The Line Time Erased; Where Will It Be Drawn In The Future?

Information on Wyoming fossil kit minifossils.us
A special thanks to TGS who kindly provided the first seismic line...water colored blue.
Jurassic evolution of the Gulf of Mexico salt basin
Hudec, Michael R. ; Norton, Ian O. ; Jackson, Martin P. A. ; Peel, Frank J.
Paleogeography Maps Copyrighted by Colorado Plateau Geosystems Inc. : License # 5120
Gulf of Mexico geology, Louisiana geology, Alabama geology, Florida geology, Texas geology, Florida escarpment, Rifting, Submarine fan, Delta processes,

[@myroncook]

Many have asked about the Chicxulub impact and it's affect on the gulf. Unlike it's affect on life, the effects it left behind in the rock record are only visible in the immediate vicinity. The history described in this video is a great example of our earth recycling rocks. The folded and deformed layers of rock in the Rocky Mountains are being eroded and transported out into the gulf where they are redeposited as nearly horizontal layers of sediment/rock. At some point in the future, the layers of rock in the gulf will be uplifted/folded and eroded with the sediments carried by rivers to the ocean and redeposited.

[@liquidsnow1]

Dont forget to pin your comments Myron ⚠⚠⚠

[@at_3831]

Excellent video, 10,000’ of water will aT the current knowledge covered accounting for subsidence and sediment fill in anywhere between 120 to 230 million years is my guess on how long it will take to completely fill the Gulf of Mexico. You mentioned the date 12,000 years ago that was the end of the younger dryas period when the great melt of the Laurentide ice sheet stripping Canada of a huge amount of sediment much of which flowed into the Gulf of Mexico.

[@iscovidoveryet7828]

Hi. I just tripped over your channel today. After I've done watching this episode, I'll go see what you have on the Niagara Escarpment and the Appalachians. I'm 40 mins in, and as per your question, it dawn on me that some of that sediment may have come from the Appalachians as well.

[@Skinflaps_Meatslapper]

@@at_3831 I'm going to see how well this comment ages when I come back in 120-230 million years.

[@candui7278]

On the note of impacts, A few km east of Sundance is a circular landform of 1 km radius with a raised rim. Is this an impact crater?

[@mandelbraught2728]

Dear Mr. Cook, I just want to thank you for your wonderful videos. I was recently talking to my brother about how KZbin has made information available to us that we could only dream of in the past. You are a wonderful example of how I can go back to geology class but in a fun and friendly and understandable way. It's like ongoing learning about subjects I barely touched in school has become so much richer because of people like you. I'm just so grateful for the effort you make to share your passion and knowledge with us! 😀

[@death057]

I want a second that

[@bold810]

👍👍

[@mosiah3197]

I'll 19th that 😊

[@johnlord8337]

It is one of the many reasons why the post-WW II (Russian) developers in America TV wanted the device (eventually the internet) to become the teaching assistant for all of these marvellous topics. As such, TV has failed, other than some PBS and BBC, Deutsche Welle shows, but internet by far - by smaller and independent producers and presenters (like here) have brought forward the most-intellectual and -educational material, in common layman's teaching methods ... where all can get great information - and become a more-educated community and civilization.

[@myroncook]

Thank you!!!

[@themaverickproject4577]

At first, I saw this video was 46minuets and I doubted I wanted to watch it all. I ended up pausing in several places to think about what I was learning, and even rewinding at times to hear it again.

[@myroncook]

Glad to hear that!

[@Droxen222]

You are a LEGEND! The Bob ross of Geography!@@myroncook

[@smc130]

You are a born teacher, sir and I have throughly enjoyed this video. Thank you!

[@jbird4474]

​@@myroncookI 46:16 didn't know geology was so interesting! Thank you!

[@BobbyJett1]

I am a retired Structural Engineer and used to work with Geologists and Geotechnical Engineers several years ago. I was always fascinated with their ability to look at the features of at and below the earths surface and explain how the various formations came about. I wanted to take but was unable to schedule a geology course back at University. Taking that Geology course would have been very memorable if someone like Myron was teaching the subject matter. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience.

[@myroncook]

thanks!

[@LibertyGoose]

Whenever you see something that doesn’t make sense or can’t be explained… say it happened over millions of years and people will believe whatever you tel them. .

[@BackYardScience2000]

​@@LibertyGoosethat's not how it works. Lol!

[@larrytischler570]

​@@myroncookI am a chemist, and life long amateur horticulturist growing up near Corpus Christi and living in Brazoria County . I took two elective courses in geology at UTA in the summer and fall of 1966. The second course was The Geology of Texas by Dr. Robert Boyer in the first class it was offered. At that time, the first satellite data proving continental drift and an approximate rate were determined. At that time a lot was spoken of the Gulf Of Mexico geosyncline. But a possible theory of island arch land and mountain building were also discussed. It seems the huge volume of deposits released in Southern Rocky Mountain Vulcanism and in West Texas/ Mexico played a larger role in Western GOM deposits, given the rapid breakdown of mafic feldspars and the pirating of the waters of the Rio Grande River by the Arkansas River, together lead to more alkaline deposits in Texas. Also it needs to be recognized that the large caliche deposits even North into Brazoria County, seem to come from more Western sources. Finally the the accretion fan of the Brazos River is developing since the river mouth was moved South last century. And the general subsidence of the GOM may have been going on due to sluffing off caused by continental drift pushing the crust away to the West. It is the trailing edge and the opposite forces compared to the Pacific Coast are likely.

