I’m a geologist who did a masters thesis mapping the Valley and Ridge geology in Hampshirite and Hardy counties, WVA. I appreciate your efforts to clearly explain the geologic history to lay people. From the comments, looks like your work is much appreciated. Good refresher for me, too.

As a sixth grader in 1962 I looked at a map on the wall and told the teacher that the continents all fit together nicely, and she assured me I was wrong. Plate tectonics couldn't come quick enough for this inquisitive young man.

This was awesome. The Appalachians are my home mountains, I’m glad to understand them more. It’s so nice to spend time with someone who is also just thrilled by the story of the earth.

Thanks Myron. As a Merrylander who got his historical geology training in the region, I appreciate your covering this. Like you say, though the Rockies are far more spectacular, the Appalachians have their own charm (maybe that's why Baltimore is called "Charm City" ;) especially in terms of it's long history and series of orogenies. As is said, Maryland is "American in Miniature," not only in terms of geography, but also geology. From Precambrian to Pleistocene Terraces, the only thing we're missing at the surface is the Jurassic Period and the Oligocene Epoch. For about a year now I've been dating a lady who grew up in Huntsville AL, which is located in the N.E. part of the state. Naturally I checked out the geology there, and I was rather surprised to find geologic formations that were identical to ones here. For instance, the Pennsylvanian Pottsville Formation runs from Pennsylvania, through western Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio, and Alabama. "It is a major ridge-former in the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians." When you mention “deep underground,” understanding that was an early major insight for me. The faults and folds here are very complicated. I was fortunate in the fact that Dr. Beem, the person I took honors geology with for 4-years, liked to do field work, which was an incredible help in my being able to put the puzzle together in my mind. And it’s not just the Valley & Ridge that are interesting. Running here through Frederick Countie’s Triassic sediments, is the Newark Supergroup. It starts in Newfoundland and runs through to South Carolina, and also has areas of Jurassic sediments. It represents an early Rift Zone that failed, as Pangea began to pull apart. In N.E. Frederick county are found Grallators, that are thought to be made by the the early dinosaur, Coelophysis. Precise identification is difficult, because the animal(s) appeared to have been running. Another point of interest in Frederick County, the western side has two ridges that contain greenstone Metabasalts, remnants of volcanism occurring towards the east during the Paleozoic Era. One last thing, about 20 miles west of Baltimore is the town of Granite, named so for obvious reasons. The rocks there are thought to be the remains of the core of an ancient volcano :)

Between you and Nick Zentner, I am finding a sincere love for geology. I love this stuff. Nick has taught me so much about the Pacific Northwest. And now you're teaching me about our east coast. Now I wish I could find something to teach me about Missouri Geology.

You know it's gonna be a good day when Myron drops a fresh video! 😊

You have us mesmerized, we wish we were 50 years younger and were studying to be geologists. You are an inspiration. Allan and Carmon

My 8th grade earth science teacher introduced us to “The Theory of Continental Shift” back in 1973. The term “plate tectonics” wasn’t known to me until some years later. At the time, it wasn’t considered mainstream science, but within about 5-10 years, it was accepted as scientific fact. Once we put cameras down at the bottom of the Atlantic Rift and actually saw new crust being created, thus pushing the continents apart, it was pretty much proven.

Great video about an area that is sadly ignored. I am a rock hound and live in Maryland. There are so many deposits of all kinds jumbled around me. Fantastic metamorphic schist, a mica mine and even red sandstones with iron and dinosaur tracks. This area was the source of Colonial iron ore and granite too! We are still classed as a moderate earthquake zone due to remaining stresses.

A good way to visualize a foreland basin is to pile books, one at a time, onto a sofa cushion. As the pile of books get taller, the 'basins' adjacent to the books gets deeper. Small mountains ranges - a small pile of books - will create shallow basins on either side of it, and an immense pile of books will create very deep basins. The depth and extent of the basin can be used as a proxy for the length and height of the mountain range that created it.

I can not even begin to tell you how much I appreciate this video! I watched it three times this morning. I’ve lived in the PA Appalachian mountains all my life and was always fascinated by the different formations, but never was able to put a visual on the how truly big they actually were. As a little kid, my babysitters husband gave me fossils he would find and told me “my” mountains were once the biggest in the world! I grew up on the north face of a fold, not far from the Susquehanna. To get to Harrisburg, we would travel down 322 along the river where I could see these beautiful layers exposed. Thank you, Mr. Cook! You’ve got a friend in Pennsylvania!

