Catastrophe and Cartography - Ice Age Floods Visualized

Transcript
0:00 it's been almost four months now without
0:02 a single clear night here in washington
0:04 and obviously that doesn't give me a lot
0:05 of chance to do astrophotography which
0:07 is why i haven't really been too active
0:09 here on youtube lately hopefully you've
0:11 had some clear nights where you're at
0:12 and you've been getting some great shots
0:14 in the meantime though i've been doing a
0:15 lot of research on some different topics
0:17 these last few months and one of the
0:19 most interesting was just some basic
0:21 geology and geography and that's going
0:23 to be the focus of our video today i
0:26 wanted to show you some of the amazing
0:27 landscapes here with the help of this
0:30 map from the usgs this is their national
0:33 map viewer i think i'll have a link for
0:35 in the video description below if you
0:36 want to follow along but with the help
0:38 of their elevation tinted hill shade
0:41 try saying that three times fast this
0:43 allows us to really see the underlying
0:45 landscapes that would otherwise be
0:47 obscured by foliage and vegetation and
0:50 buildings and all that and once you
0:51 start to understand how much the planet
0:54 has changed especially in the last 15
0:56 000 years this brings a whole new
0:58 dimension to what you're looking at with
1:00 that said i'd highly recommend you spend
1:03 some time if you're interested in this
1:04 kind of thing looking up randall carlson
1:07 on youtube he's kind of the leader in
1:09 this field and he's got a lot of really
1:11 detailed videos probably 100 hours worth
1:14 here on youtube at least that gets into
1:16 the really important details of
1:18 everything we're going to look at today
1:19 in this video though i just want to
1:21 focus on the basic things we can
1:22 actually see here in the map as you'll
1:24 start to notice you don't need to have a
1:25 degree in geology or geography to see
1:28 what's going on here and the key thing
1:30 you want to keep in mind as we're
1:31 looking at the map is that all of these
1:33 landscapes were radically altered
1:35 between about 15 to 10 000 years ago
1:38 during this time frame the global
1:40 climate got both considerably warmer and
1:42 then considerably colder and warmer
1:44 again indicating multiple catastrophic
1:47 events again i would refer you to
1:49 randall carlson's videos for more
1:51 information but essentially what
1:52 happened is that
1:54 about 12 000 13 000 years ago
1:57 all of canada practically was covered in
2:01 over a mile thick of ice in some spots
2:03 almost two miles thick of ice and all of
2:06 that ice melted fairly rapidly due to
2:08 some type of global cataclysm
2:11 some people are saying it's a comet
2:12 which would make a lot of sense others
2:14 think it has something to do with the
2:16 sun
2:16 i would argue it's probably both based
2:18 on the evidence so far and as you're
2:20 going to see here we can actually see
2:22 the effects of this catastrophic climate
2:25 change just by looking at the map
2:27 i'd also recommend checking out the
2:29 comet research group's website that
2:30 we're looking at now they've got a lot
2:32 of cogent information here that really
2:34 explains the whole comet impact theory
2:37 and it really is a great starting point
2:39 for your own research
2:54 [Music]
2:56 anyway now would be a good time to get
2:57 back to the map i'll just start with
2:59 some areas that i'm actually familiar
3:00 with having lived in them and traveled
3:02 through them over the years and one of
3:04 the most popular is the one that randall
3:06 really focuses on in fact we did a
3:08 workshop with him in september we went
3:10 out to the scab lands and he showed us
3:11 around and we got to see these
3:13 landscapes in person the footage you're
3:15 watching now was captured by two of the
3:17 guys on our trip milo and casey and i'd
3:19 highly recommend watching their video if
3:21 you want to learn more about these
3:22 landscapes we can see right here we're
3:24 in
3:25 the border of washington up here in
3:27 oregon down here we have what's called
3:29 wallula gap
3:30 the green is the more depressed area
3:33 which means there was a lot of erosion