[@zengerz]

@@BackYardScience2000 That is how it works because it lacks the scientific method making it a belief system. On top of that school evolved out of church. Got Brainwash? I bet you do, and that is where I debunk all of you without effort. Nobody following University will magically be born more intelligent than they actually were born 😉

[@ahuels67]

I can't believe you aren't sponsored by a whiteboard manufacturer.

[@carltuckerson7718]

That’s a good one! Love it! Haha

[@Mars-zgblbl]

youtube.com/@ahuels67?si=wTOOvbTEkSEwo72n

[@MangySquirrel]

Ha ha

[@Boneless_Chuck]

Jeep should sponsor him too. I got a Wrangler Unlimited in October partially because I wanted to be like M.C.!

[@ahuels67]

@Boneless_Chuck For Sure! Drone company too. His drone shots are incredible and make me want to get one and try it.

[@ahuels67]

Oh my goodness, Mr Cook you just made mine and many others night. Still cant get over how well put together and easy to understand your videos are. You make learning fun and we all thank you for that.

[@bazteki8564]

You are amazing at communicating not only the idea, but your enthusiasm for it. It’s infectious and it’s a teaching that holds so much stronger than any list of dates and names. Thank you for sharing your life with us!

[@myroncook]

Thank you! 😃

[@b.a.erlebacher1139]

I love your Socratic teaching style. Your videos are so absorbing. When you say things like "Now what could have caused this?" I automatically try to come up with the answers. Your teaching is working because I'm right more and more of the time! Thanks so much for giving us these wonderful videos.

[@myroncook]

thanks!

[@mikepayette5415]

Ya, the fact I watch the whole videos without any fast-forewarding is testament to how interesting you make this subject.

[@chipgarner8555]

It's easy, and a little dry, to say the Rockies are filling in the Gulf of Mexico. You managed to make the connection between Wyoming and the Gulf so real I can feel it happening.

[@jackieow]

From this story, it might be that the Great Barrier Reef north of Australia is due to millions of years of erosion from the interior of Australia.

[@zarroth]

@@jackieow You're trying to conflate geology and biology..they aren't the same thing.

[@jackieow]

No, if the bed for the coral reef was formed by similar geological processes, that would be the correlation. But does Australia have a comparable mountain range to erode away, and the hydrology to do correlated work to move the debris? Coral isn't going to grow unless the geology provides the proper conditions of depth. And also the temperature has to be right.@@zarroth

[@00leaveralone]

@@zarrothPetroleum is dinosaurs.

[@Skinflaps_Meatslapper]

​@@jackieow Reefs form in clear shallow water, not where active deposition is taking place. Those depositional fans and the muddy water the rivers bring will kill reefs, that's why you won't see a reef forming near a river delta. Formations of limestone escarpments are generally a result of subsidence (the tectonic plate getting lower) or from sea levels rising (to a lesser extent). Myron explained it in the video as well, in the last two whiteboard examples I believe. Now, a reef can form over an alluvial fan, but the river that created it would have to no longer exist and the fan itself would necessarily have to be eroded down to the level of lithified sediments for the coral to take hold on something solid, as they can't simply grow in the mud. The river necessarily has to be extinct, as muddy water chokes the tiny pores within coral and deposition of sediment will happen faster than the coral can grow. The Great Barrier Reef was actually part of a mountain range some 20 million years ago (part of the Great Dividing Range, itself partially comprised of even more ancient reefs!), along the eastern coastline. There were three distinct ridgelines in this area originally, one is the barrier along the continental shelf, another between the barrier and the coast, and the last being the coast itself (not counting the ridgelines inland). As the mountains eroded and leveled off, they formed a low coastal plain between them, during this time conditions were not suitable for reef formation on the ocean side of this range due to the high depositional rates of said erosion. This erosion event lasted until perhaps 400,000 years ago, ending with a low lying coastal plain with only remnants of the tallest peaks remaining, nothing but hills at this point (which would soon become islands as the crust itself was sinking). You could imagine it looked like pretty much any coastal low lying plain at this point with a few hills dotting the countryside. Fast forward to about 20,000 years ago, the erosion event was ancient history, and current living coral reef began to form thanks in large part to the northward movement of this tectonic plate away from the colder southern latitudes. Keep in mind at this point we were in the middle of the last glacial maximum so sea levels were considerably lower, almost 400ft, so the coral reef was able to form quite a ways off from where it is now (there was a large mass of land connecting Australia to Papua New Guinea, this continent was called Sahul, and the reef followed this ancient coastline too). As the glacial maximum was receding, sea levels were rising, and the corals simply grew and kept up with the ever increasing ocean levels, until they ended up where they are today and leaving a limestone escarpment where they had been. The coastal plain, once above water, had been mostly lithified and turned into sedimentary rock before this event, with a thin layer of topsoil that was easily washed away to expose the underlying rock when rising ocean water encroached over the plain, giving the coral a good substrate to form on in places. Wiki has a little more detail on it if you find my explanation lacking. In a way, it is accurate that the barrier reef's substrate (the underlying floor) was formed from the erosion of Australia's land mass, but it wasn't from the interior and it wasn't a direct result of a huge alluvial fan like the Mississippi is creating. It was the flattening erosion of a land mass that Australia used to have but doesn't any longer, more like what's happening to the Rockies than what's happening in the Gulf of Mexico. Most of the sediments from Australia's interior doesn't even drain to an ocean, it's a basin catchment called Lake Eyre, and turns into a lake four times a century if they're lucky. It in itself was formed from plate subsidence, but at one time in history it would've been funneled south into Spencer's Gulf, near Adelaide, and it was a lackluster delta at best. There really isn't a well formed river system in Australia that could create something similar to what the Mississippi is doing in the Gulf. One could contend that nearly every geological formation everywhere was formed from the substrate of some long ago recycled sediment coming from alluvial fans. I mean, there's a good chance you'll find volcanic deposits that contained molten sedimentary rock from a river delta that was formed by the erosion of a metamorphic rock that was formed by aeolian sedimentary rock from the erosion of a volcanic deposit billions of years ago...you get the idea. It's incomprehensibly difficult for a geologist to even find a rock that wasn't some other rock several times over. Hopefully some of that gives you a better picture of the area's geological history.

