifted to over 9,000 feet. You can find numerous fossils on the top of mountains. What process lifted a former sea bed so high?
Is this the same volcanism which created the San Juan mountains in southern Colorado? (They’re only 30-40 my old vs the 60-80 my of many of the other ranges)
Is there evidence for the effects on native peoples of the volcanic eruptions in the recent era? You show several volcanic fields with activity in 11th cent.
Does the planetary collision that eventually created the moon still effect earth? Are there fragments of Theia that are incorporated into Earth still effecting change on us thru plate tectonics?
I thought the Plateau was lifted due to the subduction at the fault in California. Never mind, that is what you said. I would be cool to see a timelapse like Google earth of this happening.
there is also the issue of the pacific mid ocean ridge diving under north America to be dealt with here. UCSD oceanic thinks it runs north under Death valley and Salton Sea through the Owens complex between the White and Sierra mountains and past lake Tahoe before possibly turning east to intersect the yellow Stone caldera.
I'm a bit disappointed to see the falsified Farallon flat slab model of the Rockies still being use here, as introduced to me through Nick Zentner's A to Z livestream series and their associated papers for the Crazy Eocene and Baja BC there is a growing mountain of newer evidence along with more refined well dated older evidence which directly contradicts this model the best example probably being the seismic tomography showing that there was in fact no Farallon subduction beneath the Colorado plateau after 50 Ma. Moreover the edges of the slabs in the mantle are the location of an active upwelling zone which connects directly to the vast East Pacific Rise system and its Northern counterpart the Gouda ridge + Juan De Fuca ridge where this solid mantle slow sheer velocity discontinuity extends deep down into the Earth with the discontinuity beneath NA fitting the Basin and Range + Colorado plateau regions like a glove. Thus we can much more easily explain all the observations, which are extensive including volcanic, igneous, and metamorphic core complex dating, paleomagnetic data modern GPS observations as well as the basic trend of time progression of these features through the continent with a simple model of North America crossing the East Pacific Rise 50 Ma causing compression of the Laramide mountains formation to become reversed into extension with activity resuming 15 Ma when the pull of the continent over this zone finally built up enough stress to cause the craton to start to break apart. The Colorado plateau is just the current piece getting torn off so long as North America keeps moving SW more sections of the former craton are likely to be sheered off North America due to the ridge's deep mantle roots.
Simple is not how I would describe the geology of Western North America. I’d suggest the flat slab subduction story popular with geologists exists because of a lack of a suitable alternative rather than from an accumulation of evidence.
Not mentioned; this created one of the flattest spots on earth, at least for viewing the higher points. where the horizon is truly hundreds of miles away, there a few higher spots in the middle where the horizon extends much, much further than anywhere else on earth, including the higher points of the Himilayas.
Within large stretches of Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico is an alien-like landscape that marks the setting of almost every Western film AND ROADRUNNER CARTOON in existence. There, fixed it.
So it’s lithospheric drip that allows the Wile E. Coyote to step off a cliff without immediately falling.
I absolutely love living on the Colorado Plateau
And a certain Wile E. Coyote mishandling yet another dangerously defective gadget that he ordered from Acme!😮
Meep meep
Now explain how the landscape is like an alien.
1 of the many reasons why I love living in the SW is the geology. Living in AZ I have learned so much about our state but heading north you can see the changes going from the desert into the Colorado Plateau. Last year we purchased a home in Cedar City UT and this summer I plan on learning more about the geology there. It is such a beautiful part of UT . Thank yu for the information.
The Arizona Transition Zone is very interesting, there you get a mix of basin & range, lower desert, volcanic and plateau environments over very few miles.
I’ve lived in Spanish fork Utah all my life and i love its place in north central ish Utah right by the unita mountains/Rocky Mountains is really nice as well and you aren’t awfully far from Arches Manti Zion Bryce Canyonlands St George Kings peak Brighton cedar city midway Salt Lake City price heber city park city and I’ve really been interested in meteor crater impacts astronomy paleontology archaeology geology and Utah has plenty of that with all the exposed rock layers all the Dino fossils dark spots for night sky photos and the upheaval dome crater and Native American history here with all the tribes and archaeological evidence that the first humans entered Utah around 10,000 to 12,000 years ago which is amazing and all the famous dinosaurs that used to walk these lands etc
@@DuneJumper We spend a lot of time on Southern Utah and we love driving up HWY 89 to 89A which crosses the Colorado river valley then up to the North Rim of the GC. You can see where the uplift starts. Just gorgeous.
