An ordinary looking Nevada mountainside reveals extraordinary geology and beauty.

It looks like a giant biological body lying on its side...

Fantastic lecture on geology Myron. Always wanted to learn about geology to better understand the history & processes that form the rock and landscapes that surround us and this is as good as a university lecture but 10x more enjoyable 😀

You're a great storyteller and a lucky dad❤

You're the bob ross of geology!! I could listen to you explain our world forever. Thanks for single-handedly changing my perspective about the ground beneath my feet!

great video

We took family vacations from Kansas to the West. I had "Roadside Geology of __________" for each state we passed through. I drove my kids crazy. In those days of no phones or tech toys--we did have Gameboys for limited time--but our conversations were full of "ok, kids, at mile marker 103, you can see _____"

Ah, the Keystone thrust fault! Didn't know it extended all the way to the Muddy's. As I recall the overthrust unit is the Goodsprings dolomite and it's underlain by the Dunderberg shale (gray-green and known for trilobites). Also, if you look carefully, you can find climbing ripples in the Aztec. Thanks, Myron!

Kudos to your nieces for helping you with this vid and kudos to you for giving them the opportunity to see their world through your eyes.

So, are the dolomites and the aztec sandstone adjacent in normal stratographic layers? If not, why do we not see a bunch of other intermediate layers represented in these places where the older dolomites are pushed up?
I live in Las Vegas and typically only see one or the other in Southern Nevada.

Not being a geologist , I can still , speculate . The killer rock that hits in the Gulf of Mexico . Stirs , shocks up the under lying material ? It affects the subducting ocean plate just west of California . By shearing it off nearer to the surface . And it speeds up , the sliding mass of ocean rock as a more solid mass of rock , is able to travel farther than a slow moving rock mass to create the Rockies ?

I was a desert bighorn sheep biologist in the southern third of Nevada. I know the Muddys very well. That limestone over the Aztec Sandstone was largely Mississippian. We called it velcro-rock because it was so rough. To the west of the Muddys is the Arrow Canyon Range. Almost the whole Paleozoic Era is found there.

One question I have regarding the conglomerate. My initial thought, as a young geologist, is that it was a fault breccia. I find the conglomerate formation as described in the video plausible but I’m curious how we’d figure out if it’s a fault breccia or an alluvial conglomerate that the fault moved over. My first guess would be to look at the clast roundness, but I’m not sure what else we could use. Would there be/is there evidence of shear on the top of the conglomerate? Curious to hear your thoughts

Myron, I've been to the landscapes you are exploring here. Please, when you are standing on a steep slope where you can hardly keep your balance, take a good walking stick along for stability. Three points of contact with the ground are better than two. Falling down that slope would be a disaster.

Brilliant video. Great storytelling with a fascinating geologic story. I look forward to watching more episodes. One note that someone else likely mentioned. The fault contact material is probably a breccia and the deposits you showed look like they are. I liked the concept of the conglomerates being deposited in front of the thrust and there could have been, however once they were getting overridden I still think they would become a breccia. I have mapped a lot of faults in Nevada and Utah and breccias along them are common. My thoughts anyhow. Thanks again. Fantastic video and well done.

Fascinating

Very much enjoy your videos; wish you had more on the front range of colorado....hope you and your family enjoy many more years of your work.

I need a hat :) Thank you! Your presentation is wonderful.

Thank you I love posts

Outstanding

Thanks for your info,being born and raised in vegas I've always wondered how these areas were made,absolutely beautiful.

Man I love to kick back and watch Myron Cook’s geology tours. Fascinating and at the same time relaxing. Keep it up Myron, you have a wonderful thing going on here.

Hi Myron. Aha. "I knew he didn't go out there alone" says my wife. Thanks for the cameos at the end with your nieces. Glad to see you're getting some help. Hope your nieces are enjoying themselves.

Great story! Thank you.

Fascinating video thank you., And I can’t wait to now go and watch your other offerings.I aced my geology 101 at the University of Florida the course better known as “Rocks for Jocks”. It did give the basics at least showing the forces that created the surface we now observe and most of what we don’t. I sometimes wish I had pursued geology as a major, but Florida is rather uninteresting compared to the West, which is where I would have needed to go if I was serious about it.

