What Happens When A HUGE Rockslide Plows Into Sandy Beds? Folds Of Anza-Borrego State Park, CA
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ม.ค. 2024
- Team up with geology professor Shawn Willsey at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in southern California as he investigates ground zero of a violent geologic event where a massive rockslide impacted sandy beds. GPS location: 32.99817, -116.11598
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Reference: Roadside Geology of Southern California by Sylvester and Gans, 2016. - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
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Thanks Shawn. 🙂👍 Had to smile at the title of this video, after doing a double-take: Sandy is a place in Bedfordshire, England. It's quite acceptable to address a letter with 'Sandy, Beds.'
Imagine what you did to this literalist's mind!
"Wow this is chaos here," some of my favourite words when looking at some rocks. Anza Borrego is a special place and this series is fantastic.
This is in my “Backyard”. I’ve been coming regularly to the Anticline in Fish Creek since 1986. It my favorite spot in Anza Borrego and I always bring guest to this spot.
You opened my eyes, I always thought the anticline was tectonic now I know it was an impact.
Jawdropping. I’m in awe. Thanks for expanding our horizons. Great teaching!
Boy if we could go back and watch this in action it would be more amazing than any video we've ever seen before.
Yeah-no kidding, it springs to mind that to be far enough away to survive but still witness would be the ultimate-
Harry Glicken and the French volcanologists, the Kraffts, were filming pyroclastic flows at Mt Unzen, Japan, in 1992 when an unexpectedly large flow over-ran them and 2-dozen journalists, killing them all in a matter of seconds. Sometimes debris flows can travel unimaginable distances at more than 50+ MPH, across valleys, up and over mountain ridges, etc. Victims at Mt. St. Helens died over a dozen miles from the peak. Better to look back millions of years in time, and let your imagination go to work!
There's a huge landslide in a range of hills, in Washington State just north of the Columbia River. I've never heard any geologist talk about. But you can see this thing from over 20 miles way, especially when the shadows hit it from the sun. There's rumors that it buried an Indian reservation.
look for torrey pines rockfall video, on a smaller scale but i guess somewhat analogous
oh yeah, that is nothing compared to this slide in Washington. Probably several thousand of those torrey pine rockfalls can fit in one of the slide I'm referring to.@@inyobill
A masterclass in the joy of discovery.
The power that landslide would have in order to fold rock is mind blowing. Incredible is the word.
The localized folding is astonishing, the clear contact-zone is always where the excitement is. Drop-jawed to see that the megabreccia flow would bend the sandstone and not just break it. Some "punctuated equilibrium"-
Agree. Would not have expected the sandstone to be able to deform that dramatically. Such fin stuff!
I love this. I have studied this and the entire Anza Borrego area to include the Salton Sea and Imperial Valley fault zone
What makes videos like this watchable is how u present it. I can tell how u love what your doing and that makes it fun for us. Many thanks
One can never get bored of walking, looking, photographing such awesome rockscapes, thank you.
Many years ago, I was planning to camp there. Further down the wash, it looked like tracks in the rock & then later fossils of shells at different levels of the walls. It rained to rain lightly, so we quickly left. Later we found out there was a flash flood in the wash. Yikes!😱
When I visited, that was the overarching worry. I'm glad you were smart and cautious.
Glad you made it out here finally. I was camped about 10 mins away. I wanted to just warn people driving in that once past the little campsite on the left just before the mouth of the canyon, cell phones have no signal. Also to bring a shovel as the sand depth changes constantly from high winds and occasional rain and flash floods. Bring extra water! Can always bring it home. Camping is permitted unless specifically marked with signs, but camp fires in fire rings only, many are placed there in certain areas. Summer temps will reach 120f + and its no joke! There are also many "Mud caves" so bring a light and never go in alone. Some are HUGE, and all have very tight passages.
For those of us that will never get there, thank you for sharing.
@@garyb6219 Never say never!
@@mtlassen1992 Thanks, I appreciate that. And I could make a pretty good list of what I have seen. But it's never enough, is it? Cheers my friend.
This was awesome! I have never heard of the rock folding like that. Spectacular!
@mtlassen1992 🍾🥂🌄🥓 thank you for bringing me here! 😍
Brought back memories of being there with Dr. Threet’s, San Diego State University, Structural Geology class in 1975. Great memories leading to a long career.
Just got back from a geology hike using things I learned from you and others on identifying shale vs slate and I was able to positively identify it as shale. Although according to USGS just a 1/4 mile away at an old mine it is identify as slate which completely possible ! Thanks again
Awesome report. Knowledge is power.
