Stream Sand Filling In A Lava Sandwich? Random Roadcuts #26

[@shawnwillsey]

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[@RWBHere]

Thanks Shawn. Very interesting, and I can see why you return to that spot. If possible, you might want to turn on image stabilisation for those macro shots. The natural movements of your hand and arm are making it quite difficult to see the finer details in those rocks. Thanks again.

[@aerofart]

That’s a fascinating road cut. The more I watch this series the easier it has become to visualize what you’re saying, Shawn. Great video quality with the new camera. Very responsive of you to upgrade after only a week or so of my “complaining.” Thanks for investing in education.

[@J0hnC0ltrane]

"Paleosol" "rind to pillow lava". This is a very interesting history discussion of the roadcut. The camera work is top HD. As with all good teachers you really make history come alive. Ty Shawn.

[@markhanish4463]

Wow…very cool pillow basalt in a stream. Thanks for sharing!

[@Janer-52]

Wonderful! I remember during - I think it was the first Hawaii eruption - when the lava met the sea, pillow lava was formed. One of the commentators (perhaps a geologist) said this kind of formation can be found world-wide, some even on tops of mountains. However, they had not ever figured out HOW it was formed until that eruption. Between that and the "black smokers" on the bottom of the sea, I've been fascinated by how the earth forms and re-forms itself continually. I really appreciate your taking the time to stop and point out all these features.

[@hestheMaster]

What is so great in this area is the fact it is a completely man-made cut of the layers from roughly 1/2 way to the top of land or 1/2 way down to the Snake river itself. One can closely examine the differentations of both volcanic and river deposits over time. There was quite a bit of water here in the Western Snake River plain in spite of volcanic intrusion events and it's no surprise to see pillow shaped basalt here in the plain at one time. Great explanation of this road cut professor!

[@GailSchneider-lj6wn]

Very interesting features - it's fun to hear the story!

[@raenbow66]

Such different, wonderful geologic stories in this one place! Lots to understand. Delightful! Thanks Shawn! Again!

[@stevewhalen6973]

Thanks!

[@patrickkillilea5225]

Wow!!! This certainly is a mind blowing spot...

[@terrigoggin4443]

I love your presentations and the close-ups! SoCal rock gal

[@davidk7324]

Great to revisit this, thanks Shawn. The first Willsey field trip in Oct '23 made a stop here. You are clearly getting the hang of your new camera. Looks great.

[@sandrine.t]

Wow, just wow!! What a fantastic (and not so) Random Roadcut!! As a matter of fact, I immediately spotted the rounded shapes of the pillow lavas! (I can't really explain why but I just love pillow lavas :) And the cross beds in the stream deposit are superb too! Thank you for taking us there with you, Shawn :)

[@marymachunis3778]

Another fascinating road cut. All types of interesting layers.

[@xwiick]

Thanks for all the hard work on these videos!

[@davidhougaard7238]

I love your “Random Roadcuts”. So glad I found your channel. Thank you very much for making them.

[@susierider55]

It always amazes me that that old, crumbly basalt and sand can hold up that amount of heavy ‘new’ basalt. I thought I spied some pillow lava. Looks a lot like the basalt at the end of the field trip in April at the grade (last stop). Makes sense with the stream bedding underneath.

[@judierickson7166]

I absolutely love random road cuts!

[@joannekellam191]

Awesome roadcut! I spotted the pillow lavas right away. 😊 Your new camera films in really superb quality. Thanks, Shawn!

[@kateclover874]

That roadcut shows so much geologic history. Wow. Seeing the braided stream beds next to the pillow basalts is pretty cool. Thanks for explaining.

[@marsharose2301]

Great seeing the pillow lava with the columns up above. Very interesting! Thanks!

[@kwgm8578]

Wonderful, Shawn. I don't get out enough. At all, in truth. Thank you. It's always fascinating. 🧙🏼‍♂️🙏🏼

[@bertoray5497]

I like how your videos put our time here in perspective. I also like your new camera, and your outro in which you really pop with what seems to be a lower f-stop. Take care and thanks.

[@jacobblumin4260]

Thanks for another beautiful video. Makes me feel like I can see the lava flows and streams as they occurred millions of years ago.

[@causewaykayak]

Nice quality filming Hope you are pleased with the new camera. Thanks for continuing to grow the Random RoadCuts series of explorations. ❤

[@hankhafliger482]

Was going through this cut yesterday morning thinking Sean should do a random road cut here. Thanks Sean!

[@garygraham6020]

Thank you Pro. Willsey for another excellent episode on road cut geology!

[@GaryCBenson007]

Thank you, Shawn. I really enjoy your content.

[@jenniferlevine5406]

That is an amazing site. I can see every part you speak of. Overall I am overwhelmed by the wall aspect of it too. Thank you for showing us this really interesting outcrop.

[@marklang5169]

Great diagnostic lesson for us Shawn! Thank You again :-)

[@sueellens]

I saw the rounded masses and wondered if they were pillow lavas…so your teaching has helped! ☺️ Thank you!

