The Story Behind This Giant Rock in the Middle of a Field
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- Опубликовано: 15 окт 2023
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Devil’s Tower, also known as Mato Tipila or Bear’s lodge, was formed over 50 million years ago. Rising dramatically from the Wyoming plains, this spellbinding monolith is a pillar of Lakota Sioux mythology, and an enduring challenge to rock climbers worldwide. But through thousands of years of human fascination, one critical question remains unanswered: how did it get here?
Untold Earth explores the seeming impossibilities behind our planet’s strangest, most unique natural wonders. From fragile, untouched ecosystems to familiar but unexplained occurrences in our own backyard, this series chases insight into natural phenomena through the voices that know them best.
Untold Earth is produced in partnership with Atlas Obscura and Nature.
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I have a sudden urge to make a replica of that out of mashed potatoes
😝 A bit irreverent but funny nonetheless
I jusr made one with rocks, mud and branches with foliage inside my livingroom, but my wife got mad and left me
_I guess you've noticed something a little strange with Dad. It's okay, though._
do do doo do do
I used garbage and plants. My wife left me and took the kids.
I was there in late may 2009 with mom and dad. We walked around its base. The winter and spring had been very wet in Wyoming that year; the entire area around Devil's Tower and the Black Hills was splendidly green and teeming with life. Saw wild turkey, prairie dogs, deer. What a beautiful place.
Wow . Nice.
Ok
If you didn't see the badlands, it's worth going back.
I'm sold! I'd like go during spring!
I was there late July 2009...I just missed you!
This has a similar story to Uluru in Australia. Uluru is a sandstone formation. The origins of Uluru date back about 500 million years, to around the same time the Australian continent was formed. Large crustal blocks were merging together to create the island of Australia, a process similar to the way India is ramming into the Eurasian continent today. As a result, Himalayan-sized mountain ranges were being built. The rocky material that ultimately became Uluru was in one of the mountain ranges formed, the Petermann Ranges. The Petermann Ranges were similar in size to the French Alps or the Himalayas. But without any plant cover they eroded rapidly. The sand that became the arkose sandstone of Uluru was dumped at the bottom of the mountain range. Around 400 million years ago the sands of Uluru were so far down, and under so much pressure, they changed from sediment into rock. Deformation flipped the sediments on their side so the originally horizontal layers of sand and gravel, known as the 'bedding planes', are now vertical.
The local Aṉangu, the Pitjantjatjara people, call it Uluru, but this name wasn't acknowledged until 1992, as before then it was referred to as just Ayers Rock after Sir Henry Ayers. In 1985, the Australian government returned ownership of Uluru to the Pitjantjatjara people, with a condition that the Aṉangu would lease it back to the National Parks and Wildlife agency for 99 years and that it would be jointly managed. While you are encouraged to climb Bear Lodge, the Pitjantjatjara people very much do not like it when you climb Uluru because of its cultural/spiritual significance to them, and so the climb closed permanently in 2019. They believe that Uluru was formed by ancestral beings during the Dreaming. Still today, ceremonies are held in the sacred caves lining the base.
I was writing something similar and then discovered your comments, and so I deleted my inferior contribution.
Thanks for your eloquent history and geology lesson and for your thoughtfulness...
Perhaps one day our American friends will forbid climbing the Lakota sacred site as well? It is a small but significant gesture towards respect for traditional owners of the land IMHO.
I’d recognize that mountain anywhere! I used to make mashed potato mountains to look just like this! Ever since watching Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 1977 as a kid, I have always wondered where it was and what it’s actual name was. I am so excited to finally learn about it! You’ve made this old person’s heart very happy!!!
Yep! Me, too....at 85 and still want to go see and FEEL it in my Soul!
@@deedoyle4069 I seriously do too! We should a group of us together to go touch it! But, if there are tons of dead cows along the journey, and my bird dies along the trip, I might chicken out!!!
When I visited in 1997 the park ranger told us it was a sleepy barely visited park before Close Encounters. After the movie came out park attendance skyrocketed.
I was looking for someone to mention Close Encounters of the Third Kind. One of my favorite movies. Saw it as a kid when it came out and never realized this was a real thing. I just thought it was for the movie. As I got older I found out it was real and have wanted to go there ever since.
@@adamr4198 Your story just warms my heart! I’m glad the movie had an impact on the park in a positive way! I want to go visit really bad now!
There's all these fantastic grand origin stories, all these associated myths - it being a volcano, bears clawing into its side, the devil doing some devilry - and yet I find the non-mystical explanation the most humbling by far:
The earth, the very ground we walk on, used to cover Mato Tipila entirely. Until time wore all of it away. A staggering, unimaginable, truly awesome amount of time.
its because as humans we need to be the center of the story, the earth nature itself cant be grander, humans are pathetic
I agree. The reality is so much more compelling than those mythical stories. Just the fact that humans have devised a methodology for which we can come to actually understand how such things came to exist is amazing.
