Almost 10 years ago I started “watching” Dr. Zentner in order to fall asleep at night. I haven’t gotten much sleep since. He is passionate, persuasive, uplifting, and extremely knowledgeable which all combine to make for a captivating expletive every time I watch. I am so glad he has the bandwidth and capability to document his lectures for those of us who can’t join him in person.

Once again Mr. Zentner teaches us a topic we did not know we wanted to learn.

Nick Zentner has a real talent for blowing the the dust off a topic and breathing life in to it.

Listening to the lecture and then seeing that map of Alaska at 47:49 brought a smile on my face. ISN'T THIS STUFF COOL! Downloaded the Beck and Butler papers to read. Graduated from college with a BA in geology in '84. Didn't go into the field but have always kept the interest. Thanks for your lectures! - Midwesterner from Illinois

What I truly like is that Prof. Zentner has the courage to honestly update his teaching and incorperate it into his classess.

Zentner is the greatest teacher, at seventy, i would go back to school to be one of his pupils, chapeau bas, Monsieur, et merci.

Fun fact. It was the US Navy that discovered magnetic polar flipping by hunting for mines during ww2

This guy always is at the top of his game. Wish I had a teacher like him.

It is to love that this man is willing to accept new evidence and adjust his teaching accordingly.

I spent months flying over the Rocky Mountains, desert southwest, and California while doing aerial survey. Your lectures answer so many questions I had while flying over the geology of the American west and make me want to go back and observe with fresh eyes.

wait for it... MAGnificent lecture!!

Great for a rainy Sunday afternoon.

I really admire a professor who will unbiasedly present new knowledge, and various new theories, and explain them thoroughly and well. THAT is educational integrity. Thanks for being that kind of guy! Any development in any educational field should be exciting and an occasion for collaboration and sharing, not an excuse to hunker down, protecting your own turf and modus opperandi! Presenting and sharing, freely disagreeing, discussing, and making an honest attempt to understand is the mark of a scientific approach which is always growing and changing, because we don't know everything yet!

Thank you Nick - refreshing to hear paleomag talk. In 1980, I used paleomag to determine a timeframe of when the NorCal coastal mountain range (north of bay area) was re-magnetized some distant time after it had been laid down, but before it was distorted, folded, uplifted, fractured by faulting, etc. It was really a fun paper. What we didn't do was discuss the rest of the story as to "why" and "how" the sedimentary strata became remagnetized (although we suspected much heat and/or pressure was involved). Great introduction to Paleomag and its contribution to deciphering the stories in geologic evidence.

Our rocks have a story to tell and Nick is the journalist interviewing, gathering evidence, and then distilling his notes in a cohesive narrative to tell that story in the most engaging and entertaining way. I love that he exposed us to so many other interesting and hard working geologist in the past few years, and especially this past winter. That series was epic! This set of talks has been an amazing wrap up to the series. 💯💥

FYI - in 1980, UC Davis Geology Dept wouldn't let me take a core drill out into the field; I carefully collected field samples securing their orientations, brought them back to the lab and secured them in plaster and then cored them in the lab. But once we had those cores, then the magic happened when we reoriented them and secured the magnetic field orientation, and compared against polar wandering plotting to start to bracket a timeframe of the level, planer surface. Fun stuff!

Prof. Zentner, these are so great. Thanks so much for all this work!

'That's the hook'. Your style of teaching hooked me the 1st time I watched one of your lectures, 1 1/2 years ago. And your willingness to learn new things/ideas makes you a great teacher. Thanks for yet another great video lecture!

As someone who has always found the traditional model (Farallon subduction suddenly goes horizontal) completely and totally unconvincing, this and the previous video (How Did the Rocky Mountains Form?) are remarkably satisfying. Not sure I'm ready to die in peace just yet, but at least I now have something to think about that makes sense. Thanks for your work on this, Nick! I look forward to further discussion of this model in the years ahead, and I trust you will stay involved and keep us posted about the upcoming conferences.