[@flyfishin69]

I need a bumper sticker now to warn folks! This vehicle may slow for RR - Random Roadcuts.

[@paulproctor5555]

Excellent, Thanks Shawn⚒️

[@geolyn]

That was good. I really like 'solving the mystery'.

[@JanClancey]

I LOVE ROADCUTS

[@TCook-d3s]

Great video. I love looking at road cuts and really enjoy watching your videos.

[@confuseatronica]

mmmm sand and lava sandwich- I've never seen a road cut that's two straight rock walls before, its always either the DOT standard angle of repose cut, or it's some weird bumpy unique geometry. Sure helps amplify the road noise!

[@charlesward8196]

There are some videos from Hawaii where the lava is entering the ocean, and some really CRAZY scuba divers got into the water at the front of the lava flow and recorded the formation of the pillows. The red hot lava bulges out and instantly cools to a black surface covered with steam bubbles,then bursts out in another spot to cool again, with the microphone picking up the sound of hissing steam, and snapping rock. The temperature shock between the hot rock and cold water shatters the lava into sand and gravel sized pieces that build up in a loose, unstable slope of pillows and black sand that over-steepens, and then the whole slope breaks loose and landslides into the depths just below the swimming divers. It is an “extremely dynamic environment” and quite exciting to watch, but like I used to tell my kids, “If you want to live a long and happy life, stay OUT of dynamic environments.”

[@geolyn]

I love those shots and could watch the pillow lavas forming all day. Certainly a remote recorder would be much safer!

[@stevewhalen6973]

Your new camera's pictures are quite clear and vivid.👍

[@MSGTGC]

Your new camera really makes a difference! Thanks for a fun roadout!

[@szendrenko]

Excellent presentation of an interesting road cut. You can drive on this highway hundreds of times and not realize what is there

[@bottomup12]

I’d like to hear an interview with the crew that made the road cut and get their reaction as they dug it out. That is a fascinating area! It would be cool to see a movie showing how the layers came to be.

[@codyedwards6922]

Shawn! Awesome again! You should make a cameo with us in May doing the Bonneville tour with Randall.Thank you for teaching all the time!

[@Judymontel]

I do like your channel and learn a lot. Someone I know shared some footage of the Mars rover showing the landscape there and my first thought was "hmmm, I wonder what a geologist could say from looking at these rocks and this landscape." Thanks for your videos and teaching!

[@clydecessna737]

Terrific.

[@stevekolstad4445]

Hi Shawn you bought us there on a trip. Your description is great. I wondered if the snake river was up here and or lake Idaho

[@rickfranz5054]

Very cool outcrop!

[@kurtalmquist]

great video- I have always wondered about those sections in the canyon- I believe I was a Box Springs canyon the Day you were at that grade- I was at Swan Falls today and went up the grade and wondered about the road cut there

[@geofreak75]

Very informative!

[@christinedaly2694]

Thank you very informative interesting great video

[@JanClancey]

Yay guessed before you said I knew they were pillow lavas thank you 🙏

[@iain3411]

The new camera seems to work very nice up close, cool road cut.

[@faemike55]

fascinating view

[@ayjay749]

Brilliant, thank you! Is there some attempt at basalt columns above the pillows at around 17:09 ? The palaeosol layer looks very odd - it's studded with particles at 12:07 Why is it like that? Thanks!

[@terrahmama]

very cool roadcut lesson. @13.07 did anyone else see a pug dog face in that rock formation? 😊

[@3xHermes]

Your the best! Thx! 👍

[@normaallred7568]

Awesomme knowledge

[@chuckhursch5374]

I think this is my fav roadcut. Stream bed with injected basalt and modified basalt for several feet up! 😳

[@Babblegum]

Amazing! How did they cut through the rock?

[@lamprou]

If you drilled into the rock with the holes, could you in theory get bubbles of atmosphere from when it was created?

[@marionnadeau8457]

Thanks, Shawn! How old do you think the layers are?

[@shawnwillsey]

Top basalt erupted from Flat Top Butte, a large shield volcano, about 330,000 years ago. Lower, brown basalt is about 4-5 million years old.

[@owenkittredge3433]

Another nice breakfast field trip, thank you. I did noticed that the older weathered basalt at the beginning may have had some pillow features or am I mistaken?

[@shawnwillsey]

No, the rounded shapes in the older basalt are spheroidal weathering.

[@owenkittredge3433]

@@shawnwillsey Thank you

[@geoffgeoff143]

Love it

[@mikeblubaugh8988]

Geology word of today is ' Paleosol ' 😊

[@peteyflynn]

You should check out Riggins, Id road cuts

[@jackbelk8527]

Just around the corner is a bigger 'stream bed' that was excavated out and mined for gold by the Kanakas (Hawaiian natives). They used mercury for gold recovery and most went blind. (circa 1880) When that road cut was cut in the '90s, I panned very fine (but very little gold) from that sand lens. Watch for falling rocks!!