Do the Lakota really believe their explanation?
We don't see giant bears attempting to climb rock towers and making claw marks in rock today, or people turning into (celestial) stars. Why is it that the Great Spirit can raise a tower of rock but he(?) can't control bears?
Their myths are heap big buffalo shit.
WOW !!!
Science mumbo jumbo theories and bullshht explanations, 500 million years lol what a freaking joke, it's a religion of lies
False or not, I always liked the theory that it's a massive ancient tree stump
Edit: I never got a top comment before, so I was wondering why this still kept getting so much attention lol. It was funny for a while with everyone arguing over a rock, but I might delete it later because it's getting old seeing this in my notifications every two seconds.
It is!
"the magma spewed out and over millennia the dome eroded"... bullsh!t.
It's ALWAYS been a f'n tree.
That's exactly what it is
Tree.
I think dude said no lava anywhere but then lava came up. ??
I feel that story ever since I heard it..
I was there in August of 2021. The video is correct about how video and pictures do not do it justice. The climbers I witnessed during the climb were so small in relation to the tower; it was difficult to even pick them out. I'm very happy that I got to take my father there. It was a bucket list item for him.
It is really a giants Achilles tendon.
@@finleyscotland maybe you are a troll's butthole, if we're just going to make things up.
FWIW: I have visited the Grand Canyon just once, back in 1988.
It is IMO much the same as seeing _Devil's Tower_ in person.
The two most significant things I noticed while at GC:
(1) It is *BIG.* You can see that in photographs and videos, but in person it is *REALLY, REALLY BIG.*
(2) The _sedimentary layering._ It is obvious in photographs and video, just like the size of the place. But it REALLY catches your attention when you see it in person.
I'm pretty sure other people will have said this in the thread: namely, that I first saw this otherworldly geological feature in a movie. Seeing the Mother Ship looming over Devil's Tower at the climax of Close Encounters of the Third Kind was one image that put the sense of wonder back into my life and kept me from going off the rails.
I very much empathize with the idea of going to Devils Tower as coming home. My ancestors came to this area pretty recently (between 100 and 150 years) but I grew up in the area. When I moved to Texas I went out into Spearfish Canyon to say goodbye to my Hills and when I moved back, I could feel my soul getting better the closer I got to the Hills.
I don't know the area, but i do know that feeling.
i had a similar feeling growing up in lush green forest plains in the middle of the country, then feeling drained the entire decade i lived in a desert valley. the trip back to green revived my soul and i hope i never leave again.
I also have this feeling when I return to my state of birth to visit my parents. I think it's the old memories returning. I bet if I didn't have a good childhood I wouldn't be feeling good about returning, maybe it's the same for you
I knew that Bear Lodge was volcanic in origin, but not the full story. So I'm glad I have more understanding now. Even more I'm happy to learn the real name of the mesa and the Lakota story of it's existence. Thank you PBS.
Giant tree trunk.
Yeah seems I heard that it was referred to a giant petrified tree trunk; possible evidence when things on earth were huge. Is this a myth as well? Or maybe evidence can be found for a root system? Just love watching about geology and learning that maybe not all is as it seems 😊
Pre flood earth. Nephilim giants and dinosaurs.
@@hoppes9658 NOT a giant tree trunk, but it is fun to think that.
@@hoppes9658#NakaCave
In my mind, "Devil's Tower" was given this name by those early pioneers who hadn't a clue to it's formation. A name inspired by frustration and bewilderment.
I always liked the story about the guy that parachuted and landed on the summit. He lost his repelling gear to get down and was stuck there until he could be rescued.
I often think of Mato Tipila and Uluru as being like twins, with shared stories, not only in their native histories, but also in their struggle through colonialism and now over the past few decades, the great strides the park services have made in mending those relationships, it gives me hope.
Uluru struggled? I thought it was a rock. It doesn't feel
@@josephwinder6878 Come on, read between the lines here. They're obviously talking about the cultural impact of the site, not the physical material. Don't be an Ignatius Riley, man.
N o shit d@#khead.get over yourself.
@@josephwinder6878 If and when, you understand what native people think about these places, for them those places are sacred, and still so called sivilized westerned white people are climing on them leaving all trash behind, what an idiot, learn something from people who lived there long before your birth, centuries before.
Devil's Tower, and Ayers Rock are really cool places. I'm glad colonizers came up with the tech to allow me to fly to both on vacation. And have millions see them in the palm of their hands. Pretty awesome. Better than just a couple hundred primitive inhabitants being the only ones enjoying them.
I've been to Bear Lodge many times. It is indescribable the power you feel from it. I am not Lakota, I am Cheyenne, but the power of Bear lodge is undeniable. If you go to visit it, be quiet and be still, open your mind and feel the healing. The Lakota are right, God resides in this place. This is why so many of his creature live in on and around it.
