Nick. Thanks for your fine presentations. I'm 70+yrs old and spent my life backpacking and fly fishing Idaho Oregon and Washington high mountains. I and my family own property near Sumpter Oregon and know the country well from putting my foot prints everywhere I could. I'm now old and have developed a neurologic disability that prevents me doing what I once loved. Your videos take me to and bring me back to places and times I loved. Thank you for taking me with you.
This is where I've lived my whole life. It takes an episode like this to make me realize that for all these years I've taken that whole mountain for Granite.
Van Patten is in the Elkhorn batholith with the Wallowa batholith making up the granite on the northern slope of the Wallowa/ Eagle Cap range. The southern slope is known as the Eagle Caps differentiated from the Wallowas and Elkhorns by the exotic terrains exposed as limestone and marbles in the familiar Eagle Cap. Just east of Baker City pass the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center about 20 miles youll be at the east end of Virtue Flats and notice ash tufts along the hiway. Turning south on one of the many open gravel roads after the tuft will bring you to 3 recent RYOLITE cones ranging in age and sise along a folded fault. Really awesome road cuts complete with pyroclatic flow and a chance to find opal. The entire area (east end of Virtue Flat) has GLACIAL morains from somewhere and your opinion may help solve the mystery for me.
From my observations , extensive glaciation came from the Eagle caps as well as the Lookout mountain region. .The Burnt river canyon, between Durkee and Lime,had a cemented gavel column that is nearly one hundred feet tall West of Lookout mountain.On the Eagle caps side, Eagle creek ,Goose creek and Balm creek all have massive lateral moraines. Just one more thing, granite outcrops can be found east of Baker city pretty close to the Oregon trail Interpretive center.Thank you so much for these fantastic videos.
Love your stuff, Nick. I traveled that country 50 years ago with my dad, who was a geologist, but I was just a kid and didn't listen really hard. You make his voice sound in my head again. I own some ancient Australian granite country near to our highest country in New South Wales. Ours is so, so old, my dad just loved the newness of America.
My great grandfather, John Riley Childers, brought his family to Oregon's Grand Ronde Valley on the Oregon Trail, arriving in North Powder in September of 1884. They spent a few years there and then moved on to John Day for a few more years, and then on to SW Oregon in the Rouge River Valley.
Thanks Nick, on so many levels I needed to see that right about now.
4 ปีที่แล้ว +3
Oh my beloved PNW! Mom told us many times growing up (1950s/60s, Renton WA) how fortunate we were to live in God's Country! Not that she was super religious, but simply wanted us boys to appreciate our beautiful birth place! Beautiful scenery Nick! I have not been in that area for any hikes. Just drove through this beautiful country on my way to and from.
Just a note the ice sheet never entered the Virtue Flats area East of town Supposedly an island collided with this area about 140 million years ago The Baker County Heritage Museum has an excellent Rock exhibit and explanation of the area. Enjoy your stay.
Here's the link to the Baker County Heritage Museum's page on their rock, gem, and mineral exhibit. While you're in the area, Nick, the "museum gift shop has a fantastic selection of rock, gem, and mineral rockhounding guides available for purchase." The Baker Rockhounds hold meetings there.
Mountain glaciers deposited glacial till on the east end of Virtue Flats. There are large morains visible throughout the southern slope of the Eagle Cap caused by the same glaciation forming Wallowa Lake and its famous moraines. If you look close as you drive through they area many of the road cuts are clearly glacial till.
I would suggest that Ned Zinger goes to the US Bank to see the amazing gold nuggets on display!!! The Gem and Mineral museum is also a fantastic tour. Also a fun half-day trip out to Sumpter to see the old surviving gold boom town and historic dredge. Visitors are welcome to pan for gold in the State park where the dredge and talings are located. John Day fossil beds....you could do 2 hours on the geologic events...and never mention the fossils. I went to see the eclipse a few years ago...planned a 3 day trip, stayed in the area for 10 days. Thanks for doing all you do !
As a Wisconsin resident in a glaciated area, Nick's talk is interesting, but even more impressive is his knowledge of the complex geologic history of the pacific northwest.
Beautiful scenery! I grew up running around the Sierra Nevada Mountains. So much granite down there! When I see lots of granite, I get a little homesick.
