with all the problems in the world, i find it relaxing to check in on your youtube channel for some very interesting insights into the landscape of the NW US. Thanks!

I like the light rail. Bit of a train fan myself, how about a series called Nick Goes Off The Rails where you follow trains and examine the exposed geology they cut through? :)

Thanks for coming down to Portland, Nick! Nice piece of the puzzle you’ve shown us.

This is so cool. Full circle for me. Years ago I was curious about this exact information and searched KZfaq for Portland geology. Didn't find much, so I searched for pacific northwest geology and found Professor Z. I've been a huge fan and geology lover ever since. Now I have an answer to my original question, and a whole lot of context within which to understand that answer way better than I would have back when I first looked for it.

Another thing, I want to show my appreciation for you showing Portland in a positive light considering the egregious news coverage we’ve been hammered with as of late. Portland always felt like a “Mr. Rodgers” city to me as well.

Thanks! I live in the Willamette Valley. As an avid hiker, and so interested in local geology, I bought Marli’s book! BTW, the bird you heard singing is a White-crowned sparrow! Very sweet bird. Love your lessons!

Great little walking tour of PDX! Thank you!! Lived there almost 20 yrs. during a couple small quakes plus the bigger Mt. Angel/Spring Break Quake (sharp and jerky, epicenter south of PDX in Mt. Angel area) and the Portland reverberations of the Nisqually quake (very rolly/wavy...you could see the ground roll/wave).

This is the exact sort of information I was looking for on how the Portland Hills Fault ties into the regional geology of the area. Super informative, thank you so much for making this!

There is a tunnel under the hills that the max runs through it’s under the zoo and there is a tube down there with all the soil/ rock samples in those hills with the entire geological story on the wall

I had never thought about the Tualatin Mountains as part of the same tectonic regime as the Yakima fold and thrust belt. To the south of the Tilicum Bridge, the Eocene Waverley Basalt (Siletzia Terrane) crops out in Lake Oswego and Milwaukie. This regional tectonic story provides the folding and uplift mechanism to bring these basalts to the surface. Erosion helps too.

Thanks Nick! Love Portland! One of my favorite cities. Enjoy your time with your son.

Thank you for this beautiful post! The Rose City...a beautiful city. I love it 🌹❤💕

Thank you, Nick, for coming to Portland and doing this short video. I'd love to see ones from Newport Or. up through the Olympic Peninsula. I've enjoyed your talks about eastern Washington.

Thanks Prof. Zentner. I know of one exposure of CRB in the West Hills. There is columnar basalt exposed near OHSU. Near the Marquam trailhead behind City water tanks.

Nick, you have to visit Mt. Tabor in SE Portland! And Rocky Butte!

I enjoy Portland. My daughter has lived there for over 20 years and have a 13 year old grandson. Hope to be there for Easter

Wait, was this notification an April Fools prank from a friend? No, it's real! As a long-time Zentnerd that lives in the Portland Hills, I am beyond ecstatic that The Nick Zentner is talking about here!

Thanks for that! I often wondered how those hills were formed. That bird sounded like a white crowed sparrow.

I was up on the Hill (big building by antenna at 2:21) during Nisqually. That is when we established the rule that anyone between me and the door needs to be moving faster than me. So the story I have heard is that while the Hills may have started as basalt, the upper 30 or so feet is silt that has blown in and is pretty unstable. There is a great vid of a housing lot where they cut back all the trees, and following a severe rain, when the owners went to check on construction, the lot literally peeled off and chased them down the street. I therefore live on the eastside which doesn't tend to move on its own.

This is so awesome! Portland is such a lovely city, would love more videos from Oregon!

Thank you for that. I have visited Portland several times. I live in Minnesota but have often thought of moving to Portland. So I researched it several times. I also saw on you roadside map that the Missoula flood came raging through Lake Oswego area.