You honestly make me want to visit it... which is not likely, given that I'm disabled and poor. But, after this life, I plan to visit all the wonders of the natural world, especially those with tribal significance.
@@RD9_Designs When in the fullness of time, you reach the other side, you will be young, healthy, and free to move about as you see fit. As my culture teaches death is nothing to fear, it is simply a journey all of us must take eventually, it is not the end just another beginning. Our ancestors reside in such places, in the high and wild places, in the out of the way places like Chaco canyon, and the myriad cliff dwellings of the S,W,
I feel power standing beside skyscrapers also.
I'm not sure that feeling has anything to do with "energy".
I flew almost directly over this a couple years ago. No mention at all but fortunately I was busily photographing the topology due to a perfect sun angle. It was unmistakeable.
Have been there several times and was fortunate enough to camp at the base of the tower in 2022 at the Belle Fourche River Campground. The site had the best view and it was amazing to awaken each day to the site of the Tower.
Gotta love how the American continent actually has a lot of fascinating mythology
Edit: And I wonder how many of it has been lost
It doesn't really matter. Humans make that stuff up all the time. It's all pretty similar. Someone else will make something up at some point. I prefer the facts.
A lot has been lost, but you still have the nutty Mormon mythology.
You'd probably enjoy the channel Ancient Americas. Very good info!
@@infinitemonkey917 Rofl
All the giant bones were dumped in the ocean thanks to the Vatican via Smithsonian lackeys.
I personally do not worship the Earth. However, I do feel we should be a good steward of the garden we’ve been placed in.
Well, I don't think you'll have much trouble not damaging that enormous piece of rock. 😉
I was here on a road trip in 2021. I was coming back home from Yellowstone and had planned on going through Sturgis and Wall. But I saw a sign that caught my eye. I knew of Bears Lodge, when I saw "Devils Tower" I paid it no mind. The next sign had a picture on it.
"Oooh! THAT THING! Lets go!" I took the exit and headed that way. Just driving through the gently rolling hills of Wyoming is a beauty in itself. But come around a bend and whoah! It's suddenly visible a few miles off in the distance. Amazing. Upong getting to the parking area there was barely anywhere to park. The place was bustling with people. But not in an annoying way. You could feel the energy and wonder in the air. Some lady tapped my arm and said Lookie here! She had put her quarters in one of those binoculars and had me look. (Complete stranger, mind you) You gotta see this. She was so excited. I looked and I saw a man in a pink shirt, climbing in a groove. I looked aside and tried to see him without the scope. a faintly visible speck of pink, about 2/3 the way up the rock.. Back to the scope and he's resting on one of the columns of rock. That was when the size of the thing set in. Even being there its difficult to gauge the scale of it. But with that reference. It was clear. I looked at the lady and we both just giggled. I thanked her and she went on her way. Again just some total stranger caught up in the joy of it, sharing that joy with the first person she saw. Me.
It was a moving experience. I walked around the entire base of it. I got a sticker for my van. I took photos and memories. I left only footprints.
I really appreciate how much of this was focused on the Lakota. Very cool pbs.
I wouldn't trust anything PBS tells us.
Much respect to the Lakota peoples.
@@irishguyjg_2ndchancerecovery lol why are you watching this video if you hate PBS so much?
I wish we would let the monument revert to its native name and that Americans could be proud of it for its own sake, much like Australians went back to Uluru from Ayer's Rock...
I don't care in the slightest how the Indians thought that rock got there. If it's not the scientific explanation, don't put it on a science channel.
@ColCurtis The science took two minutes, it's the religion that gives them something to talk about.
This is a place etched in my mind from 1959 as a five year old. I felt the import and history of this tower but was also fascinated by it and yes the prairie dogs were a highlight to five year old me besides the hike around the base. Two of my children have also visited at my suggestion, they too were moved by it even as young adults and were glad that they followed my advice.
Me too I'm 62 for 3 more weeks but I'm going to see it finally GOD willing
I built it. Leave it alone.
This is true, I was there
This is true, I was also there.
This is true! I too, was there
This is true, I was there as well.
Nothing on the top but a bucket and a mop and an illustrated book about birds
It’s not a rock!!! It’s an ancient tree trunk that petrified
Stories are cool, and cultural, and fun to share.
But the true nature of the magma formation is the most beautiful story of all, and it encompasses millions of years, and the unstoppable force of erosion, and deposition elsewhere. That is more than adequate to create wonder and awe in my mind, and to leave a lasting impression.
It’s an awesome sight,everywhere around is flat and then there’s this huge tower rising up! When I saw it I was spooked at first then I felt an overwhelming sense of wonder and so many other feelings!
