How North America Almost Separated Into Two Pieces

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  • Опубликовано: 15 дек 2024

Комментарии • 1,6 тыс.

  • @TheRogueWolf
    @TheRogueWolf 4 года назад +1927

    Political pundits: "America has never been so divided."
    Geologists: "Well, we came close one time...."

    • @pradutch
      @pradutch 4 года назад +24

      America civil war too

    • @girlsdrinkfeck
      @girlsdrinkfeck 4 года назад +30

      hopefully california separates itself off the main usa and we can put all the BLM liberals snowflakes feminists all on there

    • @jerry3790
      @jerry3790 4 года назад +26

      girlsdrinkfeck You know there’s more to California than LA right?

    • @girlsdrinkfeck
      @girlsdrinkfeck 4 года назад +6

      @@jerry3790 yh but the rural cali people with migrate to the real America anyway

    • @karolinamikesova
      @karolinamikesova 4 года назад +35

      @@girlsdrinkfeck Ok, boomer.

  • @kayakat1869
    @kayakat1869 4 года назад +117

    That's why there are a bunch of beautiful tiny mountains in northern Minnesota. They are all little extinct volcanoes, and I think that's pretty neat.

    • @haroldwilkes6608
      @haroldwilkes6608 3 года назад +15

      There's a neat row of extinct (or dormant) volcanoes in southeast Idaho leading to the current Yellowstone caldera...interesting sight.

    • @toughtittypdiddy4634
      @toughtittypdiddy4634 Год назад +4

      ⁠@@haroldwilkes6608that’s because the magma chamber that is under Yellowstone today used to be in Idaho. Just about every super eruption in the hotspot’s history occurred in Idaho

    • @ScottSueker-v1r
      @ScottSueker-v1r Год назад +4

      Those MN mountains are actually quite older than 1 billion years old

    • @Dave5843-d9m
      @Dave5843-d9m Год назад +1

      We have extinct volcanoes in UK. One of the most least geological active areas in the world. Some of them still have hot springs. One has a new lithium brine well.
      Yellowstone is a mantle plume hotspot. The tectonic plate moves over it leaving a trail of dead volcanoes.
      Canary Islands are unusual because islands at each end of the chain are active while the big one in the middle is dormant and probably dead.

    • @mnguy139
      @mnguy139 Год назад +3

      And along the lakeshore, in Duluth, you can see the lava flows, with clear ripple/flow marks in what was pahoehoe lava.

  • @espjoshua
    @espjoshua 4 года назад +1251

    So THAT'S why I can't seem to lose weight! The density of the rocks under my bathroom scale must cause increased gravity at that point and the weight registers higher! What a relief...I thought it was just my bad diet and lack of exercise.

    • @patrickaycock3655
      @patrickaycock3655 4 года назад +53

      Nah man you forgot to add tobacco and alcohol to the poor diet and lack of exercise. Once you do that, the weight just melts off.

    • @cannamangoeatsheit2994
      @cannamangoeatsheit2994 4 года назад +24

      Cannabis regulates ur metabolism!

    • @cookiecola5852
      @cookiecola5852 4 года назад +8

      I usually just pull of fat, easiest way to go down in weight.

    • @shibolinemress8913
      @shibolinemress8913 4 года назад +4

      🤣🤣👍

    • @michealdean3750
      @michealdean3750 4 года назад +17

      Is that why my knees hurt more, and not because I'm getting older...

  • @philpaine3068
    @philpaine3068 3 года назад +192

    I spent my early childhood in Northern Ontario, with the Canadian Shield under my feet. The stone everywhere was as hard as the strongest steel. Even the simplest construction --- digging a basement, laying down a sidewalk, or laying pipes, required endless blasting. As a result, every kid had access to the dynamite caps that were tossed about in the explosions. So much dynamite was floating around that some clever kids even had dynamite sticks, as well as the caps. It was a favourite game to launch empty tomato cans into the air with these toys. Later on, I visited places like Arizona, where "rocks" turned out to be crumbly stuff with the consistency of cheese.

    • @R.M.MacFru
      @R.M.MacFru 3 года назад +41

      Ah yes, the difference between granite and sandstone.

    • @bryanbressem5026
      @bryanbressem5026 2 года назад +2

      We use to find it in well drillers rigs, right out in open, help yourself

    • @alsojuja
      @alsojuja 2 года назад +11

      In the U.S. we just play with guns.

    • @just_kos99
      @just_kos99 Год назад +7

      As a kid in NH in the early 60s/early 70s, I remember there was a PSA about blasting caps & finding them just laying about sometimes, warning kids that if you EVER see one of these -- DON'T TOUCH. After reading your comment, I can see why they had to say that. NH's granite is pretty tough, too.

    • @philpaine3068
      @philpaine3068 Год назад +5

      @@just_kos99 Yes it's very similar. The Canadian Shield is mostly Precambrian granite and gneiss, mountains once higher than the Himalayas that have worn down to stumps and then scraped over by the mile-thick Laurentide Ice Sheet.There's an outlier of the shield forming the Adirondacks in upstate New York. New Hampshire's rocks are a little bit younger (mostly Devonian), but they're also granite and gneiss, also post-glacial --- and much prettier in my opinion, such gorgeous marble! We can both claim to have lived with REAL rocks, not those dumb cheesy crumbly things that others are stuck with.

  • @jamesburgess2k
    @jamesburgess2k 4 года назад +1053

    Learning about tectonic plates can be a coin toss on being either extremely boring or interesting as hell

    • @wikansaktianto9215
      @wikansaktianto9215 4 года назад +31

      Except if you lived in the active tectonic plate like Pacific Ring of Fire.

    • @emilyplunkett6034
      @emilyplunkett6034 4 года назад +65

      Extremely boring, interesting as hell...or absolutely terrifying.

    • @dorian4646
      @dorian4646 4 года назад +13

      @@emilyplunkett6034 constant fear of tsunami and earthquake...

    • @lotsofspots
      @lotsofspots 4 года назад +4

      Extreme boring? ruclips.net/video/zz6v6OfoQvs/видео.html

    • @dianewallace6064
      @dianewallace6064 4 года назад +3

      @@lotsofspots Just watched it. 40K foot hole dug by man. Took 24 years. Pretty cool.

