An Odd Fault in Bryce Canyon National Park: The Ruby's Inn Thrust Caused By Volcanism
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- Опубликовано: 2 окт 2024
- Explore an interesting structure in Bryce Canyon National Park, right along scenic Highway 12, with geology professor Shawn Willsey. GPS location: 37.68352, -112.12565
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So, am I correct in assuming that the scree there is not only from erosion but also because of slumping, breaking and slippages after the fault had formed the overhanging cliff faces? Thanks Shawn.
Inconceivable Forces at Play. Thanks for scrambling up there to show us !
Always enjoy all your Geology videos. I'm not a Geologist but have really enjoyed playing at it since I retired from nuclear power. Because of that when visiting Bryce Canyon NP, I also wanted to visit the little town of Antimony which is to the North of Bryce on Johns Valley road. On the way you drive down into & thru a basaltic canyon. West of Antimony, on route 62, is what looks like a volcanic conglomerate. Of course back in 2021, I had no idea what it was.
It's always a fun outing with you, and Bryce is an especially beautiful spot. Ooh wow! This thrust fault is full of slickenlines, so amazing to see. I hope to remember to identify them in my explorations. Very handy, next to the highway. 😉 Thanks, Shawn, for your prep work and showing us!
Another neat demonstration of geological dynamics and slickenlines, thank you!
Really enjoyed this and I will look forward to visiting the landslide at a future date with you! Love the roadside geology - so helpful for those who cannot get out and scramble around anymore.
Thank you Shawn ❤ I am loving these lessons amazing and fascinating what mother Nature can do 😊
Utah is a fascinating and beautiful state. When I moved from WA to OH, I took some great pictures while we were cutting through UT!
I know what you mean. I've moved from Wyoming to Ohio, and dearly miss the West. I use lots of personal photos (from Wyoming and the West, places my ex-husband ran ultramarathons, like Bryce and Zion) to teach students. I teach intro geology at a local community college in Springfield, OH. My students know how much I miss it out there. I wish I could've stayed and gone for my PhD. It's a geologist's playground, for sure. ⚒️☺️🌄
In 1999 I visited Bryce Canyon and stayed at Ruby's Inn. Wish I'd had a geologist to explain it all to me - it's a fascinating and beautiful place.
Slickenlines sure get around. Fantastic.
Very cool! Amazing how mobile rocks can get with the unthinkable energy involved.
It's so nice to see all those colors!
Very interesting! Could you also tell us more about freshwater limestone?
So I learned, to my surprise, fresh water limestone IS a thing.
Thanks Shawn for showing the other side of Hoodooville..lol
Extremely interesting as usual to understand the landforms creation.
Love your show, Shawn it's so interesting.
Thanks Shawn, great to see this fault close up!
I wonder sometimes...do the people that think the earth is 6000 years old ever consider the earth that god created and when it was created and how it continues to change.
I often point out that the old testament wasnt written by christians and that believing the earth is 6000 years old isnt required to believe in Christianity
Thank you Prof. Shawn, always great observational assessments of earth surface, mineral and soil fuel component proccesses.
Nebraska, Kid🌱
Thanks for scrambling up that hillside to show us that thrust fault exposure. Cool slikenlines. How do slickerlines differ from slickerslides? What a beautiful day for a hike in Bryce!
Slickensides are the fault surfaces that are polished by movement across the fault. Slickenlines are the striations on the slickensides.
What was the speed of the fault movement?
Inches per millennium, inches per century, inches per year ???
Was this a slow process, or part of a rapid (geologically speaking) fault movement?
Yay slickenlines…. I saw that… thanks for sharing time. Beautiful… just bought myself a loupe to look closer cheers Shawn 😊
I really love these videos. I'm learning so much from them. Thank you so much for your hard work producing them!
That's pretty cool. I say that every time. Thanks for all your illuminating videos.
Interesting. Like these little videos.
❤❤❤ Thank you Shawn!
Now that should make these geologic processes clearer to average person with literal grinding marks from rock being pushed over other.
You've got lots of fresh examples of geologic processes there in US...
Here in Finland young rock basically means less than 1.5 billion years old. ;)
Thanks for another great video, Shawn! Not only is the landscape stunning and beautiful, but I am each time completely in awe of the tremendous forces that were obviously at play here, in order to create it... (All quiet on the Icelandic front it would seem... for now! ^^)
How did the thrust fault get its name? Who was Ruby the innkeeper?
I love seeing all the colors on the rocks and cliffs. I so wanna visit Canyonlands National Park. It is to the east of there, near Moab. Love watching the videos of that place.
{I wonder how very long ago the pine you have your clipboard on germinated} Great to see the actual edge of the shoved huge section, how dramatic-
I was able to identify the slicker lines based on a previous video! Great job professor!
Heckuva of an overthrust hanging wall. Beautiful exposure, do they know the offset?
Thank you Professor. Enjoy your roadcut vids.