Trying to wrap my head around the forces that caused the rockslide and the resulting megabreccias and anticlines. The sound and the shaking of the earth must have been enormous.
That was one hell of a rockslide. Awesome geologic tour. Very nice video.
that circular fold is way cool...thank you so much for explaining why these things happen..
Geology is freaking awesome. Thank you!
This looks very much like the stuwwallen in the Netherlands, where icesheets plowed into the soft existing sand, gravel and clay lays. There is no english word for, usually push-moraine is used, but it is local river sand, gravel and clay that has been pressed away from under the icesheet. So, it is no moraine. Of course it is not consolidated here, because it is much younger (Saalien). Also anticlines, synclines, foldings, broken layers etc. Now it forms the mountainrange Veluwe and Utrechtse Heuvelrug in the centre of the Netherlands, about 100 meters high. If you don’t know it: just google stuwwallen and look for images of the structures in the sand, gravel and clay layers. Your story fits flawlessly on the Dutch story of the stuwwallen. Very interesting.
Wow! that must have been epic. Thanks again for a fascinating llesson. You are a great teacher and I am learning so much!
This kind of education is very enjoyable. Nicely done.
Looks like your classroom is the entire planet, very cool 👍
I had always thought of anticlines as being on a mountain range scale. The ones I have seen here in Washington are huge rolling mountains, but we call them hill's because they are treeless desert and steppe. It is interesting to see this at an almost personal scale. It is still big. Thanks for showing the features and pointing them all out. I have a better understanding of what happened now. The forces involved are immense and powerful almost beyond belief but amazing to see the results of them.
I’m getting ready to spend a few weeks in Southern California and specifically I want to visit and explore some interesting geological features. The geology there is so dynamic and exposed, whereas in so many other areas is covered by vegetation. Thanks for producing these informative videos. They’re serving as a guide as I’m planning my route.
I have been through Split Mountain dozens of times with our local Land Rover club but didn't see the level of detail you showed in these videos. Now I have a good reason to go back soon. Thanks!
I see the same kinda thing up on the shores of Shasta lake of coarse different kind of rock but folds made while rock was hot enough to be plastic and metamorphic
So exciting to hear this dramatic story! Loved it.
Geology IS fun! Thank you.
I lost count of how many times I said wow, while watching this. Thank you!
I was there 5 years ago. My friend and I rescued a couple who buried their car in the dust. A great place for geology buffs like me.
This is my first time here!! I struggled to attain a C grade in my college Geology class but I really enjoyed this video!!! Thanks, Prof. Willsey!!!!
I used to camp and hike at Joshua Tree(2,700'EL) and read about Anza Borrego (sea level) and San Jacinto Mountain(10,834' ).
I still don't understand how these features can exist in a small geological area. Would be a great video to tie it all together. Did the inland sea cover the entire area at some point? What formed San Jacinto?
" Did the inland sea cover the entire area at some point? " - Shawn did not discuss ages in this video. But given the land slide occurred millions of years ago, San Diego County was farther south, 50 miles or so. The geology papers I've perused suggest the region where the Gulf of California is today was always a low elevation region, after North America came crashing into the exotic terranes that make up Baja California (which itself is complex of different terranes with a complex past.) The sedimentary rocks on the west side of the San Andreas Fault are full of shallow marine fossils.
@@TheDanEdwards Thanks!
structural geologist here - that's a pretty remarkable site, thanx for sharing..
Love watching and learning with you 🫶
Was hoping you'd highlight this. :) This is in my "backyard" as it were and is always an impressive site. Lots of interesting places to go in that area.
Wow. One of the most unusual outcrops that you’ve encountered. I’ve seen a lot of outcrops but have never seen deformation that looks like it was from large scale tectonic forces but was really from forces caused by localized gravity driven mass wasting. Truly fascinating! Thank you for sharing.
Do you feel this was one event and everything has remained intact since the event?
Awesome presentation. Thank you. Grew up running around Anza Borrego. It's an amazing place.
That's a really cute mini fault. It would look cool as a paperweight block on your desk.
Great formation to detail! Thank you Professor.
This is an incredible study! I snapped a couple screenshots. I'm on the East Coast, sitting on the Gold Hill Fault line at the Eastern Slate Belt. I would love to see an underground dissection of this area. Your explanations are awesome with what happened there.
