Cambrian Rocks Over Jurassic Rocks? The Extraordinary Geology West of Las Vegas, Nevada

[@wyojohn]

I like the Google Earth reference to start the video. And I have to say that your rock identification series made an impression on me because I successfully identified all three rocks. A very fun way to put my rookie skills to use!

[@shawnwillsey]

Awesome news!

[@jacobblumin4260]

Excellent teaching! This is the closest I'll ever come to a geology field trip where I can really see what I read about in geology books. Than you Shawn Willsey!

[@H.pylori]

Thank you. Like having a living field trip from a geology class. You brought Red Rock Canyon to life for all of us.

[@shawnwillsey]

You can support my field videos by clicking on the "Thanks" button just above (right of Like button) or by going here: www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=EWUSLG3GBS5W8

[@SkepticalRaptor]

I have a PhD in biology, so my formal knowledge of geology is limited to a paleontology course as an undergrad at Utah. But I’ve always loved the study of geology, and you’re a literal geology professor taking me out on field trips. Thank you so much. An old scientist like me loves learning new stuff. I would have never guessed at how those layers stacked up. So cool.

[@kevinjgillespie]

He is an actual Geology Professor and I agree, I feel like I am out on the field trip with him!

[@SkepticalRaptor]

@@kevinjgillespie I know he’s an actual geology professor which makes it even better. Of course, he’s not making me take a final exam, so that’s better.

[@johncooper4637]

Another geology professor you might enjoy is Nick Zentner. Not only does he do field trips but also interviews other geology professors and field mappers. He also invites the general public to sit in on his lectures. He does concentrate on the geology of the Pacific North West but that is not a bad thing as so much has gone on there.

[@SkepticalRaptor]

@@johncooper4637 Thanks for that suggestion. I hope he talks about volcanos, as that's one of my favorite topics.

[@shawnwillsey]

Welcome aboard and glad you enjoy these videos. Final exams are optional. Enjoy perusing my existing videos (lots on volcanoes since that is one of your areas of interest) including live eruptions in Iceland. I'll also be in Hawaii and Iceland this May so look for more from these areas.

[@101rotarypower]

Thank you for the effort involved being so selective in your locations, it absolutely is appreciated and helps make the topic more clear and able to be internalized, for what are many times Very hard to grasp scales.

[@Danika_Nadzan]

Perfectly stated; I was thinking the same thing!👍🏻💯

[@zackfalin7266]

That's a ridiculously cool story- thank you for sharing!

[@ahmedaziz6062]

the two last sketch was key point for understanding the whole idea, thanks for your dedications.

[@OutdoorAdventureTV]

Very interesting about the Keystone Thrust Fault. Not too far from you is the Keystone Mine whose name must have derived from this very geological feature. Although I have limited geological knowledge, I love looking that the geology as I explore old, abandoned mines. I try to find information about the old locations I visit and sometimes we come across geological drawings from the late 1800s and early 1900s. Sometimes mine names match geological feature names. Fascinating. P.S. I really enjoy your field geology videos!

[@kestenyi3873]

It's so invaluable (and more fun!) to have someone out walking around with the rocks while talking about this stuff. Lots of places you visit (like this one) I've been to before and wondered about the geology, thanks for doing these videos.

[@Joyful-213]

Love rock stories.

[@iknownuffing5442]

I was there last year for the first time. It is a remarkable area, very pretty, and impressive, geologically, as an amateur rock enthusiast . Love your channel! Thank you

[@davidk7324]

"Andy loved geology. I imagine it appealed to his meticulous nature. An ice age here, million years of mountain building there. Geology is the study of pressure and time. That's all it takes really, pressure, and time." --Red

[@RockhoundTreasurehunt]

I loved this video! I'm glad I came across your channel. I live in Las Vegas and have been rockhounding for a while. I've been coming across some very fascinating fossils that have me a little confused, and I'm pretty sure you will have the answers. I'm not a geologist, but I have learned a little about the Las Vegas area. I've been able to find information about the oceans coming and going several times in the last 650 million years. My discoveries on the east side of Las Vegas have me a little confused and I'd love your input if possible. On the backside of Sunrise Mountain while Rockhounding, I've found some amazing fossils that are from hundreds of millions of years apart in time, but yet they are found just a few feet from each other. I've found petrified wood chunks that came from huge trees, extinct Tabulate coral, shallow ocean fossils, and lots of amazing Stromatolites. The part that amazes me the most is finding a Stromatolite in close proximity to large pieces of petrified wood. Is this just simply from the plates colliding and pushing up the fossils? I'm just amazed that a billion plus year old Stromatolite can be found next to petrified wood and coral that was from a completely different Era in time. What do you know about the Geology in this area that may help me understand what's going on? Keep up the great job you're doing! RockOn!!

