If Nick Zentner had taught me one course on Geology when I was in college, I would now be a working Geologist. Well done Nick, Bravo!

Wow, I found Nick during the Covid-19 shutdown. He has kept me sane (although my wife would beg to differ). I love your lectures and if I had had a teacher like you, I would be a geologist today (retired). Please keep up the good work. You have a follower for life.

Brilliant! Nick is a great lecturer because he loves what he's doing and it totally shows. I am so happy to have discovered these lectures.

i use to never give geology a 2nd thought but i have enjoyed nicks lectures, it has truly made me appreciate our beautiful state and geology

I am Dutch, so a long way away from Washington. I stumbled on these lectures and now I do now more of the geology of Washington then of my own province (Limburg) We had some coal underground etc. Well thanks for them.

Every one of these lectures ROCK !!!

I would have loved to have been taught by this guy........................he makes learning both interesting and fun. I had a UK education in the 60’s/70’s and it was mind numbingly dull. Great teachers/educators are worth their weight in gold. Even today at 60 years old..........I am learning something new and loving these lectures.

Nick is one of those rare rare teachers where no one could possibly fall asleep, where those of the audience will never forget Nick's analogies. and a blackboard teacher? I've been on field trips for the NW geology (I was at a geology PARTY when Mnt. St. Helens blew)? I feel like I am on a field trip with every one of his lectures...this guy is one hell of a teacher, I hope you guys see this!

This is my favorite lecture of the series. It makes me wish that I could have been in attendance to ask all of the questions that I think of when I watch this lecture.

I'm back AGAIN watching The Dirt Commander! I don't know what it is but I have been coming back 2 or 3 times a year to rewatch his lectures. Only videos I do this with?? Thanks again Sir. If I ever go to the opposite side of the country I will be able to appreciate the area

Thank you sir, for yet another wonderful lecture!

One word: Captivating.

Great lecture Nick. Very informative. Years ago my father-in-law told me that he knew a geologist that informed him that the Stewart range was formed after the ice age and that there is a mother load of gold somewhere inside Mt Stewart. I’m really leaning a lot watching your videos. Thank you.

Nick has what only good teachers possess: knowledge, enthusiasm and the ability to explain without preaching. I wish all my teachers had been like him!

So interesting and such a great teacher!

I regret my decision to watch this before bed as now I'll be awake 1/2 the night trying to solve the Mt Stuart problem. :)

I've been a rock hound all my life. I've been recommending your lectures to people interested in rock hunting around the northwest because I've learned so much myself by watching. I pick up details I missed previously, each time I watch again. I'm glad it's on video. I can sit through it more than once at my convenience. I find your teaching style to be comfortable for the beginner yet packed with tidbits that even a grizzled old timer finds value in. Thanks Nick

What an interesting lecture! Thank you for posting this.

I can't reiterate to you all as to how much I've enjoyed these programs. I've been recovering from sinus surgery, so these videos have really helped me focus on something other than facial pain. :) The truth is that I feel I'm getting a world, first class college education for free right here on KZfaq! I live near the coast of Washington, so the next time I go past Copalis Beach, I will think about Mr. Nick's and Brian Atwater's discussions about the ghosts forests, mega thrust earthquakes, tsunamis, etc.! Again, thank you for posting all of these videos! Your passion for all these subjects comes through without question! You are sharing invaluable information too! Again, thank you!

Thank you Nick for helping me through lockdown !

Thank you Nick for the countless hours you have devoted to Washington and teaching all of the knowledge you have acquired!

Always a pleasure to watch Nick teach.

I like your closing explanation of how you strategically teach the process of searching for answers ...that science is a process of discovery not of rigid boring academic recitation

I love watching his lectures about cascade mountains and valcanos and how they were formed

Keep up the great work, Nick ! I like, and understand what you presented here !

I love this series! Definitely made me interested in and a fan of geology

EXCELLENT lecture Nick. Thank you so much for making these and Thank you to Central Washington University for keeping them available!

This video has been playing nonstop somewhere since its upload.