I never saw one anticline over another until now. That looks amazing. I wonder how long it took to be created being so
localized? Was it because of heavy rains that soften the sandstone and allowed such a thing to happen dramatically?
Wow that’s one of the coolest geological things I’ve ever seen! Thank you Shawn for your awesome videos.
Exceptional approach in teaching.
Thank you
wow! Awesome! Thanks for sharing your knowledge! Just what I needed my daily dose of geology! I love your channel!
Love looking for and studying anticlines.. what amazes me is that this doesn’t happen just where you are. It has happened on a global scale across many continents 😉
So awesome! Thank you so much for doing all of the informational videos. Sooo interesting!!
Love your updates, very interesting. Hope all the people are doing well and are safe.
We camped there lots when I was a kid. We moved away in the mid sixties and I haven’t been back, more’s the pity. I loved it
My old structural prof (George Davis) would have loved this. Great video.
I was in here with my wife and cousin a couple of years ago and remember saying, "There's never a geologist around when you need one." Thanks for the videos. I'll have to remember all of this my next trip into Fish Creek. Did you go to the end of the canyon and hike up to the wind caves?
Wow! That’s fascinating! Thank you!
Jaw dropping. We can almost literally feel the pressure and power! SMH. And fascinating.... could poke around there for hours. I'd never have known about this...huge thanks.
Very cool! Mindblowing actually💥
thank you. been there a number of times and never appreciated it. now i'm looking forward to going back out there.
Thank you Professor.
Great geological information and lesson 🎉
I hiked Anza-Borrego on my way to Palm Canyon..
Stunning.
Wow! That was extremely interesting. Living in NSW Australia we have a lot of sandstone. I love seeing the different layering but have never seen anything like that folding. Thanks. 🦘🌟
Very cool! Amazing and unusual contact area. Thx!
I've been to this area many times, but was looking for ancient native American settlements, and never noticed the rocks. This video was very informative.
It's your lucky day. You've got 2 followers from the Gold Hill region of NC watching. Most of our geology here is underground unless we visit a quarry, road cut or the Appalachian mountains. Continue doing the wonderful work. I admire your sharing of your education and knowledge.
Thanks for watching and learning with me.
Amazing! Thanks!
thank you! I have so much to learn!!!
Thanks!
Stupendous forces at work thank you 🙏
Very interesting , a moment in time.
Thank you..very impressive
Amazing story. i seen thanks for closer
thx, great talk
❤❤❤ Thank you!!
Dear prof. Willsey! Just want to say thank you for your work!!! I love your content, one can learn a lot from you, your students are so lucky to have a mentor like you. Keep up the good work. :)
You're very welcome!
There is a place in southern Anza Borrego desert state park called the mud caves. I wonder when (not if) they will come a splashing down. Near Borrego Springs, there is a place called Slot Canyon, after a big rainfall a couple of years back it collapsed!!!
Great video, we have seen that feature before and wondered how that happened.
Thanks for including the cite to the thesis in your reply to one of the comments below.
Great Stuff!!!👍👍👍
Awesome!!! I spend so much time walking and hiking in Anza Borrego, and I wish I had someone like you to tell me what this or that rock is. A good example is the painted desert just east of Ocotillo, CA. The different colors are amazing. In reality, I bought a "geology for dummies' book to start understanding what I'm seeing. Cheers!
That’s amazing. I could imagine waves splashing up against the rock face once upon a time and leaving rock pools? There are indentations in the sand. I have no idea if that was ever possible in that area?
A great close up look! Thanks for another fascinating fieldtrip! Would you consider doing a video on the Marysvale gravity slide complex?
I remember riding my motorcycle out in those hills and washes. There was a spot of black glassy obsidian in this tiny gorge. It was flat maybe twenty feet wide and forty feet wide. And It boggled my mind and didn’t understand why it was there.
For those without 4x4 you can hike the Indio badlands trail and see a lot of the same mountains of bent rock layers. Driving up route 74 out of Palm desert you can see more on the road as you drive by.
really appreciated the insight about what is needed to drive up there. guess I won't be taking the corvette. looks to be worth investigating, I used to camp in that park.
I spent Christmas Eve there several years ago. Borrego Springs and Salton Sea area. Very interesting to see but go in winter.
Another wow!
