The Geologic Mecca of Anza-Borrego State Park in Southern California

[@InterWebGuy99]

It's fantastic to take a sidewise look at rock layers representing millions of years of time and incidents of uplift, seems a little similar to being able to look at tree rings and see the changes in climate over decades or hundreds of years. Thanks for taking us to another place with such amazing geology.

[@scorpion-zi9fl]

This area is especially gorgeous after a light rain with the absorption of water into the rocks. They really show some spectacular coloration.

[@susanproctor7512]

I've been there as a kid!

[@maryt2887]

This Marylander is so envious of all of you who live in or near this area. I love the colors and shapes and thank Shawn for taking us here.

[@sdmike1141]

“Moonwalking across the wash…”🤣. Thanks for the slickenlines and sides!

[@calvinhobbs1761]

Wow Professor , I have traveled through this canyon many times and wished I had a geologist with me, this video made it happen, in a way. I'm heading to the Cargos Muchachos this weekend, will be in a wash called the Araz. Also spectacular. Thanks so much for the video, cant wait for part two.

[@RWBHere]

You can see the surface corrugations in the line down that strike-slip fault. Thanks Shawn. 🙂

[@InSurrealtime]

My favorite thing at Anza-Borrego is (I like to do it as a multi-day journey) a trip that starts at Canyon Sin Nombre (visit the slot canyon there) goes up Arroyo Tapiado (Mud Caves) and down Diablo drop off into upper Fish Creek, then visit Sandstone Canyon, the mud palisades, and split mountain on the way out.

[@KnucklebarkRanch]

This is so awesome to see how different types of events that create these folds and mini faults. It certainly helps us to understand how all this works . Thank you again

[@pauljames5281]

I lived in Southern California years ago and was amazed at the Geology there. Listening to you naming certain faults brings back memories. Thank you.

[@virgo714]

I was there in November with my geology class… that place is gorgeous and super friendly campers

[@Rachel.4644]

Geeeez!!!! (This was my first Discover-Alone place, very sentimental. For birds, pre-geology.) LOVE the layering, colors, textbook faulting. On my list to visit again. Exciting stuff! ❤

[@JamieZoeGivens]

Thanks for covering one of my favorite places on the planet.

[@ridealongwithrandy]

Finally a person that can explain what I see in my Anza Borrego Desert canyon hikes. I think a binge watch is in order here on the Anza Borrego Desert. Thank you. Cheers!

[@brendanacord]

This is fantastic! A geological wonderland indeed, thanks for sharing with us!

[@3xHermes]

Great location. Just beautiful to see all those layers and faults. Thanks for showing us.

[@hardrockgirl5844]

I spent my very first night in California here! Awesome! One of my most favourite places on earth, that and the Mt Lassen area and my own Jurassic Coast in Dorset UK where I live ! Thank you for this video - I want to come back 😍

[@sleepydrJ]

Very interesting! I camped at Anza borrego years ago with a group. It is lovely for winter camping, and has lots of great hikes. Wish I’d had a geologist tour guide!

[@jazzwhiskey582]

I grew up in east county San Diego and used to trek out to Anza Borrego and many other east county San Diego spots. It is what opened my interests in Geology and Rockhounding. It would be way cool if you did a segment on the pegmatite formations in the Pala / Hemet areas, down to Jacumba. There is very old history of gem mining in the area, tourmaline mostly, but other gems as well. Many of the mines are still active and being redeveloped by the Gems of Pala team.

[@Skytexture]

I lived in North County for 20 years and didn’t discover geology until after we moved. 😭 It’s such an interesting region!

[@cidburton5183]

Love it there! Every time I visit I am pulled in by the rocks! Interesting energy. I have a couple of geology books specific to the area. Great to have your on site analysis! Thanks😊

[@mapleleaf902]

I have camped there many times and different locations. I still have great memories of the area.

[@rridderbusch518]

Anza-Borrego was my best birding trip with 27 new bird species for this easterner. Had a friendly chat with a road-runner who didn't want the food I offered!

[@Anne5440_]

When I was young my mom and I used to see roadrunner in Southern Idaho on our summer drives to the Rockie Mountains. That was before the freeways were built. In years since I haven't seen them alone the freeways. It may just be the faster speeds. Plus we then started going through northern Idaho more.