Hey Nick, so glad my wife turned me on to your channel. I've been binge watching for a couple of weeks now. I especially liked the Liberty gold lecture and the Yellowstone connection. Now that I think of it, 40 years ago this week I was camped out above the Cambrian Poleta folds near Bishop, California learning how to make maps and cross-sections. Dr Ralph Higgins led the field camp that year. I remember sweet old Bob throwing chalk at the unruly students. Jack Powell was still a student that year and I can still remember a 3/4 inch chalk missile ricocheting off the side of his head when he interrupted one of Doc Bentley's Mineralogy lectures. When you drew the line of calderas moving back in time to the 17 my old location at the Or Nv Id border I was reminded of a time about 15 years ago, I was driving down hwy 95 and pulled off on a side road for a comfort break. I decided to hike up to what looked like some basalt outcrops, and was surprised to find that I was hiking over

This is fantastic! Thank you learned so much! Your an amazing teacher.

I wish Australia had a lecturer like you, Nick. Any chance you can tell me about our geology?

Mr. Zentner. An excellent video Sir, on a very interesting subject. Please, keep up your very hard work, in bringing to us neophytes your type of teaching in Geology. Thank you very much again.

Walking on Bodega Beach in Sonoma county California, specifically Duran Park. You can find rounded granite that's not from around here at all making up the Bodega head proper. The closest we have the coastal granite I believe is Baja, not too far I thought to think given enough time and transit north could have been the same contributor? 🤔 Thanks for the great talks!

I am new Washington but as a student of Science, it it so good to have these lectures catered specially for this state. Thank you.

Great stuff. I am in the Portland area and this has stoked me to plan a backpacking trip into the Mt. Stuart area to see this first hand!

When I left for China in 1963 the North Magnetic Pole was in the middle of Canada. It is now in the Bering Sea. That's fast enough to change the bearing of the cooling Granite...I think.

Mt Stuart is an anomaly of the Cascades A true oddity It's a good view up there

Another gem!

Love these lectures! Nick is a fabulous teacher! I live in Texas and I'm fired up about the geology of the West coast. I'm not a geologist, looks to me like their is something missing in both theories. Hmmm, perhaps landmass in the ocean, that is not known between Pangaea and today?

Interesting lectures. It occurs to me as a fellow Geologist that there are two lines of evidence I would be interested in seeing: 1. Magnetic reversals in the granite, and 2. Sediments associated with serpentinites. Both of these could be used to constrain geometry. For 1, we would expect a similar dip on the reverse field if the granite is not deformed. If it is deformed you can go some ways to determining by how much and to removing the effects of deformation. For 2, you could use the sediments to give you So (original bedding). One could then use this to remove the effects of deformation. I have spent quite a bit of time puttering around BCS (Baja California Sur) as far south as Los Cabos, and there are a bunch of interesting terranes there as well. Of particular interest are eolian sandstones that look similar to those of Arizona...

Rock on👍🏼👏🏼👏🏼♥️

I really enjoy listening to these. I honestly think I might have missed my calling. I am a PM now.. But maybe I should go back to school and get a Degree in geology.

Thanks for the explanation , Nick. I really learn alot watching your presentations. I live in upstate New Your and wish I could find that kind of lecture for the geology here. Keep up the good work.

Where were the magnetic poles when the Mt Stuart granite formed? At the time the granite formed was future N. America moving (west and twisting south?)

Very interesting talk.

This is like going home. Incredible history. Just can't get enough of it!

For most of the lecture, I was asking myself how the geologists can be sure the rock's orientation didn't change over time. Why should I believe the rock, after such a long period of time, retained the precise orientation that it had when it solidified? I still don't know the answer. If there's no certainty that the rock remained oriented precisely the same as when it solidified, then the orientation of the grains is meaningless, at least with respect to using them to determine where it was when it solidified. Moreover, since the Earth's magnetic north pole changes over time, this whole debate is moot.

Thanks again Nick. Pete IOW

So interesting.