Have you watched Nick Zentner's lectures on how the Rockies formed? Goes into a lot more detail about the Farallon affected it, the Farallon's folded ribbon fragment under the east coast, as well as how the large chains of archipelagos off the pacific coast accreted and then migrated north along the coast to Alaska. Truly fascinating how it all interacts! Would love to see if you could summarize it all into your style of videos!
I watched the video ( ua-cam.com/video/I9Xk1O17dzg/v-deo.htmlsi=G60pYn-z5CNJTQfT )! Very informative and interesting. It incorporates new information from the new science of mantle tomography.
Nick has a video debunking the Farallon plate theory. Interesting watch.
@@MangosVinylCuts Oh! Could you write back here with the name of that video. He has such a collection of videos now, I sometimes get lost amongst them when looking for a particular one. He has a number of videos in which he talks to greater or lesser extents about this issue. I'd like to be able to watch the one that you specifically mention.
@@greenman6141 The video is called "How Did the Rocky Mountains Form" from his Downtown Geology lecture series
Nick Zentner.🌟
Watching this video at 9653ft in Colorado. Thinking about the giant lava lamp underneath me.
Don't get pulled down with the lithospheric drip!
If I remember correctly, the Farralon plate also had Continental Archipelagos that were scraped onto the NA Plate as it subducted. So that might also explain why the Rocky Mountains appear to be so far away from the Boundary - because they didn't used to be THAT far.
I think, also, the separation of Pangea that created rifts in New Mexico, (and elsewhere) might have weakened the crust somewhat in the area and favored buckling that would result in mountain building.
So, between the Continental Archipelagos, and the Buckling rift, the Colorado Plateau might have just been the slab of crust that was stuck in the middle.
Maybe that large area of inactivity is why that lithosphere bubble favored the area?
The exotic terranes in this part of North America only extend eastward to a line from roughly Spokane down through eastern California. There are many terranes and not all are attributed to the JdF (Farallon) plate.
The Rockies have always been far from the continental shelf, which is why the hypothesis with the Farallon plate requires flat-slab subduction.
@@TheDanEdwards thank you. I could have been clearer. It was explained to me that the majority of the PNW was from the Farallon Plate - which would explain the Rockys distance from the boundary up that way. But you are right, this far south would require additional explanation.
This whole area of the world is so exciting to me. So much history and mystery in its formation.
Yeah there are a n umber of exotic terrains most of which are shifted North outside of the section south of the Siletza terrain which make up most of California. Death Valley area and the rest of those forming Grabens and valleys east of the Sierras if I recall is where you start getting native cratonic material, there are older sections of continental crust further to the west but they are exotic (If I recall correctly it was likely connected to what was either Australia or was it Antarctica? back within the Supercontinent Rodina, but don't quote me on that. The key point is the sate of formation for those igneous and metamorphic core complex rocks matches up with the major mountain building associated with the Assembly of Gondwana a collision which North America was not involved in but I digress.)
Anyways a key point to take away from Nick Zentner's A to Z Crazy Eocene and Baja BC series is that the narrative of flat slab Farallon subduction model doesn't fit the data in many respects especially seismic tomography paleomagnetism sedimentary source tracing of zircons and igneous petrological and metamorphic core complex exposure dating. The fact that GeologyHub is still passing this model is kind of sad as while its probably what he learned in school it doesn't fit the evidence anymore(and even back then it relied on ignoring the Paleomagnetic data which wasn't as bad as it sounds due to the then still high uncertainties on Paleomagnetic data but those numbers have been narrowed in in range as the science has matured.
There are questions related to how the crust has shifted as no one has found any clear suture points where the translation occurred but it seems more of a situation where there likely wasn't really a single fault driving the translation plate tectonics isn't that neat and tidy.
