Trucks, Trains, Terns & Tractors; An Ordinary Rock & Its Amazing Value

Aside from direct depletion via corporate agriculture, how is climate change impacting the Ogallala aquifer? Given its rate of depletion, what’s the plan?

The world's largest aquifer is the Great Artesian Basin in Australia. It covers 1.7 million square kilometres, equivalent to about a quarter of the entire country and 7 times the area of the UK. The Great Artesian Basin is also the deepest aquifer in the world.

I think we need o stop using the Aquifer for a bit if we can. Very beautiful scenery. Ive been through Nebraska at the beginning of the year but all I saw was snow. Bummer. I am so ready for a new field trip and this time I will bring my child. He was just a twinkle in my eye when I first went out west. He has only seen some of Ohio and Pennsylvania, as well as Puerto Rico. A little of California too when he was 3. He is 17 now.

Climate Change is real. It takes 100,000 years however if you donate your money to
me today we can make a difference.

Thank you Myron for another great video. So informative and so well done. I can here looking for details on the gangplank near Laramie as a result of reading John McPhee's Annals of the Former World. Ended up watching many of your videos.

I went to school at the U of W and we had lot's of "woodsies" in that area. 50 years later in Houston Texas I bought de-composed granite for my private road. I just used it for pothole repair. The stuff was magic. But it cost more that twice what crushed limestone or concrete cost. Those materials have a tendency to form a crust which then erodes underneath and you've got your pothole again. The de-composed granite didn't do that. Then I began to wonder why it's so expensive when there's an un-exhaustable supply at "Happy Jack", Wyo. Re gold? That stuff itself is worth more than gold. Load up gondolas and transport it all over the country. You'll make a mint.

I had a summer job working for the Wyoming State Engineer. They had some kind of treaty that demanded that 3/4ths of the water in the North Platte River had to make it out of Wyoming to Nebraska. To accomplish this we had to measure all the flows in all the tributaries. We also had to measure how much was being pumped out of the aquifers for irrigation. Looks like they should revisit the law. Nebraska has plenty of water. Let Wyoming have all they can use.

thanks Myron you are a great communicator I lecture in environmental management for Australian indigenous students and your style is well suited to how they learn. cheers tim

At least Myron is a real scientist not like the Science Guy playing the role of a nerdy scientist.

myron, way too wordy, and the moon comment. well, that's when you lost me. you are so smart that you know what rocks are on the moon. but you seem to be very nice

I worked on a ranch in the Sand Hills. Beautiful place.

Myron, maybe look up "between" and "among" so that descriptions can be more accurate? Best of luck and thanks for an excellent video!

What a great teacher. I learn so much from your videos because I'm a visual learner & THANK YOU.

❤

Moon is not a rock.

Thank you Myron! I really enjoy your teaching videos.

Your video quality is incredible Myron. You should be making shows for Public Broadcasting

Very nice, we won’t take it for granite. (Sorry. Couldn’t help it.) Not too long ago I worked on a railroad in the Adirondacks of New York State. The railroad traverses an area known for garnet, iron and later titanium. The ores were, of course, lodged in granite. The mine tailings are the densest granite stone I’ve ever come across.

It sometimes surprises me when the government spends our money,but never uses what it has built.

Is it oil?

Ok its water.

You said there were no rivers in this area.

Myron is the nicest guy! Well done, Myron, you taught me a lot.

great video... was just up in Cheyanne for the first time this past weekend.... saw lots of trains & highways.... now I get it....thanks

Did you know Charles= man⁉️
Darwin= Cherished friend

✝️HINK ABOUT IT‼️

Thank you again Myron for these wonderful videos.

Part conservation and part to sandy to farm. That has saved the water table in western Nebraska. The sand hills have there own ecosystems to go with the sand.

So these fill the ogalaga aquifer. That’s so cool everything is connected

Don't take it for granite.

How/why did the 'gangplank' form? Why didn't it erode like the rest of the sedimentary rock?

Thank you.
I really enjoy watching your videos.

Thank you for introducing me to dune fields in combination with water.