[@allohmon]

Thanks for another amazing presentation! Your videos previously inspired me to learn more about the formation and evolution of basins. My brain feels rewired now, thinking about the hundreds of millions of years of geologic history I can travel through in a few short hours of horizontal travel, and thinking about how the surface-level rocks in one spot may be hundreds of meters below my feet in the next spot. There is something almost terrifying about it: Like a snapshot of a stormy, churning ocean. That photograph may not appear to move, but you get a sense of the unfathomable and unstoppable forces that are continuing to play out.

[@myroncook]

It's fun to imagine isn't it

[@carltuckerson7718]

Prime time Friday night. What a pleasant surprise 😊

[@blackhawk7r221]

Ok, I’m dialing up the request line. Please add a follow-up video along this topic, but covering the formation of the Western Interior Seaway, along with general timelines. Timelines so we better understand why we find Jurassic fossils in Colorado, but not later Cretaceous.

[@myroncook]

on my list

[@cdineaglecollapsecenter4672]

I have later Cretaceous fossils from Colorado - but they are all marine where I am.

[@blackhawk7r221]

@@cdineaglecollapsecenter4672 Yes, I should have wrote terrestrial.

[@mbvoelker8448]

@@myroncook That will be wonderful to see.

[@benwarren4228]

I would love a study on the western interior Seaway.

[@laurienielsen8031]

It's good to see you again Myron! Thank you. ❤

[@edwardlangdon9256]

Spent a career looking at relief maps of North America, finally some explanations to what I was seeing. Best site on the internet. Keep up the excellent work.

[@myroncook]

Wow, thanks!

[@hddun]

Mr Cook. I would like to share a boyhood story. In the 1950's my Dad bought a small farm about 10 miles east of Elgin, Texas (along US High 290 -- to Houston). At the time I noted as a boy that we had a heckava time getting regular wooden / cedar posts to stay in the ground when building fences and cattle pens for our dairy cows. The sand in that are is about 2 feet - 5 feet deep. And it is like beach sand -- fine / white very soft composition. It was/is so soft it was very hard to set fence post so we changed to "low-voltage electric fencing for our pastures. This band of sand runs for many miles thru that area and is great for peanuts, cantanlopes, watermelons, etc. The sand holds water very well. In my college years, I made friends with a guy who was a geology major (Univ of Texas -- I was too poor to go away to college -- I served in the US Army and got my degree like many ex-GI's in 1968 thru the VA program. Anyway, this geology student was also a Veteran (back from Vietnam) and I mentioned this sand to him -- what could it be. He was intrigued and so we headed out to Elgin on a Saturday morning to check out my Dad's farm. Sure enough. His theory was that the sand in that region (Bastrop County Texas) was the site of an ancient beach where the ocean came to end as you note in your drawing --- I can tell you that area does not have soil like the area between Elgin and Austin only 25 miles west on Hwy 290. The soild there is black clay and much more dense. Thanks for your great show. H Dunbar, Austin

[@myroncook]

Thank you for sharing your very interesting background, I really enjoyed it!

[@lulumoon6942]

This channel is an example of the POSITIVE potential of Social Media! 👍🙏

[@thelostone6981]

Educational and entertaining as always! Your videos are always so thought provoking to a layperson like me! My first thought was to the amount of fresh water being dumped in the Atlantic Ocean from the melting of the Greenland ice sheet and what that must be doing to the ocean floor. There has to be some changes because of sentiment that was trapped inside the ice. Also, having spent years in Micronesia, I love talks about reefs! There is nothing like sitting in the middle of an ocean and ponder the geological forces that created the islands and reefs. (See the Rock Islands of Palau) And reefs can’t grow deeper than around 50 meters (150 feet) for anyone wondering. Finally, there’s a lyric from the band Radiohead that says “gravity always wins”. Geological forces are driven by gravity and how numinous is it that we have a somewhat rudimentary (?) understanding of these forces and their outcomes?!? I love these! Thanks!

[@jackieow]

The Greenland melt water is a risk for shutting down the circulating and cycling currents of the Atlantic. If they do shut down, Europe is at risk for getting a lot colder and Africa a lot hotter. Going static with Atlantic currents could also reduce the algae supply and ultimately decimate the fish supply as to feeding the humans.

[@thelostone6981]

@@jackieowI’ve heard of that hypothesis also so time will tell. My wife’s family live in northern Norway and it would definitely change their way of life if it happens that way. 🇳🇴🇳🇴 But until then, or even if it happens, they’ve been seeing increased temperatures despite all the cold water being flooded into the Atlantic. Norway is starting to grow vineyards in the southern region and they are starting to put air conditioning in some buildings now.