Pausing at the 8m 15sec mark because there are some things running through my brain that I can't ignore. I know the concept of accreted terrain. James Michener mentioned it in his novel about Alaska. The amazing thing is learning that Washington is also accreted terrain. What occurs to me to conclude from all of this is that the classic picture of the Earth with all the continents shoved into one vast landmass which we call Pangaea and the rest of the planes a vast ocean called Tethys with absolutely no solid land is dad wrong. There was land out there, islands, and fair sized ones. Next thought leads me to hotspots. There's one under Yellowstone, there is also one in the middle of the Pacific which created the Hawaiian Islands. You look at the chain of the Hawaiian islands, it's a long arc and the Pacific Plate has moved over the hotspot in a generally WNW direction. So why not the same thing for the Yellowstone Hotspot? 200MYA the Yellowstone Hotspot was not under Wyoming. It was not even under North America. It was out somewhere in the Tethys with a now submerged plate over it, and that plate was slowly moving. However, the the beginnings of the Mid-Atlantic Rise split Pangaea and North America motored right over the hotspot picking up the lands it had created in a pile along the leading edge. How does that sound?

~1,800 miles = ~2,900km The mountain is 93Ma and the Cascades are 40Ma. So a mountain must move within 10's of millions of years. How fast is this really? Well 2,900km divided by 10 million is 29cm per year for 10 million years, 16cm p.y. in 20Ma, or 8cm p.y. over the course of 40 million years. Currently, the entire North American continent is moving 3cm per year. Sounds fast at first, but not out of the realm of possibility as I had first assumed. Thanks for the upload, and wow the production quality has improved dramatically with the newer stuff :-) -Jake

Just recently discovered your site and love the way you go about teaching geology. Just had one thought on the magnetite lines. What about magnetic pole reversals. Would that come into play in this case, as far as giving a false reading if the magma was cooling during a pole shift?

The Pinnacles National Park near Soledad, California may or may not assist in the Baja BC argument. The Pinnacles are part of the Neenach Volcano which erupted 23 million years ago near present-day Lancaster, California. The movement of the Pacific Plate along the San Andreas Fault split a section of rock off from the main body of the volcano and moved it 195 miles (314 km) to the northwest. It is believed that The Pinnacles came from this particular volcano due to the unique breccias that are only found elsewhere in the Neenach Volcano formations.

So…the vector on the Farallon Plate shows a northeastern trend. Mt. Stuart is part of an exotic terrane that may have been crystallized some 12-20° south (sans tilting). Why not have them form part of an island arc well off-shore in the Pacific, then being rafted along with the Farallon Plate northeastern into the Washington area? I'm sure this is not an original idea. Have not been a practicing geologist in nearly 30 years, but I studied accretionary terranes in North Wales dating back to the Iapetan Ocean's closure over 400Ma. So the thought of an exotic terrane drifting placidly across the Pacific instead of being smeared along the North American margin just seems more elegant. Again, though, I'm out of touch with a lot of the modern work on Washington. So THANKS for the wonderful lectures! (BTW, I was at WSU from 73-78, BSc Geology, BA Math, then grad school at Illinois for the Welsh work.)

I think Baja-BC can be confusing to some, because it sounds like one is suggesting land from Mexico just conveyor belted north. But on the proposed reenactment cartoon, it looks more like North America (Laurentia) rotated as a whole as it also moved relatively west such that the Mexico portion was closer to the leading edge as it were then took a relative south turn as the continent/craton rotated anti-clockwise. To me that's not so much conveyor belt north as the continent veering/rotating while it was plowing into these various terraces, like when a car deals another a glancing side-swipe like blow and leaves elongated traces of paint along its edge.

Great Lectures. Has anybody put thought into the location of the magnetic north's location so long ago? Edit: currently the magnetic North pole is shifting toward Russia. That should effect the angle. Just a thought.

Since this lecture was given 9 years ago I wonder if the scientists have gotten any further along in disproving one or the other of the two hypotheses. I did find this article online: www.researchgate.net/publication/283298636_Dismemberment_and_northward_migration_of_the_Cordilleran_orogen_Baja-BC_resolved

this guys GOOD!