I took my dog on bucket list trip down Route 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica then north to San Francisco and the to Redwoods in northern Cali. Then the entire Oregon Coast. Really wanted to Mount Tacoma or Rainier but it was covered in clouds and only chained vehicles could go to base. So I changed course. I went east and ended up in Broadus MT. A wonderful place now 3 times. I always wanted to see Bear Lodge/Devils tower since I was a youngster seeing Close Encounters. Driving through the plains did not prepare me for the Tower. When I finally saw it I was thrilled. I knew I was home some how. My dog who was sick was now energetic. However it was closed due to Pandemic in 21. Still truly magical. It has energy I cannot nor will I try to explain.
Imagine this as a huge burst of magma making its way to the surface. Incredible.
I Was there two years ago and it was one of the most amazing places I’ve been
I've long felt that places of natural beauty were my churches. They provide an unexplainable calm, and a feeling of reverence.
I remember my first, and only, visit to this lovely monument. We went as a family after seeing Close Encounters of the Third Kind. All of us were thrilled to be there. The added bonus was seeing the prairie dog colony going about their daily business very near this sacred site.
We decided to go up to see Mount Rushmore, and were rather disappointed. Looked at the map to see if there was anything else nearby and saw Devil's Tower on the map. Definitely worth the trip.
You could never set foot off of this continent, and would still never run out of awesome places to see. North America is so beautiful.
"Foreign language" sais the sub about a person that speaks their native language in their native land filmed by a crew also being at home in the same land. I get why but it's a bit of a paradox
Yeah, I was going to comment just that. Quite a blunder
That’s the USA. According to Americans. Natives don’t own the land since “Americans” won the war.
I guess Indian reservations are kind of like separate countries?
I noticed that too!!
Hello. Thanks so much for calling that out, and we apologize for having missed that. It's been fixed.
I've free climbed about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way up it in 1980. There is something spiritual there. Among my favorite natural features in Wyoming although I favor the Wind River country and it's mountains to the flatlands.
Visited there in 2008. I had photos my Dad and a cousin and uncle took in 1949 and later in 1951. A interesting place for sure as the surrounding area is mixed forest and ranch lands and basically open country w/o any towns and so on. It just is THERE out of the open landscape.
While taking a hike around the base I encountered a couple and we were talking and I mentioned the similarity to Morro Bay on the CA coast where this is a similar ancient volcanic structure that I visited in 1997.
That woman needs to be protected at all cost! She is a national treasure!
you mean the white women??
@@IfYouKnowYouKnow Is she white? Either way she has a lot of sacred knowledge. Matakuye O Yasin
Morro Rock in Morro bay, California is a volcano core that looks similar, but it looks more like It was too heavy to create a towering column like that and fell over due to it own mass.
It only reaches around 300' and folds over like a Roly poly.
It was eroded away by the sea.
I was there in 1975, I was 10 years old. It's still one of my most memorable moments.
I'm so grateful for these videos and how they often center native and indigenous voices, histories and practices. I think it's something really lacking in school curriculum and I'm glad I can learn more here. It's so great to hear that there are places where co-stewardship seems to be going well
Why did Christians name so many natural features after the devil and not after god, especially when they're just beautiful and not dangerous at all?
To cover up the fact that they actively participated in destruction of all the built structures here before them. It is "The Devil" because it is the one portion of the indigenous structures there that the invaders could not destroy.
My theory is that a lot of the truths are lost because no one believes in God anymore it seems. A lot of the structures were associated with the watchers and the giants of old. They were lost in translation and time. So alot of humans used the stories of devils. One could associate the stories with the beings being devils if u can understand this. It's very true. And also it matches the foot of a human in anatomy. Comparatively it's the same. Its a foot of a giant.
It’s because the local people revered it over Jesus. You see it all over the world, I live close to a town called devil’s bridge but before it was called that by Christians it was a worship site for the local communities because it was so scenic, now it’s got stories of devils in the ancient caves that the village priests used to commune inside of. Anything that goes against their narrow view of beauty and belief will be called “devil’s” something by the colonisers and something else by the actual locals.
Probably has something to do with the volcanic and or tectonic aspect associated with lots of structures like this. You know the whole being forced up from down below and possible fire and brimstone thing. Just a personal opinion.
@@shurngirdleh3936Often true for sure
Honestly all the times I've been there I never once thought of it as odd or out of place. It always seemed perfectly natural and native to the area to me. I never questioned it. 🎉🎉🎉🎉
That's because it's a tree.
@@derp8575 I wish you good luck with your emotional problems Mr derp.
This is one those places I really hope im able to visit before my time is up
I was there last Fall. We were approaching during a thunderstorm and just as we came down to the base the whole sky lit up and showed the tower. It was so cool!
It's there in case an alien spaceship wants to make music for us
Boop, beep, boop, boop, beeeeep
0:50 Surely the eternal question is: Where did the rest of it go? It's cousin 'The Giant's Causeway' in Ireland is easier to walk upon. Ireland is full of pixies and leprechauns and has similar tales as those of The Lakota.