Fantastic presentation. I can now look out my back yard at the foothills and valleys and understand how they were formed. Driving around here in East Tennessee and western North Carolina I can also understand these huge rock folds that dominate the mountains. Been waiting for this and you delivered it brilliantly. 😊

I really enjoyed this, Myron! I live in PA, have traveled the east coast extensively and have seen lots of roadway cutouts which looked exactly like the one pictured at 0:10 in this video. Now I know what I’m looking at and have a whole new appreciation for the sheer beauty of this geology. Thanks!

What a coincidence you posted this video! I just got back from mapping the Valley and Ridge province for a project as well as writing a paper on the orogenies that had occurred in creation of the Appalachian mountains all semester! I was able to see physically all the incredible folds and deformation of rock.

I'm from Eastern PA and I love looking at the rocks when I'm out driving. I live right on the Blue Mountain and the next ridge over is pure sand; it's so interesting to think that that ridge is made up of a smooshed ocean floor and mine was from somewhere to the east, more or less. Thanks for the great video.

Myron, Thanks for the time and effort you put into making this. Your explanations are flawless.

Wow! I live in the Hudson Valley, and I have the Catskills to my west and the Taconics and Berkshires to my east. We have some amazing folds of layers of limestone in rock cuts, with well pressed fossils. These were the creatures who were buried in the Foreland* basin, that were covered by the Catskill Delta. Would love to know more! Thanks for this!

Myron, it's simple. I love you - your joy-infused teaching is incomparable. Where were you in my grade-school??? I'd likely be sitting here in a glorious pile of rocks rather than the horticultural spread I enjoy. You are a 'national treasure', even if I'm Canadian. Bless your work.💐

I am 63 and I still feel incredible excitement when I hear you speak with a great love of geology. Thank you, Myron for keeping geology a satisfying distraction from the necessary pains of daily life.

This so reminds me of my geology 101 course taught by a professor who was not the nice person you obviously are, but was an excellent teacher. He inspired me with a love of studying geology and subsequent courses were more of a detailed review of the concepts he introduced, with fill-in detail added. I appreciate your recognition of the importance of petroleum and coal diagenesis despite the really bad press "fossil" energy is currently receiving. Yes, CO2 from coal and hydrocarbons is an increasingly serious problem, but the fact is that the rise of our modern civilization and so much of the scientific innovation that is so vital to our lives can all be traced to James Watt's Cornish mine engines run on coal and Colonial Drake's well in Titusville, Pennsylvania. My ancestor's career was in drilling for oil in North-Western Pennsylvania (near Titusville) and that's where I'd spend my summers as a child in the folded Allegheny Mountains. Interesting to ponder that this region was on the Western edge of the Appalachian Foreland Basin. By the way, what we now call "Foreland Basin" development buried so deep as to have granitic intrusions was part of the Geosyncline Theory (taught by my Prof.) that proceeded the (then) brand new (and not totally accepted) Plate Techtonics Theory.

I've been waiting on this . As I'm a east Tennessee Appalachian man . I appreciate this knowledge. Thank you

So glad to see you covering our neck of the woods, Myron! As a native of Pennsylvania, I grew up as one of those who underappreciated our local mountain range in lieu of the spectacular Rockies, but over time I've come to love the subtle beauty and lush forests that these old and fairly stable mountains have to offer.

these videos make me glad im doing my undergrad in geology, so interesting, I'm excited to become more familiar with the amazing geology all over the world.

This is what I would have imagined a Bob Ross demonstration would have been like had he been a geologist.

Brillant explanations and super helpful illustrations! Love this channel!

Thank you for the great video Myron! We were just down hiking in Red River Gorgw and the foothills of the Appalachians today. The geologic processes at work in the gorge are simply amazing and we are often left with limestone and sandstone arches, tall cliffs, rock outcroppings, caves etc. Great to see geology at work!

Absolutely fascinating! Myron, you have the gift of making complex subjects like geology seem easy to the extent that even dummies like me ‘get it’. Thank you 🙏

i have lived in socal where the mountain range i lived on was just over 10,000yrs old, and now i live in NC where the appalachians are nearly the most ancient in the world. i used to think the appalachians were ugly compared to socal, but now that i understand their geological history better i've found a new appreciation for what we see. thank you for explaining the formation of these ancient geologies... i can begin to understand the rocks and mountains around me and appreciate the time and movement of our world that has created it all. wow. thank you!! geology is so amazing. one of my favorite things is when i fly coast to coast and can look out the window and see geological formations that i've learned about and to be able to pick out some of the formations, especially out west where there's less vegetation hiding the geology. i've driven across the country twice, too, and all over the southwest. the geology of north america is so fascinating. thanks for explaining all of this so well. i love learning about geology!