Zick, according to a talk that Ellen Morris Bishop gave a few years ago, the Wallowa batholith was formed when the Wallowa Terrane docked 150 ma. The oceanic crust broke off in the subduction zone when the terrane docked, which caused mantle upwelling in the suture zone. How do these things get figured out is a mystery to me. www.gsoc.org/news/2018/4/30/from-bowlby-to-zumwal-exploring-the-geology-of-oregons-wallowa-area
The geology in Baker County is very complex. The first report was by Waldemar Lindgren, "The Gold Belt of the Blue Mountains Oregon". It was published for Congress in 1901.
The first time I hiked into Van Patten lake was in 1973 when I was eight years old. When the water lowers it reveals a cave that is a fun place to picnic and fish from.
Thanks for showing the trail around Baker City. The granite reminds me of Sierra in California. We live in Oregon, but never been to Baker City, yet. Now there is a reason to go.
Thanks Nick for sharing this beautiful hike ! Missed the time you've released it on TH-cam, anyway, enjoyed to watch and listen. Good night to you. Take care and all the best from Belgium
*GRANITE COUNTERTOPS R US!* Jurassic prices are good until Labor Day. Muffler Boys are waiting at the switchboard. Call now before this amazing batholith gets eroded away!
Nick you rock! No pun intended. I liked your trail social distancing. I don't know much about geology or the Baker area but I am so happy that you are in my home state! Your videos are incredibly informative and interesting. I am a huge fan! I live in the Willamette Valley but have developed an affinity for the Steens Mountain and the Alvord Desert. I really hope that you can extend your trip south into that region and delve into what has happened there. Thank you from Eugene! Keep up the good work my friend, you are introducing a lot of people to geology. Good on you big guy!!
I learned to ski right by there, at Anthony Lake. Met my husband and had both kids in Wallowa County, I had to know about that batholith... Here is what I found "Here we saw this impressive outcrop of Wallowa Batholith granodiorite at the Pole Bridge Picnic Area, where we had a little picnic. This most northerly tongue of the batholith is the most accessible view of 125-140-million-year-old rocks of the stitching plutons that mark the accretion of the Wallowa Terrane onto North America." source:
As an average 41yr old human with an avid love of geology but no real accredited education on the science, I've learned so much from this series and the previous. It's obvious you love what you do to the same extant of what I hate to do, but do, so I can do what you do, and not get paid to do... 😏 Your approach makes the information so easily retainable , so I may regurgitate it to my children with ease.. to thier amazement. 😳
On the west side of the Elkhorns in an area called The Desolation you may find rose quarts crystal lying on the ground or if you dig you may also find them in large quartz structer (multiple crystals bound together).
On the extreme northwest of the Elkhorn batholith you will find evidence of an extinct shield volcano with lots of thunder eggs just lying around in road cuts. There is a road cut where a multiple variety of thunderegg deposits are framed by a band of crushed obsidian to either side. The thunder eggs range in color and matrix from red with white quartz centers to blue with yellow or white quartz centers to an aqua blue with little quartz inclusions resembling popcorn.
Always a pleasure to join you on-site via TH-cam. I know what a batholith is, but that's about the extent of my geological expertise, so I'm no help in identifying the granites of eastern Oregon. Baker City is in Oregon Trail country that I've visited several times over the years while following the trail. Keith Meldahl's "Hard Road West" might be a worthwhile read for you and / or some of your students. His focus is more on the trail to California during the Gold Rush, but I found it interesting.
I was not home when I got the notification that you had posted this hike. But it was an interesting look at geology I will probably not ever get to see in person. Thank you so very much for these!
Hey, here's some more info for your subscribers, if you get on Google Maps you can see Van Patten Lake and the Elkhorn Mountains northwest of Baker City. Look on satellite view just to the south of this mountain range and you'll see the town of Sumpter, and a narrow valley stretching to the southeast from the town. Zoom in and you'll see what happens when you dredge an entire valley floor looking for gold. GSOC did a field trip in this area in 2008. Nowadays the pools in the dredge spoils make a nice wildlife area.
Nick, on pg. 270 of Roadside Geology of Oregon, Marli Miller calls this the Bald Mtn Batholith, one of the smaller stitching plutons on the southwest edge of the Wallowa Terrane. The Wallowa Batholith is further east in the Wallowa Mtns. However, I think all these little batholiths are believed to be of similar age and origin. Miller also states on pg. 272 that the Bald Mtn. batholith created a lot of gold mineralization in the area during its emplacement.
North East Oregon has 85% of the mineral wealth of the state. You Bareilly touched the surface. Mark Fern is a retired geologist that Acts as an adviser to the Museums(2) The Baker valley originally called Lake Idaho There have been basalt flows and Volcano activity with hot springs in the area. Another informative prospector is Brian Bolin. Hope to see in Baker County more this coming season. Your series is fascinating .