Been at peace with this, since I found out paleomagnetism suggests the crooked river caldera (yellowstone ancestor)came on shore in California but I visit it at Smith rock here in Central Oregon all the time!

It all makes perfect sense! I never understood the lack of explanation of the “angle change” of the Farallon Plate!

Just finished watching the last two lectures and enjoyed every minute of this series. Nick, you are a Master of your craft and a magician, of sorts, for transforming 78 episodes of information into 4 hours of riveting and beautifully told geological stories. Talk about great energy! I wish I could have been there.

My mind is blown! Wow. Thank you for the audible. Not just plates colliding, but moving in respect to the ordinate pole. Just awesome. I have a whole new view of the dynamics of Mother now.🙏

I’m so hooked on this series. As a Yukon resident, living a few hours away from Carmacks. I have always had so many questions about what happened so that an ancient coral reef ended up as a mountain I wake up to every day. How is that even possible, and how that came to be. I can feel the pieces of puzzle start to come together. If you ever decide to come up to the Yukon to check out the Carmacks Group you have to give us all a heads up. Would love to see a lecture of yours. Thank you for doing this series.

It would be helpful if you shared suggested reading material for those of us who are playing catch-up. Nick's reading list would be an immediate hit!!

This is fantastic! And in the traditional definition of the word - I mean it’s really great to see different thoughts and ideas expressed against the mainstream geological narrative. Regardless of what the truth may be we, as humans trying to understand, need discussion and argument and sharing of varying data. Thanks for this!

I have a feeling that 20 years from now, geology students will watch this video in the same way that we now view presentations of plate tectonics from the 1950s and 1960s. Until there is data that shows the paleomagnetic research to be in error in some way, I am getting more and more convinced that this northward migration makes perfect sense. Especially, when you have tomography that shows the story as well.

Big fan of these lectures. Keep them coming, I wish I had teachers/professors as enthusiastic as Nick.

you keep geology fun

Nice presentation! Geology has always been about “thinking outside the box”, this is how we discover new data! Very thankful that we have Geologists that are able to do that! Retired Geologist who spent has career doing open hole geophysical logging..

I was somewhat surprised to learn that paleomagnetism wasn't mainstream since my geology professor at Queen's University (Kingston, Ontario) included it in lectures back in 1982. Of course, he was young so not "set in his ways" nor, I'm guessing, did he a lifetime of papers to protect. Great series of videos; thanks for creating and sharing them.

This was wonderful and compelling, and I didn't expect that at all (just that it would be fascinating). What a fine presentation. Thank you for posting this.

A learning junky, here. New to geology. I lived a lot of years in the Klamath Knot. I have spent over 60 years within sight of "my" beautiful Mt. Shasta, on three different sides. What you say is, besides being fascinating, makes sense. Thank you so much. I will read the papers you mentioned. I will also pass this on to my appropriate acquaintances.

This is a great way to view the West and just how complex our planet is, and how little we know. Thanks for putting forth and supporting this new view. Science is all about discover and change!

NO REASOUNDING THUD HERE .. enjoying your lecture tremendously

It would be interesting to add the Yellowstone Hot Spot location to the lower mantle slab model. It seems that movement greatly increases as exotic terrain crossed over the hot spot. Its almost as if the hot spot is producing lubrication. Another thought is that the hot spot would be like Hawaii with fairly big volcanic islands highly prone to erosion. Would it behave as a friction reducer if that material got placed between large rock bodies?

Geology and its derivatives such as paleomagnetism are grandiose and awesome sciences. If I could live my life again, I'd do that. Kids, think about this as a career!

After all the changes in how we understand geology that happened in the past 100 years, one would think the scientific community would be more open to challenging preconceived notions, right? I guess even after a century of groundbreaking and earthshaking discoveries and massive shifts in knowledge, opinions still change at a geological speed. (all the puns very much intended)

As a surveyor using a metal detector trying to find metal monuments, false 'beeps' from rock formed when north swapped south was annoying.

