Nerd tidbit. Long ago (80s) I worked in a mass spectrometry lab that had a special solid one-piece hammer that had been used to smash up moon rocks. It was special because it was machined out of a special no-carbon steel so that it could not contaminate the moon rocks with carbon. It was just randomly kept in a tool chest at that point. Looking back, and knowing it has likely been lost/discarded, I kinda wish I had "collected" it for my grandkids.
Low carbon steel is rather soft. Crushing rocks with a soft hammer would leave other deposits on the samples. Rather quite a few. But what is the alternative? Crushing moon rocks against other moon rocks? That might be too expensive, given the rarity of moon rocks. Given the rarity of moon rocks, I would recommend using two "plates" (might be very small on the order of millimeters in size) and rub them against each other. That way you would obtain 100% moon "dust" for analysis.
@@erikziak1249 This was NASA funded work done at Berkeley under secrete clearance during the 70s. If you really care, you can begin your scavenger hunt around N8K14M18T --- a steel alloy with adequate hardness. I don't know the ultimate alloy but I was told the hammer cost thousands of dollars when it was made. In those early days, when they were searching for organic molecules, contamination was a serious concern. Part of breaking open the rocks was to find surfaces that had not been in contact with the bags the rocks were stored in. I don't have all the details and the professor who told me about it has sadly passed away now. I can only think of one person who I think is still alive who work on that project but haven't been in contact for over 20 years.
Why do we want to know about earths oldest rocks? In all of your conversations, you overlooked one important reason: its fun! Keep up the great work, Geo!
It still blows my mind that the ground you stand on every day is unfathomably old. Even "Recent" sedimentary rock is older than the existence of human civilization. You can pick up any rock of granite or basalt and imagine just how much that it's gone through, from the steady rise of mountains to the flooding of oceans and countless thousands of different species emerging and disappearing while it just sits still, idling the time away until a person can walk up to it so it can be admired. Mind Blowing!
Thanks Rachel, great conversation. It makes it seem my college days were in the dark ages. Glad to be expanding my interests with such wonderful teachers. Thanks!
I would argue that there is no other reason needed to study the Earth (or anything) than because humans are curious and discovery enriches our lives in uncountable and often in yet to be know ways. Yes, if funding is coming from a source that wants to commodify information, you have to give them a reason. But so much basic understanding of our universe comes form someone asking, "'what's that?", "What's over there?", "What causes that?", "How does that work" and other questions of curiosity.
24:25 100% agree. It is a marvel of our understanding of nature, that we, collectively, can do this. Many fields of science came together to make this possible. We should be humble and grateful for all the work our predecessors made. All those discoveries, and yet still so many for us to find.
I totally agree. one of the amazing things I wish more people truly understood is just how good we humans have gotten at measuring things. metrology is AMAZING! just the idea of measuring something with 12 digits of precision blows my mind. that's like being able to count PRECISELY how many centimetres there are from your eyeball to the surface of the sun
I had a massive blind spot to the number of different ways y'all find the ages of rocks. This helped me see some things in a much clearer way. Thank you, I'm looking forward to part two.
Fascinating discussion. I hope that, in addition to the part 2 upcoming, you keep on this particular road and discuss the Nuvvuagittuq rocks in greater depth, covering how they're different than the other kinds of extremely old rocks in the world, how they are dated differently (due to their inconvenient lack of zircons, a fact shared by most mafic rocks on Earth), and why their status as the potential "oldest rocks in the world" is debated to this day. Maybe you could even get Dr. Jonathan O'Neil to come on as a guest; thanks to his team's groundbreaking work (which started with his PhD research, and continues still, at least as far as I'm aware), we now know that there could be a new oldest rock in the world. And since he made one of the boldest claims the geological community has seen in the 21st century, scientists from all over the world have been busily working in a VERY isolated part of Québec to study these rocks and perhaps find evidence disproving their "oldest" provenance...or find additional evidence confirming that they're exactly as old as claimed by O'Neil. Before this work was conducted, the rocks at Nuvvuagittuq were known to be pretty old - at least 3.8 billion years old based on infiltrated magma bodies that bisect the greenstone, which DO have zircons for scientists to study (which sounds old - and it is - but as a rock-loving kid in Canada, I routinely collected and played on and around granitic rocks in the 2.8-3.2 billion year old range...so 3.8 is impressive, but not THAT impressive). But there's a fascinating debate now about neodymium-142, and whether it is native to those rocks (having decayed from samarium-146 in situ), or was incorporated into them at a later date. And the discussion could even proceed beyond that debate, to the insane possibilities that open up if we truly have HADEAN oceanic crust that is accessible for scientific study. It may even be possible to prove that plate tectonics started earlier than we believe right now, or to find evidence old life forms within these rocks. But most importantly, such a discussion would shed light on how science progresses. Because regardless of whether Acasta, or Nuvvuagittuq, or even some other rock entirely, is the oldest in the world, research like this has significantly improved isotopic methods of dating rocks, which will help geologists better characterize rocks from all over the world, not just northern Canada.
Interestingly you can sometimes find zircons in mafic rocks there have been some recovered from for example Mauritius/ Rapa Nui/Iceland its just their ages are much much older than the volcano and even the parent rock of the Pacific plate with some zircons dating as far back as the Archean ~3 Ga in age. Basically provided the Zircons remain in the upper mantle when they get subducted they can survive mantle assimilation into the asthenosphere and subsequent remelting of their parent rocks and then ultimately end up reerupted onto an oceanic island with no continental lithosphere in sight. Truly mind blowing little minerals. Edit got the wrong oceanic hot spot(s) in memory. Turns out basically every plume except Hawaii has produced such Zircons thus though scientists have only recently started to look for these.