In Miller's Second edition of The Roadside Geology of Oregon, she says the similarities of the rocks in the NE and SW parts of the state are due to the accreted land (and the rest of the state)having rotated clockwise during the Cenozoic. Where have we heard this before? There is a cool drawing of the movement that aids in understanding the process. See page 16.
Thanks for the minerology of that granite. I had no idea the Elkhorns were that closely related to the Wallowas and based on the comments their relationship is pretty complicated.
Thanks for all your videos. I live in Walla Walla and was wondering if you have much thoughts on where the snake river went through the blue mountains before hells canyon.
Very picturesque. I do have a question. When you take these rather remote excursions any issues with wildlife? I see those trees I wonder what beasties are laying in wait.
Amazed that the Granite looks very much, if not exactly like the big block you have at home. The granites I've seen are countertops. They varied greatly in appearance. Am I right?
For countertops they like to pick very coarse granular structures and striking colors. I'd say the finely grained, greyish type as seen here is pretty typical.
Four "down-thumbs"??? I'm convinced there are misanthrope people, whose only goal in life is to down-vote absolutely wonderful videos like this. I wish they would lose all internet connection in their parent's basement, where they live.
Rockslides? It would be a bad day to be downhill when a wall face decides to crumble. Nice cover for small wildlife though. A lot of interstitial nooks and crannies.
Nick it your ever down in So Cal please let me know. Being a geology nut myself, I happen to live 3 miles from the San Andres Fault at the mouth of Cajon Pass. I can show you some cool places. I love trains and geology and Cajon has it all. On one trail in Lytle Creek there are 4 different colors of ground in less than 50 yards.
Are you on the road, Nick? You should totally come down to Southern Oregon and check out the geology on my fire opal claim. It's some really neat stuff and I would be HONORED to have you. I've been doing free digs for a few years now.
I’m a bit confused. At the top of the rubble there are a mixture of rounded gravels and cobbles mixed with angular blocks. Is that a result of erosion or weathering, or both, and why are they intermingled indiscriminately? It seems the rounding would be more uniform.
Hi Nick, love your videos. It would help if you used a microphone so we can hear you better. The wind interferes a lot. Keep up the good work. Moving to WA soon and can't wait to go exploring some of the places you have covered.
We have granite like that but we have more pink feildspar in it And we have some garnet ones too but the garnet is of sand paper quality lol Its still pretty we collect garden rocks :)
When you said Elkhorn Mountains you had me confused. There are Elkhorn Mts in Montana (near Boulder, between Butte and Helena), which formed 74-81Ma, tks to the Farallon Plate, as wiki says, "the Elkhorn Mountains Volcanics are extrusive rocks related to the plutonic granites of the Boulder Batholith."
Hi Nick! Beautiful scenery there! I kept waiting for a beer commercial to start when you were at the babbling water fall type feature! :) Did you edit out the snickering at the cleavage part? ;) Hope you and yours are well. Greg in TN
Wish you could have stopped by at my house for a piece of cake in LaGrande, Oregon. Please check. I think the mountains across the way that has pink in your map are the Eagle Caps. Also, near La Grande is Morgan Lake where there are strange rock formations that are like huge hollow bowls. I wish you could talk about this phenomenon. Also, near Sumpter and in the Elk horns is a place called Green Mountain where there are beautiful peridot colors gem like stones. Gosh it’d be interesting to know why and how those green rocks are there.
As I am learning, quartz crystals form in hot water, possibly at depth where pressure is created. Once formed as a crystal, quarts may be melted to liquid glass and fill cracks in rock. Gold deposits are associated with water, but gold is of extraterrestrial origin, created by a supernova. There must be a large quartz 'nursery' under the Yellowstone Caldera, similar to the crystal cave in Mexico.
