Huge Extensional Structures: Detachment Fault Near Laughlin, Nevada

Explore a fantastically exposed detachment fault just south of Laughlin, Nevada with geology professor Shawn Willsey. Learn how these amazing geologic structures form. GPS location: 35.12228, -114.64241
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[@shawnwillsey]

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[@davebowles1957]

What a great thing to wake up to, a nice cup of coffee and a new video by Shawn. Thank you, Professor!

[@davidk7324]

I appreciate your descriptions. "Crude linear fabric." "Unique type of fault . . . not like rare . . . but a special type . . . "

[@rogercotman1314]

Thanks Shawn, for the continued geology education. 206 like .....

[@Nrc3neallyo]

Found it! I had quit a few minutes too soon! Newberry Detachment Fault Thanks for stopping by the hood! Come back when you can stay longer! 🤘😎🤘

[@michaelmckeag960]

We happen to be visiting a friend in Needles currently, will have to visit this site while still in the area. Your description finally helped clarify the nature of a detachment fault.

[@davidniemi4051]

Thank you for the video. It might help to explain to your viewers that the terms "Hanging Wall" and "Foot Wall" are from mining terminology. If you imagine that you have a tunnel, perpendicular to the page, through where the seam of the fault is, often in these areas valuable minerals can be found. The "Hanging Wall" would be hanging lots of rocks above your head and you feet would be resting on the "Foot Wall" of the tunnel or Drift as miners call them.

[@robertfritz9916]

Saw your Bonneville flood talk on Nick Zentner's series. We've driven through there and did not know the geology of S Idaho. That was well done. Now that you have been featured as an expert on Nick's channel, yo are officially in the KZbin geology "Big Time", so congratulations.

[@stephanieparker1250]

I learned a lot with this one, thanks for a great video! 🤗

[@theinstructor2687]

If I'd known you were going to be in my area, I would have liked to meet you and chatted over coffee. As always, Professor Willsey, I enjoy your informative videos. Thanks.

[@michaelmckeag960]

My wife and our host who lives in Needes are now visiting this site, in fact just replayed this episode for them while sitting here, a virtually guided field trip. You have two new fans.

[@shawnwillsey]

Awesome. Thanks.

[@ericfielding2540]

Very cool to see the detachment fault surface preserved. I did almost all of my geology field trips in the eastern USA. It looks completely different there.

[@skyepilotte11]

Thank you Shawn for searching for and describing all the various geologic processes. Quite educational.

[@DeborahDiemer]

Fabulous! I love these segments! I think I can see how these work in the raising of the Wet Mountains near Hardscrabble Canyon and Colorado highway 96 from Pueblo to Silver Cliff, Colorado. Thank you!

[@RWBHere]

Thank-you, Shawn. When you talk about millions or thousands of millions of years, it reminds us about how transient we are on this amazing planet.

[@kevindorland738]

Another wonderfully amazing learning experience. Thank you Professor.

[@jameshatchett8095]

That was fun. In my old age I find that I am not as excited about getting down on my hands and knees to take measurements with my Brunton transit compass though I still have it with me. These days I have a Brunton jacobs staff and attached inclinometer for trend and dip and a sighting compass for orientation. Easier on the knees. 😊

[@ericschmidt6129]

Great explanation of detachment faults. You make geology so interesting.

[@Temptd2]

We've been watching your content for a while now and have learned so much from you. Imagine our delight in finding you practically in our back yard with this one! We live just across the river on the Arizona side, would LOVE to see some content from the mountains easy of Bullhead City - any chance you have more content from this area on the way? Thanks so much, your explanations are always easy to understand and your videos are easy to enjoy.

[@Temptd2]

Ooops that would be EAST of Bullhead City! Specificall the Black Mountains!

[@Moozac]

I am going to Laughlin in March. Going to look for that outcropping.

[@Oogiappa]

My home town!

[@flintridgedesigninc.1351]

Very interesting episode! Your explanation of the diagrams really helped me conceptualize the age dilemma. Before your explanation, I found myself asking, "I hope the power company took this slip angle into consideration," and then laughed when you said it stopped moving so long ago. Thank goodness my coffee is ready😂

[@hestheMaster]

From space you can see this reddish rock outcrop very easily along the Needles Hwy. northwest of Riviera AZ across the Colorado River. Great explanation of what is going on there professor. Totally different geological action than what you see in the Red Rock Canyon area.