Fingal's Cave in the Hebrides has a similar kind of rock formations as the Giant's Causeway, very unusual. Almost looks like they were chiseled by supersized human beings, probably the origin of both their names. I'd love to see all three of these places someday.
I've been to a similar place here in Argentina, a standing rock monolith 240 meters tall so it's almost as tall as that one.
It's called Piedra Parada.
I visited here with my mother in 2008. Such a beautiful place.
I hope National Park Service drops the Devil's Tower name and reverts back to Bear Lodge as the English translation of its Lakota name. 🙏
As part Cherokee I understand that. It will be hard to do due to the famous close in counter movie. Made that place famous.
Yeah, I think everyone should pander to everything until nothing makes sense anymore. 🤷🤷🤷 😉
One theory states that such columns are formed by enormous lava flows above the surface OR below the surface but thAT THE COUUMNS ARE JUST 1/2 OF THE DEPTH OF THE LAVA and the top half was light weight and loosely bound so it easily eroded away leaving the columns. There are walls of this kind of lava formations all over the world but relatively few locations. There are a few examples in Washington and Oregon states
LOL! It's a tree stump. Some people will believe anything if the academic institutions says it first. Way too symmetrical to be lava formation.
@@derp8575
How's that lobotomy working out for ya?
See you can at least still read.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devils_Tower
@@derp8575
Except it isn't anything like a petrified tree. It doesn't have tree rings. It doesn't have roots.
Calling it a tree until you are blue in the face doesn't make it a tree.
What is symmetrical about it.
It certainly isn't perfectly concentric around a central point. And I guarantee those hexagons aren't all the same size.
You are just pulling fake evidence out of your behind.
@@jamisojo When did you dig under Devil's Tower for evidence? There's actually two alternative theories: 1) ancient tree stump and 2) Foot of ancient giant human. Some people actually took samples of large human-looking rock formations and sent them to labs. Human DNA was discovered. "Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory." -da Vinci
Such beautiful country there. It blew me away.
I've been there! It's absolutely incredible. I can totally understand why it's a spiritual place for so many cultures.
We have exactly the same geological formations in Poland in our Sudety mountain chain, especially Kaczawskie Mountains range and their foothills. They call it the land of the inactive volcanoes.
Tree stumps
@@stephenvalastro5678 Yeah, no.
@@dr.emilschaffhausen4683 yeah no one asked you
@@stephenvalastro5678Maybe you're a stump.
@@stephenvalastro5678 you're tree stump. 😁😄😉
That's a beautiful spot.
This was a really cool look into a culture i know absolutely nothing about. Thank you.
It reminds me of the Dolomite cliffs on the southern coast of New Zealand. Same columnar structure.
Very informative - I'm old and still love learning new things.
SAME.
The unanswered question, "How did it get there," is answered at 1:35
thanks for the TLDR
So where did all the dirt go?
@@jessicakramer4643 washed away as they said over eons
@@gawkthimm6030 perhaps it was because of the great flood?
@@jessicakramer4643 or just tens-of-thousands of years of rain
I've wondered about this since Close Encounters of the Third Kind..
Thank you for creating snd sharing.
Very interesting. What a landmark.
Is it possible to just climb or walk up without equipment the way the man in 'Close Encounters' did?
No.
To save time, this is more about Native lore than anything to do with how the rock formed. They briefly touch on it in the beginning.
"well it can't be a volcano, so it must be a volcano."
Excellent reasoning skills. Give that guy a golden smiley sticker!
The science is interesting.
That simple melody comes to my mind.
I visited it about 2 years ago. I'm a pretty brave person but no way no how would I attempt climbing it. It really is this massive thing when you walk up to it. I did walk mostly around it, some of it was blocked off.
Back in the late 1970s I had a Close Encounter at Devil's Tower
a close encounter with what? a bear?
@@elio7610 third kind.
@@johnmoton4808 what is the "third kind"?
@@elio7610 Its a movie in 1979 called ....Close Encounter of the Third Kind.