Dear Dr. Zentner, I'm struck by the fact that you are looking at the rock-masses formed millions-to-many-more-millions of years back as a result of lenticular basically dacitic lava intrusion, which instead of explosively making its presence, grew, swelled, halted, sat around for a long time, and due to the remarkable thermodynamic insulation properties of the mass-of-rock surrounding the pluton, ... hardened. The heterogeneous macro-crystalline structure suggests perhaps hundreds-of-thousands mostly-liquid to hardened stone formations. Sub-centimeter crystals. Biotite, Hornblende, Quartz, Feldspar. Bits of the Mica group, bits of the aphantic mineralogy. BUT MY QUESTION, Today, in-or-about A. D. 2000 ... where are the plutons which have extruded, lensed, maybe are molten or some dot-on-the-continuum-line between molten and crystalline, today? You (absolutely, frickin' marvelous) videos are walk-about's of the past. What of the present? I ASK this because ... as a fellow geolographer passing thru his senior undergraduate studies at the venerable and oft-overlooked UCBerkeley Department of Mines, well ... where are the plutons? Anyway "Gp Bears". Love your videos. Hope you reply. Bob Lynch '81 ... UCB AKA "GoatGuy"
Question, when someone says I have “pairs of glasses…”, like the gentleman offered the lady earlier in the film, does he have two extra or 4? Or just one extra set? Is it similar to shoes? 1 pair is just 1 set, correct?
Kinda wild that I met a young woman from Washington here in North west Illinois. We got to talking and I told her about your channel. Hope you get a new subscriber.
The majority of the surface rocks, including the exposed bedrock, appears to be water tumbled... has flood deposition been considered, as a cause of the exposed batholith and granite debris?
Doubt if they are water tumbled. At this elevation, just a lot of water intrusion, freezing, expanding, cracking. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Many granite mountaintops in the NW look just like this, but the elevations are just too high for any kind of water tumbling.
I really wish I could place other subscriptions to a higher or lower priority because I am subbed to countless channels, but I want Nick's in my top spot for notifications.
20,000 years ago the lake was being pushed out and the boulder field was the end moraine of one glacier plowing up loose granite for its dam. The pluton of magma sat cooling for a very long time before becoming granite how the horn blend separated from the plageoclase.
✈️ Nick - I'm following all your vids - but these hiking vids must stop. I'm feeling all the pain in your knees as you hike along and I'm getting sympathy winded for you just sitting here in my recliner! LOL Getting ready to spend next week flying the north Cascades. I'll get some video of the boundary of the Columbia and the plains/mtns. Also hope to get some stuff of the Haystacks, Lake Chelan, and various mtn ranges that are visiting from south of the border. We'll be based out of Methow Valley (Winthrop). If you have any video requests, let me know via email or call.
Nick. Thanks for your fine presentations. I'm 70+yrs old and spent my life backpacking and fly fishing Idaho Oregon and Washington high mountains. I and my family own property near Sumpter Oregon and know the country well from putting my foot prints everywhere I could. I'm now old and have developed a neurologic disability that prevents me doing what I once loved. Your videos take me to and bring me back to places and times I loved. Thank you for taking me with you.
This is where I've lived my whole life. It takes an episode like this to make me realize that for all these years I've taken that whole mountain for Granite.
OMG, come for the Nick vid, stay for comments. Bravo.
Van Patten is in the Elkhorn batholith with the Wallowa batholith making up the granite on the northern slope of the Wallowa/ Eagle Cap range. The southern slope is known as the Eagle Caps differentiated from the Wallowas and Elkhorns by the exotic terrains exposed as limestone and marbles in the familiar Eagle Cap. Just east of Baker City pass the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center about 20 miles youll be at the east end of Virtue Flats and notice ash tufts along the hiway. Turning south on one of the many open gravel roads after the tuft will bring you to 3 recent RYOLITE cones ranging in age and sise along a folded fault. Really awesome road cuts complete with pyroclatic flow and a chance to find opal. The entire area (east end of Virtue Flat) has GLACIAL morains from somewhere and your opinion may help solve the mystery for me.
From my observations , extensive glaciation came from the Eagle caps as well as the Lookout mountain region. .The Burnt river canyon, between Durkee and Lime,had a cemented gavel column that is nearly one hundred feet tall West of Lookout mountain.On the Eagle caps side, Eagle creek ,Goose creek and Balm creek all have massive lateral moraines. Just one more thing, granite outcrops can be found east of Baker city pretty close to the Oregon trail Interpretive center.Thank you so much for these fantastic videos.
My 3 year old made it all the way to the lake on her own.
Gorgeous scenery. I can imagine this hike and the fresh coolness of waterfalls and streams. Thanks for the trip😄
Love your stuff, Nick. I traveled that country 50 years ago with my dad, who was a geologist, but I was just a kid and didn't listen really hard. You make his voice sound in my head again. I own some ancient Australian granite country near to our highest country in New South Wales. Ours is so, so old, my dad just loved the newness of America.
I feel like I just got to take a mini vacation to where I would like to be. Thank you
My great grandfather, John Riley Childers, brought his family to Oregon's Grand Ronde Valley on the Oregon Trail, arriving in North Powder in September of 1884. They spent a few years there and then moved on to John Day for a few more years, and then on to SW Oregon in the Rouge River Valley.