3:34 there and this was all caused by the
3:36 massive flood waters coming off of the
3:39 melting ice sheets up in canada this
3:42 video we're watching now is one of the
3:44 best examples to showcase the scale of
3:47 these floods
3:48 and if you go through and read some of
3:49 the native american myths from this
3:51 region they all talk about this massive
3:53 wall of water and these floods and this
3:56 gives you the perfect context for what
3:58 they're talking about
4:04 [Music]
4:05 and you have to keep in mind that this
4:07 water is filled with sediment and rocks
4:09 and boulders and trees and even massive
4:12 icebergs carrying boulders with them and
4:15 all this stuff reaches this narrow
4:17 little constriction the water starts to
4:19 back up and pond and that's what we see
4:21 over here and also out over this way
4:26 then
4:27 as it pulsed through this narrow little
4:29 gap it continued down the columbia river
4:31 gorge all the way out to the pacific
4:33 ocean near astoria in fact there was so
4:36 much water coming through here
4:38 that this whole region here down to
4:40 eugene
4:42 was kind of like a back flood so he had
4:44 so much water just pulled all the way
4:46 down to here and then eventually went
4:49 out
4:49 believe it or not they even found a
4:51 chunk of a meteorite in the willamette
4:53 valley that we just looked at and as
4:55 they mentioned
4:56 on wikipedia which i'm not saying is
4:58 reliable but they say right here that it
5:00 is the largest meteorite found in the
5:02 united states there was no impact crater
5:04 at the site which led them to believe
5:06 that the meteorite landed in canada or
5:09 montana and was transported as a glacial
5:11 erratic during the missoula floods at
5:13 the end of the last ice age just as we
5:15 talked about as you're starting to
5:17 visualize all this in your mind you can
5:19 imagine that there's millions of
5:21 icebergs floating on these flood waters
5:23 and inside of these icebergs some have
5:25 large boulders and in this case a
5:27 meteorite
5:29 this video here was taken in new
5:30 hampshire and i thought it was a great
5:32 visual in regards to the wallula gap
5:34 floods because at woolula gap that's
5:37 where a lot of the water got stuck at
5:38 and began to back up so this is a great
5:41 visual to show you how when the water is
5:43 filled with ice
5:45 not to mention the trees and rocks and
5:46 icebergs and all that it really
5:48 changes the dynamics of those floods and
5:52 this just helps to give you a sense of
5:54 scale
5:55 if we look at this video here
5:57 this also reveals an important point
6:00 when that narrow gap got constricted and
6:03 filled with icebergs and rocks and trees
6:06 eventually the pressure got so intense
6:08 that the floods started to back up and
6:10 go in the reverse direction
6:12 there's actually stratigraphic proof
6:15 that shows that this happened during
6:17 those ice age floods the current of the
6:19 rivers reversed because there is so much
6:22 water trying to get through a narrow
6:23 area
6:24 and then as these icebergs and rocks and
6:26 trees get forced through that gap every
6:28 so often the water gushes down
6:31 these floods clear out a little bit but
6:33 then there's another constriction and
6:35 this keeps happening over and over again
6:37 which leaves us a lot of really
6:38 interesting evidence throughout the scab
6:40 lands
6:42 if we follow these
6:44 original features further north we can
6:46 see that they tend to go straight up
6:48 into canada
6:50 and this is an area where we have this
6:52 confrontation between the more
6:55 uniformitarian mindset and the
6:57 catastrophist mindset the current
6:59 mainstream theory is that all of the
7:01 erosion we're seeing in the channel scab
7:03 lands was caused by glacial lake
7:05 missoula catastrophically flooding out
7:08 what they say is that glacial lake
7:09 missoula would fill up with water in
7:11 fact so much water that would be the
7:13 size of lake erie and lake ontario
7:15 combined just to give you some idea and
7:17 when all this water would fill up it
7:19 would get stuck at the purcell trench
7:20 load near sandpoint idaho eventually the
7:23 pressure would become so strong that it
7:24 would burst through the ice dam and then