[@jackieow]

If it happens it will take many more years to get there.@@thelostone6981

[@Hossak]

Beautifully done video, Myron. Thank you so much!

[@jeffgroat2671]

You do such a fantastic job of instilling wonder and explaining the processes in simple terms without treating your audience like idiots. Thank you for these fascinating stories of our planet and the systems which shape it.

[@Radioactive_Slime]

All right Mr. Cook, if I ever cross paths with you, somewhere, anywhere, you’re getting a high-five! Fabulous video, as always.

[@brigandboy1425]

This right here is why I subbed a long while back. This stuff fascinates me, and you do a great job of explaining it. Appreciate it :)

[@mikesmith7249]

Mr. Cook, I want to thank you for putting in the effort to talk about such a fascinating topic

[@myroncook]

You are very welcome

[@mikesmith7249]

@@myroncook is this salt water soluable? If so, why doesn't it dissolve into the Gulf and increase the salinity?

[@morgankoch8789]

so excited to be early to one of your videos, i love traveling through geologic time with you!

[@BikingVikingHH]

Gosh darn Myron, here I think you are the most wholesome man on earth, the sultan of strata, the king of conglomerates, and then you go and pair up with an absolute doll to present the most wholesome product in the entire world. I love you man.

[@mikelong9638]

Myron, Every one of your videos seems to be even better than the last. As you said it's hard to wrap your head around these processes, but yet there they are. Safe travels, looking forward to the next one.

[@DanielleGlick]

Has anyone ever told you that you're the "Bob Ross of geology"? You've got that calm gentle voice, ability to teach people things they didn't realize they'd be interested in, unique wholesome catch-phrases, and even a white canvas where you draw a famous little tree. Bob Ross made it interesting to watch paint dry; Myron Cook makes it interesting to watch rocks stand still. The parallels are uncanny!

[@myroncook]

I have had many tell me that! Who knew?

[@steveanderson9290]

Wonderful video! Ten years ago I moved from Chicago to 12 miles SE of Paris Texas. While building on my property I became fascinated by the geology of my new home due to the soil and the layers I encountered as I was building. Turns out, I am right on the "beach" of that ancient sea shore, and a mere 5 miles away was dry land. Places on my property I can dig 10 feet deep and it's all black clay, and 20 feet away I hit the "blossom sands" formation a foot down. This has greatly increased my interest in geology, and you are my go-to source to learn more. Keep up the great work!

[@myroncook]

neat!

[@janmelantu7490]

Reef-building has recently (geologically speaking) started up again on the western side of the Gulf. About 10-15,000 years ago, several salt domes pushed up high enough out of the sediment for coral reefs to start building on the edge of the continental shelf due south of the Texas/Louisiana border. They’re the Flower Garden Banks

[@larrytischler570]

There are more than that. Stetson, The Bakers, Dunbar, and Aransas are a few. Also stick coral grows on submerged oyster shell in the Texas bays. It used to be plentiful in dredged shell put on roads until the sixties.

[@larrytischler570]

But for coral to grow well it needs clear water water. When the Rio Grande gets on a big flood, the layer of muddy fresh water floats on top and is carried North even 100 miles offshore of Port Aransas. A Brazos River flood can carry muddy water North and large crew boats and ships can churn up blue water in their wakes when exiting the Freeport jetties.

[@ianhorsham7751]

I think my brain exploded 3/4 of the way through that masterclass Myron. Thanks, one I will watch a few more times to fully appreciate it.

[@EASYTIGER10]

What a superb teacher Myron is! He doesn't just dish out facts and explain processes, he makes you THINK. He challenges you to work out why things are the way they are, especially when what you see doesn't seem to make sense at first sight. Then he takes you on the journey of explanation and understanding.

[@myroncook]

Wow, thanks!

[@smc130]

Absolutely fascinating. My father in law was a geologist and I wish I had learned more from him before he passed away. You didn’t mention the oil but that was his primary focus. He was a Texas oil man.

[@abruemmer77]

Great video and easy to understand even for non-geologists. I appreciate the additional information in kilometers. Thanks Myron!

[@myroncook]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Babbajune]

So fantastic! I love your enthusiasm, Mr. Cook! ❤❤

[@leecarlson9713]

I guessed the height of the salt in my room would be “about 20 feet!” I was only 3 feet off! I live in Brownsville, Texas, which is very near the Gulf of Mexico, and Laguna Madre, which is the super saturated salt lake that is separated from the Gulf of Mexico by South Padre Island. I spent 8 days rafting down the Grand Canyon. The thought of a cliff the height of two Grand Canyons is mind boggling! I hit the Subscribe button 45 seconds into the video-absolutely fascinating information, explained in terms a non-geologist could understand. I want to know more about our world. Thank you for making this video, and you have an 80 year old woman as a new fan.

[@myroncook]

Close!

[@richardirwin7180]

Another amazing video, drawing so skillfully on your earlier work. Artfully weaves many facts and observations together, describing the processes shaping this area! Stunning!

[@myroncook]

thanks!

[@xXryanleifursonXx]

I appreciate your videos. Well done sir!

[@kellykelly7747]

Wow! This video was so interesting. I think this is one of my favorites!!! Thank you, Mr Cook. ❤❤❤

[@shine111]

Thank you very much for always telling us the metric equivalent of measurements, it makes it a lot easier to grasp the scales involved when they're put in familiar numbers, and not having to do the conversions myself is so convenient! Thank you as well for sharing your friend's fossil kits! I have a few friends over in the states with young relatives who love nature and science, so it's great to be able to recommend them gift ideas.