What a beautiful day for you and your family . Thank you for sharing.
Enjoying watching this series during these gloomy winter days. 2/1/2022 Pasco, Wa.
How lucky we all are to be treated to this geologic history n beauty of our planet.
-Thanks-
Beautiful lake thanks for the tour
Thanks Nick, on so many levels I needed to see that right about now.
Oh my beloved PNW! Mom told us many times growing up (1950s/60s, Renton WA) how fortunate we were to live in God's Country! Not that she was super religious, but simply wanted us boys to appreciate our beautiful birth place! Beautiful scenery Nick! I have not been in that area for any hikes. Just drove through this beautiful country on my way to and from.
Just a note the ice sheet never entered the Virtue Flats area East of town
Supposedly an island collided with this area about 140 million years ago
The Baker County Heritage Museum has an excellent Rock exhibit and explanation of the area. Enjoy your stay.
Here's the link to the Baker County Heritage Museum's page on their rock, gem, and mineral exhibit. While you're in the area, Nick, the "museum gift shop has a fantastic selection of rock, gem, and mineral rockhounding guides available for purchase." The Baker Rockhounds hold meetings there.
Mountain glaciers deposited glacial till on the east end of Virtue Flats. There are large morains visible throughout the southern slope of the Eagle Cap caused by the same glaciation forming Wallowa Lake and its famous moraines. If you look close as you drive through they area many of the road cuts are clearly glacial till.
I would suggest that Ned Zinger goes to the US Bank to see the amazing gold nuggets on display!!!
The Gem and Mineral museum is also a fantastic tour.
Also a fun half-day trip out to Sumpter to see the old surviving gold boom town and historic dredge.
Visitors are welcome to pan for gold in the State park where the dredge and talings are located.
John Day fossil beds....you could do 2 hours on the geologic events...and never mention the fossils.
I went to see the eclipse a few years ago...planned a 3 day trip, stayed in the area for 10 days.
Thanks for doing all you do !
As a Wisconsin resident in a glaciated area, Nick's talk is interesting, but even more impressive is his knowledge of the complex geologic history of the pacific northwest.
Thanks Nick! Another great field trip! Great to hike and learn about geology! 👍👍
Beautiful scenery! I grew up running around the Sierra Nevada Mountains. So much granite down there! When I see lots of granite, I get a little homesick.
Oh to have young knees again to make a climb like that. Thank you for the glimpse of yet another heaven on earth. You sir, rock! ;-)x
Zick, according to a talk that Ellen Morris Bishop gave a few years ago, the Wallowa batholith was formed when the Wallowa Terrane docked 150 ma. The oceanic crust broke off in the subduction zone when the terrane docked, which caused mantle upwelling in the suture zone. How do these things get figured out is a mystery to me. www.gsoc.org/news/2018/4/30/from-bowlby-to-zumwal-exploring-the-geology-of-oregons-wallowa-area
Another nickname for Nick?
LOL, It`s Dr. Ned Zinger
The feldspars being a mix of Calcium and Sodium could point to oceanic island material for subduction.
TY for bringing us another video with new material. Miss the chalkboard but LOVE the scenery.
What a beautiful lake.
Missed catching this live, but what a lovely hike! I'm so glad you brought us along. Thank you.
Outstanding video as normal Nick. Very cute child on the trail!
The geology in Baker County is very complex. The first report was by Waldemar Lindgren, "The Gold Belt of the Blue Mountains Oregon". It was published for Congress in 1901.
The first time I hiked into Van Patten lake was in 1973 when I was eight years old. When the water lowers it reveals a cave that is a fun place to picnic and fish from.
Thanks for showing the trail around Baker City. The granite reminds me of Sierra in California. We live in Oregon, but never been to Baker City, yet. Now there is a reason to go.
Thanks Nick for sharing this beautiful hike ! Missed the time you've released it on TH-cam, anyway, enjoyed to watch and listen. Good night to you. Take care and all the best from Belgium
Nick, Thank for the videos! I really do enjoy them.
That picture as you approach the river, with the pretty lady in the hat with her back to us... Is Fantastic... Gorgeous picture. Nicely done Nick...
Thank you, Nick!
*GRANITE COUNTERTOPS R US!* Jurassic prices are good until Labor Day. Muffler Boys are waiting at the switchboard. Call now before this amazing batholith gets eroded away!