I wondered for a few months what kind of terrain exists in the north eastern Caspian Sea Basin. During the Spring melt this is a highly patterned region of blue water and yellow-brownish terrain.

I was in the granite quarry/ factory distribution gravestone business for many years. Yes it can be valuable. Getting it out of the ground making it to what you want and moving it around is the expence.

Green pearl vs blue labrodite pearl commonly has platinum in it. A friend who lives by Yellowstone sent me a nice pie e of ore. My business was making monuments not extracting precious metals but I know some of the stones had minerals that were valuable.

Granadiorite abroad boulders?

I have driven across Wyoming and Nebraska, using interstate 80. Love those states. I live in Western Canada...Alberta. If I was to move the the US, Wyoming would be the place for me.

l love your videos … thank you

Where I stay in Scotland most houses are built from Sandstone but Aberdeen is known as the Granite City because everything is Granite, It's also known as the Gray City. Myron your content is pure Gold.

I see rocks these days & I wonder how I can make an aquascape with them... 🤔

Common on the moon 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣! Oh get the fuc out of here!!

Wonderful, as always, Myron. Thanks again.

That was a tremendous voyage! Thank you for sharing Mr. Cook!

I lived in Cheyenne for 3 years (stationed at F E Warren AFB). I was fascinated by the geology of the area. I would have loved to know the information you have provided today then, especially about the Sandhills which I drove through several times. Thanks.

My family came to this area (Central TX Panhandle) in 1896. We are in the bright red area between Amarillo, Lubbock and Clovis NM. After 70 yrs of farming we no longer have enough volume of water to irrigate crops, though we have enough for livestock.

The land our rancher forebears settled on was covered in native blue grama and buffalo grass growing in deep clay-loam soil. The closest natural surface rock to me is sandstone along the Caprock Escarpment or Palo Duro both to the east.

We will be going back into native grasses as reasonably priced seed becomes available.

It's ironic, my forebears wanted nothing to do with farming when the possibility of pumping large volumes of water for growing grains and cotton were discovered in the post WW2 period. My dad wanted to sell out and buy CO ranchland in the 1960s when land prices soared, but mom couldn't imagine life without her siblings inhabiting the farms all around us.

Us Boomers were the first generation to embrace high stakes grain farming in a meaningful way. Local newspapers began reporting on the Ogalallah's draw down when I was in highschool. As members of High Plains Water Conservation District we received annual depletion reports that showed one to two ft per year, so it wasn't a case of being surprised when our pumps began to outpace the recharge of water from wells set up to pump 1K gpm. Now 15 yrs later we're down to 300 gpm.

We have windfarm leasing agents pestering us to build a windfarm, but there are too many questions they can't (or won't) answer.

It takes ten years to build and take a windfarm operational, the life span is only ten yrs, so who cleans up the scars upon the land when the operation shuts down? Do they tear up and haul off the built up roads they make to connect to each machine? What happens to the massive chunks of concrete buried to hold the weight and sway of massive windmills? I've seen holes the size of a double car garage dug across a pasture where they're ready to build. I don't really want any part of that.

I've also seen how oil companies leave leases contaminated and littered with debris.

I'm tired of this coffee loop hole. Please stop it.

Don't forget about Noah's flood 😊

The Great Artesian Basin (GAB) of Australia is the 2nd largest aquifer in the world, extending over 1,700,000 square kilometres (660,000 sq mi). The Ogallala Aquifer comes in at 174,000 square miles.

I will be driving along the Sand Dunes Scenic Byway in a couple weeks. I looks forward to seeing a few lakes and Migratory birds. In researching this trip, I saw the Bridges to Buttes Byway to the north and saw the awesome White River that starts in western Nebraska and goes up thru the Badlands before making its way back into Nebraska on its way to the Missouri River. I'm going to have to see if Mr. Cook has a video about that.

Viewer stevenstart8728 has made me aware of the the Great Artesian Basin of Australia which has a much larger aquifer than the Ogallala! One of the benefits of doing these videos is learning from my viewers. Thank you, Steven.