Thanks for what you do, keep it moving forward. Who would have thought. We sure look at the landscape differently now.

Hi Everybody. Hi Dr Nick... I reckon Nick is the epitome of a scientist ... A teacher that never stops learning and growing the understanding of their subject to better prepare their students for even greater understanding.

Much of what Nick and associates (Myrl Beck, Bernie Hausen, etc.) have presented reminds me strongly of a book by Thomas Kuhn I read decades ago titled "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions." That seems to be what's happening.

Always love to watch Nick Zenter. He reminds me of my favorite geology professor of fifty years ago. Jim Birk instilled a love in the science that has yet to fade!

your best thing is not that you know its that you enjoy

I got busy with other thing for a year, but I am back again and I hear you talking about the new stuff and I love it! Before I stopped watching about a year ago, you had mentioned that mountain in China with the steep ocean plate diving into the mantel and that blew me away. And now you are talking about it happening under North America as well.

Thanks, Nick. I missed that Myrl Beck had passed. So glad he wrote the papers he did, taught the classes, and did the interviews so his knowledge is not lost. Also, thank you for making sure the paleomag information is being disseminated and that recognition of this is happening.

Dr. Nick: Your teaching of geology should earn you a gold medal at a future scientific olympics. The open nature of your dialogue with all who you have interviewed is the best way to advance our understanding of the earth, the only home we have. I wish our elected political representatives could mirror your process.

Awesome lecture Nick. My wife and I travel the west coast a lot, fm Baja to British Columbia. We've listen to all of your geology 101 pod-cast during our road trips between our home in Blaine WA and BAJA MX. plus watched multiple videos on your channel here. We've learned A LOT and we appreciate you and your style of presentation. I just wanted to take a moment to say THANK YOU!

its me again DrZ, I never thought of geology as being so progressive, i am blown away by these new models, at the very least its worth a good look eh!

I have learned more from Prof. Zentner on KZfaq than from 100 and 200-level college geology courses. This is only the 5th lecture that I have watched.

Thank you professor Nick.

Thank you, Professor, for lifting up your colleagues!

This is all making perfect sense! You have no idea how much I appreciate you!

Thanks Nick! This is the second presentation that I have watched... How the Rocky's were made was the first. It all makes sense to me, I'm not a geologist, but I love rocks, and how they were formed. Ron from Sandy, Utah...

It's odd to think we may be watching a paradigm shift in action. I think the proponents of the accepted view can be forgiven for being reluctant to lose their model; the geology up there in that corner is crazy complicated, having finally arrived at an understanding of the picture it can't be easy to scrap it in favour of a new understanding. Fantastic lecture, as always!

Awesome, Nick!!😃💗 Myrl would be so proud of you, and glad you are making sure his paleomag work is passed on to other geologists and to us believers and wonders!!💞😏10 years from now or even sooner, I bet more people will appreciate what you've done here! Thank you, Nick, Myrl, and others for letting me open my eyes!!😘💞💗

I am from India and like your teaching style sir🙏🙏🙏

I so appreciate the accessibility of your teaching. Today I had several “ahhhhh!” moments. I live in Oregon and originate from Colorado. Thank you for modifying your teaching to follow new knowledge and for communicating it so clearly.