[@wendygerrish4964]

Thank you. I go to Redrock everything I visit the area, and its wonderful hearing their geo-story. The paleo map of NA was extremely helpful too.

[@Islander2112]

Great content, thanks!

[@tree4408]

Thanks for the true geological talk!

[@kathrynchamberlain7776]

FABULOUS! thank you!

[@dawnademarco3482]

I can't remember what i did with my free time before i found you!!! I'm captivated!!😊

[@shawnwillsey]

Great news! Learning is power. Glad you enjoy my videos.

[@DeborahDiemer]

Fabulous! Thank you!

[@gb57hevy3]

Great video! And I have actually been there and saw that and it is waaaay cool to see in person.

[@3xHermes]

Keystone Thrust Fault. Fantastic presentation!

[@markjauregui8138]

Very cool, thanks for sharing. This puts a lot of areas I wander around in prespective geologically 👍🏻👍🏻

[@JanetClancey]

I’m impressed with the geologic story and your knowledge… even tho I live in the uk this is AMAZING thank you for sharing Shawn

[@IvanLopez-zh3xz]

Awsome episode!!

[@romeoseder]

I was just talking about this to some friends the other day! So weird to see a video made so soon after haha. Awesome video!

[@tinadelaluz3197]

Fascinating! I enjoyed this lesson, thank you!

[@rodchallis8031]

Thanks, that was really interesting.

[@hunt4redoctober628]

What a great explanation! A really good video. Thanks again

[@mikelong9638]

Great video Shawn.

[@stevewhalen6973]

I've hiked Redrock canyon several times . Thanks for making it more interesting by enabling me to know what I'm looking at when Im there .

[@shawnwillsey]

You bet!

[@marsharose2301]

Really clear explanation and great video!❤

[@stevewhalen6973]

Thanks! I've been hiking that area for years and live nearby but I've never understood what geology I've been looking at. You've given us a significant element of understanding of the contrasting rock layers and what a thrust fault is and how it produced this result.

[@shawnwillsey]

Thank you!

[@kevinball7274]

Your drawings are always helpful

[@keithrobinson2941]

Thanks! An excellent explanation. Yes--I am impressed!

[@valoriel4464]

Thx for sharing your excellent geo adventure. Well done Prof. ✌ Yep. impressed. 😅

[@tutekohe1361]

Thank you Professor, that was really interesting. I was stumped as to how the older Limestone could have ended up on top without some kind of folding or inversion.

[@caseymarkovic7991]

Was out surveying in Pahrump today, got pleasantly surprised by this recommendation deserves a subscription thanks Shawn

[@shawnwillsey]

Awesome. Welcome aboard and enjoy the back catalog.

[@gentrelane]

My geomorphology class trip to Red Rock was canceled this spring so this is the next best thing :)

[@saheel3586]

Amazing video sir.

[@pauldavis1943]

I always appreciate how you start with facts and then propose a story to support those facts rather than insisting we just buy the story.

[@davec.1045]

Thanks! Nice job from an old geologist. U of U 1980..

[@paulbugnacki7107]

Great example. Good time of year to go there.

[@HawaiiGirlAdventures]

Interesting indeed, I love the Keystone Thrust! I lead hikes for my community hiking club and love to lead hikes up the 3 trails to/along the Keystone Thrust fault (in addition to the summits of Hogback Ridge and the Keystone Basin overlook). If you hike up to Turtlehead Peak, you can also see the sandstone/limestone thrust off the trail. Well-done video of one of the most fascinating areas in Red Rock Canyon.

[@patmayer7222]

,,,,,,....land o' lakes,wi.......here for class.....very good,,,always time for learning,,,,,tnx,,,,pat&family,,,📝

[@tothesummit5864]

I grew up in Vegas and been hiking all over these mountains my whole life. I was hoping you might point out some examples of the fossils in the Cambrian limestone. If you find the right areas the rocks are absolutely full of fossilized corals. Nice presentation of the unique geology here though.

[@craigdennis6911]

Love your work Shawn

[@shawnwillsey]

Thank you.