7:26 flood out through the scab lands and
7:28 cause all the erosion and the main
7:29 reason they came up with this idea is
7:31 because we can see similar events
7:32 happening in iceland today but there's
7:34 two big problems with this theory the
7:36 first is that they're saying this event
7:38 happened over 40 times in a row in the
7:41 span of a few thousand years that means
7:43 glacier lake missoula would have to fill
7:45 all the way up the ice dam would come
7:47 down block it off it would burst through
7:50 the ice dam is now gone the lake drains
7:53 the lake fills up again
7:55 the ice dam reforms and this just
7:57 happens over and over and over again and
7:59 when you look through the climate
8:00 history and just look at the physics it
8:02 doesn't make a lot of sense the other
8:04 problem is that they tend to ignore all
8:06 of these ice sheets north of the scab
8:09 lands for some reason and they still
8:11 attribute all of this erosion for the
8:12 most part to glacial lake missoula not
8:15 the ice sheets due north of it melting
8:16 and catastrophically flooding out and
8:18 this is why this map is so great because
8:20 we can see with our own eyes that
8:22 there's all these mountain valleys that
8:24 must have been filled with melting water
8:26 and ice pouring down into the scab lands
8:28 if we trace all of these valleys back to
8:30 their central location we find a very
8:32 odd flattened out area in the midst of
8:34 the rockies this is where prince george
8:37 is at today and this would lead us to
8:38 believe that maybe something happened
8:40 here during the ice age
8:42 therefore the logical assumption would
8:44 be that there was some maybe some sort
8:46 of impact right here into the ice sheets
8:48 and again you can imagine if there's a
8:50 mild thing of ice you're not going to
8:51 have a big crater beneath that
8:52 necessarily as the ice would absorb most
8:54 of that impact and then melt
8:57 and this is one of the things that
8:58 randall has spent the last 20 years
8:59 investigating and trying to find
9:01 evidence that would suggest that a lot
9:04 of these scab-lance floods started up
9:06 near prince george getting stuck at
9:08 certain points and creating these
9:10 massive ponds
9:11 and then flowing out to the pacific
9:14 ocean
9:15 another interesting side note is that
9:16 the channeled scab lands we've been
9:18 talking about here is mainly composed of
9:21 basalt this basalt was extruded from the
9:23 earth i think 16 to 10 million years ago
9:26 somewhere in that range and that alone
9:28 is mind-boggling because as you're
9:30 driving through these landscapes you're
9:31 seeing the erosion but it's happening on
9:33 top of this really hard volcanic rock
9:36 that's just piled for hundreds if not
9:38 thousands of feet high it's really hard
9:40 to comprehend what you're seeing
9:43 and that leads me to an interesting
9:44 theory about how the yellowstone super
9:46 volcano formed one of the leading
9:48 theories that i've heard is that the
9:50 yellowstone caldera was caused millions
9:53 of years ago by a very high energy
9:55 impact with an asteroid this asteroid
9:57 must have been very dense and moving at
9:59 a really high speed just straight into
10:01 the earth think of it like getting shot
10:03 with a rifle then as the earth began to
10:06 bleed from this wound it was extruding
10:08 all this magma through this region right
10:10 here in southern idaho speaking of which
10:13 the craters of the moon national
10:15 monument is a great place to stop if you
10:17 are traveling through southern idaho
10:20 and essentially what happened is after
10:21 our earth got shot by this asteroid if
10:24 you will
10:25 the continental crust moved very slowly
10:27 over millions of years and that left
10:29 this scar right here the wound itself i
10:32 don't think is technically moved because
10:33 it's part of the lower portion of the
10:35 earth and now it resides under
10:37 yellowstone and that's what all that
10:39 talk about the super volcano blowing up
10:41 could relate to is that it had its
10:43 origins and another catastrophic impact
10:46 that's just one interesting theory that
10:47 i've heard that explains this feature
10:49 right here
10:51 and right now we're looking at something