John McPhee has written on a variety of topics, including a 5-book series with geology as the main topic. Annals of the Former World was the final book, containing the previous four as well as book five. The fourth volume, titled Assembling California, was published 30 years ago. Eldridge Moores was prominently featured in that book, and it is filled with his ideas and background details of his life. In a few pages it included a similar hypothesis. I am paraphrasing here, but McPhee, wondering about the Rockies and Himalayas, asked if Alaska could have played the role of India before sliding up the Pacific coast in pieces. Moores in reply said that is exactly what happened. I don't think that anyone back then was questioning subduction polarity (eastward vs. westward dip), and in either case there was not yet any tomographic picture of the mantle detailed enough to shed light on the topic. Over the past 30 years many more details have been uncovered. The picture today perhaps points to the terranes of western Canada rather than Alaska as the impactor. But the basic idea is not new. I think that there may still be time for a shift between westward and eastward subduction before the Laramide Orogeny. If you divide the formation of the Cordillera into Sevier and Laramide events then each could have been caused by different slabs. The Sevier Orogeny would be initiated by closure above a west-dipping subduction zone. While that slab is descending and breaking off an east-dipping subduction zone is developing somewhere to the west. Presumably this new subduction comes from the south-west to match the vector of the Laramide flat slab, which underthrusts the Sevier and beyond, beneath future Colorado and Wyoming. The big error is assuming that eastward subduction had been continuous. One could imagine a suitable arrangement of plates to accommodate the rapid northward movement of Baja-BC, with perhaps a triple plate junction south of it. This, of course, would require figuring out where all these terrane pieces were located at about 90 million years ago, and what plate arrangement might accommodate the movements needed. There is a lot of movement to unwind, including Basin-and-Range extension, northward translation of multiple terranes along many fault zones, compression and stacking of terranes on thrust faults, and with much of the evidence eroded away or buried.

Love the information and the origins of both the info and the informants! Kudos!

Great teacher. Wow!

Wow! Impressive and fascinating!

Absolutely brilliant summation. Nick is a gifted communicator, as well as a careful consumer of primary investigations. Being able to distill this subject into a coherent presentation to laymen is pretty amazing, actually. My hat is off. :)

I have absolutely enjoyed this double lecture - science would be nothing without one's emotion and quest for the truth. It will take me a lot of time to try to explain this to my 9 year old daughter (she already understands in basic terms how the Himalayas were formed, so there is a good chance). Thank you for this excellent video.

Can't wait to watch this one. Thank you for the video, Nick!

Fascinating! I love that there are still changes to the way geologists see the world as some are finally willing to accept the results of research and technology that was done decades before. It must be both frustrating and vindicating for those involved.

Excellent Presentation. Look forward to all programing future!!

Again, Marvelous.

Sir, you make me go back to school and switch my major from English to Geology! I'm a 44 year old mom and felt like I was too old to learn new things...thanks for proving me wrong! 😊

You know watching that model roll at the end makes me wonder just how much Chicxulub impact had on all of this. Loved the lecture I look forward to more.

I was taught the basics of Paleo Mag back in the mid/late 1980's, how that's been applied to model the unusual geology of the West of the Rockies is fascinating. To me it's compelling evidence that the geology has migrated in the way you described. I can see why geologists love your part of the World. Great lecture series btw, very easy to follow and very engaging, I've not studied geology in quite a while and if I could get it then I'm sure others can.

Unsettled science. What a concept!

Nick, this is spectacular. I am learning still. Your timing is very good.

This new lecture series by Shane Gillis is so good! Seriously though this is top notch - thank you for the video.

Thanks for uploading this for everyone to learn, great teacher.

You’re an awesome teacher! Thanks Nick! This was a great lecture!! 👌🌟🌟🌟

Awesome to see you lectures on videos! Living around Montana and driving west and seeing all that I have seen, watching these videos and other videos have been enlighten! Explain all that I have seen! Thank you!

I seldom equate courage with geology. Imagine putting forth a theory that is at odds with the prevailing theory. Having some discount it only because it was against everything they learned and against the teachings of all those professors. As a student or a field geologist telling those great minds they were wrong. Science requires proof. Paleomagnetism is the proof. Thank You Nick for bringing this another step forward, and hopefully into the mainstream way of looking at the earth, it's rocks and the many journey's they make.

Damn nice presentation! Thank you!