[@myroncook]

You are welcome!

[@erichtomanek4739]

Fascinating. Very well presented. Thank you.

[@MrYashino]

The wait is over, happy 2024 to all ❤🙏 thank you for the video sir

[@jeffreybaker2687]

WOW, you've knocked it out of the ballpark again! I truly enjoy your hands on, boots on the ground approach, and as a geology enthusiast you have opened up my world view on a grand scale. Thanks and hats of to you good sir.

[@qpn6ph9q]

I love your videos. Thanks so much for putting in so much care and effort into making them.

[@robertbankhead8661]

Simply mesmerizing Myron, well done!

[@myroncook]

Thank you, Dale

[@ramonaharrold8996]

Love your work!!!

[@kenstump9211]

Yet another mind-blowing excursion through time. You tell a good story and keep us in suspense the whole way as all the puzzle pieces fall into place. You have an amazing talent for translating complex scientific information into a layperson's language and making the enormity of geologic processes and timescales tangible - using nothing more than a whiteboard! Amazing!

[@myroncook]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@naysneedle5707]

Thank you Myron, fantastic video as always

[@liliannison6262]

Dazzling demonstration, very educational and understandable! What a pleasure to follow you in your explorations and descriptions.

[@nohandle257]

This production is truly amazing. Shawn Wilsey and Nick Zentner got nuthin on you! Truly. Your cinematic abilities are just wonderful and your informational content is even better. Thank you thank you thank you.😍

[@myroncook]

Wow, thank you!

[@alanjones5639]

Thank you, Myron. You have a knack for building mental pictures that convey your appreciations. Yes, the processes are beautiful.

[@capn_shawn]

Myron, thank you so much for sharing your passion with us!

[@kd9856]

One of the very best channels on this subject if not the best there is. his way of explaining is a joy to listen to it makes it so much more easy to understand

[@rhohoho]

Epic! This is just boggling. I live just east of the Balcones Fault. If I understand correctly, the fault may have been caused by subsidence of the coastal plane as it was loading up with sediment. This discussion really puts all of that into perspective, wow!

[@billwilson-es5yn]

That's a flexure fault where it bent then cracked. The weight made it slope towards the Gulf so eroded East of the crack.

[@eljanrimsa5843]

@@billwilson-es5yn I knew USA had an obesity problem but I wouldn't have guessed it's so bad that they cracked their geology

[@myroncook]

You are right

[@hollybyrd6186]

Thank you. Enjoyable and educational.

[@jamiechristoffersen1879]

What a teacher! Love your channel! Blessings and thanks for the knowledge.

[@grobros]

Thanks, Myron. Great videos.

[@revolvermaster4939]

Hell yes! Friday night, a good cigar paired with scotch whisky & a world class Myron Cook presentation.

[@myroncook]

I wish I could join you!

[@MichaelVachon-us4ie]

Thank you , the Sherlock Holmes of geology love it ..🖤

[@cdineaglecollapsecenter4672]

What a great video! I loved the way you connected so many processes so very clearly. Thank you!

[@myroncook]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@jimroberts5461]

This program was very enjoyable and educational. It took a lot of work and hours and hours of your time and miles of driving to pull all of this supportive visual information, text, audio, editing, production etc into a comprehensive and easy to understand explanation of a very slow, complex and massive geological event. Thank you for each and every minute and dollar you spent on this amazing production!

[@myroncook]

Thanks!

[@ComfortRoller]

You have a well crafted narative, as i generate questions they are answered within a few statements.

[@ChristopherRucinski]

Banger after banger after certified banger! My first video of yours was about the salt features within the Gulf of Mexico. This was a great follow-up video which fans out very wide. As a side note, I know the 3rd point for why the sediment lowered by over 13k feet was similar to what the glaciers did to Hudson Bay, which is why that land is still rebounding upwards after the glaciers melted. However, that got me thinking about your Yellowstone-Hudson connection video. If i understand correctly, the Bighorn and Yellowstone Rivers should have emptied into the Hudson Bay until just 70k years ago. But rivers are ever-changing over millions of years. Paleolithic rivers within the last 66 million years could have been vastly different.

[@myroncook]

You are right...should have made that point

[@jannes3290]

Great explanation once again. And also beautiful scenery and drone shots, it makes me want to visit Wyoming!

[@georgekemp8298]

Thank you so much. I look forward to your episodes

[@jackieow]

32:42 If you look at coral carefully, you will see little bands of annual rings. Under a microscope you can make out daily rings within each annual ring. Today's corals have 365 microrings inside each annual ring. But the coral from 160 million years ago would have maybe 380 microrings because back then Earth was spinning faster and each year (each trip around the sun) had 380 spins for 380 days. As the moon orbits Earth and makes tides bulge here and there, this creates friction that slows down Earth's spin. The disappearing velocity is transmitted to the moon by the laws of physics and gravity (since the tides jerk the moon from in front of the moon, so slowly pull the moon into going faster and faster little by little over millions of years). So as the moon is accelerated by the pull of the tides it generates, its orbital distance from Earth increases and the moon gets slowly thrown further and further from Earth. Therefore, today some of the total eclipses of the sun aren't full eclipses because the moon is far enough away that a ring of sunlight (annular ring) is left around the circumference of the moon when the eclipses is as full as it can get. Used to be there was no such thing. Today only some of the solar eclipses are true full eclipses, like the one in August 2017. Millions of years into the future the moon will be accelerated far enough away that all eclipses of the sun will leave the sun's edge peeking beyond the moon's edge all the way around and true full solar eclipses will happen no more. Over time the moon will continue wandering further and further away and the moon will become smaller and smaller to our perception in the sky. In about 4-5 billion years more the sun will run out of fuel worse than now, the mass of the sun will balloon out due to the reduced gravity, and the enlarged dull red lower temperature sun will engulf Earth. But in the process of swelling the sun will be big enough and closer enough that high temperatures will kill off all higher life forms in about 1 billion more years. If we don't develop some type of interstellar rockets for cosmic lifeboats, we will be extinct.