I think he may have found a way to finally escape Muffler Boy! :)
Shave the batholiths .!.
How did all those pillows get in my chocolate cake???
Nick you rock! No pun intended.
I liked your trail social distancing.
I don't know much about geology or the Baker area but I am so happy that you are in my home state!
Your videos are incredibly informative and interesting. I am a huge fan!
I live in the Willamette Valley but have developed an affinity for the Steens Mountain and the Alvord Desert.
I really hope that you can extend your trip south into that region and delve into what has happened there.
Thank you from Eugene! Keep up the good work my friend, you are introducing a lot of people to geology. Good on you big guy!!
I learned to ski right by there, at Anthony Lake. Met my husband and had both kids in Wallowa County, I had to know about that batholith... Here is what I found "Here we saw this impressive outcrop of Wallowa Batholith granodiorite at the Pole Bridge Picnic Area, where we had a little picnic. This most northerly tongue of the batholith is the most accessible view of 125-140-million-year-old rocks of the stitching plutons that mark the accretion of the Wallowa Terrane onto North America." source:
As an average 41yr old human with an avid love of geology but no real accredited education on the science, I've learned so much from this series and the previous. It's obvious you love what you do to the same extant of what I hate to do, but do, so I can do what you do, and not get paid to do... 😏 Your approach makes the information so easily retainable , so I may regurgitate it to my children with ease.. to thier amazement. 😳
Prof Nick. Thank you for sharing this hike and history in Oregon. I just saw a 2015 Nova program, Making of North America; very informative!
Amazing video. Thank you, and thanks to your family for putting up with Ned Zentner, Camera Boy! Love to you and yours
Lovely! Absolutely lovely!
On the west side of the Elkhorns in an area called The Desolation you may find rose quarts crystal lying on the ground or if you dig you may also find them in large quartz structer (multiple crystals bound together).
Thank you for the refresher course in geology. I am loving this.
Does this beautiful nature not fill you with the glory of our earth?
Fresh sparkly minerals?
On the extreme northwest of the Elkhorn batholith you will find evidence of an extinct shield volcano with lots of thunder eggs just lying around in road cuts. There is a road cut where a multiple variety of thunderegg deposits are framed by a band of crushed obsidian to either side. The thunder eggs range in color and matrix from red with white quartz centers to blue with yellow or white quartz centers to an aqua blue with little quartz inclusions resembling popcorn.
It's not difficult to understand why the original peoples thought these places were spiritual. Absolutely wonderful.
Beautiful country!!
Thanks Nick!
Another well done video! (Can I say that before I see it? Methinks yes.) Thanks Nick.
Always a pleasure to join you on-site via TH-cam. I know what a batholith is, but that's about the extent of my geological expertise, so I'm no help in identifying the granites of eastern Oregon. Baker City is in Oregon Trail country that I've visited several times over the years while following the trail. Keith Meldahl's "Hard Road West" might be a worthwhile read for you and / or some of your students. His focus is more on the trail to California during the Gold Rush, but I found it interesting.
Your hiking videos make me want to go hiking. Heat, bugs, and fear of falling are deterrents I must overcome.
It's huge fun and so peaceful. Hiking in Oregon and Washington got me into geology. It's also what keeps me in shape.
Thank you for doing this series as well as the From Homes. They are fantastic, Nick!
These 'fly' sessions Nick are brilliant sir ,as if we are there with you ,many thanks ,from Plymouth UK .
I was not home when I got the notification that you had posted this hike. But it was an interesting look at geology I will probably not ever get to see in person. Thank you so very much for these!
Thanks Nick, beautiful!
Hiking the Elkhorn Crest trail. WOW!
Hey, here's some more info for your subscribers, if you get on Google Maps you can see Van Patten Lake and the Elkhorn Mountains northwest of Baker City. Look on satellite view just to the south of this mountain range and you'll see the town of Sumpter, and a narrow valley stretching to the southeast from the town. Zoom in and you'll see what happens when you dredge an entire valley floor looking for gold. GSOC did a field trip in this area in 2008. Nowadays the pools in the dredge spoils make a nice wildlife area.
thanks for taking me along!
Thanks Nik for the geology lesson and the scenery and I would love to walk the trails in that area but my knees ache just looking at it.
Baker City is one of my favorite spots in the world......
We love the elkhorn mountains!
