Geology of Devil's Lake

This is about the geology along the bluffs and rim aat Devil's State Park in Wisconsin. I cover the Precambrian to the Quaternary along the 4.4 mile (7.1km) loop. the elevation change is about 565 feet (~172.2m).
Here’s the geologic map of Devil’s Lake:
nebula.wsimg.com/45b9227bed958...

[@chrislambert2090]

I watch all your videos multiple times. I really appreciate them they help with my studies

[@chrislambert2090]

Steve this is an absolute classic please do more of these.

[@stevenbaumann8692]

Thanks friend! Baraboo is being worked on

[@janketza0206]

Thank you! I really enjoyed your video and walkabout. I spent a lot of time there and fell in love with rocks/geology because of Devils Lake. Those purple rocks are so enchanting.

[@stevenbaumann8692]

The rocks are so amazing! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[@michaelhobbs8082]

I’ve been looking for a video like this for YEARS! So grateful to you. You’re outstanding at explaining this to a layperson - will definitely be looking out for your next video! I live on top of the Johnstown moraine west of Madison Would love to have you over for beers and an interpretation video!

[@stevenbaumann8692]

Thanks! This means a lot!

[@casualcarolinafishing5835]

Nice trip around the lake with ya Steve. All those different colors in the rocks are pretty impressive, I must say.

[@BenjaminChavez]

Glad to see you made it to YTPP awesome. Awesome information here, I love the way you put this one together. good job

[@stevenbaumann8692]

Benjamin Chavez thanks! 😊

[@jessicalee3112]

fantastic job as always

[@A3Kr0n]

Wisconsin driftless videos, my favorite!

[@stevenbaumann8692]

A3Kr0n thanks! 😊

[@marvinmartin4692]

There’s a creek flowing out in the north side!

[@stevenbaumann8692]

Yep. There's just no outlet.

[@chrislambert2090]

Amazing this is in Wisconsin

[@stevenbaumann8692]

Wisconsin, like the UP, has a lot of great geology.

[@MuskyHans]

Nice info I live right by here

[@nickzales6117]

Nice video, Steven! There is much to learn about Devil's Lake State Park.

[@stevenbaumann8692]

Nick Zales thanks! It means a lot.

[@nickzales6117]

@@stevenbaumann8692Baumann this is the best Devil's Lake video I have seen to date. I'd love to be there with you sometime. People hike up and down those trails and have no idea of the history they are seeing. Thanks for helping us to understand what is there.

[@stevenbaumann8692]

Nick Zales we will probably be back up in June! We are always game to meet up.

[@johnames6430]

13:29 what are the coordinates for google maps? I can't seem to find anything with "N75W 13NE" like you said. Nothing comes in if I search that.

[@jjooeesslldds]

nice video, very informative

[@marvinmartion1178]

But why would it sink below sea level? Doesn't jive. And how do we know the lake isn't a rift? Why would water choose a point of high resistance to erode threw ? The surrounding sandstone and limestone is much much softer.

[@stevenbaumann8692]

Because the plates move and we can use the structural geology to figure it out. Even today it’s a lot lower to sea level than Mont Everest is and tectonics built that range. Both the quartzite and the Cambrian were deposited in a nearshore to marine environment. We also have pulled zircons from the Baraboo and some of them are derived from the Northwest Territories. Between the Baraboo and the Cambrian an orogeny occurred forming the large scale geologic structures typical of compression events. The lake isn’t a rift. We know what failed rifts or even active ones look like. There’s no grabens, no rift volcanics, no seismic data showing it’s a rift. no magmatic activity for 1.5 billion years. We know it’s part of the Baraboo syncline because we’ve drilled into it. The lake is modern, well geologically modern. Not ancient. We still argue about the nuances but it’s formation is related to the quaternary ice sheets. It’s trend is very closely related to the fractures in the rock. Once again. The structural geology. The Baraboo hills stood as islands when the Cambrian and Ordovician seas transgressed the area. They didn’t look that different from today. Once the seas left the softer sediments were eroded. We can’t just look at the geomorphology and assume that since it might resemble something else, or at least we think it does, without looking at the geology. So that way we don’t look at things like Devils Tower and think it’s a tree stump. I’m not saying you think that. I was just explaining the complexity of the area.

[@teaburg]

The kaleidoscope of colours is astonishing.

[@stevenbaumann8692]

Beej Price thanks! It really is!