  • @TheLucidDreamer12
    @TheLucidDreamer12 4 года назад +232

    North America 1 billion years ago: *destroying itself*
    North America today: *destroying itself*

    • @csweezey18
      @csweezey18 3 года назад +10

      IT'S THE CIRCLE OF 'MURICA!

    • @ortherner
      @ortherner 3 года назад +11

      *Humans in North America destroying themselves lol.

    • @kmk8284
      @kmk8284 3 года назад +5

      Something never change

    • @Yha1000itz
      @Yha1000itz 3 года назад +7

      @@ortherner I'm sure Mexicans and Americans do it, but Canadians?

    • @Tht1Gy
      @Tht1Gy 3 года назад +6

      No. Not "North America today: destroying itself". Canada and Mexico are doing OK. Lol

  • @jessjitsu86
    @jessjitsu86 4 года назад +51

    Little known fact about the state of Minnesota, my home state... We are actually at risk for seismic activity near this Rift... But not because of the failed Rift itself, but because the ground here is still inflating after the compression it took during the Ice Age. The Upper Midwest is a very cool geological place :-)

    • @righthandstep5
      @righthandstep5 Год назад +2

      Clearly. Canada has but a tiny fraction of its own Midwest from alberta to manitoba so it's very much small in size.

    • @harrietharlow9929
      @harrietharlow9929 3 месяца назад

      It absolutely i! And the Rift system is extremely interesting. Since this came out, the Rift has been traced as far as Texas and they've found that some Rift rock is a match for rocks in Antarctica. Not a professional geologist, but it sounds like any earthquakes your home state may get is due to glacial rebound as you've mentioned..

  • @itsjustlukeRevive
    @itsjustlukeRevive 4 года назад +302

    4:59 poor fishies

    • @wikansaktianto9215
      @wikansaktianto9215 4 года назад +7

      Not to worry, they can migrate elsewhere...if they had no competition, they will still alive even when their home completely dried out.

    • @Dragrath1
      @Dragrath1 4 года назад +8

      don't worry too much 1.1 Ga there weren't any fishies to hurt yet. But yeah fish and other marine life need more respect

    • @wikansaktianto9215
      @wikansaktianto9215 4 года назад +9

      @@Dragrath1 Indeed..stop throw the trash on the river.

    • @kinghal123
      @kinghal123 4 года назад +1

      There were no fishes

    • @scottlennon9388
      @scottlennon9388 4 года назад

      @@wikansaktianto9215 i throw trash in river, a truck load every week

  • @InstallaFriend
    @InstallaFriend 4 года назад +234

    They went to counselling and with a lot of long and hard work, they saved their relationship

    • @asbritt0519
      @asbritt0519 4 года назад +10

      A scene from young and the restless

    • @mikeyd946
      @mikeyd946 4 года назад +5

      😂😂😂

    • @marcussinclaire4890
      @marcussinclaire4890 4 года назад +3

      That's beautiful. 😭🤧😭

    • @kisekinecro
      @kisekinecro 4 года назад +3

      Except california now want to split from the continent

    • @aftersexhighfives
      @aftersexhighfives 3 года назад +1

      Actually with one side settling and the other side being given a lot more leeway than anybody should get is how they've come back together 😂

  • @aldenconsolver3428
    @aldenconsolver3428 4 года назад +19

    Good Job to SciShow, a difficult part of the geology of the mid-continent explained pretty well in just 10 minutes - and this is from a geologist who lives in Kansas. Most instructors would not have even finished up confusing the students when you had moved on to glaciers 15000 years ago when you started out at a billion

    • @donaldstrubhar4697
      @donaldstrubhar4697 2 года назад

      I was born in Kansas, which was the floor of the ocean , this yakky yak , can't explain why whale bones are found across the plains of Kansas , Nebraska, Oklahoma,

  • @Swanke
    @Swanke 4 года назад +272

    Yeah well, it's kinda trying to do that right now..

    • @Rien--
      @Rien-- 4 года назад +14

      but when you truly think about the situation you come to the conclusion that elephants are the only animals that cant jump

    • @solchapeau6343
      @solchapeau6343 4 года назад +4

      @@Rien-- Have you heard of bacteria, worms, most snakes, most insects, and most sea animals?

    • @myrinsk
      @myrinsk 4 года назад

      Sun Hat well maybe it’s just a mammal thing

    • @thirstfast1025
      @thirstfast1025 4 года назад

      North America is not rifting. It's being compressed from the east by the expanding Atlantic, and the subduction of the Pacific and Juan de Fuca plates on the west. The San Andreas is a major fault, but it's a strike-slip fault, not a rift.

    • @evilsharkey8954
      @evilsharkey8954 4 года назад +1

      Thirst Fast, they’re not talking about North America ripping itself apart, just the United States of America.

  • @theotherVLF
    @theotherVLF 4 года назад +342

    We just learned about this today in my geology class! What a coincidence.

    • @wikansaktianto9215
      @wikansaktianto9215 4 года назад +16

      *X-Files theme play in the distance*

    • @thirstfast1025
      @thirstfast1025 4 года назад +9

      I hope you learned the word "aulacogen"!

    • @wikansaktianto9215
      @wikansaktianto9215 4 года назад +4

      @@thirstfast1025 Hello there..We meet again, what is Aulacogen? Some short of retracted fiture of geological landscape? How come the mantle and crust keep opening and closing at the same time?

    • @thirstfast1025
      @thirstfast1025 4 года назад +16

      @@wikansaktianto9215 An aulacogen is the third arm of a continental rift that always fails during a continental rift. Because of the shape of the planet, and the forces generated by the rotation of the planet, when continental crust fails, or begins rifting, it always takes on the shape of a "Y" at first. But then one of the 3 branches of the "Y" closes, and the rift follows the other two branches. Then you get a spreading centre, like the mid-Atlantic rift. The third, failed branch now follows what is called an "Euler pole", around which the new, fragmented plate rotates. But that's getting very complicated..... This failed mid-continent rift is peculiar in that all 3 branches ended up failing, despite the tremendous outpouring of basalt mentioned in the video.
      As for the second part of your question, we've already touched on why the mantle keeps getting 'exposed'. The main mechanism is slab-pull. Once a tectonic plate begins to subduct, it drags the whole conveyor downward, pulling it apart somewhere else. Like you said, wherever the crust is thinnest. Be that a cold, old continental sag, causing a rift, or the middle of an oceanic rift, like the mid-Atlantic.