Nick, on pg. 270 of Roadside Geology of Oregon, Marli Miller calls this the Bald Mtn Batholith, one of the smaller stitching plutons on the southwest edge of the Wallowa Terrane. The Wallowa Batholith is further east in the Wallowa Mtns. However, I think all these little batholiths are believed to be of similar age and origin. Miller also states on pg. 272 that the Bald Mtn. batholith created a lot of gold mineralization in the area during its emplacement.
North East Oregon has 85% of the mineral wealth of the state. You Bareilly touched the surface. Mark Fern is a retired geologist that
Acts as an adviser to the Museums(2)
The Baker valley originally called Lake Idaho
There have been basalt flows and Volcano activity with hot springs in the area.
Another informative prospector is Brian Bolin. Hope to see in Baker County more this coming season.
Your series is fascinating .
Thank you for your knowledge!
Hello from Centralia, WA. I am excited to finally get to be part of a live stream!
I'm just south of Centralia, Pa.....same name , very different towns💛
Your the best Nick!
In Miller's Second edition of The Roadside Geology of Oregon, she says the similarities of the rocks in the NE and SW parts of the state are due to the accreted land (and the rest of the state)having rotated clockwise during the Cenozoic. Where have we heard this before? There is a cool drawing of the movement that aids in understanding the process. See page 16.
Thanks for the minerology of that granite. I had no idea the Elkhorns were that closely related to the Wallowas and based on the comments their relationship is pretty complicated.
Yay! Field trip.⛏
Thanks for all your videos. I live in Walla Walla and was wondering if you have much thoughts on where the snake river went through the blue mountains before hells canyon.
Very picturesque. I do have a question. When you take these rather remote excursions any issues with wildlife? I see those trees I wonder what beasties are laying in wait.
Amazed that the Granite looks very much, if not exactly like the big block you have at home. The granites I've seen are countertops. They varied greatly in appearance. Am I right?
For countertops they like to pick very coarse granular structures and striking colors. I'd say the finely grained, greyish type as seen here is pretty typical.
Four "down-thumbs"??? I'm convinced there are misanthrope people, whose only goal in life is to down-vote absolutely wonderful videos like this. I wish they would lose all internet connection in their parent's basement, where they live.
Yes, the town of Auburn was near where you were. It was the first county seat during the gold rush.
We have rocks that look like that here in Michigan. They seem to be slightly radiocative. I assume they were dragged here by a glacier from Canada.
I have a newfound appreciation for granite.
thank you for your excellent field trips, my question is : does the state of Washington have a state surface geologic map for sale?
OK, I have watched too many hikes with Nick ! When the man came up the path at about 15.20, I actually moved to my left to let him pass !!!!!
What caused all of the boulders in that area?
Rockslides? It would be a bad day to be downhill when a wall face decides to crumble.
Nice cover for small wildlife though. A lot of interstitial nooks and crannies.
@@bagoquarks Pika seem to love the Talus! Fun little critters
There are crayfish in that lake...cleaned trout and left the entrails in the shallows...the next morning were dozens of crawdads feasting.
Nick it your ever down in So Cal please let me know. Being a geology nut myself, I happen to live
3 miles from the San Andres Fault at the mouth of Cajon Pass. I can show you some cool places. I love trains and geology and Cajon has it all. On one trail in Lytle Creek there are 4 different colors of ground in less than 50 yards.
Are you on the road, Nick? You should totally come down to Southern Oregon and check out the geology on my fire opal claim. It's some really neat stuff and I would be HONORED to have you. I've been doing free digs for a few years now.
I’m a bit confused. At the top of the rubble there are a mixture of rounded gravels and cobbles mixed with angular blocks. Is that a result of erosion or weathering, or both, and why are they intermingled indiscriminately? It seems the rounding would be more uniform.
Hi Nick, love your videos. It would help if you used a microphone so we can hear you better. The wind interferes a lot. Keep up the good work. Moving to WA soon and can't wait to go exploring some of the places you have covered.
I remembered someone's suggestion to turn on Captions. Helped a lot.
We have granite like that but we have more pink feildspar in it
And we have some garnet ones too but the garnet is of sand paper quality lol
Its still pretty we collect garden rocks :)
When you said Elkhorn Mountains you had me confused. There are Elkhorn Mts in Montana (near Boulder, between Butte and Helena), which formed 74-81Ma, tks to the Farallon Plate, as wiki says, "the Elkhorn Mountains Volcanics are extrusive rocks related to the plutonic granites of the Boulder Batholith."