[@patriciawhite3778]

I did my final geology field camp in this area. It's really awesome as far as geology goes. Thanks for the great video and commentary.

[@johnwelbourn3811]

A fantastic video Prof. I stumbled upon a random video three months ago about the magma intrusion in Grindavik, knowing absolutely zilch about geology. I have learnt so much since, just by catching up on your back catalogue.

[@shawnwillsey]

Awesome. Thanks.

[@MyMemphisable]

Thanks!

[@jackprier7727]

Well THAT is showy-- I was gone on the roadrunners and lizards and ocotillos blooming and dodging cholla too much to even know about this showy jaw-dropping wall-

[@LisaBelleBC]

Great eye! I would never see the faults etc but when you point them out they’re amazing! Thank you again!

[@jakegroat4447]

That was really awesome. It's difficult to get a good feel for the size of those strata. But the different layers of sediment and minor faults are so fascinating! Looks like a fun trip.

[@jimcarter4929]

Fish canyon is a geological wonderland. You still have the Wind caves, Elephant Knees and Sand canyon to show us. How can so much different one area to the next in relatively short distances. Always amazed going here.

[@shawnwillsey]

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

[@InSurrealtime]

Hey Shawn you can pin this so it stays on top.

[@michaelmckeag960]

For close to a decade now our annual migration destination from Pacific Northwest winter has been the Anza Borrego. It’s a treat, and an education to see familiar canyon walls through your eyes. Looking forward to the next installments. I’ve also been bookmarking unfamiliar locations you have investigated for future visits.

[@valoriel4464]

Thx Prof ✌🏻 enjoyed your excellent geo-ed adventure.

[@oscarmedina1303]

I am so pleased you are exploring and doing videos about S. California. This is my neck of the woods and your videos are helping me understand local geology. Your video about Gargoyle Canyon was fantastic. I learned a lot. Thank you!

[@xmj6830]

Awesome explanation. Thank you

[@ellenbryn]

Definitely will be reviewing this video before I head south from OC to explore - maybe for spring bloom. Thank you! :)

[@jameshatchett8095]

Having grown up in San Diego County I spent a good bit of time looking for Reptiles in Borrego as a kid. Years later, I surveyed much of the area surrounding the park for prairie falcons nesting on cliffs. As I recall, most of the minor faulting I noticed was sinistral rather than dextral, as you found, but that was fifty years ago and I may be misremembering.

[@davidk7324]

Amazing.

[@renicostareni2313]

❤Amazing vídeo from you great. America Teacher. I love the way you made all your vídeo; I really love to hear the sounds. From o little Hammer.🛠🔨🔨🔨❤🇺🇸❤. As much as I see your video, I do love your geology classes. Thank dear teacher SHAMN WILLSEY. You are the best.🤗💚📌🖍📗👏

[@kymkauffman5000]

I am learning so much from you!

[@judierickson7166]

THANK YOU!

[@edwardlulofs444]

I wasn’t surprised to see the transform faults in these young rocks as the rock movements have occurred in the last few million years as the Sea of Cortez rift has appeared. But I was quite surprised to see the normal faults. Further north near the San Andreas fault there is a lot of reverse faulting from the San Gabriel and San Bernardino uplifts and to the north. I don’t get to the Anza area much and I didn’t quickly recall how close it is to the rift zone just to the east. The change from compression to expansion changes in a fairly short range in Southern California. I’m from back east where the geology is hidden. The Western geology is amazing to me. The last few years I have had a chance to drive across the Garlock fault. It’s relatively hidden and every every transit I see it more clearly. Thanks for the video. 😊

[@Anne5440_]

Very interesting to learn more of this area. I like learning more about faults. Far different from the PNW.

[@dustinparker9456]

While you’re there in socal and east San Diego is my neck of the woods. The hills from the boarder from campo through Alpine, descanso, Julian, Ramona, on up. There loaded with large granite boulders. I can’t figure out how did it get like that? It looks like boulders the size up to a house are just peppered everywhere.

[@oscarmedina1303]

Prof. Pat Abbott has a nice descriptive video on YT about those exact boulders. Eroded granite.