    • @wikansaktianto9215
      @wikansaktianto9215 4 года назад +9

      @@thirstfast1025 Hmmmm...thanks for explaining the slab-pull once more, forgive me for being slow learner. But yet again, does that mean the so called "Third branches" or the remnant aulacogenesis process(If I am correct) got turned off due to some hugh masses clumping out the mantle?

  • @cinderball1135
    @cinderball1135 4 года назад +179

    Be real here - if you hadn't watched this video, the "Midcontinent Gravity High" would either sound like the world's coolest high school, or the world's most illegal drug.

    • @nottoday5773
      @nottoday5773 4 года назад +2

      Sounds like a Mario kart level

    • @kammymcnuggets1067
      @kammymcnuggets1067 3 года назад +2

      Or a ska band

    • @crystalwolcott4744
      @crystalwolcott4744 3 года назад +1

      Emo come Indie Alt Rock band name

    • @robjohnston1433
      @robjohnston1433 3 года назад +3

      Damn, I thought it was a GRAVY high!

    • @Tht1Gy
      @Tht1Gy 3 года назад +2

      Like Dude. I think I went there in the mid 70s.... The team The Fighting Gravitons. Uniform colors were Infra-red and ultra-violet.

  • @whtbobwntsbobget
    @whtbobwntsbobget 4 года назад +92

    1:40 Gravity maps are REALLY useful for nuclear war. The gravity inconsistencies are enough to throw off the accuracy of an ICBM. So having accurate maps was VERY important to the military.
    Just thought I'd throw that in there! :)

    • @wikansaktianto9215
      @wikansaktianto9215 4 года назад +4

      Hmmm...the ballistic trajectory of a rocket can be distrupted by the continent alone, interesting...

    • @curiouswafi
      @curiouswafi 4 года назад +10

      @@wikansaktianto9215 why does it sound like you're plotting some mega-bad-evil-malicious manifesto for world domination?

    • @wikansaktianto9215
      @wikansaktianto9215 4 года назад +9

      @@curiouswafi Because I am super-duper-ultra-malevolent-heinous-fiend lad.

    • @curiouswafi
      @curiouswafi 4 года назад +4

      @@wikansaktianto9215 understandable, have a great day

    • @lukestrawwalker
      @lukestrawwalker 3 года назад

      Same reason "sea level" varies by as much as 13 feet in different areas of the world... over seamounts and mid ocean ridges the higher gravity pulls at the surrounding water attracting a "mound" of water making the local sea level actually higher than it is over much of the abyssal plains... Later! OL J R :)

  • @anarchyantz1564
    @anarchyantz1564 4 года назад +525

    That time North America tried to tear itself apart: 2020, concludes around mid November.

    • @richdobbs6595
      @richdobbs6595 4 года назад +38

      Do you really think that it ends? Seems really doubtful.

    • @thekingoffailure9967
      @thekingoffailure9967 4 года назад +25

      Cute you think either side will gracefully accept defeat

    • @Nizzynaenae
      @Nizzynaenae 4 года назад +4

      Trump

    • @jacobjonesofmagna
      @jacobjonesofmagna 4 года назад +23

      No matter who is elected, there will be no conclusion to this

    • @anarchyantz1564
      @anarchyantz1564 4 года назад +8

      @@thekingoffailure9967 Yeah I mean it isnt like either side doesnt have a history of vote tampering

  • @beaurenov
    @beaurenov 4 года назад +173

    When he says "1.1 Billion years", the .1 is still 100 million years

    • @arthas640
      @arthas640 3 года назад +8

      100 million years sounds too long, i'd rather wait 0.1 billion years instead.

    • @Eric-sy1xu
      @Eric-sy1xu 3 года назад +10

      Shouldve said 1.1×10^-3 trillion years, to confuse everyone Properly

    • @mateovazquez6685
      @mateovazquez6685 3 года назад +1

      @@arthas640 0.1 billion years sounds longer than a mere 100 millionq

    • @ortherner
      @ortherner 3 года назад +2

      Call me weird, but 0.1 Billion Years sounds longer then 100 Million Years.

    • @mateovazquez6685
      @mateovazquez6685 3 года назад +1

      @@ortherner same

  • @hgbugalou
    @hgbugalou 4 года назад +16

    The New Madrid fault is thought to be related to the intrusion of magma into the crustal rock causing major density differences in horizontal strata.

  • @ScrybeSG
    @ScrybeSG 4 года назад +21

    I travel for work professionally. I collect unique mementos from wherever I go. I have a sample of volcanic basalt laced with olivine as a souvenir from my time in Wisconsin (near Brule River State Park). They use it as loose road gravel. This is where it came from. :)

    • @nicoleabrahamson1883
      @nicoleabrahamson1883 2 года назад +4

      We mine it not far from where I grew up, in Dresser, WI. We call it trap rock, and the railroad still hauls it!

  • @johnopalko5223
    @johnopalko5223 4 года назад +25

    I saw the title and immediately began singing:
    "Oh, the land sank down and the ocean hurried in
    And we lost a fifth of our geography.
    Nearly fourteen million souls found their way to Heaven's rolls
    With the coming of The Great Nebraska Sea."
    It's a filk song by Blake Hodgetts and is based on a 1963 short story by Allan Danzig.

  • @horse14t
    @horse14t 4 года назад +43

    I vaguely remember my grade 2 teacher talk about this.
    Though she didn't go into it with much detail. Got to the point many years later where I thought she might've gotten her facts wrong or something. Good to know that she wasn't entirely wrong!

    • @annotten7413
      @annotten7413 3 года назад +8

      It’s not that teachers where wrong back then - much of what we know and can prove about geology has just been done in the past 20 years thanks to technology that allows us to prove or disprove what was once just theories.

    • @MahoThe
      @MahoThe 2 года назад +2

      She was right - at the time. 2nd grade teachers are saints.

    • @mrcryptozoic817
      @mrcryptozoic817 Год назад +3

      For you to remember that from 2nd grade, even if imperfectly, tells me she was a remarkable teacher. Kudos to her.