10:52 that most people couldn't even conceive
10:54 of the power of this one singular event
10:56 and all the erosion it's caused in this
10:58 little corner of northwestern america
11:02 and southwestern canada but if we
11:05 go over here
11:06 we'll see similar original features
11:09 you know if you've ever been to a stream
11:11 or the beach
11:12 you can almost start to see how the
11:14 water just came pouring down these
11:16 valleys and carved these immense
11:19 channels that nowadays we can't even see
11:21 without the help of maps like this
11:24 and in this region they had what was
11:26 called glacial lake agassi which again
11:29 if i'm not mistaken was basically a
11:31 giant melt water
11:32 pond at one point or another that
11:35 drained out ultimately down through the
11:37 mississippi river
11:39 which
11:40 really seemed to have taken most of the
11:42 flooding from central
11:44 and eastern united states and of course
11:46 up into canada and if we zoom in here
11:48 you can see things a bit better just all
11:50 the different flood channels coming down
11:53 converging on the mississippi river and
11:55 then pouring out into the gulf of mexico
11:57 another thing to keep in mind is that
11:59 we're only seeing the most recent events
12:01 because if you're going to have a
12:02 massive flood like this
12:04 on a continent-wide scale it's going to
12:06 completely obliterate
12:08 a lot of the previous
12:11 features of the landscape just from the
12:13 sheer erosion if we go to the
12:15 adirondacks up here which is a great
12:17 place to explore we can also see that
12:20 there is clearly a lot of water flowing
12:22 through what is now lake champlain
12:24 another factor to consider is isostasy
12:27 this is when you have miles of ice
12:30 pressing down on the earth the ice melts
12:32 and now the earth is rebounding and
12:34 actually rising in elevation
12:37 this would also affect how the water was
12:40 moving in and out during these chaotic
12:42 times
12:43 also the finger lakes which are well
12:45 known
12:46 these
12:47 were potentially caused by if you
12:50 imagine you had the ice sheet kind of
12:52 ending right here and then you would
12:54 have these very high pressure
12:56 sub-glacial flows underneath the ice and
12:59 this would over time carve out those
13:01 finger lakes
13:03 in fact just north of the finger lakes
13:06 we have what are called drumlands and
13:08 these are a pretty
13:10 interesting erosional feature the
13:13 drumlins indicate that again this was
13:16 all under the ice and as the water was
13:19 flowing underneath the glaciers it was
13:21 subject to very high pressure and it
13:24 caused these really interesting
13:25 landforms that are still visible today
13:27 with the help of these maps
13:29 and we see almost identical drumlands
13:31 over near where i'm living now in
13:33 washington
13:34 notice how they just kind of fill up
13:36 this whole area and give us an idea of
13:38 where the southern edge of the ice
13:40 sheets used to be so here's the drumlins
13:43 in new york let's take a look at them
13:45 over in washington next right now we're
13:47 looking at the puget sound area
13:49 seattle's up over here olympia would be
13:52 down here tacoma
13:54 and the drumlins here aren't as
13:56 noticeable i guess you could say but
13:57 when we get a little bit better
13:58 resolution we'll be able to see that
14:00 this whole area shows these vertical
14:02 streaks which again are the drumlins
14:05 associated with really high pressure
14:07 water running underneath the glaciers
14:09 and in fact this whole area really
14:11 showcases what happened
14:14 again about 12 000 to 11 000 years ago
14:17 with that catastrophic melting another
14:19 thing you want to keep in mind is that
14:21 sea levels were 400 feet lower
14:24 during the ice age and the reason for
14:26 that is because a lot of the water was
14:27 locked up in these gigantic ice sheets
14:30 covering canada as those miles and miles
14:32 of ice melted that was enough to raise
14:34 global sea level about 400 feet in a
14:37 surprisingly short amount of time
14:40 and we can't forget about the ice sheets
14:42 in northern europe there's a lot of
14:44 evidence that shows that these