[@TheDanEdwards]

So many geologically fascinating areas in southern California. If these are Miocene deposits, as you indicated early in this video, then this material would have been deposited roughly 50km to the south of where they are today. My question is whether this material was then in a shallow water environment, at the northern end of a young Gulf of California.

[@robertfritz9916]

Our winter house is to the west of there in the most SW part of the park; if you look on map you can probably figure out where we are. We've been coming to Anza Borrego since the late 70s so we have explored a lot but it's always nice to learn more. You probably posting this far after you were here, but if not contact us and we'll show you our part of AB.

[@tomcook5813]

If I may suggest an interesting area to see, Paria Utah. I 4 wheeled in there in the 90s. Remains of the set from “outlaw Josie Whales” set were still there.

[@InSurrealtime]

Those red and white striped formations are just stunning, somebody that lived out that way said it's called Mexican skirt.

[@greedygringoprospecting6941]

pretty cool. !!!!

[@billjcanada]

You were checking out my old stomping grounds.

[@lindakienle531]

I was raised there.

[@hestheMaster]

We are between the Elsinore and San Jacinto fault zones and in an active but smaller sized Earthquake prone area. The outdoor camping is great there or so I heard.

[@curtiscroulet8715]

Anza-Borrego *Desert* State Park. Almost my home territory. I live uphill in Anza (not "Anza-Borrego") at almost 4,000 ft elev.

[@allanegleston4931]

allan egleston (me) be have , was going to be cheeky here . :) nice lecture

[@sleepydrJ]

Can you give us a Death Valley video series? The rocks and geology are so bare and dramatic, would love to have them described beyond “wow!look at that red and orange and green bit over there”. ** isn’t it cool that these California desert parks can be so very desolate, but you can still find such beauty and interest?

[@shawnwillsey]

The first place I went when I started doing this back in 2020. Here you go. Not my best work but still good info. kzbin.info/aero/PLOf4plee9UzB2EIoqJotFRCtHlthWlkl0&feature=shared

[@sleepydrJ]

@@shawnwillsey thanks!

[@professorsogol5824]

What is the difference between a "normal fault" and a "reverse fault"? This old geology text I have ("Structure of the Earth" by S. P. Clark Jr, 1971) has a diagram illustrating the two but one looks to be the mirror image of the other. In the normal fault, the right side moves up and the left side down. In the reverse fault, the right side moves down and the left up.

[@shawnwillsey]

It's not a right side or left side thing. Normal faults are caused by extension so while the two sides move up/down, they are also moving apart. Reverse faults are caused by compression and result in one side (the hanging wall) pushed up and riding over the other side (footwall).

[@TroutWest]

These faults you're finding are actually off-shoots or cracks caused by bigger events of the San Felipe fault which is mainly located at the entry of fish creek canyon. Nice video dude.

[@markday5797]

1ST. and glad to be here.

[@ellenthompson7525]

Have you seen the "moving quick sand"(between where this video is and the salton sea)?? Any thoughts on it's path, origin, destination?

[@snowmiaow]

Thanks for pointing out the faults. Part of the cliff is going up and part is going down. What is causing that?

[@shawnwillsey]

extension (stretching of crust)

[@robertbass9032]

As far as I know, the Elsinore fault is not part of the San Andreas fault system. While It basically parallels the San Andreas, it extends to the South down into Mexico. On the North end it splits with one of the branches becoming the Whittier fault. I live within walking distance (less than 2 miles) of this fault as it travels down the West side of our city.

[@loisstanford8736]

❤

[@jballenger9240]

Can you put dates to the different layers? How much geological time are we looking at from your “ground level” to the top layer? Thank you.

[@fastm3980]

New Sub here please more videos I would even do a meet up just to hear and see this first hand. Cool stuff👍🏻🧐

[@shawnwillsey]

Awesome! Welcome aboard. Lots to peruse here so check the playlists and find more good content you enjoy. I also do field trips which you can find in my website: www.willseygeology.com/

[@garyonnen7634]

You need to come back for a super bloom.

[@saimaleon7115]

So where is the stuff that slid sideways and caused the slicken lines? Did that whole side of rock just crumble away?