I love how you look at something, present a potential problem with your observations, THEN GO TO THE WHITEBOARD!! Your explanations are concise and coherent to us "normal" plebes!!😆😆 Thank you (and your outstanding editors, The nieces?) S

Where is the metamorphic rock that would be produced by the immense pressure and movement of the thrust?

That is a great video traveling through that expanse of terrain. The Navaho sandstone has always been a favorite since it covers such a vast territory. It looks like the conglomerate has angular clasts - almost a carbonate breccia. Is that what it looks like in place? Love your paper models too. Many thanks, Kay

Awesome vid sir and shout out to your nieces. My first thought was another landslide and I thought of uplift. I need to read up more on faulting. You explained it very well I guess that is my weakpoint. I need to learn more about faulting and the various ways it happens.

Wonderful!! Thank you!

Awesome. So Vegas lies in a basin between mountains of old rock sitting on top of younger layers. Holy cow.

Myron, nice story, yet as an experienced geologist, I would offer a caveat for those conglomerates. Some of those dolomites look like structural breccias to me. There should be a shale or shales at the base of the dolomites, yet brecciation of britlle rocks is common in thrust sheets. Similarly high fluid overpressures are present at the fault interface and provides the lubricant for the thrust sheet to move. I imight wonder if there is an imbricate stack or duplex in the thrust packages over 80 km distance. Actually based on modern analogues the upper plate is eroding as it is moving and thrusting so it is unlikely that there ever was 13,000 feet of repeated section. In other words erosion is synchronous with thrusting. Look at the Himalayas and Alps as modern analogues. Similarly when mountain masses reach 30,000 ft in elevation, gravity will take over and result in extension or tectonic/orogenic collapse due to the enormous gravitational mass that exceeds the strength of the rock. Isostasy is the unloading rebound of the crust when the load is removed. Apply excess instantaneous load and the crust beneath will subside for a while.

Mud fossils biological

I am very glad to find you, Sir. Thanks for educating and sharing !

Hello from Cheyenne Wyoming!
The beginning of your video reminds me a great deal of Chugwater, Wyoming and the mesas that they have there that are sandstone on the bottom & this gray matrix of silt/mineral and a large variety rock of various size (dolomite?) on the top - is that gray layer there in Nevada the same as what we see in the Chugwater Formations?
When I hiked around the bluffs in Chugwater, Wyoming, I've noticed some of the darker layer that has been busted off from some kind of massive amount of water or flood, but anyway I can access it very easily since it's on the ground now and I noticed that they're full of agates - would you ever consider doing a video on the Chugwater formations both in Chugwater as well as Thermopolis? And why do I find agates in the (dolomite?) layer that's on top of the sandstone?

I'd love to see your take on the formation of the Black Hills. Might shed a tear too, 'cuz that's home turf for me, and boy do I miss those gorgeous hills.

lah.ru.old

Are you still making videos because I have a good location for you to observe that could be very awesome.

So it is what I call a flip flop

I have a alluvial question round river rock float on top of blue grey powder like silt but it has hardened enough to tunnel in

I need you to confirm a displacement from volcanic action

Myron, you are a master at your craft and utilize great analogies that make a simple-minded individual as myself comprehend the whys and beauty of geology!!!


Thank you sooo much for educating a guy who is about as dumb as a box of frozen shrimp when it comes to geology!!!
👍😃🍻

Come over the mountain and see us in Rexburg sometime. Lot's of good geology nearby. BYU-I would love to have you, I'm sure.

All of these natural wonders —which are found all over the world— are evidence of a global flood.

Thankyou again Myron! Facinating advanced geology...

Amazing. I learned more in one video than in my geology courses.

Inspector Clueso thanks I don’t know how you guys do it, but I guess it’s a matter of gathering the evidence like you demonstrate.

So so interesting absolutely love it

But the Christians insist the world is only 5000 years old......