The seismic tomography provides the most visceral explanation for why the flat slab model has to be false since there is a continuous lineament through the upper mantle if not even deeper which lines up with the zone where lithospheric drip is occurring which extends up to Yellowstone in the North where it suddenly sharply heads west(at an angle which seems typical of Oceanic triple Junctions) until just east of the southern Cascades it starts moving southwest through a series of translational offset zones reconnects with the Gouda Ridge off the coast of California and from there the Gouda ridge eventually the Juan de Fuca ridge. The zone also continuous to the south down into New Mexico and Arizona before reconnect with the East Pacific Rise where the same mantle discontinuity continues along the entire extent. Notably the passage of this zone of discontinuity through North America fits like a Glove to the entire Colorado Plateau and Basin and Range Provinces
To further bolster the case that the East Pacific Rise is the culprit GPS data shows that every bit of crust within the aforementioned upper mantle discontinuity is currently exhibiting sustained clockwise rotation which has been ongoing for at least 50 million years and which seems roughly coincident with the relative difference in plate motion between the North American and Pacific plates.
Yellowstone's arrangement at a triple Junction like spot along the ridge like discontinuity is also supported by the igneous petrology of Siletzia which can be geochemically traced back to 58 Ma out in the ancient Pacific Ocean as a ridge line hotspot like modern Iceland. To add to this we can finally get a mechanism for why the earlier epoch of extension and its resumption had such a long offset since from below it looks clearly like NA has continued southwest over this existing oceanic Juncture and so long as it gets continued to be pulled SW the Juncture where Yellowstone sits continues to carve deep into the Craton and the piling up Subducted slab walls. With this Seismic tomographic information the resumption of uplift 15 Ma can as described in Robert Hildebrand's model be effectively identified as the point where the building strain and upwelling heat flux from below finally became too much for the North American Craton to bear causing the Craton to start tearing itself apart severing the Colorado Plateau from the Continent.
This also unlike the flat slab model gives us a geophysical model which can make predictions about the eventual fate of North America, namely that so long as NA keeps moving SW basin and range extension as well as Colorado plateau uplift will continue to extend northwest into the continental interior along existing points of weakness in the crust.
This in turn happens to naturally provide an explanation for some observed oddities such as the number of recently reactivated SW NE trending faults through the continent New Madrid and Wabash Valley seismic zones and even the volcanism along the Jemez Lineament. In this picture these faults are all absorbing strain from this primary ridge continent collision as should NA keep on its current trajectory the craton will splinter apart with seismic and eventually volcanic activity propagating eastward.
can't help but speculate that the current zones of weakness likely are where they are probably because this process is getting help from the Adirondack hotspot which started to rise around 9~10 million years ago with the bulk of the heat flux located about 2/3's down in the Upper mantle in what looks suspiciously like a mantle plume head naturally suggesting that North America proper is on the verge of beginning to seriously break up.
@@TheDanEdwards There has been a major NW translation for meant terrains but not all of them. Virtually all of California (everything from where the Sierras are in the process of getting ripped off the Continent as the western most crust that is definitively NA is on the East side of the divide. Yes there are older continental rocks to the west but they are surrounded on all sides by exotic terrains and show metamorphosis and igneous intrusions associated with major continental mountain building consistent with the timing of the formation of Gondwana a collision which North America was not involved in.
That said even accounting for that the Rocky Mountains are still relatively far to the east and the crustal extension can only account for part of that motion.
However there is very strong evidence that this doesn't have to do with the Farallon plate and that is because with Seismic tomography we can see subducted slabs in the mantle slowly sinking and recrystallizing abnormally cold and dens regions in the mantle with still active ones leading straight back to the active oceanic trenches where the current slabs are subducting. This method if we hypothesize that slabs generally sink at a relatively constant rate indicates we can see the active subduction trench history back to the Triassic. The surprising reveal is that there is no subducted slabs west of the eastern margin of the Colorado plateau. To the North of the Snake rive plain we can trace the Farallon back until it connects with the slab wall to the east of the Colorado plateau as well as further to the south where we can trace back the Cocos plate subducting under central America but in between? Nothing except the enormous vertical slow sheer velocity discontinuity within the solid upper mantle which extends to the depths of the planet and connects to ocean ridges wherever it's surface continuity emerges from under North America in both directions, a boundary which also fits the combined Basin and Range and Colorado Plateau like a glove with all of these regions showing GPS data indicating they are moving with respect to NA in a clockwise manner along the relative difference in direction of motion between NA and the Pacific Plates.