[@LisaBelleBC]

I don’t know how you see this stuff but I’m so glad you do! Thanks!

[@wakeupthebear]

Thank you from Vancouver island. An island of many pieces.

[@loopbraider]

Thanks again, this is so much more fun than just reading about fault types in a geology textbook! (Although my brain is still struggling!) I've been all over some of this territory and had no clue about the geology. Trying to learn big picture geology the last couple of years. Only recently found out that there was anything as old as Precambrian in CA and NV desert areas, now you're showing it to me, thank you!

[@pmm1044]

Nice diagram! Thanks

[@Rachel.4644]

This is awesome! I'd never have noticed this one, but now have learned better what to look for. I want to see slickensides in real life! Thanks, Shawn. 😄👏🏻

[@romeldiaz2614]

Thanks

[@judierickson7166]

Fascinatig as usual. Never will i loook at dirt the same way!

[@kymkauffman5000]

Thank you for another great lesson!

[@jeffsiegwart]

Thank you for the education.

[@loisrossi841]

Thank you.

[@craighoover1495]

I am curious about how and when the older rocks got on top of the younger ones and where else that older formation might lie.

[@kaboom4679]

Decompression melting from crustal extension . The opposite can also happen from collisions of plates . I have overturned beds in my area , from an old impact event . So a lot of processes can cause older rocks to be juxtaposed on top of younger rocks .

[@paulproctor5555]

Thank you!

[@maryt2887]

Afternoon coffee and snack with Willsey. Beats cooking dinner!

[@katesommerville7217]

Sorry, I’m sure I’ve missed a few videos, Covid has done a real number on me. But I always have my favourite KZbin videos to watch 👍

[@carygrant8796]

No Mesquite there. Looked like Creosote. My father was a Mining Engineer at Mineral Park outside Kingman in the mid 60s. I’ve always wondered about the geologic history of the region and the mountains around Oatman to Kingman. Not sure I understood from the video how the precambrian rocks have ended up on top of the Cenozoic rocks.

[@wendygerrish4964]

That's what I thought too. I thought Mesquite occurs much further east-but upon reading about it, there are many varieties, and the word 'mesquite' is commonly used to descibe any desert wood stemned bush or tree. Duh.Well, now I know better.

[@3xHermes]

Interesting story, great presentation!

[@jadesea562]

the slicken lines go that way

[@brucedymock6635]

Great explanation a great site to to visit to demonstrate thanks

[@purplesage2801]

HELLO! Have you ever checked-out the Mojave River and the vertical drop there? That place was my playground growing up. That and Deep Creek Hot Springs in Apple Valley. The river itself is a fault line. I'm pretty sure it's the same one you see going North on the 395 going towards Mt Whitney.

[@johnrussell7981]

I remember a talk on detachment faults at NWM convention, Spokane, about 1988? Nice video. Mighta placed clipboard directly below contact so dont have to turn away...no big deal. Thanks. J.Russell mineral surveyor

[@adeptpeasant6161]

Wow! Slick and Lines! Incredible find

[@shawnwillsey]

slickenlines. Yes, very cool place.

[@tomolson1320]

Good job!

[@paulvogel3957]

Good info. could the uplift be tied to the Cima Dome volcanic area about 40 miles west of there? There are many lava flows right along I-15 east of Baker, a very interesting area. Thanks for the video.

[@Nrc3neallyo]

Thanks!

[@shawnwillsey]

Thanks for supporting geology education.

[@shawnwillsey]

Thanks for supporting geology education.

[@Nrc3neallyo]

Hey, thanks for supporting mine! @@shawnwillsey

[@claudiavonkroge3604]

I call myself a proud crew member.

[@garyoconnordbaairrepair7775]

I see you have an Estwing pick. In 1975 while working at a mobile home manufacturer. I bought an Estwing claw hammer and an Estwing hatchet later. I am glad and I would not like any other.

[@kflashcarr1992]

Wow, my hometown. Always thought that was rust. Cool. 😊

[@juliamarple3785]

Pretty cool!

[@tomolson1320]

Shawn! Next time do the Mount Ord fault along hwy 87 above Sycamore Creek in Arizona!