14:45 catastrophically melted as well probably
14:48 during the same time frame
14:51 [Music]
14:58 we're jumping around again this time
15:01 we're in the border of arizona and utah
15:04 we have the grand canyon right here
15:06 and this is arguably one of the most
15:08 interesting areas to notice the erosion
15:10 if you know what you're looking at i did
15:12 another workshop with randall in may and
15:14 this was a southwestern trip and we went
15:17 from flagstaff arizona all the way up to
15:20 moab and back and along the way we saw
15:23 really clear evidence of massive
15:25 rainfall that scoured this desert
15:27 landscape
15:28 most likely around the time of the
15:30 younger dryas
15:32 it doesn't show up too well here on the
15:34 tinted hillshade map
15:36 but i'll probably do a separate video if
15:38 anybody's interested where i show you
15:40 the photographic and google map evidence
15:42 that really drives home these points of
15:45 just unfathomable rainfall in the desert
15:48 of course 12 000 years ago the climate
15:50 of the southwest was probably quite a
15:52 bit different than it is today
15:54 and if we go up into canada
15:56 we can see the final remains of the
15:59 flooding as the ice sheets melted away
16:01 again we have these streamlined
16:03 erosional features but these are massive
16:05 you know this isn't just some little
16:06 thing at the beach these are just really
16:08 huge
16:09 areas of canada
16:11 just completely stripped through and
16:13 nobody would have any idea because now
16:14 it's just covered in forests and
16:15 prairies and plains and you can't really
16:17 make sense of it unless you see it with
16:19 the tinted hill shade which is another
16:20 nice benefit of our modern technology
16:22 even up over here we can see
16:25 the remains of these flood areas
16:27 reaching out
16:29 and just taking out everything along
16:31 with it i think it's pretty obvious that
16:33 we had multiple catastrophic events
16:35 happen from the balling allorod to the
16:37 younger driest and all the evidence
16:39 backs that up from a mass extinction of
16:42 animals across the globe
16:44 to sea levels rising 400 feet
16:47 to the
16:48 mile thick ice sheets across all of
16:50 canada melting within just a few hundred
16:52 years clearly that's going to have some
16:54 impacts on the planet and the erosion
16:57 that we see here would obviously tie
16:58 right into that
17:00 but that's really all i wanted to talk
17:01 about today i really just wanted to let
17:03 you guys know this resource is here
17:04 because i personally think it's
17:05 fascinating just come in here
17:07 and spend however long you want just
17:09 looking at all the erosion maybe where
17:11 you live and get an idea of what might
17:12 have happened during these chaotic times
17:15 and if you want to learn more about this
17:17 i'll have links to randall carlson's
17:18 page he's really the the main guy
17:20 talking about this from what i've seen
17:21 and he does a really good job of laying
17:23 it all out well i hope you guys enjoyed
17:25 this radically different video and i
17:27 might do one or two more videos if you
17:29 guys are interested showing you some of
17:31 my photos that i've taken living on the
17:33 road the last few years and now that i
17:34 have some more context to put these
17:37 really cool landscapes of the southwest
17:39 in with the global changes that we've
17:42 experienced within the last 15 000 years
17:45 so thanks for watching and i'll see you
17:47 guys hopefully in another video
17:50 [Music]
18:02 [Music]
18:10 [Music]
18:32 you

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Transcript
0:00	it's been almost four months now without
0:02	a single clear night here in washington
0:04	and obviously that doesn't give me a lot
0:05	of chance to do astrophotography which
0:07	is why i haven't really been too active
0:09	here on youtube lately hopefully you've
0:11	had some clear nights where you're at
0:12	and you've been getting some great shots
0:14	in the meantime though i've been doing a
0:15	lot of research on some different topics
0:17	these last few months and one of the
0:19	most interesting was just some basic
0:21	geology and geography and that's going
0:23	to be the focus of our video today i
