The Toadstools: a wonderland of hoodoos and mushroom rocks in Grand Staircase-Escalante NM, Utah
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- Опубліковано 7 вер 2024
- Explore The Toadstools, a fairyland of scenic rock formations with geology professor Shawn Willsey. These amazing formations lie within the Jurassic Entrada Formation in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah. Learn how these blocks of resistant, coarse-grained sandstone came to sit precariously atop pedestals of red mudstone.
I love doing these videos and will continue to do so but if you want to provide support or much appreciated gas money, you can send support via Venmo @Shawn-Willsey (be sure to put two L's in last name)
or PayPal: www.paypal.com...
or a good ol' fashioned check to this address:
Shawn Willsey
College of Southern Idaho
315 Falls Avenue
Twin Falls, ID 83303
Another cool place to visit.
Fun fact: we have a (very) few hoodoos and mushroom rocks in Georgia, someplace you wouldn't usually think you'd find them. They're up on Lookout Mountain and Pigeon Mountain (which is just an offshoot from Lookout Mt.) at a place called Rocktown (a popular climbing destination if you're ever down south, Shawn), as well as nearby at Zahnd Wildlife Management Area. They were formed from Pennsylvanian and Mississippian age sandstone at the top of the mountain ridgeline that eroded during the last ice age from prevailing wind and rain/ice.
What an alien looking landcape! Utah is such an amazing state to explore geology in. #1 on my bucket list of places to visit in the near future.
Same here! I really want to see this in person.
That's why they shot the scene with the aliens in Galaxy Quest at Goblin Valley, SP! I honeymooned there, it's amazing!
I went in 2010 and fell in love with it. Going back for the 3rd trip in October. Did you make it to there?
Wow! Thanks for sharing this!
Perpetual hoodoos! What an unearthly looking place. Thanks for the tour.
Great off the beaten path video! Thank you!
Thanks for watching and learning with me.
Awesome place! Thanks for sharing
You bet
Wow! Awesome video!
Time, Wind, and Rain... Pretty cool!
That is a wonderful place. I like to travel around Victoria Australia and check out the geology here. But your videos are really educational. Thanks.
Hello in Australia. Glad you found my channel and are enjoying it.
Ok, that was really cool.
Hi Shawn, enjoying your videos. We are in the same game, only I make geology videos in New Zealand. Nice to see these places!
Wow, how cool! I will check out your channel. It sure is fun to share Earth's stories with folks. I'd love to travel to NZ someday.
@@shawnwillsey great!
Amazing! Thanks, Shawn 🤗🥰
Amazing! Thanks for the cool video and explanation.
You bet. Thanks for watching and learning with me.
Ben there a few times. Love that spot.
It’s pretty obvious that it’s the weight of the capstone compressing the underlying stone that makes it more resistant to erosion by rain and wind. I say “obvious” because many of the “stems” are wider at the base than at the top, exactly what one would expect from a gradual spreading of the load distribution.
Pretty amazing place.
Nice Utah was mentioned in comments. It helps to start by pinpointing the national location.
Great point!!
Dr. Willsley, it would be nice to see a video on Upheaval Dome in Canyonlands, if you haven't already done one.
Great video Shawn! Good on you for getting out there so much. what a cool looking landscape. I can imagine you hiking in the mornings to avoid the heat. I've never heard of the word cryptobiotic I had to look it up.
Awesome. Yes, cryptobiotic soils are very fragile and should be avoided when hiking. They take decades to regenerate yet can be destroyed with one careless footstep.
Very cool site! Thank you for sharing the trip and explaining how these incredible geologic sculptures are made.
Gorgeous. Can you do a video on the Red Canyon (slot canyon) off the highway NE of Kanab?
I can try. For now, check out the slot canyon videos at Death Valley, Leprechaun Canyon, and Blarney Canyon.
Most likely the caprocks are made up of Kayenta Formation, which is primarily river-borne sandstones (alluvial). The underlying Entrada Formation is mostly sabkha/sand erg deposits, with calcite cementation (notice the amazing white stripes in the reddish rock-those are exsolution veins of calcite, caused by pressure from diagenesis, that is, burying of the rock, which was then uplifted again to the surface). The Entrada has a large component of wind-blown sand as well. Around the Moab area, the Entrada Formation has only one member, the Slickrock, as previously the Dewey Bridge and the Moab Tongue members were re-analyzed to be in the Carmel and the Curtis Formations, respectively. The Entrada is now in the unique situation of being a Formation with only one member.
Not much life left on that tall one. Such an awesome location...basically all of Utah is a geological playground.
I noticed that too! Cool
think it’ll still be there long after you’re gone…
@@aldo5428 I've been alive for over 200 years and have about 800 years to go...maybe you are right tho. 😜
@@NigelNaughton wow Nigel you’re almost as old as me😃…
Cryptobiotic soils------------a new term to me. I guess I need to get out more. Unfortunately for me, I did not do any soils work in desert environments during my career.
OMG ive been there!
I wonder how many visitors it will take to rub away one of those pedestals? I ask that because earlier today I was watching an archeology/history video and one of the topics was how visitors had chipped away (for souvenir/talisman purposes) so much of remaining ancient stonework.
Continually amazed at Nature and Nature's God as a sculptor. Spellbinding. Until you try to count up the time line for how long it took to produce this amazing landscape. Very hard to wrap one's head around.
True That!!
If a hoodoo falls in the desert does it make a sound?
❤
What's the exact spot that we can see these Toadstools off of 89?
37.10829, -111.87093
“crypto biotic soil” What? 🤔