As just a citizen who knows the area this was very interesting. I use to go there for camping and hiking with the kids. Later as I got the "bird photography" bug I hiked it several times with my camera gear backpack so I am familiar with the area but had no idea it was geologically interesting. So thank you for another view of why our state parks are so special.
Please do an investigation of the geology in North St. Louis County along Sinks Road. My last visit there was in about 1973, so what I say may be dated. I grew up there and was an avid spelunker during my teenage years in the 1960s. There was a cave that me and my fellow young spelunkers could ride our bikes to and explore. It was named Sinks Cave. That area had, as the name implies, many sink holes and caves due to the karst topography. But what made the area around Sinks Road different was that, to my knowledge, it was the only place in the entire state of Missouri that had oil deposits and oil wells pumping crude oil out of the ground. In addition, Laclede Gas Company had a facility there where they pumped millions of gallons of natural gas down into a sandstone aquifer. The gas displaced the water in the sandstone and the water exerted a pressure to reclaim it's space, and Laclede Gas took full advantage of this pressure. In the 1960s, all along Sinks Road were gas well heads that led down to the natural gas stored in the aquifer under pressure. To access the gas, all Laclede had to do was open a valve on the well head and the gas could be routed to underground pipes under a huge amount of pressure, no pumps required. I believe there was only one other place in the entire country where natural gas was stored in an aquifer. One day back in 1964 or 65, a car left Sinks Road and knocked one of the well heads off and natural gas started spewing thousands of feet up into the sky. It took Laclede about a week or more to stop the geyser. In fact, that area just happened to be under the approach path of Runway 24 at Lambert Field and the FAA had to close that runway until the well head was repaired for fear than a jet airplane may cause an explosion or fire. Please check this area out and post a report on RUclips. .
Joel, We were loosely aware of that area's distinct history, but certainly didn't know the fascinating details you share. Thank you! We'll put a deeper dive onto our list, though we won't be able to get to it until sometime this winter at the earliest. Thanks so much for the inspiration!
Paleotopography. So now I know that little outcroppings of basement stone are really the tops of old mountains peaking through the sediment? "There's a really neat story embedded in the rocks here..". I hope so. God Bless from Johnny
Sometimes they're old mountain tops, but they don't have to be! It's also possible for modern erosion to cut down into an ancient valley. Trying to interpret one modern landscape laid over another old landscape can get complicated. But it is neat to realize there's an old range of hills and mountains buried under there...
Eric, great job! I have only looked at hand samples of the "Hawn Park Gneiss" and had discussions with colleages that it might be a flow,banded granite, rather than a metamorphic rock. Any thoughts? It was some time ago, but I think part of our thinking was driven by similarities in the formation age of the granite and the "gneiss", when a simple model would be that the gneiss should be older.
Great question. To be honest, we don't have an educated opinion. We were focused on the geomorphic and ecological story on our last visit, and didn't go looking for differences in the basement rocks. It would be fun to revisit that question in person, but here we simply drew on the "official" story regarding the nature of those rocks since it wasn't the focus. Let us know if you want to check it out in person!
Thanks for commenting! We did check out your video. We're fascinated by Native American archeology, though it isn't our field. We suspect there are far more cultural resources out there than are publicly known or accessible. Have you gotten in touch with the Missouri Archeological Society to learn more?
@@ozarkoutsider we had folks from Washington University in stl come down and look at it and now it's a protected site, they said it made by the mississippians around 1000 years ago but were waiting on the test results to come back to find out for sure they also said it was a shrine to the underwater panther God and that creature goes all the way back to the old copper culture around the great lakes region 6 to 8 thousand years ago, the underwater panther God was basically the mortal enemy of the thunderbird bird and you had to give it tobacco and corn or it would try and drown you
As just a citizen who knows the area this was very interesting. I use to go there for camping and hiking with the kids. Later as I got the "bird photography" bug I hiked it several times with my camera gear backpack so I am familiar with the area but had no idea it was geologically interesting. So thank you for another view of why our state parks are so special.