This feature is incredible, thanks for sharing this location! I had some thoughts about it. As the sandstone is compressed to form a dome shape, it appears to have a core region visible at the base from which cracks propagate upward through the layers. At the top of the dome (below the second anticline above) is a generally upside down V-shaped section. The combination of compression and doming leading to an upward propagating path that points at this upside down V-shape seems like the overall structure is effectively a cross-section of the anatomy of a volcano. In other words, compressive forces (say, of the Pacific ocean floor pushing into continental regions around it) colliding deep underground could perhaps lead to eruptive forces upward (namely where resistance from other directions is high so excess energy is caused to flow upward), and with a sufficient force it could perhaps induce an eruptive outcome that leads to the formation of volcanoes. Just a thought but this feature really seems to depict it in detail on a small enough scale to see it in full.
the recent torrey pines bluff rockfall comes to mind, at a smaller scale.
That's really cool! When I think of a massive landslide like that, I have to imagine that there would be huge amounts of organic material (trees, plants maybe some animals) that would get caught up in the slide. Are there any fossils that indicate that this was the case here?
Great location!
Fonts point is really nice worth looking at
FWIW, that place is called Fish Creek Wash. You’ll have a hard time finding it if you search Split Mountain.
There's another mega breccia to the west in Carlsbad CA just east of the Palomar Airport, 50 or so miles to the west of Split Mountain approximately 4 miles inland of today's shoreline. Granitic clasts there are upwards of 10 meters in diameter suspended in a jumbled mass of sharply angular clasts and pulverized rock. Located in the lower part of the marine late Cretaceous Point Loma Formation at Lat 33. 08' 10" N, 117.16'00" W. this landslide was beautifully exposed during construction and grading for the Faraday Extension project just east of El Camino Real. The upper jagged contact was well preserved with attached rock scallops and oysters that made their home atop of the jumbled mess soon after the landslide occurred. The jumbled clasts with attached epifauna were gradually covered by the siltstone of lower Point Loma Formation and preserved . The siltstone gradually filled in the spaces between the granitic clasts above the shattered rock debris filled spaces that fills the lower spaces between the clasts. I do have photos and video taken during the grading phase of the project. Unfortunately today's modern landscaping covers most of these finer details of the landslide. Exposed on the intact naturally vegetated slopes north and south of the Faraday Avenue right of way , one can still see some of the huge granitic clasts that are imbedded in the landslide, naturally eroding out of the hillside. These have been rounded by weathering and today can be seen poking up through the chaparral. These giant granitic clasts look very much like the in-place source rock located in the granitic hills less than a mile to the east. The idea here was a high steep coastline with a deep marine embayment recieved a huge section of mountain in a similar manner to the late Miocene sturzstrom of Anza Borrego.. A very bad day at the beach.
Maybe the source of the rockfall will be a part of this mini-series, will look into video history to see if he already answered the question of how large the granite mountains were that caused this ancient huge rockfall/landslide.
Painted gorge is a beautiful place.
Thank you for this series of videos. I have wondered about the geology of this area. We often go to Anzo Borrego to camp. I live in east county San Diego. We have many large boulders that I would like to know the geology for. I am also wondering what happened to the large mountain that the landslide came from.
Thank you for explaining this. I’ve been a big fan of this canyon for many years. I am taking a lot of friends there and showed them the anticline so my question is, when you say the sturzstrom contacted the sandstone beds that’s what caused the curvature of the layers. I am assuming that the sandstone layers were a lot softer and Plyable?
Hi, thanks for the explanation. If you are targeting this at the general public, it might be worth adding text overlays on occasion to help with some of the geologist shorthand phrasing. For instance, early on you characterise the formation as a rock slide running into a bed of 'sandstone'. A simplistic interpretation could hear 'sandstone' as 'solid rock', especially when you then mention tectonics. It is not until much later that it becomes apparent that you meant 'unconsolidated sandy sediments'. No doubt the sedimentary geologists knew what you meant, but the public might have been left a bit confused.
Has anyone found a great response to this question?…..
“Why do we as humans find such gratification coming to accurate understandings of geological truths”
……
I have a sense of why, but would love some additional input.
Thanks Brian
Cool, cool,cool!! So…..was the sasndstone that the landslide barreled into originally in a flat orientation and the landslide both compressed it into these amazing formations and pushed the following sandstone that wasn’t into direct contact with the impact site it into the angled direction or would all the limestone the landslide hit have previously been uplifted from some force of geology? Sorry if I’m not explaining well. I’m just picking up all my knowledge from all,your videos and trying to word it correctly which I’m probably not haha
Wow! I’ve never seen nor heard of anything like that before. It would be difficult to believe without seeing it.
Although, not impossible. But not a common occurrence.
Those folds of rocks look very much like the ones in Provo Canyon in Utah!