[@shawnwillsey]

The old road cut to the west?

[@jackbelk8527]

@@shawnwillsey Between the new cut and the Snake River bridge. As I remember there are two basalt contacts with sand and sand channels between them.

[@johncooper4637]

First thing I noticed was the pillow basalt. Does the palagonite turn brown over time? I am sure you can't do it but it would be nice if you could get the equivalent of a hand lens look at the sand and other particles.

[@jfmezei]

Question: early, you play with the brown basalt at the base of the cut. It is very easy for your bionic hands to break those rocks into sand. Would the brittleness be present only near the edge of the road cut (vibration from the road work/dynamite and/or exposure to weather) , or would it be a characteristic of the layer as a whole and the roacks at the edge have not really changed since road was built?

[@shawnwillsey]

This is a characteristic of the rock and not a reflection of any roadcut issue.

[@timw6596]

Would the pillow basalt be going into stream/river or possible beach front property ?

[@shawnwillsey]

Lava flows downhill and into stream/river. A common theme here in southern Idaho.

[@Sonex1542]

Camera is great, BTW you can, we can, zoom in and see much more detail with this higher resolution and upload. Thanks.

[@thaddeusjones7868]

Question: Could deep snow cause basalt lava to "pillow"? Or is there not enough water?

[@davec9244]

How can you determine the direction of the flow or can you. Gravity works so downhill did the river and lava flow the same direction? thank you

[@shawnwillsey]

Tricky to get flow direction from a mostly 2D roadcut. Need more 3D control.

[@itsallspent]

Years ago, a series of books were published ,for many states, called Roadside Geology. Would it be approate to call the crumbly rock black sand? I have been following videos of black sand mining at Java Mount Maripa.😊

[@shawnwillsey]

Yes, the roadside books are great and I helped author Roadside Geology of Idaho. Check it out. I would not call the older crumbly basalt black sand as it is still in place and not disaggregated.

[@johnlord8337]

With this water flow, and not seeing a map and knowing the greater geological area in Idaho, ... could this be part of the Pacific Northwest Ice Age glacial floods of 12,800 BCE, end of the Ice Age, Lake Missoula flowing to the Columbia River and/or Lake Bonneville flowing to the Snake River to the Columbia River sand bedding ?

[@shawnwillsey]

No. There are huge mountains in central Idaho that divide the Missoula floods and Columbia River basin from this area. Also not Bonneville flood which is much younger than any of the rocks or layers shown here.

[@johnlord8337]

@@shawnwillsey Did we ever get a date on these various levels ?

[@johnlord8337]

@@shawnwillsey Looking at an Idaho topo map, it appears this central Idaho geology is the Northern Rocky Mountains range (541-252 MYA) and other portions of modern Cenozoic (65 MYA - current). If these are parts of the Cenozoic, then this is the Farallon plate movement, uplifting and fracturing the older Paleozoic Rockies orogeny (80 -65 MYA Miocene). The Yellowstone Group geological formation is welded ash-flow tuff, such as seen here above the oldest of red basement rock. The Group sits on top of rocks that range in age from Precambrian to early Quaternary. The 60 distinct solidified lava flows that form the Craters of the Moon Lava Field range in age from 15,000 to 2,00l0 years old. So this location, if all this fits, is a massive Farallon plate uplift (65 MYA), with Yellowstone providing a massive elevation of tuff, then the Craters of the Moon and its later 60 layers (some) seen here, spouted off in the 13,000 - 0 BCE period. This formation then shows activity of 65 MYA to modern geology. The stream bed deposit sitting between the Yellowstone Group and the Craters of the Moon basalt flows, then ~could be~ any of the many glacial expansions and glacial meltwater retreat moraines with fluvial stream beddings in the 150,000 - 10,000 BCE period. ???????

[@PhilTaska]

Hey Shawn, I don't know if anyone has suggested this, but would a green laser pointer work for pointing out geological features on shaded exposures? When you use your hand, the camera wants to shift focus. Not complaining, just wondering. Great content. Thanks so much!

[@shawnwillsey]

Yeah. Need to figure that out with new camera. It’s always something.

[@fully_retractable]

Loved the video, but it looks like your camera is trying way too hard to focus up close, and the image seems to bob in and out of frame.

[@jilliangcox]

Hello. I watched a documentary on Glen Canyon in Utah. Have you been there, and what as a geologist is your view on it?

[@shawnwillsey]

I am pro Glen Canyon. Beautiful area.

[@KimPhilipDalanon]

NIce....

[@franktippin9150]

Is this an actual road cut, i.e., made by highway construction?

[@shawnwillsey]

Yes indeed. A very large road cut.

[@Not_An_Alien]

How will geologists a million years from now explain roads?

[@RodHorrocks]

Thanks!

[@marklang5169]

Great diagnostic lesson for us Shawn! Thank You again :-)

[@psjasker]

Thanks!

[@stevewhalen6973]

Thanks!

[@gdottie1]

Thanks!

[@vrichenstein]

Thanks!