Serious rockhound here. Also interested in earth science. This indepth interesting scientific conversation is fascinating. Much of it is mind boggling and a bit over my head, however i could feel new dendrites forming in my brain as i listened! Thank you.
I have been interested in geology and rocks for a long time. Both Planet Geo podcast and Geo Girl videos are treasured resources for introducing and gently explaining complex aspects of geology to people without a science background. Migmatite and gneiss of Lower Silesia Sudety mountains (Poland) were the first rocks that got me intrigued as a child with their wild patterns. It's great to find out more about those tortured creations!
Love geochronology and Archaean age or older geology. This was one of my favourite topics in my undergrad geology degree so love to see this on your channel
I'm the Precambrian guy she mentioned in her last video. The Archean is the most under studied eons in geology. Most of the best exposures are where people don't want to go because it's cold. They all want to go where it's warm. It's a niche part of geology and an under represented part of it. Most of the people who do study the Archean are geochemists who not only have never seen the rocks but they make wild and global extrapolations.
Truly interesting to listen you all together. I took university geology as part of my engineering program and later did software development for geology and geophysics, and here I completely ignored the differential dating factors between crystal and mineral formations & reformation. This discussion was good for helping to fill gaps in my understanding of our wonderful world. Thank for having people who know their stuff AND actually communicate their field of study so well. Please, I really want you guys back together. Cheers from Canada
The way Earth's absolute oldest rocks are in such rugged, beautiful places - it fills me with haunting wonder. That these rocks would be so hard to find, so difficult to reach, it's like the quest for the Holy Grail.
I graduated from Western Carolina University this December with a BS in Geology and a BS in Environmental Science. I absolutely love Geology, but I've been dealing with burnout thanks to having two undergraduate research projects to wrap up (one individual/one group capstone), exams, and a multitude of presentations. That to say, I am a structure girlie at heart, and this video has helped me start to crawl out of that burnout! I can't wait to check out the podcast...
That is amazing to hear! I hope you crawl all the way back to loving it! :D Their podcast is a wonderful place to start, and they have several years of diverse and amazing episodes! Best of luck (and congrats on graduating with TWO undergrad projects!!! That's a huge accomplishment- I think you will go far!) ;)
Rachel 🏜️, Excellent interview. You do a fantastic job keeping the interview flowing and on point. Chris & Jesse are very interesting! I look forward to part 2. Thank you. 👏👏👏👏👏
Oh fun this is so great. Their visual podcast sounds so interesting will check it out. I once visited Antelope Island in Utah but these are next level. Thanks for your content :)
Yes! They are so great and they do so much for geoscience education! I highly recommend checking out their podcast and app, both links are in the description box of the video! :D
"Kicked out." For over 30 years I've wondered about how the fact that a rock was molten would affect the properties of the atomic nucleus of the elements within, such that it started the clock of radiometric dating. This made even less sense to me for metamorphic rocks. But "kicked out", OF COURSE the daughter elements won't have the same chemical properties as their parent element, and so won't form chemical bonds, in this case in crystal formation, in the same ways. Now I get it! Thank you!!!
Rachel: Extremely interesting! Love the interview format. Another fascinating topic to explore would be to identify the oldest rocks that bare evidence of life on earth. Quite a few would be contention. From what I understand the earliest known life forms on Earth may be as old as 4.1 billion years according to biologically fractionated graphite inside a single zircon grain in the Jack Hills range of Australia. Also…the earliest direct known life on Earth appear to be stromatolite fossils found in 3.48 billion year geyserite uncovered in the Dresser Formation of Western Australia. Amazing…so incredibly old!
Back in the Stone Age, in undergrad Geology classes, we were taught that the oldest rocks were found in the Canadian Shield. In the decades that rolled along, people said, No, you'll find them in Australia. In a few more Decades they said South Africa. Does it make any difference, who "wins"?? My oldest rock is 1.7-Billion-year-old quartzite, from Baraboo Wisconsin.
I have rocks older than that in my sauna stove... Living on top of the Baltic shield is kind of weird, most rocks i've seen in my life have been over 2 billion year old.
That was an enjoyable chat. I sometimes feel like i'm falling out of love with Earth science, like it's futile and even pointless. But watching your videos has more than once reminded me why i chose to dedicate so many years of study to the Earth system. It reminds me why teaching in particular can be so rewarding.