    • @horse14t
      @horse14t Год назад +1

      @@mrcryptozoic817 She was easily one of my favourite teachers! I remember being so excited to have her again the next year because her sister got a job at the school so she got moved to teaching 3rd grade!
      Her sister went by her middle name so no one would get confused about two teachers with the same name XD

  • @post-leftluddite
    @post-leftluddite 4 года назад +38

    If anyone is really interested in geology like I am, look up a documentary series by the BBC from called "Earth Story" hosted by Aubrey Manning.... It's THE BEST history of the earth series I've ever seen and it's because it doesn't just tell you what they know, it explains how they figured it out, when they figured it out, and who figured it out, which I love because if you're intelligent, you don't just want to know the facts, but how they were arrived at.

  • @JessicaSanchez-pq7fh
    @JessicaSanchez-pq7fh 4 года назад +6

    I live in Duluth, MN on Lake Superior so this video is incredible to me. I love you all for this. One thing to add on, the glaciers totally wiped away the basalt layers and crusty rocks and turned it into sand. Now northern Wisconsin and Michigan are covered in sand because the wind carried it south but the north shores are incredible because you get to see what it’s like under a flattened mountain. There are geodes the size of your head overlooking the shore from a cliff. Rocks you’d never see unless the rock tumbler that is a glacier swiped the land. Incredible how the volcanic activity you speak of formed these rocks and the glaciers revealed them.

  • @KittiLumpo
    @KittiLumpo 4 года назад +85

    my brain, immediately: "oh you mean right now today in current real-time?"

    • @Stratelier
      @Stratelier 4 года назад +2

      "Or do they mean back in the 1800s?"

    • @alecwhatshisname5170
      @alecwhatshisname5170 3 года назад +4

      I have a feeling this comment will age like a fine wine

  • @Leftatalbuquerque
    @Leftatalbuquerque 4 года назад +37

    I thought this would be about Canada finally telling the US that enough was enough...

  • @VeggiePun
    @VeggiePun 4 года назад +11

    Me: Literally of figuratively?
    Scishow: Yes

  • @Trtevoorryu
    @Trtevoorryu 3 года назад +6

    Brings a whole new meaning to East vs. West

  • @KEVMAN7987
    @KEVMAN7987 4 года назад +52

    "YOU'RE TEARING ME APART, GEOLOGY!"

  • @jessjitsu86
    @jessjitsu86 4 года назад +4

    Seriously, I grew up and in the area of Minnesota that is right over that Rift, and you just explained it in such a way that should be taught at school. You all just earned yourself another Patron! All of you guys are the best! I look forward to every video

  • @ooops8415
    @ooops8415 4 года назад +61

    *looks at title*
    ah yes who could forget

  • @Servingourstories
    @Servingourstories 3 года назад +7

    Also: this explains so much considering the absolute treasure trove of Tacatite we have in Minnesota, I'm not even joking my dad and I could just go out by the railroad tracks and find it everywhere because so much is shipped out and it still is; it's neverending

    • @stevemoren286
      @stevemoren286 3 года назад +3

      It is called Taconite. It's an iron formation. Those pellets are man-made from taconite rock which is a 9 on the hardness scale.

  • @mersilvaureus1525
    @mersilvaureus1525 4 года назад +60

    There's no uncertainty about what all the comments will be about on this video

    • @eval_is_evil
      @eval_is_evil 4 года назад +3

      The most important statement for the beginning of wisdom is "I do not know".

    • @carissstewart3211
      @carissstewart3211 4 года назад +1

      Oh, you mean the historic Middle East Peace deal. 😊 🇮🇱🇦🇪🇧🇭

    • @carissstewart3211
      @carissstewart3211 4 года назад

      @hawkturkey

  • @robertdefoe2396
    @robertdefoe2396 4 года назад +5

    When a rifting event begins it is not always successful first time. From geologist that discussed this with, the Atlantic Ocean originally tried to open a couple of times east of Scotland before forming in its current position. As for something like the Red Sea, it is produced at a triple junction, the south of the junction being the East African Rift and the east being the Indian Ocean.

  • @heronimousbrapson863
    @heronimousbrapson863 4 года назад +162

    That time North America tried to tear itself apart: 2020...

    • @AlexGreat87
      @AlexGreat87 4 года назад +11

      North America is not only the US

    • @WeChallenge
      @WeChallenge 4 года назад +9

      You mean 2020, that time the US had some fools try to tear it apart for political gain?

    • @evilsharkey8954
      @evilsharkey8954 4 года назад +4

      Canada and Mexico are probably wishing they could separate from the US about now. If we succeed at tearing ourselves apart, it will be a humanitarian disaster unseen since the first half of the last century, and they’ll be flooded with Americans, and we’ll be the worst refugees ever, so entitled and self centered!

    • @LizzyThatB
      @LizzyThatB 4 года назад

      There was a whole civil war which was a literal political division of the United States don't act like 2020 is the worst year.

    • @heronimousbrapson863
      @heronimousbrapson863 4 года назад

      @@LizzyThatB I had an ancestor in the Union army killed at Gettysburg, so I would thank you not to lecture me, thank you very much...

  • @adamsullivan8052
    @adamsullivan8052 4 года назад +60

    Fun fact. The Connecticut River Valley in WMass is also a failed Rift Valley.

    • @bigboy4006
      @bigboy4006 4 года назад +9

      So is the New Madrid fault line here in the Midwest.

    • @absalomdraconis
      @absalomdraconis 4 года назад +8

      @@bigboy4006 : The video was talking about New Madrid, it's a branch of the larger structure.

    • @bigboy4006
      @bigboy4006 4 года назад +2

      @@absalomdraconis I thought it did.

    • @bigboy4006
      @bigboy4006 4 года назад +2

      @@absalomdraconis I know that the fault is part of what's called the Reelfoot Rift. I'm not sure if that's the name for just the branch or it's the name of the entire structure.

    • @baileyjerman5573
      @baileyjerman5573 4 года назад +1

      Americas just filled with failed things aint it

  • @devinsmyname
    @devinsmyname 4 года назад +16

    Shout out the the Mod Continental Rift for making some of the best rock climbing in the MN/WI area!

  • @johnmcnulty4425
    @johnmcnulty4425 6 месяцев назад +1

    I love the area of the Rio Grande Rift in the SW USA. It's a good place to see these processes at work!

  • @deathsyth8888
    @deathsyth8888 4 года назад +38

    "America, you're tearing me apart!"
    - Johnny, The Room

  • @systlin2596
    @systlin2596 3 года назад +10

    Live in Iowa, so this runs literally almost right under my feet. The Plum River fault, a remnant of this, is not far at all from my house.
    Strange to think that the land I walk on every day was once such a geologically active place.