It kinda reminds me of a small fossil or maybe rock that I have. It also has a circular top and lines going down it. It kinda sparkles under certain light. It’s like a grayish brown. I love rocks so much right now lol. There’s so many different fun shapes including pebbles and boulders. And cool textures and bumps and grooves that are rough and bumpy and smooth. And spots and lines. And so many wonderful colors like black, brown, gray, tan, white, red, orange, yellow and I think geodes and crystals can be blue and purple and pink and green Ect. I think geologists are the rock scientists. I wonder what it would be like to be one. I’m guessing it requires a lot of school though. Pottery and glass making and woodworking and rock climbing sounds fun too. Oh shells are cool as well I have a few of those. And I have two boxes of rocks that I’ve collected over the years. I’ve painted a few before when I was younger but they’re awesome just the way they are. Some of my rocks are definitely fossils and I have some fools gold as well plus I have some pieces of the road. I used to collect dead bugs I found on the sidewalk and I still collect feathers that I find on the grass. And I made some confetti out of leaves I just used a hole puncher. I once took a dna test before I figured out that I have Lyme disease. Some of my ancestors are Cherokee some are Irish maybe a few other groups and mostly European. So that’s cool. I don’t know a lot about them but they sound interesting. I wonder if I should style my hair more often. I’m kinda Christian since my grandparents are (half of them are dead though which makes me sad so I try not to think about. And the other half are divorced and live far away.) but I think nature religions sound cool. I think the Bible says that God created the Earth so we should probably take good care of it so our grandchildren aren’t surrounded by pollution. Plus nature just has good vibes besides the scary storms and stuff lol. Beaches and forests and everything else too is just breathtakingly beautiful. More words Ect. Anyway I got off track I’ve never been there Wyoming’s landmark Bear Lodge/Devils Tower it looks really cool though.
ruclips.net/video/-itkONZfgNk/видео.htmlsi=Vv7kkk-tnbYODHPj
This thing is so interestingly weird.. everything around looks normal like plains and fields and then out of nowhere this thing comes up..
If you look on Wikipedia for a page called "List of places with columnar jointed volcanics" you will find that the Devil's Tower is one of hundreds of similar formations around the world.
This site was a location in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind ?!
Hard to not think of ETs and the five-tone musical hello whenever I see a picture of this. That, and a guy going mad making a dirt sculpture of it in his living room.
And?
There are similar geologic features elsewhere just most are not nearly as impressive due to lacking the stark contrast with the flat low-lying Terrain. What is particularly unique compared to similar structures of hexagonal pillars formed by the cooling of shallow bodies of silicate magma or lava is that the magma here is composed of a chemically evolved intermediate siliceous alkaline rich magma known as phonolite due to its particular sonic properties in response to a bang. This chemical composition for context is the kind of magma erupted by Mt. Erebus and Mt Vesuvius to name a few prominent examples and thus tends to build tall towering stratovolcanoes that are built primarily of ash tephra and other pyroclastic deposits all of which generally share the characteristic of easily eroding away.
Adding that information to the context of the question of how it formed per say means the rates or erosion make it hard if not impossible to distinguish the Laccolith scenario from other scenarios like the subsurface plumbing of a volcano with an open or shallow magmatic conduit. Basically it could have erupted some material in principal but we will never know for sure as there has been so much erosion of overlying rocks.
As for the larger Geophysical context there is currently an ongoing geologic revolution in our understanding of events in the western US which you can learn more about over on Nick Zentner's site and or RUclips channel.
To Summarize complex events is that contrary to the old simple subduction story it appears that during the Jurassic Cretaceous and Paleocene North America was in the process of colliding with a number of well developed volcanic archipelagos that had been forming out in the vast Panthalassan ocean in the waning days of Pangaea. This is the newer current model for how the Laramide mountains formed with their being a change from straight compression to compression and translation during the Cretaceous building up a vast Himalayan style mountain range between the volcanic subduction arcs and North America.
However in this picture things changed around 50 million years ago as North America began to subduct the East Pacific Rise this cause what had once been compression to suddenly reverse into extension leading to numerous bodies of magma that underlay continental mountain ranges like the Himalayas formed by the overlying potential energy of rock weighing down on deep rocks getting above the latent heat of the rocks causing them to necessarily melt into vast batholiths that normally are buried at fairly extreme depths of tens of kilometers making eruptions rare if non existent.
However with the added extension onto the young compressional range you got the combination of horst and graben terrain leading to metamorphic core complexes and deep partly molten batholiths getting raised from many tens of kilometers towards the surface.
This created both the conditions for volcanism and subsequent uplift responsible for the large scale erosion of weaker sedimentary rock layers. Based on Seismic Tomography the zone of Thermal upwelling of the East Pacific Rise remains in the solid mantle below North America where it makes the boundary of the greater Basin and Range province from where the Juan de Fuca ridge dives under Northern California before moving inland cutting through eastern Oregon and into Idaho where it is overlain by the Snake River Plain and Yellowstone hotspot, often referred to as a "super volcano" and it is distinct from the rest of the ridge like discontinuity as the Yellowstone hotspot plume seems like was/is analogous to Iceland in that the plume is superimposed onto the larger mid Ocean Ridge structure, then this boundary darts south separating Colorado plateau from the rest of the North American Craton as distinguished in the south by the Rio Grande rift valley before it darts back west and emerges in the Gulf of California.
In this context is its very well still an active geologic scenario which has seen renewed uplift of much of western North America.