This is backed up by the dating of igneous and volcanic rocks which suggest NA crossed the eastern most extension of the EPR 50 Ma where there had been a hot spot fed oceanic plateau contemporaneous with its sister ridge line hotspot plateau Iceland both of which have their oldest rocks dating to 58 Ma. Dated in this case via the now discontiguous Northern section known as the Yakutat terrain, rather than the southern section Siletzia which only has rocks that have been able to be dated back to 52 Ma. Crucially both show the mixed elemental signature of a hot spot Ocean Island Basalt source composition with an added mid ocean ridge Basalt component.
Since the override there has been no more Farallon plate but the continental crust which has passed over it has been repeatedly extended first by unzipping the Laramide mountains seen via the contemporaneous regional expression of the Tertiary Ignimbrite flare up and the exposure of formerly deep metamorphic core complexes, a trend which can easily be explained if NA has passed over a largely fixed Mid Ocean ridge + Hot Spot deep mantle discontinuity. (I should note for completion that there are two zones of NE-SW trending transform offset slow sheer velocity discontinuities in the upper mantle at the edge of the modern Juan De Fuca plate which connect it and the Gouda microplate to the associated mid ocean ridge continuation. Based on the pattern I suspect this is due to NA dragging the Subduction zones and subsequently pulling the associated ridge sections with the continent.
The Rocky mountains are far from California because of the expansion of the Basin and Range province, not because new land was added onto North America. The High Sierras of California are formed from Volcanic Batholiths formed by volcanos fed by subduction of the Farallon plate that's continuing today in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia.
Thanks as always! Flat subduction is always interesting, it always produces unusual geologic features!
Sadly this model has been falsified or as one article link on Nick Zentner's A to Z crazy Eocene series put it flab rollback and its variations (which flat slab subduction seems to qualify as) have been overused as filler explanations for any tectonic process near an active boundary we don't fully understand. In this case due to Seismic tomography we can see the Subducted slabs in the mantle and the youngest slab south of the snake river plain is east of the Colorado Plateau down towards Mexico. Instead there is a continuous zone of linear segments within the Mantle which connect directly with the East Pacific Rise as a continuous slow sheer velocity discontinuity when extends deep down into the depths of the planet and the general topological shape of this ridge seems to fit the enclosed Basin and Range and Colorado Plateau like a glove with all the subducted slabs well east of this zone.
@Dragrath1 Wow. If that is so, then there are several, unclear or unknown tectonic phenomena happening in those types of boundaries?
@@Dragrath1Nick seems to favor the explanation that a bunch of thrust faults caused the Sevier and Laramide orogenies. There faults were the result of an oceanic plateau or island arc (Wrangellia?) colliding with the North American plate about 100 million years ago, with most of the terranes accreted on to the western margin of North America. He thinks the Farallon flat plate subduction narrative is too young to have caused the Rockies to be uplifted.
Thank you! I have spent my long life wondering how this happened. I listened very closely.
Lithospheric drip: well, when something takes a long time to understand, one always needs a surprising mechanism to explain it.
I love it.
Very cool, thanks GH!!!
Could you cover some of the unique geologic features of Western Australia? The Mitchell Plateau, Horizontal falls, and the Prince Regent River would be some good ones!
Why?, you might offend someone in Australia by misgendering the rock...
I really appreciate your research and presentation technique. Thank you!
One of favorite places on Earth, and it's all essentially sedentary rock. Wind, water, volcanics has sculpted this flat, undersea land one exposed, into some of Earth's most beautiful scenery. It's been a controversy, but lifting along with its neighbor has always been the simplest answer for its uplift. It's what I was taught 50 years ago. Tim, great presentation again. Thanks.
Thanks for all of your hard work man!
My favorite landscape in America!
Your drawing animations are really good, great video, keep up the great work!
Just found your channel, love your content.
Also, I love that you sound just like Derry Murbles, the host of “Thoughts for your Thoughts” on Pawnee Public radio from Parks and Rec.
You present this topic as it being well understood and this theory being broadly supported by the geologic community today. Last I heard of it, it was still widely debated. Zentner Baja BC A-Z series a year ago. Any new research papers on this? I live in New Mexico and every day drive by roadcuts which tell part of this story, which I can´t wrap my head around. Just wild! Thanks.