  • @johnz8843
    @johnz8843 4 года назад +30

    This was really interesting science so well explained. I enjoyed it. Thanks so much.

  • @aSpyIntheHaus
    @aSpyIntheHaus 3 года назад +4

    I love it how when a ocean appears fish just show up like they own the place.... Its a bit like how if you dig a big enough pond ducks do the same things. Its good to know its not just humans that do this to the earth.

  • @Reticulosis
    @Reticulosis 4 года назад +139

    This video: that time North America almost split up
    2020: 🤔

    • @Cybernaut551
      @Cybernaut551 4 года назад +1

      Ah yes, the news reporter.

    • @jakeryker546
      @jakeryker546 4 года назад +1

      If Trump didn't go around killing black people, this never would have happened.

    • @chefdan87
      @chefdan87 4 года назад +1

      @@jakeryker546 Which black people has Trump killed? I would love to hear that explanation.

    • @arthas640
      @arthas640 3 года назад +2

      Nothing new. The US considered invading Canada in the 40s, 30s, and 20s. The US and Mexico went to war in the 1840s (both sides instigated that conflict). US allied Canadians launched an "invasion" from Ontario into the rest of Canada in the 1840s. The US invaded Canada in 1812 and in the 1770s and Canadian soldiers invaded the US during the Revolutionary war as well. The US Civil War of the 1860s drew in a lot of international attention and basically tore North America apart in much the same way the Revolutionary War did. North America has torn itself apart plenty, but far less often than most other continents.

    • @MaryAnnNytowl
      @MaryAnnNytowl 3 года назад

      *2016

  • @AlecMader
    @AlecMader 4 года назад +30

    "That time North America tried to split apart"
    Yeah. 2016-2020. We were all there.

  • @dereklam1225
    @dereklam1225 4 года назад +16

    7:42 Scotland specifically and not the rest of the UK, because apparently only Scotland came from that landmass. It may partly explain the Scottish-English _map_ border too because the border between the different landmasses is almost bang on the cartographic one!
    Thanks Map Men :D

  • @thejuanderful
    @thejuanderful 4 года назад +6

    "In geology, and really, in just about everything else, there's a lot we don't know and that's part of this whole human experience thing".
    -Hank

  • @MrCarolineiscool
    @MrCarolineiscool 4 года назад +69

    I really thought this was about to be a current events video...

  • @Tomservoca
    @Tomservoca 4 года назад +10

    Gravimetery, my favourite survey. You need patience, a certain degree of OCD and wonderful post processing and interpretation.

  • @DFX2KX
    @DFX2KX 4 года назад +11

    tried to tear itself apart? well, that sounds.... exciting.

  • @christinacody5845
    @christinacody5845 3 года назад +6

    So, I'm extremely familiar with the New Madrid Fault Line, which I was often told as the explanation for it's existence about how it's the remnants of the continent trying to tear in two. I watched this expecting to see the fault line referenced, to no avail.

    • @steveboguslawski114
      @steveboguslawski114 3 года назад +1

      The New Madrid fault zone is due to a different rift which formed around the time when supercontinent Rodinia was breaking up. The event discussed here occurred at or just before the time when Rodinia was assembling.

  • @djakelly
    @djakelly 4 года назад +9

    It would be neat if they could also make an episode about the fact the failed rift has the world's largest concentration of native copper exposed on the southern shore of lake superior. I loved this episode!

    • @RedRocket4000
      @RedRocket4000 Год назад +1

      Read up on the Native tribe or tribes that got major into making copper tools at first for a good while then switching to copper ornamentals for trade in part taking good stone tools in return. Speculation the stone was good enough so making wealth selling the copper better than making tools of it. And understandably copper tools are limited.
      Some hints they also hit some iron but it did not go big otherwise the white relatives coming later would have had a lot more problems dealing with iron and steel weapons.
      Relatives because a large amount of European DNA in the Eastern tribes. Enough that some members could pass as European and people thought they could pull off being Indians at Boston Tea Party and later Canadian whites passed as Indians helping the Miami and other Ohio tribes beat the US army and then bairly loose in the end.
      One of that regions tribes one of the oldest story is when they arrived at what became their lands whites were already there.
      This has to be cross overs during the Ice Age either with primitive boats going along the Ice Bridge between Europe and America or traveling across Siberia and then Western America to settle in east. Discovery of European DNA a good deal across Siberia has the second theory but why not settle at all in the West and only go East the ice bridge theory works better.
      Europeans arriving later though this was survivors of Atlantis maybe.
      Explains the high regard in part that many Colonists leaders and those normally not on the frontier had for the tribes even using part of their government organization in US constitution.
      The why the land taking? That what whites did to other whites did in Europe many cases of Small Pox being used as a weapon in Europe they really did not understand how disease worked and did not realize that it would come back to bite them later. You cannot in first few centuries say the Europeans treated the natives any worse than they treated each other and treated their commoners in Europe. See 30 years war and sack of Antwerp and others for examples. The racism more around Andrew Jackson's time as Europeans started believing treating other whites this way wrong. The racism the excuse to not apply the growing rights of man Enlightenment to those not white.
      Also explains how the vanished first colony population could have merged with the local tribe and not be noticed as different. One old Free Black settlement area fairly near there claims the men were killed and the women taken by the tribe and one family traces their ancestry to the famous daughter of the leader left there as the natives merged with the free Black.

  • @gabrielhoy6790
    @gabrielhoy6790 2 года назад +1

    So remember: No matter how bad a break-up you're going through, it will never be as rough as a continent with mother nature.

  • @Shaden0040
    @Shaden0040 4 года назад +18

    Oooh, a Gravy-meter. Yum!

  • @carschmn
    @carschmn 2 года назад +1

    Highly recommend visiting Taylor’s Falls/Interstate Park on the Minnesota Wisconsin border and Grand Marais on the MN Superior shore to climb on the flood basalts.

  • @bengoodwin2141
    @bengoodwin2141 4 года назад +14

    Sometimes I feel like it would be a whole lot better for everyone if North America had a bunch of ocean in between

    • @Suncast45
      @Suncast45 3 года назад

      Or covering it in about 1000 feet of saltwater!