[@briseboy]

Yeah, you WILL see fractures displacing strata by 4-10 feet or more, likely created by a single event, in many San Diego regions, and in deserts where the San Andreas transform and others jitter NW and NE into great basin. You found some nice ones! Thanks for teaching us how to identify slicken marks defining repeated motion. (I kind of prefer California earthquaking to the comatose lands far from the Action! Even though we have to patch recalcitrant houses that refuse to go with the flow, and a few freeway bridges have collapsed twice leaving me on roads to nowhere. Once, sleeping in Yosemite valley, i awoke in dawn light to obvious earthquake coming. One can HEAR it with ear to ground, and it was 10-15 seconds LATER when the birds erupt in their X or Twitter, and stolid sedentary folk wonder whassup?) Jacinto is pronounced Ha! sinto, not Yah! as if some norwegian named it. Some Spanish diallects, and Portuguese make soft zh of J, and don't even roll their Rs like a good rock avalanche after a little hip and telephone pole swaying tremor.

[@cmpe43]

At 6:56 your looking up at Dum dum want some gum gum rock!

[@frankr2246]

Pilgimage to the Mecca Anticline.

[@snowmiaow]

What causes the abrubt changes? What causes the alternation of layers, as opposed to just a change? Please pick some layers and tell us how much time it represents.

[@irmaoksanen6830]

How much of the rock and sedimentary layers were created by the melting of the last glaciers when there may have been a catastrophic melting of the North American ice sheets?

[@TheDanEdwards]

If these are late Miocene deposits, then the glaciations of the Pleistocene had not happened yet.

[@GenoG1202]

It's not "Ahnza". It's like "An-za". I live here and hike here with my dogs almost daily. I've been here eight years and feel like I've barely seen just a bit. And FYI...the Jacinto Fault is directly under you right where you are there!!! There are a lot of fallen rocks in the area from the constant jolts. 😎

[@curtiscroulet8715]

You live in Anza, or in "Anza-Borrego?" I live in Anza, in Terwilliger Valley, at the uppermost part of the drainage of Coyote Creek.

[@GenoG1202]

@@curtiscroulet8715 Neither haha. I actually live in Salton City, but just a few miles west of here is Anza-Borrego. This part is fascinating but it goes for infinity!! LOL. We get an insane amount of good shakers from Jacinto and there is an area off the S22 where I'll go check the next day and you can see rocks that were shaken down. This area is absolutely fascinating!!!

[@curtiscroulet8715]

TBH, I didn't know anybody actually lived in Salton City. In the vicinity of Anza, there are two active, parallel sections of the SJFZ: Buck Ridge Fault and Coyote Canyon Fault. Both produce earthquakes. A third fault, the Thomas Mountain Fault, I don't think has seen much activity in recent decades. If you drive Hwy 371 from Anza to the junction with Hwy 74, you cross all three. In fact, Hwy 371 follows a canyon produced by the Coyote Canyon Fault for a couple of miles.

[@kkeil9449]

Still love your content, but missing out on so much details, because it's always at 1080p for example i could not see any rock polishing. I have plenty of 4k action cams you can record atleast 1440p if you're worried about slow upload speed & I would gladly send you one for free.

[@georgepeck9288]

Where did the energy come from to generate these faults?

[@wayneparkinson4558]

It's not a geologists fault they are fascinated by terrorferma the rock we stand on for it tells the story of earth in its entirety we also can learn about what to expect in the far future too because the processes persists of change of our dynamic planet?

[@elizabradley4797]

Strike Slip Faults

[@jimmiller1686]

If the slicken lines reflect "rubbing" by another surface, where did that surface go ? Excellent presentation, thanks very much. don't hurt yourself climbing.

[@dialallama]

Presumably when the canyon floods the flowing water undercuts the cliff until sections collapse. The faults will be a natural weakness in the rock and so when the undercutting gets close to the fault one side will collapse away leaving the fault surface exposed.

[@seekingthetruth304]

Erosion of various types have just removed the side That You Don't See

[@dialallama]

How could you tell that the “normal faults” weren’t strike slip faults.

[@shawnwillsey]

Because you can see the up/down motion on the cliff face.

[@375santa]

This time, it is not easy to understand!

[@loisrossi841]

Thanks!