I always look forward to a new video from you Myron, and anticipate what new things I can learn about geology. Great stuff as usual!

You're like if my dad liked rocks instead of planes.

The 11-papers analogy is a very effective way of showing how thin the crust is and easily penetrated from below👍

I live in the bluegrass and I have always been fascinated by our geology in the Ohio valley and Appalachian mountains. Looking at the rocks or holding fossils and thinking about the deep history of this part of the earth just blows my mind. This is one of the best explanations of the history of the mountains I’ve ever seen. I really appreciate your content and the effort you put into it.

I love your videos and teaching style. What a stunning backstory on the appellation orogeny. Some of the map orientation was difficult to follow, so a North marker on the maps would help a great deal for non-northern Hemisphere folk.

These videos should be shown in schools...

Thank You for publishing this. I really enjoy watching you and Nick Zentner on KZfaq

I really appreciate the way you explain things, especially your use of those maps, and how you outline Pennsylvania. It provides a great reference.

Very interesting, I love the clay model and the explanation of erosion was very helpful as I’ve had trouble grasping the scale of that. Thank you Myron!

Thx so much for this! For us in the east, the Appalachians are as keenly interesting as the rockies are to you guys! Have been looking for this kind of clear, easy to understand history for so long. (Only found dry lectures with bad sound and hard to see charts). You’re a great and enthusiastic teacher. Going to watch again in a few minutes.

I think this is great stuff. I grew up in a topographic draw or small valley. To add to my rock hunting fun, my dad had blasted, cut, and bulldozed a big slice through the rock to provide some level land for a home, etc. from the time I was about seven years old, I dug around in this until I graduated high school and went into the Army in 1982. I found all types of things, and in many cases I had no idea what I was looking at. If I did it was mostly fossilized limestone from the Ordovician period. I took a course in Geology with a lab when I was in my second year in college. It was a great course, and I loved it. I ended up with a BA in Geography, but I loved my geology and earth sciences courses. I have thoroughly enjoyed your videos, and I thank you for your time and knowledge in the field. It makes it easier to understand.

I took Geology 101 in 1980...this was a Master Class. Thank you!

Growing up in Pa. I've seen this firsthand. I remember seeing coal seams coming right out of the ground in places when hunting. Strip mining around eastern Pa. looks for the coal which is close to the surface. Today most mining in Pa. has stopped, but I now understand better the way coal seams were laid down. In Wyoming you don't have all the green vegetation covering up the land and you can see all the ground features easily. Both places have their own beauty.

Great stuff, as always, Myron. Gives a little insight into the initial Pennsylvanian deposits in SE Kansas, and the coal mining in that area.

I am a geologist who graduated in 1992 and your videos are awesome from a teaching perspective...Keep up the good work. 👍

I have watched this post again and will watch it over and over until I fully understand it. I am just a laser sheet metal worker that works in manufacturing. I have NO Collage, or geology skills. I am just a common person that Loves Geology. I live in Alabama and were at one time a pretty good caver. I LOVE ALABAMA and its Geology. I am so pleased to have found this channel and want to learn more. Who has time for games when you can feed your mind with information. Thank you for replying. I have a basic concept about the basic geology in my area. As ignorant as I am, have learned a lot from watching you. Thank you for your Great work. You have your ducks in a row.

The range is over a billion years old. Great place to hike. Beautiful river gorges and waterfalls. My understanding (before watching the vid) is the Appalachians used to be 36000', higher than Mount Everest. It eroded down to the current 6000' leaving the river valleys chocked full of quadrillions of rocks of all sizes.

I grew up in PA and had no idea how the Appalachian Mountains were formed! Thank you for doing such a great informative video! 😊

This was fascinating! I had no idea that the erosion of the Appalachian mountains filled in the interior ocean. I’m impressed by your high quality preparation, the teaching aids (yay, white board,), cool maps, and your good-humored and very well-spoken narration, plus your filming of it all (the drone shots are astounding): topics and teaching are always great. Thank you so much!