[@mikelong9638]

Alway interesing when you have older rock lying above younger rock.

[@KT_571]

Please do a video about the Virgin River Gorge scenic drive along I-15 between Mesquite and St. George. There are spectacular road cutting that I would love to learn about! Thank you for your great videos!

[@shawnwillsey]

This one is pretty close: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hXW7h5uwZbWng6M

[@valoriel4464]

Thx Prof ✌🏻

[@socalpal8416]

Great videos that I look forward to watching. Any chance of you to doing a longer, more in depth show on some of our SoCal geologic features?

[@davidk7324]

Check his library. So. Cal is well represented :)

[@Ericbjohnston5150]

Another good vid. Have you ever experienced a tremor while climbing through the hills?

[@susanwymer6912]

Well you explained exhumation of crystalline cores better than the geology class I audited! Is this related to dome formation in synclines (or anticlines I get them confused lol)! Thank you!

[@charleymitchell5461]

I have been trying to visualize what happened to the Bitterroot Valley, Montana. With the huge rock movement to the east, Is this the same thing?

[@larrybuzbee7344]

There are some amazingly beautiful bristlecone pine forests uo on the high riges in that area.

[@tomolson1320]

I was just talking to A.I. yesterday near Nevada!

[@PatriciaBrechlin]

There's a detachment fault on the southwest side of the Santa Catalina Mountains in Tucson near me.

[@alpineflauge909]

awesome content

[@lorasmith9380]

Can you make a video on the quartz knob in Dog Valley, NV, near Verdi, NV? I've been going there for years to collect quartz crystals. I have always wondered how it was formed and about the general geology of that area.

[@VegasCyclingFreak]

So it appears that you were examining what little is left of the layer on top of the fault and the rest has been eroded away over time? I imagine it has ended up down in the Colorado River valley below. We seem to have similar things going on here in Las Vegas area I think but everything going towards Lake Mead area. I've always been curious about the enormous alluvial fan networks that are spread out something like 20-30 miles in the mountain foothills here and how they formed. The gravel plains here are also mind bogglingly vast.

[@factchecker9358]

I would suggest another video along the contact of an ash flow tuff in Truckee Canyon up from Reno. Walking along the contact near a side road off the main highway it's possible to see a carbonized log exposed that is perpendicular to the path and the observer. There are other interesting volcanic features in the area.

[@Splusmer]

When the detached portion(s) are moving “downhill”, a I assume there could be some torsion in the movement (they twist as they slide instead of going straight down the grade), and that’s what can lead to slicken lines (new vocab a couple of videos back!) that are angled in different directions? (Or, at least, that could be one possible cause, or a contributing cause.)

[@tomolson1320]

I think Mica mountain in the Rincons near Benson is a core complex!

[@tomt25]

Hello, thanks for the interesting viedeo. QUESTION: On Google Earth I see a lot of regularly spaced similar features north of this fault (but as far as i can see with the grey granite on both sides). Are these also faults?

[@QuaaludeCharlie]

Right 0n , Thank you Shawn :) QC

[@factchecker9358]

Another idea for a video would be the huge meteor impact site in the canyon road near Santa Fe, with large shatter cones.

[@robertbrewer2190]

Always interesting! Can a phone measure the dip angle?

[@dhadbaoui]

The granite out there looks so different than the glacier polished granite by us.

[@mikeflynn2926]

Shawn, I'm confused by apparent contradiction. Your notebook paper diagram shows the hanging wall as the older rocks and the footwall as younger, while the printed diagram is the reverse. So, does this locale differ from the classic core complex because of the younger magma intrusion? (Love your series, BTW)

[@shawnwillsey]

This particular case (in video) has a young granitic body (magma) that formed due to extension and was later exhumed.

[@mrcryptozoic817]

Does this description match/explain the difference of the two peaks of Mt. Olympus above the SLC valley? Those two peaks on that one mountain seem to be totally different material.

[@shawnwillsey]

Mt Olympus has a true peak, a saddle, then a "false" summit to the north. The peaks are beds of quartzite (metamorphosed sandstone) and are quite resistant so they stick up. The saddle is a bed of softer shale/slate (fine grained material) that weathers more easily.

[@mrcryptozoic817]

@@shawnwillsey Thank you

[@jonathanblubaugh5049]

Bearing of slickenlines?