The granite formed with the magnate crystals on a 35° angle, then it moved around on the earth and ended up as Mount Stuart in Washington. Wouldn't the moving around make it impossible to know where the granite was when it formed? Okay so you can tell latitude but not longitude?

I am willing to bet that Mt. Stuart and the whole Stuart range is the site of at least several phantom stratovolcanoes, as the whole thing is made out of granite, which originates in magma chambers under such volcanoes. I was watching the lecture on ghost volcanoes the other day, and it would seem to me that many of these ghost volcanoes are located east of the Cascade crest, and the further west across the Juan de Fuca plate the North American continent drifts, the further west this phenomenon would happen, if indeed the Juan de Fuca plate will be obliterated 5 million years.

Exotic terraines: foreign land, that migrated, acculturated, and acclimated in the geological area, and became part of the greater substrate of Washington state. And more and more of the West Coast, continues to push north, breaking off greater and greater chunks of the Mexican landbridge, and trans-shipping them N/NW toward Canada.

Does anyone know what lecture Nick talks about rocks that are volcanic in nature and hard to break open with a hammer (they are bumpy and conical)? I saw it once when I was half asleep a month ago and can't find it so now I'm wondering if it was just a dream.

needs to be more teachers like you around. i usually put on a boring documentary or lecture to go to bed to but i've watched 2 of these now

Love the pun, Mike!

I am more of a tilt in place guy and as your lecture on the Liberty gold taught me and with all of the squeezing of the state it sure could have tilted Mt. Stuart as well. I have learned so much from your lecture I almost want to send you a big check lol

Could not the granite have cooled during a geomagnetic reversal? No tilting or large northerly motion vector required.

Depending on the age of Monte Stuarte dying, then the paleomagnetics would be that of the 93 MYA, while the rest of the accretions would be of the different ranges (that 50 - 93 - 200 MYA) in that WA corridor.

island stuff like Vancouver and the islands north that ? traversed the dip ? and moved north ? from ? San Andres cast off going north ? and those that came in were caught! where did my mind go on this one! Maybe possible.

Did we account for shifting of the magnetic poles?

So did the entire Stuart range tilt the same amount? Did it tilt like a board? Does that mean more of it eroded away than another? Are there slip faults in the range to allow sectional tilting?

The Earth's magnetic pole wanders around and flips poles from time to time.

Nick; How about the BC to BC theory? Great stuff! Capt. Mikey

Looks like the lighting system was out for this lecture at the junior high.

Did Mt. Stuart tilt from the super volcano?

I just recently moved to the east slopes of the North Cascade Mountains 7 miles west of Okanagan and I've noticed on the east side of Okanogan River the Highlands seem to be a different geology than the North Cascades are they two different terrains?

wow now i cant wait to hike back up there. really love these

The problem I have with the "tilt-in-place" story is that it seems to ignore the northward movement altogether. There clearly has been a northward movement along transforming faults similar to the St Andreas fault, so even those who sympathize with the "tilt-in place" story should wonder where the stuff from the south is! Or are they denying that there is any movement north?

Mt Stuarte El grande

what if the magnetic poles were reversed at the time the magma cooled to form the granite?

This just makes me wonder about the magnetite in all the other batholiths. What angle/ age is the magnetite in the Snoqualmie batholith, just a few miles away? Surely, comparing batholiths would give more clues.

Kaimanawa Wall all info to Deborah Russell MP New Lynn please

So... will one day Vancouver island wedge itself down to Olympia then?

I would propose another theory based on Nicks lecture on super volcanos. Could Mt. Stewart be the remnant of a volcano that formed south along the line of ghost super volcanos and then have been rotated north with the North American plate?

so I have 2 questions when we go back the movie and Pangea, where North America is moving away from the whole. North America, is at different places relative to the poles so wouldn't any granite cooling there have different angles because of that instead of picking up different terranes, the terranes cool on North America while its migrating. also keeping with this idea we know that the earth's poles have flipped and moved on its own through time wouldn't that affect how we see these angles being created even under shorter geologic times than just the breaking up of Pangea?