I'm so happy to find this channel and I'm amazed and before this I really liked potholer 54 who taught me so much. Please keep doing what y'all seem to enjoy so much the passion is great. Thank you
@@GEOGIRL on the field?? or with a space telescope? 🔎😂(i live in Quebec so it'd be doable for me to check it out in person - but sadly, anything north of the 47th Parallel is basically dangerous territory in this province - think Amazon, but reverse. landscapes either barren and rocky, or nothing but trees and mosquitos, (and perhaps wild cat or wolverine, and the random moose/deer, very few if any services or roads (and always frozen over in winter...), no phone coverage ... ). as much as i love Canada and my province, that's just a little bit too wild for me lol! 😻(that's why most things are done by planes or ship when it comes to the northern tip of Quebec and the Hudson Bay nowadays, prolly 😹)
i HAVE to check out the Ile Rene-Levasseur though some day. 😍(the "Eye of Quebec" as it's often called, in the Parc de la Verendrye ... where the meteor crashed a long long while ago 😹(the other well-known crater being in Sudbury, Ontario 🙃.) i heard it's an absolutely beautiful and wonderful and enjoyable to check out, and of course very quiet, being dozens of hours drive into the woods lol 😼) (edit: 51.378350, -68.641326)
@GEOGIRL This may seem unrelated; however, your video on Ordovician diversification profoundly optimized and transformed my thinking about existence and applied biomimetics. Your videos have reshaped my multi-methodological approaches to emulating the survival skills of Ordovician lifeforms, as well as considering the non-volitional influences on life that operate on geochemical, meteorological, astronomical, and biochemical orders of magnitude.
Phenomenal intervening / conversational skills, Dr. You hopped in with two old friends, joined with them, and maintained direction of the conversation (some editing I assume)
The guests names are Chris Bowl Ice and Jesse Ice Rink. Both renowned curlers. But instead of the ice traveling over the rock in glaciation the rock travels over the ice
Very much enjoyed this! I'm a broken (and old) Navy Aircraft Electrician now but many moons ago I wanted to make a lifetime of studying rocks my career. Not many super exciting ones in the south suburban Chicagoland area but it kept me out of trouble for many a short spell! 😅
Thanks for another great video and for introducing us to another great source for geo knowledge! Is there any specific information we can determine about the environment of the early earth from the oldest zirons/rocks? Like if they formed in the presence of water or if there is anything we can learn about the chemistry of the atmosphere at the time of their formation?
Hi Geo Girl, I recall you said that geology is not simply the study of rocks, so I'd like to ask a weather-related question. I've been looking up Medicane Ianos (2020), and the path of the storm does not seem to mimic what I see from Atlantic Ocean Hurricanes that typically curve away from the equator as they approach America. Perhaps it is just a matter of prevalence, but I find little information/discussions on Medicanes as most discussion of tropical cyclones is around Hurricanes that affect the US and Typhoons that impact Asia. You are one of the best science communicators and educators that I've found on RUclips so hope you can cover this subject matter.
I find rocks fascinating. They have a story to tell. How did you form? How long have you been here? What story could you tell me? I have a rock from near the Great Wall of China. A piece of lava from Iceland and Hawaii. I have a piece of the Rocky Mountains of Canada. I have white, black, red, opaque and rock looking rocks from where I live. Rocks tell us where we came from and help us understand where we're going. Rocks a just cool. Thanks for sharing!
so have you heard about the geologists?? i don't know why, but they seem to be oddly obsessed with DATING. (ha ha ha) 😂woohoo, another GeoGirl video. that was a cute introduction you did lol - i guess breaking out of the "i'm a Doctor in this field and have done many papers and research" mold was hard indeed lol! 🤩i never noticed, myself, though! you've a great approach/tone/voice, are pretty easy to understand and follow no matter the topic, and a wonderful smile to boot and genuine passion for your field. 😻! cheers!
also, this Jesse guy looks pretty ... GNEISS, wow. 😼:teehee:. ... never seen anyone so excited over a useless old chunk rock, and that's great to see Rachel! 😹 (and he's got great hair :teehee: lol!)
So zircons can grow a new envelope that can be used to date their surroundings if they get subducted deep inside the Earth. Didn't know that! ☺️ Kind of reminds me of tree rings and how archeologists use those, except this is way cooler given there's magma involved.
Hey Rachel, please hear me out! I just watched your stable isotope series from years ago, but I couldn’t find the one about nitrogen isotopes and δ15N. I think you should add that too-even if just to complete the series. Those videos were amazing! I’m new here and can’t wait to dive into more of your content.
Thanks for adding your voice to mine!! I wish she would re-up some of those isotope, biogeochem and microbe videos. And add some new isotope videos in her abundant free time :)
That has been on my list for some time now! Thanks for the reminder ;) I will certainly try to do that at some point! :D It was just not first on my list because I had done some research with the other isotopes, but have never done any research with nitrogen isotopes, so it's always been more intimidating to me, but I will do some research and see what I find!! :D
WHAT happened to Chris's beard?! I've been an avid listener of their podcast and heard of your channel through them. This is honestly the first time I've actually SEEN either one of them wow! Surreal! I'm so glad you hosted them back :)
@GeoGirl - I guess that I need to wait for pt 2, but as I understand it we might be looking at zircon grains that were eroded out of ancient mountains and deposited as sedimentary rock that was then metamorphised. How do we understand where the rocks fit in the process of land building and erosion ?
I thought this able dating.......I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!! Used to work with a Professional Geologist that was "CHRISTIAN" like "6000 years old". This made for some interesting discussion.........!
Before watching, my guess for the oldest rocks would be the ophiolites you mentioned in the videos about how tectonics wasn't always _plate_ tectonics, along with chondritic meteorites that are presumed to be primordial but don't exactly count if we're going to be sticklers about the "on earth" part and only include the length of time they've been here.
i want to visit northern Canada im near Toronto and am thinking of taking a train to Churchill Manitoba by Hudson Bay and its really old landscape up there and Polar bears :)
@@stevenbaumann8692 51.378350, -68.641326 THIS one?? :O i remember seeing it when i was trying to find the coordinates for Ile Rene-Levasseur just now, and thinking the name was funny but that it was basically insignificant just as most of the other thousands of lakes in Northern Ontario. 🙃interesting! that is indeed not far at all! :O ! couple of hours from Wawa, maybe? ....... but, there's a saying in Canada (among Hitch-Hikers, at least) - we don't talk about Wawa. 😆
Any comment on the amounts of elemental isotopes resultant from nova events? With half -lives that rule out distant novas( they would have degraded by the time they got here)? Conclusion: our star creates them from periodic micronovas?