[@myroncook]

Fascinating!!

[@peterwaroblak166]

I don't think that humans will be here to worry about the sun swelling, I'd be amazed if humans are here in a thousand years...

[@jackieow]

The Darwin award types won't be around in a thousand years. Others won't suffer those problems. Some have the ability to adapt and others don't.@@peterwaroblak166

[@billynomates920]

thank you for this video

[@spannerturnerMWO]

Very informative! I enjoyed this immensely!

[@herberterickson621]

I have enjoyed your presentation. The thoroughness of your description of the geologic processes is exceptional. Thank you.

[@Dragrath1]

Thanks for the fascinating thoughts on geology and scale. What effect would the temporal hiatus of large reef building animals after the Great dying have had on things? I know by the mid Jurassic the Rudist clams had adapted to fill that niche which they held up until they were wiped out 66 Ma in the KPg extinction but there would still have been an at least brief lull before modern reef building corals locked in the niche as the main reef building animals with endosymbiotic algae. On the topic of your little add and fossils Sea stars interestingly enough appear to be descended from crinoids that evolved to flip upside down so yeah the star shape is no coincidence in those fossils. Echinoderms are frankly weird animals which based on what I've read seem to have from an evolutionary perspective to have lost their body trunk as stalked heads. Now onto the sedimentation of deep time yeah and if memory serves its even more crazy further back in time as pretty much everything between the Appalachians and the Rockies is fill from one point in time or another like kilometers of sand/sediment fill which makes the Earthquakes from the recently reactivated new Madrid fault system extremely dangerous but also fascinating as quakes can produce enormous sand blows. Given the growing evidence for a fascinating more complex history of the Sevier & Laramide mountains as a Jurassic to Paleocene story of subduction archipelagos which NA collided with I wonder what contribution of sediment they might have provided from the interior side of the continental divide of the time. Of course what that looked like is tricky business what with the Cretaceous northward translation of the Pacific and all these arc collisions of which we only know the trench configurations with much of the crust of those ages now in British Columbia and Alaska not to mention much of the western US having been considerably stretched out by the mind boggling levels of extension between the Eocene and now but at least some percentage of that material from the easternmost parts of those mountains would have been carried east into the Gulf of Mexico rather than to the west. After all there is some evidence for arcs off the coast in some old sediments with sediments coming from both directions so the easternmost of these western mountains should have fed east. That would have to be the main source of sediment during the Mesozoic when there was that interior sea way right? As for the future of the Gulf of Mexico I'm not sure it will be so easy to determine as Geology is complicated. For example the rate of sedimentation depends on the trends of mountain building and in the case of reef building we have as a species kind of screwed the poor coral reefs towards extinction due to fossil fuel abuse leading to ocean acidification and rising temperatures. In the what if component of possible tectonic future evolutionary trajectories if the Rio Grande rift system continues to develop or the reactivated New Madrid starts to extend again that could all effect the eventual future for North America and thus the Gulf of Mexico. You also have those Caribbean subduction zones which could get involved depending on how plate motion evolves. They aren't that far west now but I can't help but wonder if the subduction zone could expand in the future especially if as some think the forming Subduction zone of the Azores Gibraltar fracture zone starts cutting into the Atlantic. After all NA is in the conventional picture being driven by a combination of slab pull and ridge push of which slab pull is the dominant driver because gravity so whenever NA run's out of Farallon remnants to subduct its plate motion will probably change potentially shutting off the extension as NA is pushed and pulled against the mantle discontinuity associated with the East Pacific Rise and Yellowstone. Something I found interesting reading up about ocean ridges and the degree of which their rate of spreading changes over time is that the Atlantic while still vigorous is slowing down while the Pacific actually is speeding up in terms of the rate of seafloor spreading. If true those factors combined might lead to the Pacific resurging as an ocean basin gradually tearing away the continental crust that had crossed its mantle ridge discontinuity boundary carrying them away to Alaska. That would then mean that there would no longer be a substantial drainage basin for sediments to come from which would lead to a reduced level of sedimentation. In that case the Gulf could potentially survive for some time as a basin. Or maybe given that from Seismic tomography there was once a significant subduction zone focus situated around the longitudes of the Eastern US and Caribbean subduction might spread into the Gulf with the gulf partly filling up as a result of westward dipping subduction? Too many variables!

[@myroncook]

I hadn't though about the star shape history....neat! Always too many variables...an inexact science. You can't put geology into a spreadsheet!

[@candui7278]

Phenomenal presentation Mr. Cook!

[@RoninDosho]

I've been subscribed for a while now. I really enjoy your style of teaching. This video is one of my favorites!

[@myroncook]

Awesome! Thank you!