[@ttonysbirds]

Thank you

[@charlesward8196]

Red Rock Canyon was the view out my office window from 1985 to 2000, my office being a 4WD pickup/SUV before I moved to another part of the fold and thrust belt near the Beartooth Mountains in MT. The chemical weather on those carbonate rocks IS very sharp. Some of the Paleozoic carbonates (the stack is about 20,000 feet thick) formed in a deep, poorly circulated basin, and the rock is VERY dark grey, in some cases almost black, from the un-oxidized organic material incorporated in the deposit. If you smack a competent piece of limestone/dolomite and sniff the fresh fracture surface you get a really strong smell of sulphur or sulfur dioxide. Some other great Keystone Thrust contacts are near the White Rock Hills, and at the head of Gateway Canyon near Calico Basin at the foot of Turtlehead peak.

[@runninonempty820]

Yup, I guessed right, a thrust fault. Yay me!

[@Anne5440_]

I am enjoying your style of description and stating observations that we can't feel because we only have our eyes with videos. This time I kept up and had the sandstone identified easily. As you described the grey rock I asked myself could this be limestone. Your mention of the acid bottle was helpful. Then i thought there had to be faulting to push the limestone on top. I had also thought that the limestone would have formed under water. Does limestone always form in salt water and never in fresh water? When you showed the word sevire I asked is this part of the sevire orogeny. When the video was done I read the description you wrote and found my answer. I'm learning. 😊 I spent an evening looking through my book by Dr Blakey. I found a lot of his maps that you have been showing in the book. My only trip across Nevada was on I 80. We were going from Denver to Grassvalley in CA. I don't really know much about Nevada.

[@shawnwillsey]

Limestone can also form in fresh water. Fossils are helpful to delineating the two.

[@alanbuban9020]

Very nice. Can u interpret any effect of the basin and range extension at this out crop? Cheers

[@gregrussell7704]

I'm impressed.

[@dianespears6057]

Excellent!

[@kathleenbaker2167]

Thanks!

[@shawnwillsey]

Thanks for your kind donation. Much appreciated.

[@drmichaelshea]

Thank you.

[@secularsunshine9036]

*Let the Sunshine In...* Thanks.

[@jamesconger8509]

Great video. I would like to know how the age determinations were made.

[@robertdinino9847]

Any chance for a hiking/geology summer camp in the future? Great work

[@DavidBigandt]

Very interesting

[@mystery4004]

Hmmm! I learned something today.

[@briane173]

BTW Shawn, where are you on the spectrum re: the "raging debate" about Baja/BC? I attended one of Nick's downtown lectures in Ellensburg last month which happened to discuss how the Rockies were formed, and some of the data paints an intriguing picture of the tectonics occurring along the western continental margin at that time, which if it is to be believed pretty much puts the theory of flat-slab subduction of the Farallon Plate under some question. I'm personally still on the fence with Baja/BC, but some of the research is pretty compelling.

[@shawnwillsey]

My grad advisor was Paul Umhoefer who was a central figure in the Baja/BC issue. However, my project was in Baja looking at much younger (Miocene) structures related to the opening of the Gulf of California (and not Baja BC). Since I haven't really delved into the data and such, I don't have a strong opinion either way. The flat slab Farallon model does appear to be on shakier ground and I have not taught it in class as stringently as I used to.

[@briane173]

@@shawnwillsey Thanks, Shawn. Yeah I think part of the reason I'm on the fence with this is the 50-year debate on paleomag and whether it can be trusted to position certain land masses on the globe that accommodates the theory. l watched several interviews with Myrl Beck, and to an average schmuck like myself it sounds a little like witch-doctor medicine, but _because_ of that, I'm not about to discount paleomag when I don't fully understand it. Some of the recent data coming from mantle tomography is _really_ interesting, and some of the questions it elicits I think will really change the consensus view on Baja/BC, and I'm kinda glad I took interest in geology right in the middle of this debate. All it's done is pique my interest in the entire subject. That and the _professors teaching it._ So appreciate and respect what you do, Shawn; hoping sometime soon I'm better able to support your efforts in cold, hard💰because your efforts are worth every penny for teaching what I'm learning.

[@briane173]

8:54 I sort-of surmised that this was a thrust fault, the likeliest way to pile old units on top of young ones -- but at first I was thinking where it was and I'm going, "How can a thrust fault form in a regime of basin & range extension? Well -- obviously this thrust fault not only predated basin & range extension but that location was part of the Sevier Orogeny, which _really_ piqued my interest, because I didn't think the orogenic thrust faulting took place that far south. I don't know why I thought the Sevier wasn't further south but now it's not that hard to imagine.