This is quite incredible. I need to try to find more about that lithospheric drop as this is the first time I am hearing about it. it appears to be quite a complex process and it makes me wonder how well we can prove it happened this way. Thanks to bringing this to our attention.
Really interesting ❤ thx for all your hard work 💪💪❤️
Thank you!
I work here at GC. Each time i'd explain this to our guests. It never gets old. Many more physical aspects to this, as well.
Southern Utah is pretty much the most amazing place in the world
Truly underrated. The formations are incredible yet people only since lockdown years have really started hyping up the place.
Do a video on the Grand Gulf in the Ozarks please!!! Thanks for all the great videos!
What, a collapsed cave fromed from Karst Topography? Eh, not that interesting in a geology setting. The larger network of underground rivers in the Ozarks that the Grand Gulf was part of is more interesting.
Such great timing! I'm camping in Canyonlands N.P. and have been exploring this area for a few days. I'm a big fan of your show and it's cool that you've landed on this topic while I'm here. Thanks for all the vids!
I didn’t know this area had a name. All I knew prior to this video was that this was my favourite place that I’ve visited on the planet so far ❤
As a landscape photographer - and just as a kid on several roadtrips - I can seriously say that the American west is a truly _incredible collection_ of places. One of my favorites is where Nevada, Utah, and Arizona connect. The Colorado Plateau meets the Great Basin, the Mojave Desert, and the southern edge of the Western Rocky Mountains/Wasatch Range. In this crazy region, several distinct places exist, all totally unique. Vastly different terrain, different elevations, different colors, different climates, and different ecological zones that go along with them. All seriously _gorgeous_ in their own way. Impossible to explain.
Camping high up in Manti-La Sal and watching the sun rise behind me light up the painted desert is an experience that I will never forget.
"as, at that time, what was known as the Farallon tectonic plate..."
Yes, 80m years ago, tyrannosaur geologists had correctly identified this subduction of the "Farallon plate" (earlier named by geologists from the hadrosaur group).
I LOVE these class-like style of video where you talk about some interesting thing about geology
That was some quality geo-nerdery!!! No BS, just the science! Subscribed!
I grew up in payson az, which has a beautiful view of the mogollon rim. My favorite place in the world was 45 minutes outside of payson, a place where you can sit on the edge of the Colorado plateu. I always wondered how it formed, thank you for this video
I'm learning that the Kaibab Plateau is a very special place. Most people will know it as the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. The Kaibab Plateau is an isolated 2 to 3 thousand feet uplift on top of the Colorado Plateau uplift. Because it is so high there is little heat to cause evaporation, and soils are moist everywhere. But, there is still Arizona sunshine.
oooh could you do a video about the "fossilized river" found a few miles southwest of Green River, Utah?
Thanks.
Fascinating. Great explanation❣️
If you ever get a chance, could you please possibly do a video on the topic of Subduction Zone Initiation (how subduction zones are born)? I’ve been fascinated by the topic and I was reading about possible subduction zone initiation on the Macquarie fault system south of New Zealand and in the Gibraltar Arc between Spain and Morocco. There are tons of scientific articles on the topic, but very few “plain English” articles and videos on the subject. It’s a very important part of the Wilson Cycle of ocean basin formation.
I sent an email to you asking about the strangely ignored basalt lava field north east of Cedar City UT a long time ago....I dunno if that influenced you into making this video, but I am thankful either way. I couldn't find anything in Cedar City explaining it, all anyone talked about the second you mention volcanoes is Cedar Breaks and it was irritating.
Thank You.
My favorite westerns were all filmed in Italy and Spain though 😅
Spaghetti films. Nice. Barbarian films are best filmed in Italy as well.
Many used Spain for the landscape shots.
If you're talking about the Sergio leone ones he filmed them in the southwest us and Spain. The rest are pretty much in the southwest.
I knew abt the farallon plate and how it was weird but I did not know the know the term flat subduction.. awesome
If you need an example of flat slab subduction in our current world, you have to look to...North Korea. Underlying All of Korea is the Pacific plate that was subducted under Japan. For years nobody knew why Mount Paektu on the Chinese/North Korean border existed, nor why it's so big (Taller than Mt St Helens). When the data came in from deep earth scans pretty much everyone was surprised when they found the Pacific plate's point of diving under Asia not under Japan, but under China and North Korea.