[@bb-fe9ur]

Why aren't young people learning this quality education...

[@epmcgee]

Because school hasn’t been this educational for decades. Besides, we aren’t even taught that Zealandia was part of Pangaea in spite of the evidence of the continental shelf below New Zealand, but we’re taught that their knowledge of Pangaea is accurate.

[@greghelms4458]

Just smart enough to work and pay taxes, listen to everything the news says, not revolt, and be content with being intoxicated or high, and watching pro sports for fun.

[@Donatich.Onataka]

Thats fantastic! Now we, in Montana along the bighorns, will request that Texas gives us back our dirt. Lmao! 😂😂😂😅😅😅😅😅😂 Great class, Mr Cook. Thank you!

[@jackieow]

Maybe he can sometime explain how it is that the north side of Billings, Montana is an ancient humongous petrified river bank, but the southern river bank has eroded away.

[@andrewgoldman1710]

This is the second of your programs I've seen, new sub and many thanks for your efforts.

[@myroncook]

thanks!

[@oleran4569]

Fascinating! You did a heck of a job on this one. Thank you (and your professor who made the maps).

[@myroncook]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@joem8496]

Oh yeah! firing this up for me and the boys!

[@martinm3474]

The erosional top of the Devil's Tower...account for the uplift and the movement of the surrounding miles.

[@danoberste8146]

I was going to suggest Devil's Tower as great place to begin to grasp the amount of missing soil in the Mississippi basin. When I was there the visitor center emphasized how the top of the tower was once way underground. Standing there and imagining that everything from horizon to horizon used to be deeper than the top of the tower. All of that under the Gulf of Mexico now. 😳

[@dianespears6057]

Gosh a mighty, wow! I feel like I just audited a master’s level survey class and loved every minute of it. You are a remarkable teacher. Thank you.

[@myroncook]

Wow, thank you!

[@GB-ew8wc]

Fascinating. Thanks for another great presentation sir.

[@joemeyer6876]

So Pangea Earth was not round but oblong, which implies a change in rotational speed over time as Earth got more round. Sloshy Oceans slow down and sediment settles? To say nothing of convection forces underground. Was Earths water always a fixed quantity, ice, vapor or fluid? Why do we have water? My mind wanders and wonders. . . Great Episode.

[@jackieow]

A lot of our water has accumulated over time from comets. Used to be a lot more millions of years ago than today.

[@briandoolittle3422]

By oblong, you mean an oblate spheroid. Oblongs are a 2-dimensional shape. The Earth is still an oblate spheroid, not a perfect sphere. I've never read anything to indicate the Earth was meaningfully more oblate a hundred million years ago than it is now. It might have been more oblate in the deep past 4 - 4.6 billion years ago during the formation of the Earth when much more of the planet was molten rock, but that's a different thing. The Earths rotation speed is slowing down over time due to the Moons gravitation pull on Earth. This change in speed is extremely slow though, at a rate of 2 milliseconds of the day lost every 100 years, which equals 20 seconds in a million years. The ocean does not 'slosh' because of Earths rotation. centripetal force from our rotation causes the oceans to bulge out at the equator ( just like it causes the planet to be oblate), but not to slosh. Sloshing would require multiple directions of movement. The ocean tides are caused by the pull of the moons gravity as the moon circles the Earth. The Earth receives new water from asteroids and comets from time to time, but the quantity of water it receives from those is minuscule compared to the amount of water on Earth. Most of the water on Earth was either created from elemental hydrogen and oxygen present on Earth during its formation, or from asteroids and other debris in our solar system during the early formation of Earth. So while not all of it was present right from the beginning, almost all of it was already here by 4 billion years ago. Earth is actually losing water to space. In the upper atmosphere, solar radiation splits water vapor in to elemental hydrogen and oxygen, and some of that hydrogen eventually is blown in to space by solar 'winds'. Which means there's notably less water than there used to be. Some estimates put us at 75% of the water Earth started with. Also, take everything I say with a grain of salt. I'm interested in geology and astronomy, but do not have a degree in either. I am not an expert.

[@StuartWoodwardJP]

c.f. Mollweide projection en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mollweide_projection

[@jackieow]

The Mollweide projection is not about the oblate spheroid shape of the planet. It is about showing the continents more like natural relative size, to avoid the distortions of the Mercator projection mapping.@@StuartWoodwardJP

[@joemeyer6876]

I’ve seen the 3D modelings of the earth’s core and it’s not a sphere, very asymmetrical, wobbly precession coulda been much more angular than it is now. There’s too much water for comets to be the cause of H2O. Why there is water is more interesting to me than alluvial flows and sedimentation. But, great episode nonetheless.

[@cliffambers5642]

Hi Mr. Cook! I love your channel and look for your new video each month. I got a PhD in geology way back and I love seeing the beautiful places you and your brother film. Your bentonite flat irons video really took me back. I sampled the bentonite pits back in the '80's and we found shark tail fin drag marks in the sand under the clay. It was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. On the assignment you gave at the end of your last video, I measured 26000 pixels squared for the Gulf fill and 5000 pixels squared of unfilled basin space from your cross section at the end of the video. I take this to mean about 1/6 of the basin remains to be filled. According to Wikipedia, " The age of the salts are supported by the stratigraphy in the northern Gulf of Mexico where the Eagle Mills red beds, as discussed above, contain dikes as young as 180 Ma." That means 5/6 of the basin filled in 180 million years, Dividing 180 by 5 = 36 million years per 1/6 of the basin to fill, which is also the time left to fill up the Gulf of Mexico. Cool! That's pretty soon in Earth terms!