So interesting myron. I can't imagine how geologist have un crumpled these landscapes and rewound the geological clock. Thanks again. It's my second time watching.

Always interesting. Always enjoyable. Thanks again. I had the good fortune to visiting the Black Thunder coal mine outside of Wright a few years ago and was amazed by what they showed us with regard to the amount of coal that is deposited in Wyoming. It would sure make an interesting video...

This was really fantastic, you have a really nice way of presenting 101 information very concisely. Although, you and I need to have a serious discussion of the pronunciation of those mountains, lol. Geologist in the Western highlands of Virginia here, by the way. One thing, on a serious note, would be if you wanted to continue the discussion a little further… Is the graben that has occurred as the Atlantic rift opens up, and to the west, talking about the Appalachian plateau, where it goes to about a 3° western dip but otherwise it's flat lying. After the uplift brought all the coal up to shooting distance, a lot of people think that West Virginia became mountainous, which it really didn't; it's all erosional with the settlement going to the Gulf. Just lots of interesting stuff you can get into in our Appa-LATCH-IN mountains 😂

I was a farm kid within the Valley and ridge around Blacksburg VA and ended up with a Va Tech geology degree. Your presentation really is a wonderful context for the Appalachians. The white board is so appreciated- the clay model is super too. 😊

What a great video! I always enjoy learning from you Myron! Thank you!

If I were still teaching high school geoscience your videos would be my assistant. Your ability to convey the whole geologic picture is great. Thanks

Thank you for covering this! The Appalachians are such an interesting group of mountains, and super important culturally and historically to so many, but often overlooked just because they're 'short.' I'd love to see something on the Mississippi Embayment and even more so on the formation of the Ouachitas. Most of the Ouachitas are very similar to the basin and range geology of the Appalachian system, but they have some unique features. Top of mind are the McKinley Rocks and the Potato Hills in the Kiaminchi valley area, as well as the novaculite seams that are--from what I've been told--the only major metamorphic rocks known in the whole Ouachita system. Supposedly, there is an odd lack of associated vulcanism as well.

Geomorphology is always interesting. It is hard to wrap your head around it all, but Mr. Myron Cook makes it easy.

What a treat to hear my FAVORITE geologist give a talk on another fascinating aspect of a great science!!

I grew up near Pittsburgh and learned my college geology at Juniata College in the heart of the ridge and valley province in the early 80's. Drs. Trexler and Washington would take us up horrible fire roads to overlooks where we could see the land spread out all the way to the next ridge and see the synclines and anticlines almost as clearly as if we were looking at a map.

Hey Myron, just started this video and I’m sure I’ll love it, but I’d like to comment early with a question for a possible future video.. I am from Louisiana and spent 11 years in the Gulf of Mexico running Wireline and the last 5 in the Permian. Every once in a while I will drive by different erroded hillsides in New Mexico and even into colorado with a reddish almost purple formation that erodes easily and usually has a greenish gray band or 2 maybe a foot thick that also seems to erode at the same rate. Sometimes it’s under a cap rock of limestone or in a tuft or sandstone so I know it’s not just a soil profile although it seems to erode almost as easily like. I can’t seem to find anything explaining what it is. One example you may be aware of is off of New Mexico 84 between Abiquiu and echo amphitheater. I’m not sure if I described it well enough but if you do know what I’m talking about any response would be appreciated! Thanks for the great content!

Great video myron! Keep them coming!

Thanks for the education, Myron!

I hope you don’t mind me saying, but you’re like the new Bob Ross. I hope your channel breaks through in a major way!

Fantastic lesson Myron! I really appreciate you taking the time to put this together.

Mr Cook is one of two of the best teachers I ever had. I had no idea that the Appalachians were once as high as the Himalayas, and were formed in a similar tectonic plate process. I had always thought the the Rockies were the most important mountain chain, and that the slope and erosion were eastward.

Watching this from home in Federick County, Maryland. I am maybe a mile East of the easternmost ridge of the Appalachians. East of me the terrain lowers and smooths toward the coastal plain. Your videos always bring back memories of the geology classes I took in college in the early 1970s ...

Thanks for geological leson! Very interesting! Дякую за геологічний урок! Дуже цікаво!

Thank you Myron for another great lecture!