Now -- as for the geology of the West Hills -- This is an amazing piece of news. I would never have suspected a fold-&-thrust story for the West Hills. I just figured that the Portland Fault drew a nice straight escarpment high enough to be carved out by the numerous Missoula floods that would barrel down the Willamette Valley. The fold-&-thrust story now makes perfect sense -- and the rate at which this longitude is rotating compared to central WA I can see why it has a more NW strike than the ridges in central WA.

The new OHSU building to the south was built over a spring, they tapped it to provide all grey water for the building. The OHSU budlings up on the hill built on deep pilings drilled down through that factured basalt rock.

Yay!!!! We are so lucky that your boys Chose Oregon and Portland!!! That helps explain the terwilleger curves and that sharp cliff, as well as the different perspective on the terroirs of Tualatin, Parrot Mountain and Eola Amity!!! Thanks for visiting us!!!

Every time I watched your videos I couldn't help; but wish we had someone of your caliber teach us about OR geology. When I saw this title I believe it took me less than a second to tune in. Thank you!

Bittersweet memories of my Three years there and now... This city is either spot-on and beautiful or dead wrong and ugly... Glad I walked every neighborhood back in the p 90s as a starry eyed youthful man

Interesting to hear about these hills which I knew as the “West Hills” when I lived at the base of the hills on top of the fault. Really glad you turned me on to Marli’s book so I can now read about the features that I went past and over for so many years.

Thank you Nick again. The Portland hills are just another Yakima fold. Lived there from 2012 to 2017 and never knew. Last year you taught us that the channels in front of our Edmonds home were just another

volcano hills. Worked at a foundry there, and they dug a hole. I could tell them the age of the deposit when they were made. awesome stuff there

I can relate to Yakima Fold Anticlines. I live in Union Gap on the north side of Ahtanum Ridge looking towards Yakima. Rattlesnake Ridge is same Anticline but on other side of 'The Gap'. I can see Yakima Ridge and Valley in between. My grandparents lived in Portland, not far from the bridge you are on. I remember lots of hills, rivers, bridges, getting lost looking for grandparent's house. They lived on a steep hillside. Backyard was a series of 3 terraces. Front yard was a series of 2 terraces. Driveway was very steep and even the street below was divided into 2 lanes and terraced with retain wall. They had rock walls made out of red volcanic rock full of air holes like pumice. Gravels were also red volcanic rock. I can remember Mt Tabor, the volcanic cinder cone. I would collect red rock and stick it into my pockets to bring back to Yakima. What is the age of the volcanic cinder cones around Portland? Did they happen after Columbia Flood Basalt or before? I don't recall (I was a young kid) back then if cinder cones were on top of the ridges, or only by themselves.

I live in Wilsonville - what I know as Stafford Hills - is really - Tonquin Scablands. The north/south hill in Milwaukie (oatfield road) is called the Oatfield Fault. Never knew that. Lived on it for 20 years.

Hope you keep working your way south . I love geology!

Makes sense that the flood Basalts would have flowed into the Williamette valley, as they flowed to the coast. Cool to know

Ok, Nick, now I have something to compare to about the quality of your 4K video! And, yes now I really see the difference. On this video, I really feel like I am walking with you on the city street of Portland! That's how I see it when I go there with my eyes!! Yes, recording with your 4K whatever is better, much better!😄✨💛 And, thank you for the geology lesson, Nick!😘✨💛

Yeeeeeessss! Thank you for coming to Portland and talking about our hills. I missed you on that bridge by about 24 hours. I took a bike tour along the river today. Would have blown my mind to run into you there and I’d likely have ruined a couple minutes of your video, so probably better this way. I’m no birder, but I call those little guys Song Sparrows, aka LBBs (little brown birds). Was just reading the new research on the gales creek fault, and wonder how (or if) that relates to the portland hills anticline. They sure are awefully parallel to each other. Hmm, something to chew on. Hope you enjoy the rest of your travels, and come again soon!