[@myroncook]

I've seen tail fin drag marks too! Good work on your calculations

[@feelingcreative7649]

First video. New subscriber! I don't usually watch videos with commentary or make comments but it only took a few minutes and you took me to this place along with you and I felt involved in solving the mystery. I've been all over the area in the video, and it's fun to understand what you're talking about. I have traveled around the US for many years to look at interesting places but still love to see what others find out there. Great job and I'm gonna watch some more videos!

[@myroncook]

Welcome aboard!

[@EvanC881]

What an amazing teacher you are! I'm very grateful to have found your video!

[@MothShadow]

Growing up in the upper Missouri Ozarks (Gasconade County), and from my hiking & caving and geology minor at UMR/MSM/MS&T, I was always fascinated and astounded by the thoughts that our Ozarkian and Ouachita / Boston Mountains along with out neighbors to the east (Appalachians) were "as tall if not taller than the Rockies, like maybe Himalayans!"... and so when walking these Ozark hollers, I'd shake my head in disbelief as there was "no way" -that- much erosion, -that- much of these hills / mountains could have been eroded and then carried away... all the way to the Gulf of Mexico?!?!? But yet, thanks to Myron and others before, this is indeed the history of our lands. Couple the land masses moving from tropical zones, more water from the Ice Ages, and even the addition of the Missouri River to the Mississippi River [yes, lol, I am watching your other videos Myron! :) ], so much more erosional forces have removed these high points to their current stages - over these vast distances of time. Geology is forking amazingly cool! BTW, I am though a bit stumped yet about the connection of our Ouachita Mtns to the Appalachian with that other remnant in SW Texas... how did the Mississippi River -and- the Gulf's history relate to that range? I don't really see that in Ron B's maps shared in the video here? Much thanks sir!

[@myroncook]

thanks for your story!

[@JohnCompton1]

Mind blown Myron...

[@marksinger3067]

Another good geoVideo from Myron.. Whiteboards in classrooms were starting to be common near the finish of my Elementary school teaching career 2010 and they are indeed wonderful.. Large touch screen boards for teaching may be next..

[@yota4004]

another great class. thanks Myron.

[@ckingclosur]

Is it true that Devils Tower/Bear Lodge Butte was a live tree????

[@johncooper4637]

No.

[@ZhmiKnopa]

Haha! Trees are not made of basalt

[@myroncook]

not true...will likely do an episode on it

[@ckingclosur]

@@myroncook Thank you for the answer, sir, and I hope that you will be able to make this special episode about it, because there are those who say that it is a great tree that turned into stone over millions of years, and this is one of the theories currently presented in the KZbin market. They also say that it looks like a beehive due to its greatness, as we cannot see the small cells for wood material unless we magnify it.

[@Rocket39Smoke14]

And here I thought that the Gulf of Mexico was created by an asteroid...

[@MangySquirrel]

I always look forward to your videos, Myron. never dissapoint

[@YewtBoot]

Another nice explanation I enjoyed learning from. Thanks.

[@laurienielsen8031]

812 views in 35 minutes!

[@realchinese9834]

Hi, do you think the famous "Sahara Eye" is where the legendary Atlantis once located? thank you.

[@TheDanEdwards]

" legendary Atlantis once located" - Atlantis was a story-telling device of Plato, so he could teach ethics.

[@realchinese9834]

@@TheDanEdwards I do not agree, legendary story could be a real story, science is a proving process, but it has its limitations, for example: if someone tells you he saw UFO can you say thats a legendary story? yes you can say that but you know UFO is real, I know UFO is real and they know UFO is real as well, it is just that the government and science who holds the microphone to tell you what they think is the truth, I think it's a cognitive issue.

[@myroncook]

I don't think that...may do a video sometime

[@realchinese9834]

@@myroncook Look forward to that, Jimmy Corsetti and David Stig Hansen did a lot research on the Richat Structure, especially David Hansen, he is a killer on this subject.

[@Padoinky]

Pleasantly surprised by just how good the content and the delivery was for what could have been a lackluster topic - many thanks

[@isabellame7326]

I think our favorite thing about your videos is we never know where you are going next!! Thank you for helping us learn so much about our beautiful planet & it's history! ❤

[@neatphar-5265]

65 million or so

[@davidrains3918]

Everything is so much more interesting when you don’t learn it in school

[@williamblair9597]

The right teacher with a passion for the subject being taught has an ability no one who is forced to teach randon subjects given them from a curriculum where teaching it simply becomes just a job.

[@davidrains3918]

@@williamblair9597 in school they don’t tell you the “story”, they give you a list of “facts”, names, dates, places, events, with little or no story to make it interesting enough to pay attention to

[@billwilson-es5yn]

​@@davidrains3918Many school systems still teach their students how to think for themselves instead of memorizing a bunch of useless information. They may not have the best test scores yet don't have problems finding employment that provides promotions for "being on the ball". They tend to figure out a solution to problems that pop up then do it so things get done faster.

[@douglascronin7336]

Another wonderful insight in time . Thank you

[@abdulwahabbello9260]

Thank you so much, Myron for making geology so interesting and easy to understand.

[@myroncook]

Glad you liked it!

[@colorbugoriginals4457]

at first glance i thought it was the Sharpie line that Trump drew when he couldn't handle being wrong about meteorology 😅