Well, I'm a geologist and that's a little more complex than the version I was taught in the 80s. So Nick Zentner can catch me up to date? Seems we may have found all those economic mineral deposits and oil and gas fields by dumb luck LOL.
@@meanders9221 Yeah it's a lot more complicated than the old flat slab Farallon subduction model for sure.
From the livestream series one thing that stood out is that a lot of this new work was in large part driven by the renewed efforts to identify valuable economic deposits out west by the American and Canadian geological services. Well that and the development of Seismic tomography which has allowed us to identify slow and fast sheer velocity discontinuities in the mantle.
The fast velocity anomalies are pretty easy to identify when they can be traced back to and connected to active subduction zones. Slow velocity anomalies are a bit more complicated but significant ones that connect to the surface largely correspond with known geological hotspots and mid ocean ridges but hotspots in particular are a lot more complicated than conventional mantle plume theory has suggested. Overall the heterogeneity of the mantle is an active area of study which reveals that the processes between the crust mantle and liquid outer core are coupled in ways we didn't expect. For example the subducted slabs generally sink all the way down with minor pauses thought based on corresponding surface volcanics to be due to remineralization and the expulsion of incompatible elements and volatiles into the overlying mantle that can fuel compositionally buoyant upwelling plumes, as opposed to the "traditional" thermally buoyant plumes though it looks like its often a combination of both because of course it is.
Having gone on a deep dive binge of the subject there are lots of unresolved mysteries for example underneath south America there is what appears to be a weird orphan slab which doesn't connect to anything above or below as the slab subducting to the west is already clearly accounted for in the mantle.
And recently I came across this igneous petrology paper (www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666277920300046#sec0021) which resolved some things related to Siletzia and the Yellowstone hotspot (showing that they do indeed come from the same plume source with a gradual continuum change as the plume approached and crossed into North America) while raising a big mystery by verifying earlier reports that the Columbia River Basalt Group can't be linked simply to the Yellowstone hotspot as its chemical signature is too weird/different to be accounted for by diffusion of crustal material into magma or crystal fractionalization. No idea what to make of this really but it is fascinating.
The paradigm shift that is occurring now is even being compared to the paradigm shift in the 1960's with the discovery of the mid ocean ridges allowing a working model of plate tectonics and fields that are in the midst of a paradigm shift are the most fascinating to follow.
Though without the "free time" brought courtesy of the Covid lockdown and being unemployed it might be difficult to have the time to follow up on all the discussion and developments.
As for if deposits were found by luck probably quite a few of them though in many ways the oil deposits might in some sense have been a clue that the old model was wrong or incomplete. Based on the seismic tomography preserving a record of past trench configurations back into the Mesozoic its kind of hard to fault some of the old model as who was to expect both eastward and westward subduction at varying latitudes and times with at least one point where there was likely double subduction where a now orphaned and no longer growing slab is getting subducted from both the east and the west. And then there is the vertical migration and orphan crustal blocks which seem to be bits of crust probably welded onto North America by past collisions that got left behind when the plates separated again.
Its also surprisingly hard to find suture zones even where we know where should be some though at least part of that is probably due to California being a Cretaceous transplant onto North America. Personally I suspect the whole Walker lane seismic zone and the various grabens and volcanoes where the crust is being pulled apart is probably one of those suture zones since trilobites and other geologically old stuff appear as far as I can tell to only be reported/found east of the Sierra Nevadas.
The ring of fire or rather its more ancient precursor seems to have a far more complicated history than had been anticipated with zones of preferential subduction in the absence of continents bringing about large scale disturbances. The Americas and Australia it seems are all at different stages of wrecking apart these structures.
We see that columnar fracturing all over the lava formations in the Palouse River region in Washington State. Devil's Tower is clearly a magma column. The only thing you have substantially wrong is the time scale, of course.
Unanswered? NOT.
"The simplest explanation is that Devils Tower is a stock-a small intrusive body formed by magma which cooled underground and was later exposed by erosion. In 1907, scientists Darton and O'Hara decided that Devils Tower must be an eroded remnant of a laccolith."
The simplest explanation: Tree stump!
@@derp8575that answer isn't simple because it is silly.
It makes as much sense as me calling you a cow pie.
@@derp8575 that answer isn't simple because it is ridiculous.
If I looked at the sky and told you it was green you would think I was ridiculous also.
It's a granitic plug of an ancient volcano. The rest of it, soft material, long eroded away. But the giant bear story was way cool. Never heard it before. Much respect for native beliefs. If they say it's a sacred place everyone should respect it; just like Uluru in Austrailia. Because, you know, they may know something we don't.
Your video is truly remarkable! - "In the grand story of life, success follows dedicated effort..."
The view on top of this huge rock most be breath taken!
It truly saddens me that there is a significant fraction of humanity that believes that this is a giant tree stump.
It does look like one without any context of what it is.
I'm also dismayed to learn that there are people who believe (or at least act like they believe out of loyalty to cultural traditions) that this was made by giant bears.