As a retired Engineering Geologist that worked and lived on the Pacific Plate of North America And who is planning a road trip through the Appalachian area, the video is a great refresher of the Historical Geology of a region that I never truly appreciated. Mr. Cook does an excellent job of putting together some large puzzle pieces in an understandable manner. Thank you for complimenting my old Historical Geology text regarding the Appalachian region and the geologic provinces that I had never appreciated. Excellent presentation!

Thank you so much for presenting this.

Your demonstration of plate tectonics using the exercise ball is incredible. For the first time, the power of these plates to build these mountains makes logical sense. I knew some of this from college geography 101, but it took your demonstration to bring it home to me. I asked my spouse to come in to watch it, and it rocked her world (punny?) too. Keep teaching. You have an incredible talent. Thank you!

When I took geology at VA Tech, all of our classroom lectures and field trips were spent in the valley and ridge region. Driving west of campus on Rt. 460, one passes through huge road cuts showing a side view of massive anticlines and synclines. We did make one visit into West Virginia, where our prof announced we were on the North American craton, and of course, the WVa mountains had a totally different erosional pattern. It was a great location to study geology. I do wish our professors had a clay model like yours, though, as I had difficulty with some of the necessary 3-D thinking. That clay model is so helpful!

Thanks Myron. You are a superb teacher.

Thank you! You do such a good job of explaining complex topics simply so that the rest of us can understand and appreciate the wonders around us.

thanks Myron! i've been getting into all sorts of geology lately and your channel has been a big part of that. i grew up in the Allegheny Mountains in Pennsylvania, so seeing this video pop up on my feed got an instant click! i had no idea of everything that went into forming my home! much love

Another great video. You confirmed a couple of things I'd heard but find astonishing. Thanks to Myron. Please keep up producing your videos.

Great content and a presentation style that would make Mr. Rogers smile.

Fascinating! Thank you for sharing.

Excellent presentation Myron more please.

The description you gave to illustrate the relative thickness of the plates helped me visualize how it is possible to have the uplifting as well as the dropping of the land elevations. Fascinating to think that soils found in Arizona originated in the Appalachians! Thanks!

Fascinating! Thanks for the geology lesson!

Fascinating! Thank you very much.

Just found this channel. Loving it, thanks!!

I'm so pleased I discovered your videos! You have a passion for geology that shines through, and an excellent, clear presentation style.

I am enjoying watching this video. I live in Gatlinburg and retired from the Great Smoky Mtns Nat’l Park. I was there when BBC came through to make videos for their production of ‘Making of a Continent’. For those that did not see the videos, they were great.

I’ve driven along the Hudson River in northern manhattan . There are giant exposures of Precambrian rocks sloping down towards the river. Always amazing to see.

Excellent explanations and visuals! Thank you Myron! 👌👍👍🌟🌟

Thanks for spreading the knowledge.

Yay . Mr.Myron posted!! Was happy to hear your calming voice this evening and I’m excited to watching this new piece of art you have created for us! I had to pull it up on my handheld device just to comment on the video and thank you for posting !! You are so awesome!

Thanks again! Fantastic video!

Great stuff as always Professor Cook!

Thank you for teaching us! You do a great job!

As usual Myron, you're explanations of geological formations are wonderful to watch. Thank you for your excellent presentations.

Very interesting presentation. In school we learned about plate tectonics but never to this detail. I worked in the oil and gas industry for many years as an electronics tech. I've talked with Geologists and really became interested in that field. Thank you for the educational videos. Carolina bays created by an impact to the ice sheet near the great lakes?

I love this classes! Thank you, sir!

Thank you for sharing your wonderful knowledge. This is fascinating!

Excellent informative content as always. Thank you!

Thank you for your continued sharing of your knowledge and for once again expanding my understanding and nurturing my curiosity of the processes that form our landscapes…all of which I delight in. The scaled down earth images, models, and white board images helped greatly.

The example of sheets of paper and the exercise ball really drove home the thinnest of the crust to me for the first time. Also your use of drone cameras in your videos is outstanding. Thank you

love your explanations!

I live in Portland OR and have learned PNW geology from Nick Zentner. Your whiteboard drawing starting at 4:15 gave me a eureka moment. While we had westward subduction of oceanic crust attached to North America (eastward subduction in your Appalachia sketch), that subducting oceanic crust created some of volcanic arcs that later collided with North America. In a sense, on both coasts, North America’s oceanic crust ends up in volcanoes and accreting/smashing into North America. Wild! Thank you Myron for the beginner-friendly lesson!

Yep. Definitely look forward to these.