Patiently waiting for your coverage of the MGS! Since like forever!
I really enjoy your videos! This One was special to me as I am from Utah.
Another great video. Thank you for all your efforts.
Fantastic!
The slickenlines remind me of the steps of an escalator
Great video, thanks for your effects
I love your coverage of my favorite state ! 😊
That looks like a good place for a major launch light
Always interesting, thanks again 😊
Great video Shawn - thanks for the info and letting us tag along , I’m curious about Ruby’s Inn and how that got it’s name transferred to a geologic formation . Interesting to see the question mark on the diagram - looked a bit like the authors weren’t 100% sure about some of the subterranean features - eg the extent of the magma from the dome indicated in pink on the state geologic survey map - it’s hard to believe that the Pacific plate way off beyond the San Andreas fault is what is “pushing” this and causing the lines of striation seen - lots of anomalies and “nonconformities “ ? How about massive , solar scale , electrical discharges? So much of the Utah ( and other Rocky Mountain ) landscape looks so violently and rapidly formed , with intruded veins of minerals all flowing in wavy lines through granite etc - sometimes sea floor stratigraphy , slow uplifting and ageless centuries of erosion doesn’t seem to fit as an explanation to what I see ?.. thanks for your production , super fun - love the Escalante and the fabulous Colorado Plateau- truly like nowhere on Earth !! ( Are you familiar with Wal Thornhill and the Thunderbolts Project ? , astrophysics and cosmological stuff but very relatable - Lots to think about !!)
Unfortunately the thunderbolts project and the rest of the so called electric universe have been pretty handedly been exposed as a scam as they attempt to debunk the existence of gravity. Yes there are electromagnetic effects which do relate to the planets tectonic evolution, some of which like the correlation of solar activity and tectonic activity are poorly understood but gravity is very much a thing and the electric universe has produced no valid testable predictions while they actively scam millions of dollars from their followers.
Geology wise it is indeed more complex than slow gradual processes you need to remember that things can happen suddenly in geology earthquakes volcanoes landslides these happen on much shorter timescales than the net motion of tectonic plates and indeed we have observed that much of the net motion of plates appears to come in bursts of faster versus slower spreading rates. The western US has indeed had a violent tumultuous past with various pulses of activity which since around 50 Ma has been extensional in nature.
Based on Seismic Tomography we can see that there is a slow sheer velocity zone anomaly which connects to the Juan de Fuca Ridge the Gouda Ridge, the Snake River plain, Yellowstone the eastern bounds of the Colorado plateau and the Rio Grande rift Valley before darting southwest to intersect with the East Pacific Rise Proper. These subcontinental zones have the same general architecture as the mid ocean ridge they connect to with the only real discontinuity looking to be the zones between the Snake River plain and where the Cascadia subduction zone intersects the Gouda Ridge and then the corresponding portion between the Rio Grande Rift valley and the East Pacific Rise through the Gulf of California both of which appear to track with the motion of the overlying North American plate as if the subducting slabs on the other side have dragged the ridge with the continent.
Everything within this general region experiences a clockwise rotation so the Colorado plateau might then be best thought of as a section of the craton which due to the mounting tectonic strains over some 30 million years began to fail 17 million years ago leading to the initiation of the modern Basin and Range Province. This zone is not the first section of crust to have experienced these types of tectonic forces since the ridge section linked to Yellowstone(which from igneous petrology of Siletzia and the seismic tomography we have pretty good evidence it was a Pacific counterpart to Iceland i.e. a Ridge line hotspot which serves as the main forward point wedging North America's craton apart as the continent advances to the southwest.
In this picture the San Andreas is just the area where North American crust which has been emplaced on the Pacific Plate has been pushed past the Cascades and the bulk Continent to the north of the Snake river plain enough that the the bulk continent can no longer hold these parts of continental crust back from moving freely with the Pacific plate. GPS movements pretty handedly show that the clockwise rotation of the western North America fits the relative motion difference between the bulk North American craton and the Pacific plate.
Under those kinds of forces rock is going to build stress until it fails catastrophically, again and again and again on geologic timescales. This net motion will probably last until subduction runs out ending slab pull due to gravity. To add to this I recently learned that starting around 5 million years ago there is a developing linear zone of highly active volcanism extending further towards and away cutting perpendicularly from the main line of volcanoes of the Cascadia subduction arc with a corresponding apparent thinning in the underlying slab which appears to be roughly aligned along the same lineament as the Snake river plain. I can't help but wonder if this may be the consequence of the deep mantle convection reestablishing its preferential upwelling zone as the active spready margin is carried further to the southwest from its deep mantle continuation. If this is the case then the portion of the cascades to the south of this lineament will likely be split off from the continent with spreading along those disconnected ridge sections likely slowing to a halt over millions of years. An interesting potential consequence of this is it might transport a section of active subduction onto the great Pacific slab swallowing up the younger side of the oceanic crust as the Center of the ocean moves east obviously on a timescale of many tens of millions of years.