    • @jacobarmstrong2343
      @jacobarmstrong2343 3 года назад

      You would be speaking German if that had happened.

    • @bengoodwin2141
      @bengoodwin2141 3 года назад +1

      @@jacobarmstrong2343 if you mean world war 2 would have been lost, you're very much mistaken. Germany never had any chance of victory even without the US involved. Even so, so much would have been different just by some butterfly effect that it's not a safe bet that the course of history would have led to a second world war, or even a first.

    • @charleswieand4445
      @charleswieand4445 2 года назад

      No way we need the ancient fault lines under the east coast and fault lines under California to go active Sliding both sides into oceans leaving MIDDLE AMERICA to be great again

    • @charleswieand4445
      @charleswieand4445 2 года назад

      @Janitor Queen only reason USA went to war was J P Morgan thought he might lose his 2 million dollars he loaned to France and England for war and he had presidents ear .
      Also rich didn’t want to lose the properties in Europe .
      War also gave them a chance to get richer

  • @Bangers_mostly
    @Bangers_mostly 2 года назад +1

    we love you hank

  • @emilyplunkett6034
    @emilyplunkett6034 4 года назад +62

    So basically how the Niagra Escarpment came to be. :)
    Also, am I mistaken to think there was made for TV disaster movie about this sometime in the late '90s or early 2000s? I seem to remember there was one about some ungodly strong earthquake occurs in Oklahoma or something, and it splits the continent in half from Hudson Bay straight through to the Gulf of Mexico. (Also, I think it was a sequel. The first one dealt with an earthquake that split California off from the mainland.)

    • @blcmd
      @blcmd 4 года назад +1

      Are you thinking of MegaFault (2009)?

    • @emilyplunkett6034
      @emilyplunkett6034 4 года назад +2

      @@blcmd No. It's definitely older. Came out during the wave of Dante's Peak/Volcano/Armageddon disaster movies, and I believe it was on network TV.

    • @Brianguy420
      @Brianguy420 4 года назад +3

      Was that 10.5?

    • @Brianguy420
      @Brianguy420 4 года назад

      With Jeff bridges?

    • @TheCondorjc
      @TheCondorjc 4 года назад

      *Viagra*

  • @matthew93945
    @matthew93945 3 года назад +2

    The mystery spot is definitely a great spot to use a compass

  • @InertFoxtrot117
    @InertFoxtrot117 4 года назад +6

    For any interested, there's actually a historical fiction book series on how history would've developed differently if North America had split apart like mentioned in the video. It's the Atlantis series by Harry Turtledove, and it's a really interesting read.

  • @stevenbaumann8692
    @stevenbaumann8692 4 года назад +5

    I’m glad you did the midcontinent rift (MCR). I study it. We are trying to date a couple rocks to answer an unknown about late stage volcanism.
    There actually was a successful rift in the area at 2.5Ga. It’s how the Huronian formed. The Penokean eventually completed that Wilson Cycle at 1.8Ga.
    There are other failed rifts at about the same age. Like the Gardar in Greenland.
    You mentioned the Grenville. Good job. You are correct. It isn’t the cause.
    The largest single lava flow on the planet is about 5 miles from my cabin. It is informally called, the greenstone flow.
    Overall you did good by the MCR. I’m impressed.
    The MCR clastic deposits that filled the rift (you mentioned them), may toss a wrench into snowball earth.

    • @Chad_Thundercock
      @Chad_Thundercock 2 года назад +1

      See, now you're just making up Pokemon names.

    • @stevenbaumann8692
      @stevenbaumann8692 2 года назад

      @@Chad_Thundercock ha!😂

    • @jimcurtis569
      @jimcurtis569 3 месяца назад

      How's that? Would that include deposits like Allouez Conglomerate?

  • @Scribe13013
    @Scribe13013 4 года назад +9

    North America does that all the time...keeps things fresh and exciting

  • @Master_Yoda1990
    @Master_Yoda1990 4 года назад +1

    There’s a gravitational anomaly in the Black Hills of South Dakota, just a small area, I forget the name of the place, but there’s weird stuff there like altered perceptions. You’ll think you’re standing straight, but if you get your picture taken, the picture will show that you’re leaning to the side, things like that. I believe there’s also cases of hallucinations there too.

  • @jeffyowell
    @jeffyowell 4 года назад +3

    You didn't mention the New Madrid fault zone in NE Arkansas, bootheel of Missouri, western Tennessee, etc. Was not this failed rift the cause of the earthquakes we see in that area today, and in fact may in the future result in the type of cataclysm seen in 1811-1812?

    • @christinacody5845
      @christinacody5845 3 года назад

      I noticed that he didn't mention it either. I actually watched this expecting it to get name checked. I used to volunteer at the Saint Louis Science Center, and I was told that the working hypothesis for the New Madrid/Wabash Valley Seismic Zones' existence was because the continent tried to rift in two at one time in the LONG ago past and for some reason it stopped. His explanation makes sense for that but the imagery they show is of a fault system that goes around the western part of MO, not the eastern.

    • @jeffyowell
      @jeffyowell 3 года назад +1

      @@christinacody5845 Right. Also should remember, however, that the "continent" I referred to was not North America, but one of the ancient ones, I believe Rodinia.

    • @jeffyowell
      @jeffyowell 3 года назад +2

      @@christinacody5845 Regarding the fault zone on the western part of Missouri, if you drive north/northwest of KC, there is land that has what appears to be "waves" or "ripples," it's very interesting. I'm not a geologist (just study it), but I wonder if those dramatic ripples are left over from earthquakes that occurred there millennia ago.

    • @reicemo13
      @reicemo13 6 месяцев назад

      @@christinacody5845the new Madrid system was a separate rift after this one had closed up.

  • @JimB7215
    @JimB7215 4 года назад +1

    Around here in Minnesota, we call this "Traprock". Used in some areas for building roads.

  • @alexseguin5245
    @alexseguin5245 3 года назад +4

    "That time Québec almost physically separated from the rest of Canada"

  • @12gaSword
    @12gaSword 4 года назад +2

    How do faults on the interior part of a plate work? Like the New Madrid fault in Missouri? I was always told an earthquake from the NMF would make the Mississippi river run backwards for a little while.

    • @christinacody5845
      @christinacody5845 3 года назад +1

      That's both what the evidence from the 1811/12 Earthquake Swarm and the anecdotes say happened.