[@shawnwillsey]

And in some places in the west, Basin and range extension reactivated older thrust faults. How cool is that? The rocks moved one way across the fault then the other.

[@briane173]

@@shawnwillsey Wow!

[@NielMalan]

Does one also find the limestone lower down the mountain, or will one have to drill to find it?

[@richardwarren449]

Being a geologist myself, I accept wholeheartedly your explanation of this thrust fault. What evidence do we have that indicates Cambrian age for the overthrust unit?

[@shawnwillsey]

Cambrian age fossils.

[@williamsohveymah5550]

It would be super amazing if we all saw it all happen in front of our very own eyes...?

[@dmorgan5010]

Been watching for your reply maybe you missed my message on the grand canyon video

[@macking104]

only bad thing about the map at 10:00 is it doesn’t show pre-stretched Nevada. good thing is that it is similar to figure 15 in GEOLOGY OF THE LASSEN PEAK DISTRICT By J. S. Diller GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 8th ANNUAL REPORT (Part I), 1889

[@brittshepard9317]

Did this keystone thrust fault occur above or deep underground?

[@shawnwillsey]

Underground but not super deep. Perhaps a few km below surface.

[@Fryed_Bryce]

I hope you got some In-N-Out while you were there

[@shawnwillsey]

Not a huge fan but did get some good food.

[@pencilpauli9442]

Only the FLOOD could have made that happen! lol

[@dmorgan5010]

Im very interested in your help in arizona and I live in Texas

[@sergiovelazquez1259]

Valeu!

[@shawnwillsey]

Thank you for your kind donation.

[@lauram9478]

❤

[@gkpgeo]

Is gold there?

[@pmm1044]

Way cool…thrust faults

[@millardmoore479]

Hello. Troll here The Sierra Nevada is singular, there is no " Sierra's .

[@patmayer7222]

,,,,,Q.........==,,,,is the sandstone outcrop at,Colorado,red rocks,,,garden of the gods,,,,is it Jurassic????too????....cool.pat.....I lived there for 3 years,,,climbed both,,,(before they banned climbing them)😯

[@shawnwillsey]

No red sandstones at Garden of the Gods is older. Pennsylvanian in age.

[@JPREEDY77]

Grey rock? You mean Rolling Stone? lol

[@Dragrath1]

That is a nice diagram and all unfortunately though from Nick Zentner's A to Z baja BC series it looks like the subduction zone around 100 Ma responsible for the Sierras was oriented the other direction origionally having been subducting the then likely passive North American passive margin underneath a volcanic arc analogous to the Australian continental shelf currently subducting into the Sunda trench. This eventually led to slab failure as the crust subducted became continental in affinity and ultimately led to a Subduction Polarity reversal during the late Cretaceous with the collision of the mature volcanic archipelago with North America leading to the Laramide stage of mountain building as the continent smashed into the mature oceanic archipelago also primarily of continental affinity. There is if memory serves evidence for subduction from both sides earlier on in the process but that if I remember correctly doesn't seem to have been the case in this part of Nevada/California having been more to the North(though it probably wasn't as far north back then) There is probably more complexity to the story which is only starting to come together.

[@clydecessna737]

Well, raise my rent!

[@hipsters0unite]

Thanks!

[@zigward00]

Thanks!

[@drmichaelshea]

Thanks!

[@Never2old2play]

Thanks!

[@shawnwillsey]

Thank you for supporting these geology education videos.

[@karenhunt7035]

Thanks!

[@shawnwillsey]

Much appreciated. Thanks for the support.

[@stevewhalen6973]

Thanks!

[@shawnwillsey]

Thank you! Much appreciated.

[@alanice8087]

Thanks!

[@shawnwillsey]

Thank you!

[@sudochugi]

Thanks!

[@shawnwillsey]

Thanks for your kind donation in support of my geology videos. Much appreciated.

[@timpate6259]

Thanks!

[@shawnwillsey]

Thank you!

[@WendyLouPollock]

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[@shawnwillsey]

Thanks for your kind donation!

[@texas2645]

Thanks!

[@shawnwillsey]

Thank you! Much appreciated.

[@michaelryan4108]

Thanks!

[@michaelryan4108]

Great instruction, covering both historical and physical geology. Shawn's classes must fill up quickly. Ron Blakely, whom Shawn references, is also a great resource. Check out his books including, "Ancient Landscapes of Western North America", published in 2017. I've had the pleasure of attending a few of his lectures.

[@shawnwillsey]

Wow. Thanks for your kind donation. Blakey was one of my profs at NAU. Much appreciated.