It has just clicked. I studied geography in high school in the UK from 1970-77. Plate tectonics was relatively new but we had text books that covered it. We discussed the Pacific Plate (Fallaron) moving east and subducting and looking at the San Andreas fault which was a shear fault going north/south (ish). I remember a discussion about why the plate was going east but the surface land was not and why. I cant remember the answer. We had the seeds of doubt but didnt know it.

Your explanation is greatly appreciated.

Incredible lecturer. This is fantastic.

Having followed all with your videos and remembering Dr. Beck, I'm feeling very excited by this series of talks that are wrapping up so beautifully all we have studied together. I'm very glad Baja BC and the paleomagmatism, along with new research is being given serious study and consideration. I wish Dr. Beck were here to see this happening. However, I hope he knew through you, Nick, that the conference was in the planning stages.

Amazing. Love how Nick casually throws millions of years around with gay abandon. So easy to listen to him.

This series really ties the past 3 yrs of lecture together. I'm a 10 on Baja BC. I first learned of Pmag during Geo 101 at WWU 20 yrs ago and didn't know Myrl Beck was there. I remember thinking 'cool' and how were they able to measure such tiny mag fields. I considered changing my major but continued on with mining engineer.

Thanks Nick wonderful talk so glad Dr. Beck got recognition before he died and was aware of it. That alone was one good service you performed not to mention teaching all these new young geologists

The thing is, geologists can get tunnel vision and just focus on their own specialty and not pay enough attention to other branches of earth science and what they may be discovering, especially if the papers are published in small specialized journals that are protected by paywalls. That’s why it’s important to collaborate with other scientists like Nick does, there’s so much benefit to that for science. The Baja/BC and alternate Rocky Mountain hypotheses are very interesting and compelling and I look forward to following the progress as it unfolds. I’m lucky I guess in that I did learn some paleomag in school, and not as a fringe part of the lesson, but as an incredibly useful and reliable tool to help rewind Earth history and the Supercontinent cycle.

I really enjoy Nick's lectures. Paleomag is amazing .

A most enjoyable retrospect of this past winters learning. Still, I learned some things I didn't pick up earlier. Thank you!

Great series. You make me want to go back to school again.🤩 I have to come to Ellensburg soon to hear you lecture in person. Keep up the great work!!

This series was awesome! Nick, you are a national treasure!

I've got a saying that I think applies quite well to the former model of how the Rockies formed "The proof is in the pudding, and I love pudding!". We have so much evidence that the old model is wrong that we need to openly challenge anyone who is still insists the old model is the only possibility for the formation

We have to thank Merrill Beck, wish we could of seen more of him on this channel! Such a character!

tkzz for sharing.,.,.,peace

This is amazing! Science!

As a convinced Baha Bc person the question I would like answered is how far west into the Pacific ocean was the mount Stewart batholith formed? Is it not posssible thart the batholith was formed a considerable disance ofshore but on the same latitude as Baha California and so could have been translated a not unreasonable distance to the north before the final collision (crunch) with the North American continent.

This theory also helps explain the sudden disappearance of the western interior seaway. It's pretty well established that the creation of the sea was caused by North America buckling against the force of the Rockies, but the sudden change in tectonic forces from the west would explain how that pressure was relieved as these groups shot north around the same the sea closed at the end of the Cretaceous.

I could listen to Nick every night for hours and hours. I took geology classes back in college in the late 70’s. If he was my teacher surely I would of turned out as a geologist. All I know is that a few basic principles illustrate how our world was formed, however the complexity and variables in the final assembly is just to complex to take it all in with complete understanding and certainty.

This continues to rock! (Pun intended!) The paleomag is explained and summed. And then is collaborated by the modeling based on seismic tomography. These 3 lectures are a great summary of what was learned in the Baja-BC A-to-Z series. Now on to the next one!

It's amazing how stubborn scientist can be when evidence challenges their preconceptions. As Nick said, they read it, then bury it, and hope it goes away rather than asking "Am I wrong?"!