Sure! It hadn't crossed my mind though fascinated with your teachings about this! This morning another piece connecting all I've learned from you.

Hi Nick, nice information I hope you enjoy your visit!

Nick, Please come to the Mision Valley again. Montana holds the key to all the clean water, that you all hold so deeply. If they kill the water here in Flathead lake, it flows down. Do a chalkboard in our local theater. I have admired that there is no politics in your education of us and I wish people would cherish what you love.

Wow, I never imagined as we drove I-5 up those hills they were basalt. Being young and unknowing I would have thought glacial moraine if I had thought about it at all. I have to admit that. Portland traffic always has terrified me and I just want to get out of the city as fast as possible. Thanks for the lesson. I have the new roadside WA and MT books. I need to get back to your courses and start reading those books.

I'm in Phoenix AZ. Awaiting the return of the Blast Furnace that will render the place a hell hole for the next six months. Looking at the grey skies and what looks like rain off in the distance, and all the greenery and the people out walking and jogging in sweatpants etc, I'm thinking Portland sure does look inviting.

Imagine being in that spot during the Pleistocine. I think you'd be under a couple hundred feet of water during the Missoula floods. I've personally seen a boulder from the Idaho batholith 50 miles south of there near Albany. They think it rafted in on an iceberg that floated up the Willamette River when it was a backwater eddy of one of the floods. Crazy cool!

Thanks for this lesson, Nick. I've driven I-5 many times, and have spent time in Portland. I grew up in Eugene, and have relatives scattered about Washington. Some of them own orchards in the Wenatchee area. I have always wondered about the geology of the ridge lines and the various humps around town. I have taken relatives to the hospital on top of the ridge you were looking at and walking towards. That's the Veteran's Hospital and the Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU) and the OHSU hospital. Off to the left I can just make out the tram line from the OHSU Hospital down to the medical offices building on the riverside.

Wow. Forgot that the German Chocolate Cake came out this way. Fun making these connections with you and our trusty Roadside Geology Team! Thanks, Nick for another great video hike!

Thank you Nick for a great video.

Thanks you for taking the time to speak about this. With this in mind, I have a lot of questions about how this fits in with other nearby features. That book looks like a good start.

If you're really that new to NW Oregon geology, then some time when you're travelling from Eugene to Portland do this: take I-205 through Oregon City. Going North on I-205 through West Linn, you'll start climbing a hill right after exit 6. Toward the top of the hill on the northbound side there's a viewpoint that overlooks the Willamette Falls, which is a 40-foot basalt shelf in the river bed. On the opposite side of the river there's basalt cliffs that stretch for several miles (Oregon 99E is at the base of these cliffs, making them very accessible). As you leave the viewpoint, you'll descend through a cut right through more basalt, where there's a clearly visible layer of soil about one foot thick, sandwiched between basalt layers that are ten feet thick in places. (I think it's all Columbia River basalt, but I can't be sure of that. Black, hard, layered, sometimes forms cliffs -- at this point any pretense I have of being a geologist falls away).

I have only recently… May be for two weeks, gotten into you. Maybe three. I was turned on to you by a friend of my sister who lives in Alaska now and came from Washington. Ever since you have been one of my solids and I love your personality and the information. I almost giggled when you said something about the big city not being your element. I live just north of Los Angeles, and thinking of Portland as a harsh city environment is kind of humorous to me. I feel you. I don't like lots of Busy city myself, but I have to say that if one is going to be in a city… Portland, Seattle, etc., pretty much top of my list for groovy Ness. On that note, I think you for the city views of the architecture! That bridge is amazing, and the buildings surrounding it, although they are big city, have a lot of style to them.Thank you overall man

Thanks for this, Nick! I’ve been interested in Geology for a couple of years for selfish botanical reasons, but also from an overall ecology standpoint. Thanks to Crime Pays But Botany Doesn’t, I’ve been even more interested for the past two or so years and your videos have helped a lot! This one is super helpful since I don’t have to drive tens or hundreds of miles to see the features, but I can take that exact light rail tram to that bridge in just a few minutes and look at that exact view with that exact book and see it for myself. Thanks again. 💚 PDX

I am so glad you are back.