[@cyndikarp3368]

When contact of two different rock types, there's normally fault line involved of some kind. Happens a lot in Western USA.

[@charlesward8196]

The sliken lines appear to be running at a 90 degree angle to the dip of the fault the way they emerge from under the Proterozoic granite. So, the hanging wall of rust colored granite is 100x older than the footwall granite. Trying to wrap my head around how that worked out. There is the old canard about the world being carried on the back of a turtle, hence earthquakes, and the trouble-maker asked the sage what the turtle was standing on. The reply, of course, was that the turtle was standing on ANOTHER turtle. When asked what that turtle was standing on, the snappish reply was, “IT’S TURTLES ALL THE WAY DOWN!” Like it is “basement rocks” all the way down. The 1.7 Ga granite was SOME kind of basement rock, or maybe a batholith like the Sierra Nevada batholiths, that was uplifted to a shallow crustal level, exposed, largely removed, (the deep reddish color from oxidation would support the thesis that this unit was exposed to extensive weathering) over the last billion years. It is related to the granites at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Then a renewed, mid- to upper mantle generation of “decompressional” magma was initiated WITHIN the body of the older basement rocks as the continental margin of Old North America overrode the spreading axis between the Farallon plate and the Pacific plate, initiating the phenomenal extension of the Basin and Range province, that generated the Colorado river valley graben, the Salton Sink, the San Andreas Fault, Walker Lane, etc. I will be down there April 1st, I will have to give that contact a visit.

[@Sarafimm2]

I live near that tri-state area. As a layman, why does the granite have black on it? We can find lots of large rocks that have been moved and half is granite, half covered in black, too.

[@shawnwillsey]

Likely desert varnish in the southwestern U.S. which coats many rocks.

[@Sarafimm2]

@@shawnwillsey Thank you so much. We moved here about 20 years ago and were not raised as children in the area. So we are slowly learning about the local Flora, Fauna, and Geology.

[@stevewhalen6973]

A lot of downcutting from the Colorado rivers rapid erosion has exposed so many different rock units.

[@bobwinters6665]

Love faults. First Detactment Fault for me. 42 years ago l had the unique opportunity to work in the Sterling Hill Zinc Mine of Ogdensburg, New Jersey. At the 1100ft. level the ore body (footwall) was directly adjacent to a portion of the Ramapo Fault System. The rock face of the fault was very smooth and the ore body was excavated right up to it. There are fotos of the mine and this fault on the net. If you want 42 year old fotos, drop me a link and l'll send them. The mine has flooded within 40ft of the adit. So no more fotos.

[@toughenupfluffy7294]

The undersea Banda Detachment fault exposed 60,000 square kilometers (23,166 square miles) of detached surface (Indonesia).

[@jonathanblubaugh5049]

"SIDE TO SIDE motion" oblique slip or different episodes of movement? Still need to be convinced it's not a thrust.

[@billmalvey4746]

I want the University of Arizona and I was fortunate to be a student of both George davis in Peter Coney

[@lauram9478]

❤❤❤❤❤

[@georgefrench1907]

👍

[@jaysilverheals4445]

how did a hanging wall get its name?

[@manifold1476]

8:27 Why call the older, overlying proterozoic rocks "granitic"?

[@tomolson1320]

Oooo, my guess was 23°

[@knottynuffakers7529]

Snakes in that formation makes me nervous

[@jonathanblubaugh5049]

How in the World do I know it's not a subduction thrust? Field evidence of normal vs thrust faulting?

[@shawnwillsey]

Timing matches that of Basin and Range extension.

[@Nrc3neallyo]

Is there a better name that I can put on my map, besides "Laughlin detachment"?

[@shawnwillsey]

This one is called the Newberry detachment fault.

[@Nrc3neallyo]

🤘😎🤘@@shawnwillsey

[@JimBridgerHarney]

But whose fault is it?

[@venetogardens]

love your videos. thank you. BTW. in the text, the GPS location does not match the video. here is the correct location. 35.12228, -114.64241

[@shawnwillsey]

fixed now. Thanks.

[@jwardcomo]

Thanks!

[@Riverguide33]

👍

[@stevewhalen6973]

Thanks!

[@maurasmith-mitsky762]

Thanks!

[@llprice2000]

Thanks!

[@tombakewell2007]

Thanks!