You're welcome! We love adding new perspective to beloved areas.
This is really cool! I recently moved here from Oregon, and I never expected to see igneous intrusions in the rock along the trail! Fascinating!
Welcome! Hope you'll check out the rest of our content, especially the recent video on the overall volcanic/igneous history of SE Missouri.
Such great information. Thanks for doing these videos.
Thanks. There's a lot more in the works.
Please do an investigation of the geology in North St. Louis County along Sinks Road. My last visit there was in about 1973, so what I say may be dated. I grew up there and was an avid spelunker during my teenage years in the 1960s. There was a cave that me and my fellow young spelunkers could ride our bikes to and explore. It was named Sinks Cave. That area had, as the name implies, many sink holes and caves due to the karst topography. But what made the area around Sinks Road different was that, to my knowledge, it was the only place in the entire state of Missouri that had oil deposits and oil wells pumping crude oil out of the ground. In addition, Laclede Gas Company had a facility there where they pumped millions of gallons of natural gas down into a sandstone aquifer. The gas displaced the water in the sandstone and the water exerted a pressure to reclaim it's space, and Laclede Gas took full advantage of this pressure. In the 1960s, all along Sinks Road were gas well heads that led down to the natural gas stored in the aquifer under pressure. To access the gas, all Laclede had to do was open a valve on the well head and the gas could be routed to underground pipes under a huge amount of pressure, no pumps required. I believe there was only one other place in the entire country where natural gas was stored in an aquifer. One day back in 1964 or 65, a car left Sinks Road and knocked one of the well heads off and natural gas started spewing thousands of feet up into the sky. It took Laclede about a week or more to stop the geyser. In fact, that area just happened to be under the approach path of Runway 24 at Lambert Field and the FAA had to close that runway until the well head was repaired for fear than a jet airplane may cause an explosion or fire. Please check this area out and post a report on RUclips. .
Joel,
We were loosely aware of that area's distinct history, but certainly didn't know the fascinating details you share. Thank you! We'll put a deeper dive onto our list, though we won't be able to get to it until sometime this winter at the earliest. Thanks so much for the inspiration!
Paleotopography. So now I know that little outcroppings of basement stone are really the tops of old mountains peaking through the sediment? "There's a really neat story embedded in the rocks here..". I hope so. God Bless from Johnny
Sometimes they're old mountain tops, but they don't have to be! It's also possible for modern erosion to cut down into an ancient valley. Trying to interpret one modern landscape laid over another old landscape can get complicated. But it is neat to realize there's an old range of hills and mountains buried under there...
Eric, great job! I have only looked at hand samples of the "Hawn Park Gneiss" and had discussions with colleages that it might be a flow,banded granite, rather than a metamorphic rock. Any thoughts? It was some time ago, but I think part of our thinking was driven by similarities in the formation age of the granite and the "gneiss", when a simple model would be that the gneiss should be older.
Great question. To be honest, we don't have an educated opinion. We were focused on the geomorphic and ecological story on our last visit, and didn't go looking for differences in the basement rocks. It would be fun to revisit that question in person, but here we simply drew on the "official" story regarding the nature of those rocks since it wasn't the focus. Let us know if you want to check it out in person!
I know of native american painting close to there, made a video on my channel showing them if anyone wants to see
Thanks for commenting! We did check out your video. We're fascinated by Native American archeology, though it isn't our field. We suspect there are far more cultural resources out there than are publicly known or accessible. Have you gotten in touch with the Missouri Archeological Society to learn more?
@@ozarkoutsider we had folks from Washington University in stl come down and look at it and now it's a protected site, they said it made by the mississippians around 1000 years ago but were waiting on the test results to come back to find out for sure they also said it was a shrine to the underwater panther God and that creature goes all the way back to the old copper culture around the great lakes region 6 to 8 thousand years ago, the underwater panther God was basically the mortal enemy of the thunderbird bird and you had to give it tobacco and corn or it would try and drown you
That's very cool, thanks for sharing!