Lava Flows Inundated the Western Grand Canyon
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- Опубликовано: 15 окт 2024
- Numerous eruptions of lava over the past few thousand years spilled into the Grand Canyon and into the Colorado River, creating lava dams and disrupting the river's flow. Join geology professor Shawn Willsey as he investigates the evidence of these spectacular events just below the notorious Lava Falls rapid.
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Shawn Willsey
College of Southern Idaho
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Twin Falls, ID 83303
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“What a conflict of water and fire there must have been here! Just imagine a river of molten rock running into a river of melted snow. What a seething and boiling of the waters; what clouds of steam rolled into the heavens!”
This is from John Wesley Powell’s book on his 1869 trip through the canyon and it’s always what comes to my mind when I hear “Lava Falls”.
Thanks for the close up and geology. 👍🏼👍🏼
(imagine running it in a 19th century wooden dory!)😮
YES! I love this quote from Powell.
58+ here and never heard about lava flows at Grand Canyon before. I found this fascinating and very educational. I am glad the algorithm brought me here.
Very well presented, thank you.
Glad you liked it. Please consider subscribing and check out some of my other videos. Always adding new ones too.
I, literally, almost bought the farm on the Lava Falls Trail from north side down to the river and back. We got snowed out of our yearly Rim-to-Rim hike in mid-May in 2005 because of massive snowfall on the Kaibab. So we changed up and decided to do an easy hike down to the river and back instead at Lava Falls. Easy hike down but on the way back out I couldn't keep water down. That black basalt holds the heat on the south facing wall of the canyon. Brutal radiating heat. Crawled out long after dark. I've since heard of at least two young and healthy people dying in the heat coming up that trail. Someone had cached gallon milk jugs of water on the trail that may have saved me. That canyon scares me properly like it should now.
Great video, thanks for making it.
interestng. How long was youre hike up? What was the temp?
Yeah, it can be an inferno in there. Luckily we had thunderstorms and clouds on this day.
Eight plus hours for a normal three hour hike. I must have had a stomach ailment. Reflective temperatures off of the black rock was the killer. 140 degF plus. Grand Canyon is a ravishing beauty but will kill you without a second thought. @@chrisregpick
I've been all over Utah and the Southwest and am always awestruck at all the unique formations, wondering how they came to be. And without fail, Shawn posts a video explaining exactly where I was at and answers all my questions. Thank you for the answers! Keep them coming
Thanks for watching!
I like that you are not acting tough and say the ride was terrifying! Beautiful area, thank you for the video!
Very cool to get see the canyon up close and to see how it formed in different areas of it.
I once read about these lava events into the Grand Canyon, but this video gives it a whole new look and understanding to all of it. Thanks!
Great location, great stories, the sound really adds to the drama! Thx!!
Thanks for the adventure, Shawn.
Doc, it is so cool, how you can give the narrative and bring geology to life right before my eyes, incredible!!! Thanks so so much!!!🪨👋👍👍
My pleasure! Glad you enjoy it.
Great info, I floated the Grand Canyon from Lee's Ferry to Lake Mead. Thanks sharing your knowledge!
In 2012, my wife and I took a 9 day rafting trip from Lees Ferry to Lake Meade. It was Epic. Lava falls is the gnarliest rapid! Epic!
I recommend Grand Canyon Expeditions. You need to make reservations a year or more in advance.
Excellent Grand Canyon series!!! It seems so completely foreign yet seemingly guaranteed that anywhere in Eastern Ca, Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming, Western Utah, Colorado and Arizona The Earth could just open up with fissures and flood basalts at any time.
Fascinating video, thank you very much.
Wow! Fantastic. Thanks so much for video.
One of my favorite things about visiting Toroweap was the view from above of the frozen river of lava spilling over into the Grand Canyon. Lava Pinnacle withstanding the Colorado's flows shows how young the lava flow is.
That "chert" in the breccia looks like zeolites commonly found in other basaltic flows (e.g. CRB'ss/Siletz River Volcanics etc). Hard to say what it is-- could be heavily-weathered Thomsonite or Natrolite or Stilbite.
Could be.
Loved your class at CSI and seeing the interesting level just rejuvenated to go out and see the earth again!
Aw gee. Thanks for the kind words and glad you enjoyed your time at CSI.
Of all the volcanoes I'd like to see erupt, the Uinkaret volcanic field is probably at the top of the list. They're beautiful enough when cooled, but just imagine what those flows would have looked like when active! Its pretty crazy that there's even volcanoes there at all, volcanism on a sedimentary plateau just feels so wrong.
Fine video of Lava Falls area..They used to run Dory boats down the Colorado before the dams.
Some companies still run dories here.
Awesome. Incredible views.
The NPS website discussion of these lava flows in the Toroweap and Whitmore Canyon areas of GC give an age range of between 87,000 and 850,000 years ago. Not the last few thousand years.
Thanks for the correction.