Right on Nick , Now I know a little bit More . People of Portland see a big Dilbert looking guy , I think your pretty Safe there . The scenery looks magnificent :) QC

"Sometimes a great notion."

Thanks for this look at my town. Love ya!

Thank you Professor Zentner

Very nice! Thanks for the context and including Salem (where I live)! Now I can go back through some of your videos and get a better understanding of what my home is built on.

Great stuff Nick, I’ve lived in the Portland area all my life, the views from the West Hills as they are commonly called, are spectacular a clear day, with views of Mt Hood, and Mt St Helens. Just watch we’re you park in downtown and some of the out laying areas, very similar to Seattle’s crime issues and homeless problems.

Thank you Nick! Good luck! 👍

Cheers from Portland - thanks for the overview!

Fascinating! Oh I love the Geology of Washington & Oregon. Very impressive! So glad you got to visit you son & give us a lesson on Columbia River Basalt! I am down south in COOS BAY on the Cascadia Subduction Zone & the Jaun De Fuca Fault. A little shaking goes on around here too. Safe travels!

Interesting. I've enjoyed your short geology shows on OPB television and hope you might consider doing some shows about the odd geology we have in and around Portland. Thanks!

Bus boy! at 1:35. I appreciate all your work and look forward to the vids.

Haven't been in Portland in many years, but will get there again this summer, following the Oregon Trail for the 4th, and what I presume will be, the last time (I'll be 78 when I arrive in August). Then I'll turn around and detour through the channeled scablands, which I've never seen in person (KZfaq only - thanks, Nick and Bruce) on the return leg to Minneapolis. I'm with Qltnut when it comes to what I remember about Portland traffic.

Thank you for including those of us west of the mountains. You did a great job on this video.

The Land of Make Believe! Thanks, Nick.

I grew up in Yakima near the southern hills that wrap their earthy arms around the town,, and always wondered about the geology of the area, and even bought a book about it atthe YVCC bookstore, but Never got around to really trying to read it and understand what was going on .... you might be interested to know that Mt. Tabor is an extinct (let's hope!!!!!) Volcano and you can walk down inside it. :) Have a great day and visit with your kids. :)

Thanks for all your vids and re awakening my fascination of geology. From school I remember "igneous rocks", metamorphic and sedimentary. I'm a 53 year old from Glasgow Scotland (famous for drumlins). I now live in Aberdeen AKA The Granite City. If you ever do a lecture tour of Europe, I will be in the audience as happy as a kid at xmas.

that was an awesome video very informative , i commute from Beaverton to Ridgefield and often wonder about how them hills currently got here also worry crossing so many bridges. Thanks

As I grew up here in Portland sometime in the last 60 yrs I learned that the west hills were a fault. However, even though I have been watching your lectures and from them and reading knew of the twisting geology of the NW I never put the 2 together, thanks.

Wow thanks next time I go to portland I want to walk on that bridge too. thank You for pointing that out to us. that lava flow of the German chocolate Cake is everywhere!

Thank you for showing us that. Live in the area and didn’t know that. Will always view it differently from now on. Glad to have you in the area. Enjoy

Thanks again. This is an interesting connection between Oregon and Washington. Growing up in Oregon and living in Washington I always imagined there was a dramatic contrast between in the geology of the 2 regions. The major difference is the glaciation of the Puget basin compared to the flat, alluvial Wllamette Valley. Are the basalt buttes that pop up further south in the valley related to the CRB?

You missed the huge cliffs and the falls at Oregon City, just south of Portland

People forget that geology is also in cities. My husband thinks we have to be in the middle of no where to see it.

Nick , you are always welcome in Portland, you should feel totally comfortable!

Another fine video, thank you Professor Nick you're the best! And thanks to Marley Miller too.