  • @NoxideActive
    @NoxideActive 4 года назад +5

    If you were standing in the middle of what is now known as Minneapolis or Detroit, you would not recognize it.
    ....I swear you’re making this too easy.

  • @joewilson3393
    @joewilson3393 4 года назад +1

    Fun fact, this divide is the subject of Harry Turteldove's alternative history trilogy "Atlantis". From Wikipedia: A trilogy which describes a world where the American eastern coast from the tip of Florida to Nova Scotia breaks away from the mainland around 85 million years ago and has an island biota similar to New Zealand's. It was discovered in 1452 by a Breton fisherman named François Kersauzon and named Atlantis

  • @guilhermebecker17
    @guilhermebecker17 4 года назад +3

    I know it's Hank presenting the video just by reading the title, I can even hear with his voice

  • @michaeldy3157
    @michaeldy3157 3 года назад +1

    split ups are hard, great video

  • @briangarrow448
    @briangarrow448 4 года назад +3

    Flood basalts, the beautiful cliffs of Central Washington state.

  • @brucecoppola8512
    @brucecoppola8512 4 года назад +1

    North America 1.1 billion years ago: That's it, I'm breaking up.
    Paul Anka: 🎶Breaking up is hard to do.🎶

  • @michaelhowell2326
    @michaelhowell2326 4 года назад +6

    Not even the Earth herself could tear America apart.

    • @Johnboy33545
      @Johnboy33545 4 года назад

      It takes IMPOTUS and Moscow Mitch. They're doing a fine job.

  • @jfu5222
    @jfu5222 2 года назад +1

    Minnesota is a wierd place. It is the boundary between the two plates and also the boundary of the woodlands and greatplains, it lies halfway between the equator and north pole (the 45th parallel is within a mile of where I am sitting). We also have the largest fresh water system on our border and of course, the source of the longest river on the continent. Not a bad spot for geology fans despite an outwardly boring appearance!

  • @thirstfast1025
    @thirstfast1025 4 года назад +14

    I was expecting to hear the word "aulacogen" in this video. And around 5:00, I was expecting to hear "ophiolite".
    Also, mantle plumes have little to do with rifts. Rifts are more to do with slab-pull. If rifts were solely caused by mantle plumes, the Pacific plate would have been rifted by the Hawi'ian and Easter hotspots. This particular failed rift is also responsible for the beautiful Lake Superior Agates, as well as much of the amethyst around Thunder Bay that mineral collectors treasure.
    Cheers!

    • @privateuser7
      @privateuser7 4 года назад +1

      What are you, some fkn rock-man? Why do you know about all of em?

    • @wikansaktianto9215
      @wikansaktianto9215 4 года назад +1

      So...if slab-pull contribute their movement...was the massive continental plate acted like a jutting spoon?

    • @thirstfast1025
      @thirstfast1025 4 года назад +2

      @@wikansaktianto9215 I'm not sure what you mean about the spoon, but "continents" and "plates" are different things. Both continental and oceanic crust 'rides' on tectonic plates. When a plate subducts, the oceanic crust is pulled down by gravity, and due to it's density is capable of descending through the less dense asthenosphere rock. Continental crust is less dense (considerably) than oceanic crust, so it always 'stays afloat' during subduction. That's why you end up with a melange of exotic terranes on the coast of a continent where the tectonic plate subducting is pulling the oceanic crust toward the over-riding plate, and only ever mountains where continental crust meets continental crust. You get very deep trenches where oceanic crust meets oceanic crust.
      I hope this helps!
      Cheers!

    • @thirstfast1025
      @thirstfast1025 4 года назад

      @@privateuser7 I am some kind of rock man. I like that. I might start calling myself "rock man". :)
      I love geology. I read lots of books, especially textbooks if I can get them.

    • @thirstfast1025
      @thirstfast1025 4 года назад

      @@privateuser7 Oh, I also live on the shore of Lake Superior....

  • @janmelantu7490
    @janmelantu7490 4 года назад +1

    Wasn’t expecting an Eons video uploaded to the SciShow channel

  • @danijelandroid
    @danijelandroid 4 года назад +15

    7:45 if North America had split up, Scotland would have been a lot bigger.

    • @erraticonteuse
      @erraticonteuse 4 года назад +11

      Nova Scotia would just be regular old Scotia.

  • @Nodd18
    @Nodd18 4 года назад +1

    Something I have always been curious about:
    Once a rift has formed a new ocean, new crust is created continually and pushes the two halves of a continent away from one another.
    Once a subduction zone forms, some crust begins getting pulled under a continent.
    But rifting continues to happen. So what makes the continents come back together and collide?
    Is the rate of subduction faster than the rate of rifting until the rift zone itself is pulled under a continent? Or does rifting just stop for some as yet unknown reason?
    Or could it be that a rift zone on the other side of the continent is spreading faster than the first rift zone?

  • @johnbagley5341
    @johnbagley5341 4 года назад +105

    "Gravimeter" - Quit making up words, I know when I'm being mocked.

    • @massimookissed1023
      @massimookissed1023 4 года назад +7

      The fing wot one does gravimetrics wiv.

    • @naamadossantossilva4736
      @naamadossantossilva4736 4 года назад +9

      It is as real as torsion balance or hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia.

    • @HienNguyenHMN
      @HienNguyenHMN 4 года назад +11

      "All words are made up." -Thor, King of Asgard

    • @TheCondorjc
      @TheCondorjc 4 года назад +1

      “Columbus used a penis ruler, a ruler for specialists in Dirtonomy...”
      Yeah
      It’s safe to say that was a load of BS

    • @healthya7975
      @healthya7975 4 года назад +2

      Thats more related to Analonogy

  • @RyanAlexanderBloom
    @RyanAlexanderBloom 4 года назад +1

    I live a walkable distance from the Rio Grande Rift. It’s definitely still trying to low key tear the continent in half. And I live on the side of a volcano that’s just ever so slightly too small to be considered a super volcano. It used to be over a hot spot, like Hawaii.

  • @jmonty
    @jmonty 4 года назад +15

    I would like to see how this effects the New Madrid rift zone running thru Missouri, Arkansas Tennesee, and Kentucky. We still have earthquakes on this fault several times a month.