Lol. That's a reason for a breakaway political entity I've never heard before. Our rocks are awesome! Yours are young and boring ... and sad. If it ain't Archean it's a sad state of bein'. Would you join forces with Superior craton areas of Wisconsin and Minnesota, or would that bring too many of us Vikings fans?
As a Yooper, it depends on what you mean by better. There is the MCR. I actually have done stratigraphy papers on it. But the Canadian side has much older.
I''ve got a small bit of Issua formation rock. I understand that Acasta gneiss is not obtainable by or for normal mortals. How about the other formations? Where can I get even gem sized samples of some of the others?
8:32 And I have one of the oldest Škoda "RR" (rear engine, rear drive) layout cars as well as one of the youngest Škoda "RR" layout cars in my garage. The older is the Škoda 1000 MB DeLuxe from 1966 (the best "peoples" you could buy at the time) and the younger the Škoda 130L from 1986 (again the best "peoples" you could buy at that time). But what is a mere 20 years difference, right? On a geographical timescale it is maybe an atom width on the error bar of a graph. And yet, totally different cars. Much like the rocks. Only certain people "value" those things the way they do. I am, 100%, the odd one. The money put into those cars is way much than any "market value" they will ever have. "Wasted" money for less than an atom width of an error bar of a geological time graph. LOL. I am truly crazy.
When I was in grad school back in the late '70's, igneous petrologists Dr. Jon Berg and his wife Ruth Kalamarides-Berg were researching what were then thought to be the Earth's oldest rocks from the Canadian craton in Quebec and Labrador. I don't think they cracked the 4 billion year mark with their research in that era
Yes, I heard the cat! But otherwise great talk! Though I haven’t listened to this kind of stuff very much interesting though to hear about this rock we live on!
STUDYING THE EARTH & ROCK LAYERS ALONG WITH THE SUN MAY ENLIGHTEN US AS TO HOW LONG MAN HAS ON EARTH & IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM. ION ROCKETS CAN TAKE US TO OTHER STAR SYSTEMS TO PROLONG THE HUMAN SPECIES.
Part 2 is out now! -> ruclips.net/video/t7xi1UnBsAE/видео.html
Nerd tidbit. Long ago (80s) I worked in a mass spectrometry lab that had a special solid one-piece hammer that had been used to smash up moon rocks. It was special because it was machined out of a special no-carbon steel so that it could not contaminate the moon rocks with carbon. It was just randomly kept in a tool chest at that point. Looking back, and knowing it has likely been lost/discarded, I kinda wish I had "collected" it for my grandkids.
Low carbon steel is rather soft. Crushing rocks with a soft hammer would leave other deposits on the samples. Rather quite a few. But what is the alternative? Crushing moon rocks against other moon rocks? That might be too expensive, given the rarity of moon rocks. Given the rarity of moon rocks, I would recommend using two "plates" (might be very small on the order of millimeters in size) and rub them against each other. That way you would obtain 100% moon "dust" for analysis.
@erikziak1249 is steel, not iron; is used an alternative to carbon. IIRC it's iron/silicon rather than iron/carbon.
@@erikziak1249 This was NASA funded work done at Berkeley under secrete clearance during the 70s. If you really care, you can begin your scavenger hunt around N8K14M18T --- a steel alloy with adequate hardness. I don't know the ultimate alloy but I was told the hammer cost thousands of dollars when it was made. In those early days, when they were searching for organic molecules, contamination was a serious concern. Part of breaking open the rocks was to find surfaces that had not been in contact with the bags the rocks were stored in.
I don't have all the details and the professor who told me about it has sadly passed away now. I can only think of one person who I think is still alive who work on that project but haven't been in contact for over 20 years.
Where do we come from Cotton eye Joe? 4:17
So... is this the origin of one piece?
Why do we want to know about earths oldest rocks? In all of your conversations, you overlooked one important reason: its fun! Keep up the great work, Geo!
Because stuff happened before Kieth Richard’s
I don't know how the algorithm guided me to this video and channel, but it's rekindling that love of geology from college!
So glad to hear that! ;D
My inner nerd enjoyed this whole podcast. All of you are so interesting to listen to. Kudos to all of you!
Greetings from Sweden!
And here we have another awesome video!
I smiled all the way through this conversation, so fresh and interesting. Thanks to all three of you!
Jack hills in the Murchison region of Western Australia has ancient zircons found on the surface that are around this old (4.4 BYO)
It still blows my mind that the ground you stand on every day is unfathomably old. Even "Recent" sedimentary rock is older than the existence of human civilization. You can pick up any rock of granite or basalt and imagine just how much that it's gone through, from the steady rise of mountains to the flooding of oceans and countless thousands of different species emerging and disappearing while it just sits still, idling the time away until a person can walk up to it so it can be admired. Mind Blowing!
Thanks!
Thanks Rachel, great conversation. It makes it seem my college days were in the dark ages. Glad to be expanding my interests with such wonderful teachers. Thanks!