Sweet! I have a cabin in Pine-Strawberry, Arizona, just below the edge of the Mogollon Rim
Very interesting!
Good one. Turn up the volume
I would be interested in hearing your take on the “hit and run” model of Rocky Mountain Orogeny, as I understand it challenges the shallow subduction model.
Who else is doing a southwest usa final field camp this summer. Mojave desert feels like an obstacle course made to torment undergrads
My favorite place on earth.
Really interesting I live out here. From what I can see there is a small segment of the uplift adjacent Mesquite Nevada. The map you display should extend the CP to the west.
I live in Show Low AZ, right along the Mogollon Rim.
"alienlike landscape"? Dude, I LIVE here....ailen-like? WTF....
The Southwest is my favorite region of the US 😍
Personally I have not been to many desert regions outside of the Southwestern US. However, many travelers who have been to other desert regions around the world will tell you that the Colorado Plateau is arguably the most beautiful desert region in the world!
I live in Colorado yet I have no idea why there's mountains so far inland. The mountains sure are pretty and fun to crawl around on though. That's pretty much all I know.
Finally. An explanation that one can follow.
I have watched SO many videos that purport to explain the link between the flat slab subduction and the uplift, and they were all quite useless.
I eventually felt that this was because none of the video makers actually understood what they were, in theory, explaining.
I was also aware that there are no few geologists who are saying that Flat Slab cannot account for all the things that it is claimed to.
So I had wondered whether one of the reasons all the other "explanations" were so poor, was due to the entire theory being poor. But that seemed hard to credit.
I was as flummoxed as all get out
IN all those badly done explanation, there's not one mention of "drips". Not a dicky bird.
Don't know why, but whatever the reason, that image, and a lot of the other information, makes it all much clearer.
And it sounds great.
A Lithospheric Drip - my friend date one.
The other vids. would also say, "so, there's this shallow subduction going on...and then....yeah, material falls away and hot material rushes in." Which may have been technically not incorrect, but isn't an explanation.
Now, as I said, I'm aware there are dissenting voices, competing views, and all that good argument that is aimed at advancing knowledge, not denying it.
But that's WELL above my addled head.
From my point of view, I at least wanted to understand the theory before I wrestled with the reasons why it isn't true, or is only a part of the story.
So, Mr GH: First class. Cheers.
EXCEPT...why is the Farallon Plate/flat slab etc...no longer needed to create those drips.
THAT was not at all clear.
Go find Nick Zentner's lecture "How did The Rocky Mountains Form?" I think you would enjoy it. It's a part of his downtown geology lectures. He challenges the idea of flat slab subduction being the chief cause, using new findings from more advanced remote sensing techniques to paint a picture that is very different but not completely contrary to the currently widely accepted theory.
You should watch Nick Zentner's lecture How The Rocky Mountains Formed. He proposes a new theory on the formation of the rocky mtns, involving an island arc off the west coast of the USA colliding with the continent, and he somewhat challenges the idea of flat subduction being the chief cause of the rocky mtn's formation. It's a very interesting lecture for sure and freely available on UA-cam :) His whole "Baja BC" idea is very interesting too, well worth a look at IMO.
At what rate are these Drips occurring? I've never heard of them before, very interesting!
A bit of a tangent here, but have you looked into Baja BC much, GH? Ever since I read the rather compelling case for it laid out, it's constantly got me rethinking the geology of Western NA
Woo! Coclorado!
very interesting topic, and fairly unique to my very limited knowledge.
also freedomzerogundam has an epic name.
"Lithospheric Drip" would be an AWESOME name for a rock band.
Greetings from germany!
And you’re first!
ok i get it, the earth is just some fancy lava lamp we're all living upon while hippy god is mesmerised by the action.
Some of most remote areas. Dont take travel for granted. I live in the middle of it
I watched a video saying it was coursed by 600 feet of glaciers coming down from Canada during an ice age.
The Santa Fe Mountains in SouthCentral NM has former sea bed uplifted to over 9,000 feet. You can find numerous fossils on the top of mountains. What process lifted a former sea bed so high?