    • @haroldwilkes6608
      @haroldwilkes6608 3 года назад +1

      I've seen Idaho faults, California faults and Alaska faults but New Madrid is the most deceptive...the area looks so blah until you get it mad, then it's Katy bar the door. Nice people though.

    • @milenaresources4244
      @milenaresources4244 2 года назад +1

      The New Madrid Rift is a much much later thing. The Mississippi/New Madrid system follows a rift that is much younger and is still slowly spreading.

    • @reicemo13
      @reicemo13 6 месяцев назад

      @@milenaresources4244it’s a dead rift but the seismic activity hasn’t fully subsided.

  • @wingsofwrath4647
    @wingsofwrath4647 4 года назад +2

    Oh yeah, speaking of the Illinois Microplate - it appears it's still being compressed somehow, because about one third of the way down in the centre of the horseshoe are the New Madrid Seismic Zone and the Wabash Valley Seismic Zone, the first of of which was responsible for the 1811-1812 New Madrid intraplate earthquakes, four of the most potent and destructive earthquakes in North America.
    Oh and the areas are still active - since 1974 when they've started installing seismometers, they've recorded close to 4,000, with three of them (June 10 1987, June 18 2002 and April 18 2008) being big enough to be felt and cause minor damage.

  • @alexaadamczyk9607
    @alexaadamczyk9607 4 года назад +6

    "Gravity high" sounds lit

  • @DavidRice541
    @DavidRice541 3 года назад

    1:00 I love how you can see the hieght differences across the country

  • @shaunmurphy4516
    @shaunmurphy4516 4 года назад +4

    Nice shirt. Did somebody palm it off to you?

  • @BS-vx8dg
    @BS-vx8dg 3 года назад +1

    I'm a bit puzzled to hear that geologists, who were not going to accept plate tectonics until the 1950s, were discussing the concept of plate tectonics in the 1940s (1:06).

  • @Josiahiswatching
    @Josiahiswatching 3 года назад +4

    Out of all the Scientist names “Geophysicist” has to have the most “could be a Wizard” energy

    • @MicrowavedAlastair5390
      @MicrowavedAlastair5390 3 года назад +1

      You know, you're right. Astrophysicist sounds cool as hell, but it doesn't have the same energy.

    • @Josiahiswatching
      @Josiahiswatching 3 года назад

      @@MicrowavedAlastair5390 Different school of magic. still powerful though

  • @charleswieand4445
    @charleswieand4445 2 года назад +1

    And here I always that it was the fallen stars, meteorites, and cosmic dust being attracted to earth making gravity stronger dragging me down and making things heavier as I get older

  • @Deadpool3E
    @Deadpool3E 4 года назад +4

    I'm surprised this isn't about the Western Interior Seaway! Nice!

    • @tessat338
      @tessat338 4 года назад

      Yeah! That's what I thought that this was going to be about as well!

  • @jmk1975
    @jmk1975 4 года назад +2

    Is the New Madrid failed rift part of the rift mentioned here, or is that a separate phenomenon?

  • @jayambrose9998
    @jayambrose9998 4 года назад +12

    Notification squad

  • @johnsimun6533
    @johnsimun6533 3 года назад +1

    All the talk about rifts reminds me of heavy metal. That deep rift was hard. That active rift was deep.

  • @gaminawulfsdottir3253
    @gaminawulfsdottir3253 4 года назад +3

    Almost split up... but reconciled. For the sake of the children.

  • @TiggerIsMyCat
    @TiggerIsMyCat 9 месяцев назад

    I just recovered this video, and I've since learned that one of those "other times this happened", in addition to Central Africa like is mentioned, this process was also the origin of the Connecticut River Valley, only the rifting was at the start of Pangea's breakup, as the northeast US was breaking away from Africa. There was a bunch of rifting going on, and the Connecticut River Valley was one of those rifts, but once the rift that became the Atlantic happened, it released the pressure and the valley stopped rifting, and left a valley, and it filled with glacial meltwater to become glacial lake Hitchcock, then when that ice dam melted and the lake flooded out, the deepest part of the valley was left and now it's the Connecticut River.

  • @MsAwesomeify
    @MsAwesomeify 4 года назад +4

    >People making 2020 jokes
    Civil War: Am I a joke to you?

    • @lyndsaybrown8471
      @lyndsaybrown8471 4 года назад +1

      Civil War was a great Marvel movie. Who thinks it's a joke?

    • @anarchyantz1564
      @anarchyantz1564 4 года назад

      Coming soon to a state near you!
      Civil War Part II, Uncivilised War harder!

    • @erraticonteuse
      @erraticonteuse 4 года назад

      Seriously, that's what I came here for 🙁

  • @danielbickford3458
    @danielbickford3458 4 года назад +2

    You know I think I recall reading a Harry turtledove book about this exact Primus. There were eight continents instead of seven and 8th continent was made of what would have been the east coast of the US up to the Appalachian Mountains or so. I think they ended up calling it Atlantis

  • @HexLabz
    @HexLabz 4 года назад +3

    Some celebrity breakups are so powerful that entire nations can feel them.

    • @listenhere1623
      @listenhere1623 4 года назад

      Just be quiet if you care about celebrity relationships just stop your terrible ppl.

    • @HexLabz
      @HexLabz 4 года назад

      @@listenhere1623 Bad grammar, check. Unable to think laterally and understand analogous jokes, check. Unwarranted and rude comments, check. Congratulations, you passed the troll exam. On a serious note, is your personal life so utterly devoid of substance that you have to try to flex your e-muscles? You should consider therapy or counseling. Perhaps a friend to talk to? I know there is a stigma around it, but it truly works.

  • @nofaithrequired859
    @nofaithrequired859 3 года назад +1

    Great video! I've watched lots of geology video and can't beleive I've never heard the term 'Wilson Cycle'.

  • @SupermaxLaFrom
    @SupermaxLaFrom 4 года назад +6

    alternate title : That time South America tried to tear North America apart

  • @LasloCanadi
    @LasloCanadi 3 года назад

    Those five little fish are way too cute for me to continue listening ☺️

  • @MaskOfAgamemnon
    @MaskOfAgamemnon 4 года назад +20

    I was sure this was about the election until I started watching. 😅

  • @bradkalman2353
    @bradkalman2353 3 года назад +1

    The flood basalts are also in a part of Ireland that I saw recently.