@@cavalrycome Do you believe in God or any part of the bible stories? They are all mythology.
That number is growing because it is a tree stump. There are tree stumps all overt he world and this is a small one.
@@oscarmedina1303I don't believe in God or any of the supernatural claims of the bible, though I agree with a lot of the moral principles articulated in it, especially those of the 'Sermon on the Mount' variety.
"Sniffing Cedar and Sage smoke"... well now I know how these stories were created! 😂
I’ve been there often. It’s amazing.
Such a beautiful and magical place.
So it's the same thing as Shiprock NM and the many other remnant mama chambers. It's beautiful and needs to be protected, but it's not unique to g the US or other areas on the planet
Yes, exactly.
Correct. Columnar basalt is found throughout the world. Pinnacles in California, the Giants Causeway, and the Pacific Northwest has multiple locations where you see columnar basalt.
Mudfossil university has a fascinating theory
And it causes most people to become enraged, just like flat earth. Well, not exactly, but they do immediately appeal to authority and claim it's lava formation.
People who think a mud flood was a thing have fascinatingly strange ideas about reality.
Much like flat Earth people.
I always thought it looked like a giant petrified tree trunk, but the rock formation sounds more plausible.
No, your eyes are not lying. It's a tree. Institutionalized conformity pressures us into appealing to authority. Downward flowing magma wouldn't solidify at such sharp angles, nor create such symmetry.
@@derp8575
Listen to the video again, you buffoon.
@@derp8575 why would the magna be flowing downward? I don't want to call anybody claiming that.
Why don't you focus on proving how this thing that is much too big to be a tree trunk is a fossilized tree trunk?
You just point out ridiculous reasons why it can't be igneous rock. Your reasons don't make sense.
I was 3 years old when that movie came out but didn’t see it untilI I was 5 years old I love that movie, close encounters of the 3rd kind was my favorite 80’s movie even more than Back to the Future 1 2 and 3😂
It was a tree...
One time I found a piece of land that wasn’t sacred to Indians and didn’t have a mythical backstory. It’s like 12 square feet in SE Wyoming. I’d like to keep it a secret though.
Lol
...and if you study more of the Wyoming rocks, you'll find hundreds of feet of mud deposits from when WY was part of a MASSIVE sea that stretched from the top of Canada to the gulf of Mexico. That sea was there for hindreds of thousands, if not millions, of years. That on top of erosion from the many ice ages/snowball earths the planet has been through, it's a miracle that the tower is still there at all!
"So under us right now...should be the remains of giant bears." 🤣
I love going to these places and just taking in the energy (I'm not religious but nature is energy in itself) but at the same time, I want to respect those who were here first and have actual religious ties to the areas...
I don't. Just bc there were there when Europeans showed up doesn't mean they were there first. The Lakota tribe genocided countless neighboring tribes and stole their lands. Europeans came and did the same. Those who were "there first" are long gone.
@@davidabest7195 Your take is ignorant at best so I will not engage. Have the day you deserve ❤️
The giant bear claws leaving the striations makes sense. It would take a HUGE fork to shape this.
Beautiful video, amazing place.
I always thought of it as a remnant of ancient tree of life
It is a tree stump. We have been lied to about everything.
The biggest mystery is why the Lakota get to tell the Bear's Lodge origin story, when they only came to the western edge if the great plains in historical times,,, (after waging wars with every other tribe for supremacy of that area)
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.
1. I doubt it was the same name 4,000 years ago or 8,000 years ago.
2. I don't think there are rules about who gets to name things. Being angry about a completely different culture and language using a completely different name is pretty silly.
Also I’ve been to Devils tower several times. The Natives are allowed to litter and leave cloths tied all over and it looks so bad. The amount of garbage all around it where no one is allowed is astounding. We figure the Natives do it on purpose.
The difference between them and me is I wouldn’t leave trash in the Sistine Chapel.
We have a similar thing in Georgia called Sone Mountain (east of Atlanta), and it is a solid magma that never made it to the service. Over thousands/millions of years the earth was washed off of it. The state added gondola lift to take you to the top.
Seditious Civil War generals will for the next million years or so bestow meaning and purpose to that mountain.
I googled it and I believe the name is Stone mountain.
Looks like the top of an ancient oceanic volcano.❤
That is a tree not a rock.
It's Satan's buttplug.
You are a tree sir.
We can all have crazy opinions.
These same hexagonal lava pillars can be seen in Fingals cave in Scotland and in Northern Ireland there’s a large area of them called the Giants Causeway, both created by rapidly cooling magma.
It is one of many ancient enormous tree stumps from all around the world. Lava NEVER makes shapes like this, but plant life does! The volcano story is a cover up, "they" don't want you to realize that there is a whole untold history out there, when at one time people and plant life were way bigger than now.