The Rio grande rift
Is this the same volcanism which created the San Juan mountains in southern Colorado? (They’re only 30-40 my old vs the 60-80 my of many of the other ranges)
spaceman spiff is interested in this topic
Is there evidence for the effects on native peoples of the volcanic eruptions in the recent era? You show several volcanic fields with activity in 11th cent.
Does the planetary collision that eventually created the moon still effect earth? Are there fragments of Theia that are incorporated into Earth still effecting change on us thru plate tectonics?
Wow, so how long does it take for erosion on sharp rock edges rounded take? You'd think after 50 million years the sharp stone edges would be rounded.
I thought the Plateau was lifted due to the subduction at the fault in California. Never mind, that is what you said. I would be cool to see a timelapse like Google earth of this happening.
How was this process discovered? tia
6195 feet in North Western Colorado, I’m willing to bet we’d be higher up in the sky here if the plateau didn’t push its way southwest
It does look as though electric activity occurred near the volcano.
A thought for your thought by Derry Murbles
Now do Montana.
there is also the issue of the pacific mid ocean ridge diving under north America to be dealt with here. UCSD oceanic thinks it runs north under Death valley and Salton Sea through the Owens complex between the White and Sierra mountains and past lake Tahoe before possibly turning east to intersect the yellow Stone caldera.
That makes no sense whatsoever.
Kip?
A large acquifer lies underneath the plateau.
All facts simpleminded, hardcore creationists will deny...
I'm a bit disappointed to see the falsified Farallon flat slab model of the Rockies still being use here, as introduced to me through Nick Zentner's A to Z livestream series and their associated papers for the Crazy Eocene and Baja BC there is a growing mountain of newer evidence along with more refined well dated older evidence which directly contradicts this model the best example probably being the seismic tomography showing that there was in fact no Farallon subduction beneath the Colorado plateau after 50 Ma. Moreover the edges of the slabs in the mantle are the location of an active upwelling zone which connects directly to the vast East Pacific Rise system and its Northern counterpart the Gouda ridge + Juan De Fuca ridge where this solid mantle slow sheer velocity discontinuity extends deep down into the Earth with the discontinuity beneath NA fitting the Basin and Range + Colorado plateau regions like a glove.
Thus we can much more easily explain all the observations, which are extensive including volcanic, igneous, and metamorphic core complex dating, paleomagnetic data modern GPS observations as well as the basic trend of time progression of these features through the continent with a simple model of North America crossing the East Pacific Rise 50 Ma causing compression of the Laramide mountains formation to become reversed into extension with activity resuming 15 Ma when the pull of the continent over this zone finally built up enough stress to cause the craton to start to break apart.
The Colorado plateau is just the current piece getting torn off so long as North America keeps moving SW more sections of the former craton are likely to be sheered off North America due to the ridge's deep mantle roots.
The contrived voice exit..
Simple is not how I would describe the geology of Western North America. I’d suggest the flat slab subduction story popular with geologists exists because of a lack of a suitable alternative rather than from an accumulation of evidence.
That comparison with the size of Finland made me realize how boring and unspectacular the landscape of Finland is.
towering monuments tower
Speculation. ;-)
God did that.
Nahhhh? That's a lava lamp!
Not mentioned; this created one of the flattest spots on earth, at least for viewing the higher points. where the horizon is truly hundreds of miles away, there a few higher spots in the middle where the horizon extends much, much further than anywhere else on earth, including the higher points of the Himilayas.
Flat subduction theory is out out date.
I’m sure this is a very educational video if only the narrator could be understood. He has a monotone voice that is not understandable.
Screw these bot accounts. I hate the Ai voice.
Suomi mainittu, torilla tavataan
Yall
Gotta do something about that voice
Plasma Electricity made all of these colored Rocks... The Electric Universe made it all... Coming again in the near Future
I'm sure there's a joke in the fact most of it seems to be in Arizona lol.
Spaghetti western not jake gillen balls 😂
THIRD!
The narration is really odd.
All other plateaus can suck it!
Can't listen. Way too much lip smacking.
c.f. nick zentner's lecture using latest data looking deep into the mantle. A shallow subduction is no longer a viable cause per recent research.
Man made climate change did it. 😂
C’mon…no one’s voice really sounds like that.