I would argue that there is no other reason needed to study the Earth (or anything) than because humans are curious and discovery enriches our lives in uncountable and often in yet to be know ways. Yes, if funding is coming from a source that wants to commodify information, you have to give them a reason. But so much basic understanding of our universe comes form someone asking, "'what's that?", "What's over there?", "What causes that?", "How does that work" and other questions of curiosity.
24:25 100% agree. It is a marvel of our understanding of nature, that we, collectively, can do this. Many fields of science came together to make this possible. We should be humble and grateful for all the work our predecessors made. All those discoveries, and yet still so many for us to find.
I totally agree.
one of the amazing things I wish more people truly understood is just how good we humans have gotten at measuring things. metrology is AMAZING!
just the idea of measuring something with 12 digits of precision blows my mind. that's like being able to count PRECISELY how many centimetres there are from your eyeball to the surface of the sun
the vibes in this video are immaculate + the info is helpful for someone who has no understanding of geology
That Acasta was a really gneiss present. You guys are so nerdy - it's very cool 🙂
They are nerdy and I love it..
I had a massive blind spot to the number of different ways y'all find the ages of rocks. This helped me see some things in a much clearer way. Thank you, I'm looking forward to part two.
These are some of the most intuitive explanations I've seen on these subjects.
Thanks! Take Tyler & Suki out for a treat
Thank you!
@@GEOGIRL Leave Hope home.....
Fascinating discussion. I hope that, in addition to the part 2 upcoming, you keep on this particular road and discuss the Nuvvuagittuq rocks in greater depth, covering how they're different than the other kinds of extremely old rocks in the world, how they are dated differently (due to their inconvenient lack of zircons, a fact shared by most mafic rocks on Earth), and why their status as the potential "oldest rocks in the world" is debated to this day. Maybe you could even get Dr. Jonathan O'Neil to come on as a guest; thanks to his team's groundbreaking work (which started with his PhD research, and continues still, at least as far as I'm aware), we now know that there could be a new oldest rock in the world. And since he made one of the boldest claims the geological community has seen in the 21st century, scientists from all over the world have been busily working in a VERY isolated part of Québec to study these rocks and perhaps find evidence disproving their "oldest" provenance...or find additional evidence confirming that they're exactly as old as claimed by O'Neil.
Before this work was conducted, the rocks at Nuvvuagittuq were known to be pretty old - at least 3.8 billion years old based on infiltrated magma bodies that bisect the greenstone, which DO have zircons for scientists to study (which sounds old - and it is - but as a rock-loving kid in Canada, I routinely collected and played on and around granitic rocks in the 2.8-3.2 billion year old range...so 3.8 is impressive, but not THAT impressive). But there's a fascinating debate now about neodymium-142, and whether it is native to those rocks (having decayed from samarium-146 in situ), or was incorporated into them at a later date. And the discussion could even proceed beyond that debate, to the insane possibilities that open up if we truly have HADEAN oceanic crust that is accessible for scientific study. It may even be possible to prove that plate tectonics started earlier than we believe right now, or to find evidence old life forms within these rocks. But most importantly, such a discussion would shed light on how science progresses. Because regardless of whether Acasta, or Nuvvuagittuq, or even some other rock entirely, is the oldest in the world, research like this has significantly improved isotopic methods of dating rocks, which will help geologists better characterize rocks from all over the world, not just northern Canada.
Interestingly you can sometimes find zircons in mafic rocks there have been some recovered from for example Mauritius/ Rapa Nui/Iceland its just their ages are much much older than the volcano and even the parent rock of the Pacific plate with some zircons dating as far back as the Archean ~3 Ga in age. Basically provided the Zircons remain in the upper mantle when they get subducted they can survive mantle assimilation into the asthenosphere and subsequent remelting of their parent rocks and then ultimately end up reerupted onto an oceanic island with no continental lithosphere in sight. Truly mind blowing little minerals.
Edit got the wrong oceanic hot spot(s) in memory. Turns out basically every plume except Hawaii has produced such Zircons thus though scientists have only recently started to look for these.
Serious rockhound here. Also interested in earth science. This indepth interesting scientific conversation is fascinating. Much of it is mind boggling and a bit over my head, however i could feel new dendrites forming in my brain as i listened! Thank you.
Great to see the connection being made to planet formation. I come from the astronomy side btw.
I have been interested in geology and rocks for a long time. Both Planet Geo podcast and Geo Girl videos are treasured resources for introducing and gently explaining complex aspects of geology to people without a science background.
Migmatite and gneiss of Lower Silesia Sudety mountains (Poland) were the first rocks that got me intrigued as a child with their wild patterns. It's great to find out more about those tortured creations!
love your username. 😍lol! :)
I love your videos. Great content. I took geology in college and I've been into it ever since.
Thank you! So glad to hear that ;D
such a good one, thanks y'all
Love geochronology and Archaean age or older geology. This was one of my favourite topics in my undergrad geology degree so love to see this on your channel
I'm the Precambrian guy she mentioned in her last video. The Archean is the most under studied eons in geology. Most of the best exposures are where people don't want to go because it's cold. They all want to go where it's warm. It's a niche part of geology and an under represented part of it.
Most of the people who do study the Archean are geochemists who not only have never seen the rocks but they make wild and global extrapolations.