Hi Nick! Beautiful scenery there! I kept waiting for a beer commercial to start when you were at the babbling water fall type feature! :) Did you edit out the snickering at the cleavage part? ;) Hope you and yours are well. Greg in TN
Wish you could have stopped by at my house for a piece of cake in LaGrande, Oregon. Please check. I think the mountains across the way that has pink in your map are the Eagle Caps. Also, near La Grande is Morgan Lake where there are strange rock formations that are like huge hollow bowls. I wish you could talk about this phenomenon. Also, near Sumpter and in the Elk horns is a place called Green Mountain where there are beautiful peridot colors gem like stones. Gosh it’d be interesting to know why and how those green rocks are there.
That lovely scenery could be by a Bob Ross painting !
As I am learning, quartz crystals form in hot water, possibly at depth where pressure is created.
Once formed as a crystal, quarts may be melted to liquid glass and fill cracks in rock.
Gold deposits are associated with water, but gold is of extraterrestrial origin, created by a supernova.
There must be a large quartz 'nursery' under the Yellowstone Caldera, similar to the crystal cave in Mexico.
If a core sample was drilled on the Moon, at what depth would gold be found?
The crystal cave in Mexico isn't quartz...it's gypsum.
Dear Dr. Zentner,
I'm struck by the fact that you are looking at the rock-masses formed millions-to-many-more-millions of years back as a result of lenticular basically dacitic lava intrusion, which instead of explosively making its presence, grew, swelled, halted, sat around for a long time, and due to the remarkable thermodynamic insulation properties of the mass-of-rock surrounding the pluton, ... hardened. The heterogeneous macro-crystalline structure suggests perhaps hundreds-of-thousands mostly-liquid to hardened stone formations. Sub-centimeter crystals. Biotite, Hornblende, Quartz, Feldspar. Bits of the Mica group, bits of the aphantic mineralogy.
BUT MY QUESTION,
Today, in-or-about A. D. 2000 ... where are the plutons which have extruded, lensed, maybe are molten or some dot-on-the-continuum-line between molten and crystalline, today?
You (absolutely, frickin' marvelous) videos are walk-about's of the past.
What of the present?
I ASK this because ... as a fellow geolographer passing thru his senior undergraduate studies at the venerable and oft-overlooked UCBerkeley Department of Mines, well ... where are the plutons?
Anyway "Gp Bears".
Love your videos.
Hope you reply.
Bob Lynch
'81 ... UCB
AKA "GoatGuy"
My trust's property is an 11 mile drive to the Eaglecap Wilderness area trailhead. Dem fine country up there.
Dear zed nickertson , my garden I'd lousey with Badgers an wolverines , should I stone them with minerals or elements ? Here's to pyrite in yo eye!
Question, when someone says I have “pairs of glasses…”, like the gentleman offered the lady earlier in the film, does he have two extra or 4? Or just one extra set? Is it similar to shoes? 1 pair is just 1 set, correct?
Kinda wild that I met a young woman from Washington here in North west Illinois. We got to talking and I told her about your channel. Hope you get a new subscriber.
I love the xenolith!
The majority of the surface rocks, including the exposed bedrock, appears to be water tumbled... has flood deposition been considered, as a cause of the exposed batholith and granite debris?
Glaciation. You may find morains at the lower reaches on all sides of the Elkhorns and rock surface scouring at the higher elevations.
Doubt if they are water tumbled. At this elevation, just a lot of water intrusion, freezing, expanding, cracking. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Many granite mountaintops in the NW look just like this, but the elevations are just too high for any kind of water tumbling.
I really wish I could place other subscriptions to a higher or lower priority because I am subbed to countless channels, but I want Nick's in my top spot for notifications.
You can. Go to "your subscribers" there's a prioritize option💛
Un subscribe to old ones or get a new phone
All those rocks in the ground, were they sitting there for 140 million years? Do you know how deep underground they were before they crystallized?
20,000 years ago the lake was being pushed out and the boulder field was the end moraine of one glacier plowing up loose granite for its dam. The pluton of magma sat cooling for a very long time before becoming granite how the horn blend separated from the plageoclase.
✈️ Nick - I'm following all your vids - but these hiking vids must stop. I'm feeling all the pain in your knees as you hike along and I'm getting sympathy winded for you just sitting here in my recliner! LOL Getting ready to spend next week flying the north Cascades. I'll get some video of the boundary of the Columbia and the plains/mtns. Also hope to get some stuff of the Haystacks, Lake Chelan, and various mtn ranges that are visiting from south of the border. We'll be based out of Methow Valley (Winthrop). If you have any video requests, let me know via email or call.
How long of a hike was it from the car to get there?
Did ya find any vugs full of crystals?