Very interesting. Thank you.
Brecciated basalt tells a story. Thanks Shawn.
Can you tell how tall the lava dams were? They must have been impressive water falls before the Colorado river wore them down.
I've read...I don't have a reference...that the dammed water reached upriver as far as present-day Moab.
This particular one was over 2,000 ft tall. However, that does not mean that it impounded the river up to this level. Here's a great reference: www.nps.gov/para/learn/nature/parashant-s-volcanic-fields-and-lava-dams-in-the-grand-canyon.htm#:~:text=The%20highest%20lava%20dam%20of,dam%20over%202%2C300%20feet%20high.
Thanks Shawn, Really interesting stuff.
Love these videos
It’s a cool view from the top. Toroweap I think.
Thank you!
Shawn, I asked a question in the "notifications" section of your Wasatch Mtns video.
An incredible sight it must have been.
Thanks Shawn, another fantastic educational video. 331 like ............. Found this info: The Uinkaret field comprises dozens of small cinder cones that erupted in the Pleistocene and the Holocene. Perched high atop the North Rim of Grand Canyon, lavas flows cascaded into the Colorado River, damming the river at least a 12 times between 725,000 to 100,000 years ago.
None of the vents are active, but the volcanic field is certainly capable of future activity.
You're saying how high the river has come up in the past, but surely the point is that it used to be right at the very top of the canyon, and has eroded its way down to the current level over time.
I remember a documentary I watched as a kid in the late '60s, about a rafting expedition to navigate the length of the river. I think it was probably filmed before Glen Canyon Dam was completed. It had some of the most extreme rapids in the world, most have since been tamed by the dams along the length. I just watched your video on Redwall Cavern. There was a proposed pair of dams, which would have flooded Redwall Cavern. Had it not been for LBJ creating Marble Canyon National Monument, you'd have needed scuba gear to do that video.
Excellent!
Stunning!!!
At around 5:50, could that be pillow basalt that picked up some of the surrounding rocks? Seems to me that if the lava reached the river, it would have formed pillow lava. Just a thought.
I didn't know there was recent volcanic activity at the Grand Canyon. It must have been quite an experience for the people living in the area at that time.
It would seem with the reoccuring layers of basalt they could be dated and possible a new layer may be forecasted out to some point in the future? There may not be any volcanic activity now or any inkling of any but, the writings on the wall so to speak is there. I just dont think what we see is all there ever will be and will never change. I see so much potential for many more episodes of volcanism all over the western half of the continent.
Thanks!
Much appreciated. Thanks for your kindness.
The dark rock on the eastern canyon face. Is that caused by contact with the hot lava?
That is basalt (lava) that flowed across canyon as it partially filled it.
I've heard there is evidence of 11 different lava flows that dammed the river in the Grand Canyon. Also, what brand is that shirt?
At least 150 lava flows poured into the canyon. Here's a great reference: www.nps.gov/para/learn/nature/parashant-s-volcanic-fields-and-lava-dams-in-the-grand-canyon.htm#:~:text=The%20highest%20lava%20dam%20of,dam%20over%202%2C300%20feet%20high.
Shirt is Howler Bros.
With 1.8 billions of years to look at geologically speaking of course there will be volcanic activity and evidence seen from them. The most recent evidence is profuse. Great series on the Grand Canyon so far professor.
Shawn, is that the Redwall Limestone across the river from where you were standing?
No. It’s the Muav Limestone at river level. Redwall limestone above.
Thanks for the clarification!
@@shawnwillsey
very cool
Kindly show each Canyon day if you filmed it. Thanks
This is my last video from our GC trip. I might do a slideshow review or something.
Such magnificent scenery!
I didn’t realize that there had been volcanic activity in the Grand Canyon during the past few thousand years. Does that mean there could be more in the near future (meaning in a geologic time frame of the next few thousand years)?
Another eruption is possible.
Downcutting of the river channel also leaves higher boulder bars and terraces behind, high above current high water levels.
Not much downcutting though since some of these lavas filled canyon. And some outcrops are near canyon bottom.
An explanation for the end of Montezuma society. Together with the activities of the San Francisco range cones.
The Great Unconformity! It seems it's a great advantage for a geologist to be a climber!
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(Settles in with an extra-large tub of popcorn, waiting for the Creationists to try and talk their way out of this one...)
"...past few thousand years ..."? Hasn't anyone dated these rocks? From the erosion, my extremely amateur eye expects more than a "few".
Yes, many of the lava flows have been dated.
that country seems to me like it would be good rattlesnake territory?...
Probably. Didn’t see any on this trip though.
@@shawnwillsey
i'm surprised that isn't a concern to you?... if it were me i think i'd even carry venom...
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Wow another trip I didn’t expect! Thanks Shawn ! In a few short weeks you have increased my camping 🏕️ budget exponentially 🙌 my better half thanks you . Take that either way . 🫶👊
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Thanks!
Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for your support.