Truly interesting to listen you all together. I took university geology as part of my engineering program and later did software development for geology and geophysics, and here I completely ignored the differential dating factors between crystal and mineral formations & reformation. This discussion was good for helping to fill gaps in my understanding of our wonderful world. Thank for having people who know their stuff AND actually communicate their field of study so well. Please, I really want you guys back together. Cheers from Canada
Fantastic! Such a great discussion. As a layperson I feel like I'm getting bathed in important knowledge. Eye opening stuff for me.
They sent you an old rock. That's adorable.
Yes, they are the absolute best! ;D
It's so much fun to see three people with this much enthusiasm! 🥰🔥🙌
Substantive and relatable. TY all, and rock on! 🎯😉💜
Brilliant explanation ...5 stars
The way Earth's absolute oldest rocks are in such rugged, beautiful places - it fills me with haunting wonder. That these rocks would be so hard to find, so difficult to reach, it's like the quest for the Holy Grail.
I graduated from Western Carolina University this December with a BS in Geology and a BS in Environmental Science.
I absolutely love Geology, but I've been dealing with burnout thanks to having two undergraduate research projects to wrap up (one individual/one group capstone), exams, and a multitude of presentations. That to say, I am a structure girlie at heart, and this video has helped me start to crawl out of that burnout! I can't wait to check out the podcast...
That is amazing to hear! I hope you crawl all the way back to loving it! :D Their podcast is a wonderful place to start, and they have several years of diverse and amazing episodes! Best of luck (and congrats on graduating with TWO undergrad projects!!! That's a huge accomplishment- I think you will go far!) ;)
Rachel 🏜️, Excellent interview. You do a fantastic job keeping the interview flowing and on point.
Chris & Jesse are very interesting!
I look forward to part 2. Thank you.
👏👏👏👏👏
Oh fun this is so great. Their visual podcast sounds so interesting will check it out. I once visited Antelope Island in Utah but these are next level. Thanks for your content :)
Yes! They are so great and they do so much for geoscience education! I highly recommend checking out their podcast and app, both links are in the description box of the video! :D
"Kicked out." For over 30 years I've wondered about how the fact that a rock was molten would affect the properties of the atomic nucleus of the elements within, such that it started the clock of radiometric dating. This made even less sense to me for metamorphic rocks. But "kicked out", OF COURSE the daughter elements won't have the same chemical properties as their parent element, and so won't form chemical bonds, in this case in crystal formation, in the same ways. Now I get it! Thank you!!!
Noooo!!! Watching, thinking the video was months old, only to realize it isn't, and that part 2 isn't out yet! Hahaha
It's coming! Trust me, the part 2 is my favorite too! You are going to love it, just hold on another week ;)
In the Jack Hills of Western Australia, Hadean Zircons have been dated to 4.4 Billion years old
see the world map at 7:44
Mineral, not rock
I'll look you guys up on your new podcast. The intersection of earth and cosmos is my jam!
Great topic ... and the video cuts are next level too! 👏
Thank you!! So glad you liked it :D
23:26 What a delightful distraction!
...on with the excellent video.
Excellent Rachel! I'm glad you got experts and didn't claim the jack hills zircons.
Fascinating. Geochronology is cool. Chase another rabbit hole, rhe search for when life began on Earth
Rachel: Extremely interesting! Love the interview format. Another fascinating topic to explore would be to identify the oldest rocks that bare evidence of life on earth. Quite a few would be contention. From what I understand the earliest known life forms on Earth may be as old as 4.1 billion years according to biologically fractionated graphite inside a single zircon grain in the Jack Hills range of Australia. Also…the earliest direct known life on Earth appear to be stromatolite fossils found in 3.48 billion year geyserite uncovered in the Dresser Formation of Western Australia. Amazing…so incredibly old!
I love it when you have an interviewee or interviewees on because you all validate each other. And this topic absolutely fascinates me👍.
Back in the Stone Age, in undergrad Geology classes, we were taught that the oldest rocks were found in the Canadian Shield. In the decades that rolled along, people said, No, you'll find them in Australia. In a few more Decades they said South Africa. Does it make any difference, who "wins"??
My oldest rock is 1.7-Billion-year-old quartzite, from Baraboo Wisconsin.
I have rocks older than that in my sauna stove... Living on top of the Baltic shield is kind of weird, most rocks i've seen in my life have been over 2 billion year old.
Great discussion. Thank you.
Chris and Jesse are great - I’ve listened to all their content.
I know right! I have started binging their podcast now ;D
Me too 👍
Great interview. I’d love to get all those episodes on podcast for when I can’t watch RUclips videos !
That was an enjoyable chat. I sometimes feel like i'm falling out of love with Earth science, like it's futile and even pointless. But watching your videos has more than once reminded me why i chose to dedicate so many years of study to the Earth system. It reminds me why teaching in particular can be so rewarding.
I'm so happy to find this channel and I'm amazed and before this I really liked potholer 54 who taught me so much. Please keep doing what y'all seem to enjoy so much the passion is great. Thank you
Velmi zajímavé, děkuji za to!
Yes, yes y'all, you guys ROCK!
You need to follow this up with a discussion of the greenstone rock along the shore of Hudson Bay, PLEASE!