These linear sections of upwelling I should remind extends deep quite potentially all the way down to the core mantle boundary and is Earth's most active spreading center. The continent it appears is over deep time i.e. the last 50 million years getting slowly torn to shreds by this progression and that is going to be represented in fairly abrupt locally cataclysmic episodes dispersed through the long steady interval of deep time.
Mr Willsey, I am absolutely thrilled to have found this lesson. It is right up there in terms of, amazing education.
I do hope my question is not silly. I understand that the fault line limestone was created a very long time ago. But are those slicken lines actually still in motion in these years? If so; Is there an estimated average amount of slip per (say decade) ? Or is all the shale as a result of weather erosion?
Thank you,
No modern motion along these faults.
So cool
Fascinating! Thank You.
Learning is cooll!
You're right. Spectacular colour. What makes that limestone pink?
iron
Ah! Thanks.
Why is it called Ruby's Inn? Sound like there may be an interesting back story there
It's the hotel there. Ruby's Inn.
@@sheilaathay2034 Did they have to rebuild the inn after it was destroyed by a huge thrust fault during a massive earthquake?
I will disagree.😉51 million years ago😂.A little edge to be wrong about the age of rock formations.🤔Just playing😅😊
You have introduced me to geology. What's your view of the Younger Dryas impact story?
Stay safe! That looks seriously high above that road with a very steep incline!
Awesome as usual! Thank you for going out and showing us these amazing formations!
What's the (fundamental) difference between fresh and salt water limestone?
Some of those interesting spots look quite precipitous. You need a sure footing!
Thanks!
How did it get the name Ruby's Inn ?
Any thoughts on the ongoing eruption of the LA Cumbre volcano in the galapagos?
Looks very cool. Wish I was there!
Thx Prof ✌🏻 fascinating
At [2:28] there are two generally circular shapes that start at the near end of the overhanging cliff, a bigger one extending further to the right having whiter rock at its center and a smaller one having the smooth darker red rock at its center. Both circles start at the end of the overhang, the larger circle has a lower boundary of the lighter protruding rock that wraps around the right side just before the larger area of rock that is generally smooth. The smaller one has a boundary on the right that approaches the first brownish segment of rock just to the right of the white rock at the center of the larger circle feature. To the right of this all, visible around [2:29] and again around [2:49], is another arcing shape suggestive of an even larger circular structure also centered on the white rock spot, with a couple of additional arcs visible between just to the right of the further right brownish rock.
The structure, which appears to be a cross-section of the overhanging cliff, seems to suggest some sort of tubular "rolled up" shape to the overall structure where the smallest circle's region was uneroded through the span of the overhang while above and below it was relatively more eroded to not have larger tubular structures preserved.
Have such features been documented and described as to why it would be present? It would seem like the material was not only thrusted but some of it, catching from friction rather than purely sliding, was caused to roll on itself and create a tubular layered feature.
We'll be there in a couple of months seeing Zion, Bryce, Kodachrome, Capitol Reef, etc. and driving Hwy 12. Can you tell us where this video was made? We'd live to stop and see these formations in person! Thanks for a great educational video!!
GPS location in video description and first few seconds of video.
THANKS! Again, live your videos and geology lessons!
Thx! Very well done!
Outstanding. I have some Google images from a road cut that fascinated me on a trip. Would love to send them to you for your review at some point.
I meant landslide
Thanks!
Im wondering if this is the same kind of rocks we have here in Wisconsin? I know theres a lot of geological wonders here that happened especially from the glaciers. Im just kinda learning, and those rock formations and colors remind me of the Wisconsin Dells rocks and other areas in Wisconsin.
I believe the Dells are Cambrian sandstones , so while they are sedimentary beds , that's where the similarities stop .
Still , half billion year old sandstone is pretty neat all by itself , especially after being sculpted by ice and water .
Thanks!
Much appreciated. Thanks for supporting geology education.
Absolutely Shawn! Appreciate you teaching us arm chair wannabee geologists :) Keep up the good work!@@shawnwillsey
Where did the name come from and how long has this been happening? Thanks Shawn.
Ruby's Inn Thrust is names for the nearby lodge/restaurant/campground called Ruby's Inn.
Recrystaficated? Not a term that I learned studying geology. Overall love your content but sometimes take exception to some of your terms I had never heard of “slickensides” referred to as “slicken lines”.
Listen again. He clearly says slick lines and recrystallization
According to Glossary of Geology by American Geological Institute, "slickenline: a lineation on a slickenside defined by grooves, ridges and/or striations." Slickenside is the surface, slickenlines are the striations. Slickenline is one word.
Yea some geologist even call it slickenslide
Shawn, can you either point to a video you've made or do a new one for the area in SE Utah with the cubed blocks at 37 degrees 14 04 39 N by 109 degrees 55 40 76 W. Thanks.