What about the wandering magnetic poles which would move your magnetic line around. So when it formed the poles could have been somewhere else and your magnetite could have been just at the correct angle.

Is there a lecture devoted to the foreign crusts in Washington?

OMG my first geography striptease.🤪😂

FWIW - The Table Mountains of Western Newfoundland is Serpintineite. Mantle rock on the surface.

Was there an Earth magnetic polar shift 93 million years ago. That could account for the magnetite misalignment. I'm sure that a shift was looked into, because Nick and company are thorough, but it wasn't addressed. Just wondering.

So if the "tilt in place" hypothesis is true, wouldn't you have a bunch of east-west faults (akin to the Seattle fault), so the terrane would be like a row of books on a shelf tilted to one side? It seems like such faults, or lack of them, might be evidence for/against this hypothesis.

Is it a part of a volcano?

Has the Baja/BC connection been disproven yet? Beyond zircons, isn't there some sort of isotopic relation between mainland Mexico and certain PNW terranes?

200 million years ago wasn't Spokane located where Madison will be today?

If every subject was taught the way Nick teaches Geology you would never here the words "Oh I didn't like chemistry/calculus/organic.... because it didn't make any sense". The subjects aren't horrible the teachers are. Lord knows I feel that way about Quantum Mechanics because the prof I had was a nice guy but he could teach you to pour piss out of a boot if the directions were written on the heel.

Mount Stuart is 93 MY old. The accretionary phase of the WA corridor is 50-200 MY old. Travelling 2000 miles to get into that location. Lower range 50 MYA, higher range 200 MYA, accretionary phase. pubs.usgs.gov/gip/earthq3/move.html The San Andreas fault zone is considered to be "drifting" at a rate of 2 inches per year (!). A rational view is that the (Mexican) "Monte Stuarte" would have to be an active magma chamber on its way toward the Pacific Northwest, settled, and cooled down, and eventually ended up within the WA state 50-200 MYA accretionary corridor. That would be 43 million years active, and travelling to the lower range of 50 MYA. ad settling in, and dying in place. Otherwise, at its oldest and earliest, the volcano would be dead before settling in at 93 MY of age, into the even earlier 200 MY age accretionary corridor (107 MY older). If Monte Stuarte travelled the same speed, as its later geological cousin, 2 inches for 93 million years = 186 million inches, 2936 miles origin.. Google maps would position this at .... www.google.com/maps/place/Mt+Stuart/@9.796743,-97.0739085,6z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x549a43a52bb23f<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1500">25:0</a>x4e19494fb2342b65!8m2!3d47.4751179!4d-120.9031444 Monte Stuarte would then have come from the Guatemala/El Salvador region. Travelling at the same 2 inches per year for the lower range 50 MY, 100 million inches, would be 1578 miles of travel. www.google.com/maps/place/Mt+Stuart/@27.0209539,-114.2918245,6z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x549a43a52bb23f<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1500">25:0</a>x4e19494fb2342b65!8m2!3d47.4751179!4d-120.9031444 As said by the BAJA - BC groups as the Gulf of California/Baja area. There can only be a massive island sub-continent, like the San Adreas plate that moved north and accreted in this fashion.

45 active and extinct volcanoes on the Mexican landbridge, ... and how many others were shipped up the Sierra Nevada range, and part of the WA, OR, and CA volcano scene in ages past.

So, if what you just said at 55: min, about basically the entire west coast being added to the mainland of the US, then it could be possible what I've seen of 'old' maps, showing that California was not completely connected as it is today, and with a large body of water separating it from the rest of the U S..

If he was around back in the 70’s. I would be a geologist.

I enjoyed this, but just wish I didn't have to strain to see it while he is working in the dark.

The Barefoot Geologist 😊 But seriously, this is absolutely fascinating!