Thanks for the suggestion! Will certainly look into this :D
@@GEOGIRL on the field?? or with a space telescope? 🔎😂(i live in Quebec so it'd be doable for me to check it out in person - but sadly, anything north of the 47th Parallel is basically dangerous territory in this province - think Amazon, but reverse. landscapes either barren and rocky, or nothing but trees and mosquitos, (and perhaps wild cat or wolverine, and the random moose/deer, very few if any services or roads (and always frozen over in winter...), no phone coverage ... ). as much as i love Canada and my province, that's just a little bit too wild for me lol! 😻(that's why most things are done by planes or ship when it comes to the northern tip of Quebec and the Hudson Bay nowadays, prolly 😹)
i HAVE to check out the Ile Rene-Levasseur though some day. 😍(the "Eye of Quebec" as it's often called, in the Parc de la Verendrye ... where the meteor crashed a long long while ago 😹(the other well-known crater being in Sudbury, Ontario 🙃.) i heard it's an absolutely beautiful and wonderful and enjoyable to check out, and of course very quiet, being dozens of hours drive into the woods lol 😼) (edit: 51.378350, -68.641326)
4.5682 Billion Years. That's some crazy precision.
I know right! I didn't know we had it that precise already! ;D
@@GEOGIRLits crazy that the last digit of this number is the time our spezies homo sapiens exist on earth 😅
A good lottery number
Lovely and interesting conversation. Thank you Rachel!
Super interesting conversation.
New sub :) great video
@GEOGIRL This may seem unrelated; however, your video on Ordovician diversification profoundly optimized and transformed my thinking about existence and applied biomimetics. Your videos have reshaped my multi-methodological approaches to emulating the survival skills of Ordovician lifeforms, as well as considering the non-volitional influences on life that operate on geochemical, meteorological, astronomical, and biochemical orders of magnitude.
Phenomenal intervening / conversational skills, Dr. You hopped in with two old friends, joined with them, and maintained direction of the conversation (some editing I assume)
great conversation!
The guests names are Chris Bowl Ice and Jesse Ice Rink. Both renowned curlers. But instead of the ice traveling
over the rock in glaciation the rock travels over the ice
Very much enjoyed this! I'm a broken (and old) Navy Aircraft Electrician now but many moons ago I wanted to make a lifetime of studying rocks my career. Not many super exciting ones in the south suburban Chicagoland area but it kept me out of trouble for many a short spell! 😅
Thanks for another great video and for introducing us to another great source for geo knowledge!
Is there any specific information we can determine about the environment of the early earth from the oldest zirons/rocks? Like if they formed in the presence of water or if there is anything we can learn about the chemistry of the atmosphere at the time of their formation?
Excellent! Thank You!
Hi Geo Girl, I recall you said that geology is not simply the study of rocks, so I'd like to ask a weather-related question. I've been looking up Medicane Ianos (2020), and the path of the storm does not seem to mimic what I see from Atlantic Ocean Hurricanes that typically curve away from the equator as they approach America. Perhaps it is just a matter of prevalence, but I find little information/discussions on Medicanes as most discussion of tropical cyclones is around Hurricanes that affect the US and Typhoons that impact Asia. You are one of the best science communicators and educators that I've found on RUclips so hope you can cover this subject matter.
What a great conversation!
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it ;)
enjoyed this discussion 👍☺
Thanks! I did too, I love these guys! Let me know if you'd like to see more with them (other than just on old rocks lol)
Great vid Rachel. Glad to see you're a more interesting teacher than a certain minerolagy professor!
12:57 are here we go as an Aussie geology University student I was waiting for this
To me, why do I care? Because it's absolutely fascinating. It's rewarding.
I find rocks fascinating. They have a story to tell. How did you form? How long have you been here? What story could you tell me?
I have a rock from near the Great Wall of China. A piece of lava from Iceland and Hawaii. I have a piece of the Rocky Mountains of Canada. I have white, black, red, opaque and rock looking rocks from where I live. Rocks tell us where we came from and help us understand where we're going. Rocks a just cool. Thanks for sharing!
Very few people know this, but the Earth created Rock n Roll.
Waitwaitwait. High school geology classes (plural). With field geology.
Somebody give that school district a raise.
Agree!!!
thanks for this great vid!
so have you heard about the geologists?? i don't know why, but they seem to be oddly obsessed with DATING. (ha ha ha) 😂woohoo, another GeoGirl video. that was a cute introduction you did lol - i guess breaking out of the "i'm a Doctor in this field and have done many papers and research" mold was hard indeed lol! 🤩i never noticed, myself, though! you've a great approach/tone/voice, are pretty easy to understand and follow no matter the topic, and a wonderful smile to boot and genuine passion for your field. 😻! cheers!
also, this Jesse guy looks pretty ... GNEISS, wow. 😼:teehee:. ... never seen anyone so excited over a useless old chunk rock, and that's great to see Rachel! 😹 (and he's got great hair :teehee: lol!)
Extremely interesting. I have a BS in Geology from Indiana University.
That is awesome! What do you do now? Do you work in geo?
So zircons can grow a new envelope that can be used to date their surroundings if they get subducted deep inside the Earth. Didn't know that! ☺️ Kind of reminds me of tree rings and how archeologists use those, except this is way cooler given there's magma involved.
Hey Rachel, please hear me out! I just watched your stable isotope series from years ago, but I couldn’t find the one about nitrogen isotopes and δ15N. I think you should add that too-even if just to complete the series. Those videos were amazing! I’m new here and can’t wait to dive into more of your content.