I love Portland. I'll be back as soon as possible.

thank you, Portland gets some bad press. It is still a nice place to live! I have the Roadside Geology of Oregon too, but never thought much about what is in front of me, for many years. Geology is grown over in this area, few if any out crops, to see. You pulled back the curtain and Marli too. ALL stay safe

Geology in the big city! Awesome! Great example of the faulting and folding in the PNW. Your videos from the field are really helpful. Thanks Nick!! 😁

Thanks for the info on the hills. The bird sounds like a robin (it is spring). Love you too Nick.

I appreciate the history lesson and I hope you enjoy the rest of your time here!

Thanks, it's fun learning about the geology of the places I drive though daily.

I'm sending this link to a good friend who lives in Beaverton. I'm sure he'll find it interesting! :)

The Portland geology narrative covers everything from the Missoula ice age floods, the Columbia River Basalt floods, Siletzia, the Boring Volcanics, multiple pronounced cinder cones WITHIN the city limits, the Clockwise Rotation, the formation of the High Cascades which were preceded by the Western Cascades, the formation of the Willamette River, etc. Clearly there’s much more going in Portland than your normal noisy headlines about endless civil unrest, out of control crime, and homeless camps. Portland, Oregon is a cultured, very nice big city with a small town feeling, as your walk across the Tillicum Bridge showed. Portland geology, and for that matter all of NW Geology, both East and West of the Cascades, ROCKS! Thanks for stopping by and checking things out in the Rose City Nick.

If you go all the way to Southern Oregon , Please try to stop by my park in Applegate. There are beautiful rock formations along the swimming hole in the Applegate River. I don't really understand them , but I think they are metamorphic. Kids have been jumping off them since the dawn of mankind. I know the history of them for about the last 200 years. Before that, is a mystery. Its on Highway 238, near the Green Iron bridge.

I caught 2 nice spring salmon right under that bridge Thursday.

Thank you nick your the best

Oh gosh, just had a nightmare flashback when you mentioned Portland traffic. Spent a month on Hwy 26 to the coast one day a couple of years back. Worth it though. Oregon's a beautiful state with some great people!

I just stumbled across this video in my feed. Love your style! It was a relaxing and informative watch. Thanks, from a Portland native. 🙂

Rock question, what is the difference between a Teanaway gray and an Ellensburg blue? When I look up Teanaway gray, I find information about the Ellensburg blue. I apparently have a Teanaway gray so am confused.

Life and geology in the big city. Life moves fast and geology moves way so slowly.

Nick I appreciate your thoughts and insight!!

There's something about this that's so reminiscent of walks with my grandpa when I was younger. I'm over here ugly crying.

I wish I knew you were coming . I found a very interesting rock wall near ohsu. I would love to get your take. My older brother thinks its a melted building no matter what I say. its just basalt pillows. Anyways. glad to see you in town.

Thank you I always wondered how the basalt got built up what a clear answer 👏

I grew up in that region (!) but now can see it differently (Marli excuses us for being distracted by the busy highway scene, ha!). And FYI a friend put Oregon's Grand Ronde River and Grand Ronde basalt flow together today, as we discussed the layers of basalt in WA. 😉 👍 Love you back. Thanks!!

Until next time Nick be well.

I don’t think it’ll be too long before Joe Rogan discovers this channel.

Perfect spring day for a field class about the Portland fault Thats interesting so do they all run with the same orientation so the further west you go there's more force on the fold?👍

The Chehalem Mountains just southwest of Portland a little ways are another anticline ridge I believe

If I knew you were in the PDX area I would have invited you to the Friday evening meeting of the Oregon Agate and Mineral Society! First and third Fridays of most months.

Where is everyone? I can’t wrap my head round the fact of it being midday and so few people about. In the middle of Glasgow on our pedestrian bridge if I saw so few people on it, I’d wonder what was up. That German chocolate cake gets everywhere.