[@edwarddechausay44]

That's because the area is a dragon...his is walking on a mudfossil.. giants titans and dragons existed and we live and walk on them like aunts...you all are dead asleep...geology is actually biology 100 % the lake is on the neck on the dragon

[@brianbartulis9709]

They surround the lake? (felled rocks spoke of) Stick your head in the water and look down into. The boulders we all climbed for years just keep going beyond shore. eep! We crawled around that area for years on vacations. Few years back I saw there's timber rattlesnakes there.

[@ShibainuKojiro]

great! important video.

[@marvinmartin4692]

The one thing I question is the belief that the Wisconsin river thru the Barabo range! The quartzite is the hardest rock around! Harder than the limestone, sandstone and the ice sheet! I believe it’s a small rift!

[@stevenbaumann8692]

The quartzite was exposed at the end of the Precambrian an was being eroded. Yes Quartzite is hard but it's not immortal. It stood as islands in the Cambrian seas before it was buried in the Ordovician. Today's topography is a remanent of that old paleotopography. The Baraboo definitely didn't carve it. But it don't need too. We actually in the past 5-years have found out a lot about the range. I will be doing a video on it in about a month or so.

[@marvinmartin4692]

I still find it peculiar that water would take a point of most resistance to carve through.

[@marvinmartin4692]

I don’t believe that the baraboo carved it. I was thinking the Wisconsin. Regardless, I don’t buy the theory.

[@stevenbaumann8692]

@@marvinmartin4692 that's fair. But the rock is highly featured and cleaved. We are still working things out. That's the quaternary stuff. You might know more about that than me.

[@marvinmartin4692]

I don’t mean to imply that I somehow know more, it’s just that I have a tendency to question. Such as, why would the quartzite sink and allow the ocean to lay sediment over it? Why is the quartzite lens shaped? As well as so isolated?

[@Zanshin64]

*i like it* 13 BESTE GRÜßE. 👍🥋🙋‍♂️🔔✌️

[@thirstfast1025]

:( m8 I can't read any of the info on the maps at the start. Tried in the settings, couldn't go higher than 480 9:14 it's a silly little sense of pride when there's been significant geologic discovery in your home area isn't it? I think it was the 1950's when Stan Tyler went fishing at Schreiber Beach and found the microfossils in the Gunflint formation. 24:20 Lol. I have a hard time leaving things like that intact when I find them.... Chock-full of useful information as always!

[@stevenbaumann8692]

Thirst Fast thanks! Ah yeah. I noticed that about the maps as well. They should be legible. On the raw video they are. Maybe something got jacked up when uploading. 😞 The Gunflint. I know where to find seam agate near Thunder Bay. I have a huge boulder of it. I’ve shown it off before.

[@thirstfast1025]

@@stevenbaumann8692 Haha!! Yes I've seen a chunk of the agate you're talking about in one of your geo-rants (I think anyway!). It crops out at the intersection of HWY 17 and Copenhagen rd (only cloverleaf in T.Bay I can think of), as well as at the old agate mine just up HWY 527. I've found voids in some with liquid still inside. Usually those ones also have cacoxenite fans on the surfaces of the quartz druze that lines the void. Also find calcite with something dark at the base (looks kinda like graphite, but I don't know) in some of them.

[@stevenbaumann8692]

Thirst Fast why am I not surprised that you know where it is? I’ve thought about staking it.

[@thirstfast1025]

@@stevenbaumann8692 If you've got a market lined up, go for it! But historically, the seam agate around here won't keep ya in the black!

[@JamieEckles]

I didn't know the US played such a big role in the history of geology.

[@stevenbaumann8692]

Jamie Eckles the Brit’s set the groundwork for stratigraphy. The US figured out what moves the crust.

[@JjHarrisHONDA]

South shore is a better hike

[@spacealienrissley]

Dude another

[@brianstevens3858]

Hey that's enough quartzite to build a pyramid,

[@stevenbaumann8692]

Brian Stevens it’s enough to build many pyramids brøther.

[@brianstevens3858]

@@stevenbaumann8692 Depends on how big you are making it. Cheops is a mouse house.

[@stantonbentley2534]

What's great about these vids is that they show just how much the untrained eye misses! I mean it's all right there, if you know your stuff. At 12:47 there's a classic case of pareidolia; top left looks to me like an anguished face, but of course it's not! One can see how this would've looked in the prescientific era. Another thing to note is how organised these formations look. Well, that can happen in nature! Humans are really quite good at spotting patterns; explaining those patterns is where the science comes into play! Plus, it look gorgeous out there. Looks like Wicca country!

[@stevenbaumann8692]

Stanton Bentley oh yeah. It does! That place with the Cambrian unconformity is called elephant rock.