Thanks for adding your voice to mine!! I wish she would re-up some of those isotope, biogeochem and microbe videos. And add some new isotope videos in her abundant free time :)
That has been on my list for some time now! Thanks for the reminder ;) I will certainly try to do that at some point! :D It was just not first on my list because I had done some research with the other isotopes, but have never done any research with nitrogen isotopes, so it's always been more intimidating to me, but I will do some research and see what I find!! :D
Well, geology and rushing must be the furthest things from each other :D You’ve got all the time in the world! Thank you for hearing us out!
WHAT happened to Chris's beard?! I've been an avid listener of their podcast and heard of your channel through them. This is honestly the first time I've actually SEEN either one of them wow! Surreal! I'm so glad you hosted them back :)
@GeoGirl - I guess that I need to wait for pt 2, but as I understand it we might be looking at zircon grains that were eroded out of ancient mountains and deposited as sedimentary rock that was then metamorphised. How do we understand where the rocks fit in the process of land building and erosion ?
32:30 LOL kitty just wanted to join in on the great discussion!
Damn it GG, you've got the best smile out there
I thought this able dating.......I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!
Used to work with a Professional Geologist that was "CHRISTIAN" like "6000 years old".
This made for some interesting discussion.........!
Ah, a 'geologist'
Cognitive dissonance is a heck of a ride.
I used to listen to their podcast on Google ❤ and geo girl ❤ it's really gneiss to hear from you about the topics that I love
Before watching, my guess for the oldest rocks would be the ophiolites you mentioned in the videos about how tectonics wasn't always _plate_ tectonics, along with chondritic meteorites that are presumed to be primordial but don't exactly count if we're going to be sticklers about the "on earth" part and only include the length of time they've been here.
I worked at this copper mine in Timmins Ontario called the Kidd Creek mine. Rock is interesting up close and personal and dangerous.
Mega cliffhanger! 😱
i want to visit northern Canada im near Toronto and am thinking of taking a train to Churchill Manitoba by Hudson Bay and its really old landscape up there and Polar bears :)
Hudson Bay is actually surrounded by much younger rocks. To see the oldest ones you actually do not have to go much further than pickle Lake Ontario
@@stevenbaumann8692 Hi Steve, thanks so much for sharing your knowledge to other viewers on my channel! :D
@@stevenbaumann8692 51.378350, -68.641326 THIS one?? :O i remember seeing it when i was trying to find the coordinates for Ile Rene-Levasseur just now, and thinking the name was funny but that it was basically insignificant just as most of the other thousands of lakes in Northern Ontario. 🙃interesting! that is indeed not far at all! :O ! couple of hours from Wawa, maybe? ....... but, there's a saying in Canada (among Hitch-Hikers, at least) - we don't talk about Wawa. 😆
6:50 *_The Rocks Were There_*
Have you collaborated with James Doward and Jackson Wheat, authors of *_The Rocks Were There?_*
I can't understand 'isochron dating'. Can you make a video about that, explaining it?
Any comment on the amounts of elemental isotopes resultant from nova events? With half -lives that rule out distant novas( they would have degraded by the time they got here)?
Conclusion: our star creates them from periodic micronovas?
UP for statehood. Our rocks are better
Lol. That's a reason for a breakaway political entity I've never heard before. Our rocks are awesome! Yours are young and boring ... and sad. If it ain't Archean it's a sad state of bein'. Would you join forces with Superior craton areas of Wisconsin and Minnesota, or would that bring too many of us Vikings fans?
As a Yooper, it depends on what you mean by better. There is the MCR. I actually have done stratigraphy papers on it. But the Canadian side has much older.
Geo Girl -- you give me hope for the future. Best of Everything --- 4.4-billion-year-old rock Hudson Bay East -- eh!
This is my favorite thing about geology. It's like the Graham's number of rocks.
I searched this a few months ago and didn't find an answer to thank you for this
I''ve got a small bit of Issua formation rock. I understand that Acasta gneiss is not obtainable by or for normal mortals. How about the other formations? Where can I get even gem sized samples of some of the others?
8:32 And I have one of the oldest Škoda "RR" (rear engine, rear drive) layout cars as well as one of the youngest Škoda "RR" layout cars in my garage. The older is the Škoda 1000 MB DeLuxe from 1966 (the best "peoples" you could buy at the time) and the younger the Škoda 130L from 1986 (again the best "peoples" you could buy at that time). But what is a mere 20 years difference, right? On a geographical timescale it is maybe an atom width on the error bar of a graph. And yet, totally different cars. Much like the rocks. Only certain people "value" those things the way they do. I am, 100%, the odd one. The money put into those cars is way much than any "market value" they will ever have. "Wasted" money for less than an atom width of an error bar of a geological time graph. LOL. I am truly crazy.
When I was in grad school back in the late '70's, igneous petrologists Dr. Jon Berg and his wife Ruth Kalamarides-Berg were researching what were then thought to be the Earth's oldest rocks from the Canadian craton in Quebec and Labrador. I don't think they cracked the 4 billion year mark with their research in that era
Yes, I heard the cat! But otherwise great talk! Though I haven’t listened to this kind of stuff very much interesting though to hear about this rock we live on!
STUDYING THE EARTH & ROCK LAYERS ALONG WITH THE SUN MAY ENLIGHTEN US AS TO HOW LONG MAN HAS ON EARTH & IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM. ION ROCKETS CAN TAKE US TO OTHER STAR SYSTEMS TO PROLONG THE HUMAN SPECIES.