Geology Hikes with Thomas: In the second part of the virgin anticline video, we collect silver, look at dinosaur and other tracks, explore ancient petrified swamps.
Very cool place. I would have recognized the fossilized wood, but the more subtle fossilized plants I would not have recognized. I would have missed the dinosaur tracks completely. I'm curious how copper and silver get into the sandstone. I assume metal bearing ground waters percolated into it and precipitated it there. The basalt flow shows there was volcanic activity in the area, so I assume they came into the area with the magma.
Yes, the silver and copper minerals were deposited from hot water intruding the sandstone layer. This deposition happened before the anticline was formed about 70 million years ago. The volcanism is much younger, usually less than 1 million years ago, it’s associated with the basin and range expansion.
![5 months of work to reveal this rare fossil! [unknown species]](/img/1.gif)
Very cool place. I would have recognized the fossilized wood, but the more subtle fossilized plants I would not have recognized. I would have missed the dinosaur tracks completely.
I'm curious how copper and silver get into the sandstone. I assume metal bearing ground waters percolated into it and precipitated it there. The basalt flow shows there was volcanic activity in the area, so I assume they came into the area with the magma.
Yes, the silver and copper minerals were deposited from hot water intruding the sandstone layer. This deposition happened before the anticline was formed about 70 million years ago. The volcanism is much younger, usually less than 1 million years ago, it’s associated with the basin and range expansion.
@@ThomasEckhardt That makes sense. Thanks for the interesting video.