0:26	wanted to show you some of the amazing
0:27	landscapes here with the help of this
0:30	map from the usgs this is their national
0:33	map viewer i think i'll have a link for
0:35	in the video description below if you
0:36	want to follow along but with the help
0:38	of their elevation tinted hill shade
0:41	try saying that three times fast this
0:43	allows us to really see the underlying
0:45	landscapes that would otherwise be
0:47	obscured by foliage and vegetation and
0:50	buildings and all that and once you
0:51	start to understand how much the planet
0:54	has changed especially in the last 15
0:56	000 years this brings a whole new
0:58	dimension to what you're looking at with
1:00	that said i'd highly recommend you spend
1:03	some time if you're interested in this
1:04	kind of thing looking up randall carlson
1:07	on youtube he's kind of the leader in
1:09	this field and he's got a lot of really
1:11	detailed videos probably 100 hours worth
1:14	here on youtube at least that gets into
1:16	the really important details of
1:18	everything we're going to look at today
1:19	in this video though i just want to
1:21	focus on the basic things we can
1:22	actually see here in the map as you'll
1:24	start to notice you don't need to have a
1:25	degree in geology or geography to see
1:28	what's going on here and the key thing
1:30	you want to keep in mind as we're
1:31	looking at the map is that all of these
1:33	landscapes were radically altered
1:35	between about 15 to 10 000 years ago
1:38	during this time frame the global
1:40	climate got both considerably warmer and
1:42	then considerably colder and warmer
1:44	again indicating multiple catastrophic
1:47	events again i would refer you to
1:49	randall carlson's videos for more
1:51	information but essentially what
1:52	happened is that
1:54	about 12 000 13 000 years ago
1:57	all of canada practically was covered in
2:01	over a mile thick of ice in some spots
2:03	almost two miles thick of ice and all of
2:06	that ice melted fairly rapidly due to
2:08	some type of global cataclysm
2:11	some people are saying it's a comet
2:12	which would make a lot of sense others
2:14	think it has something to do with the
2:16	sun
2:16	i would argue it's probably both based
2:18	on the evidence so far and as you're
2:20	going to see here we can actually see
2:22	the effects of this catastrophic climate
2:25	change just by looking at the map
2:27	i'd also recommend checking out the
2:29	comet research group's website that
2:30	we're looking at now they've got a lot
2:32	of cogent information here that really
2:34	explains the whole comet impact theory
2:37	and it really is a great starting point
2:39	for your own research
2:54	[Music]
2:56	anyway now would be a good time to get
2:57	back to the map i'll just start with
2:59	some areas that i'm actually familiar
3:00	with having lived in them and traveled
3:02	through them over the years and one of
3:04	the most popular is the one that randall
3:06	really focuses on in fact we did a
3:08	workshop with him in september we went
3:10	out to the scab lands and he showed us
3:11	around and we got to see these
3:13	landscapes in person the footage you're
3:15	watching now was captured by two of the
3:17	guys on our trip milo and casey and i'd
3:19	highly recommend watching their video if
3:21	you want to learn more about these
3:22	landscapes we can see right here we're
3:24	in
3:25	the border of washington up here in
3:27	oregon down here we have what's called
3:29	wallula gap
3:30	the green is the more depressed area
3:33	which means there was a lot of erosion
3:34	there and this was all caused by the
3:36	massive flood waters coming off of the
3:39	melting ice sheets up in canada this
3:42	video we're watching now is one of the
3:44	best examples to showcase the scale of
3:47	these floods
3:48	and if you go through and read some of
3:49	the native american myths from this
3:51	region they all talk about this massive
3:53	wall of water and these floods and this
3:56	gives you the perfect context for what
3:58	they're talking about
4:04	[Music]
4:05	and you have to keep in mind that this
4:07	water is filled with sediment and rocks
4:09	and boulders and trees and even massive
4:12	icebergs carrying boulders with them and
4:15	all this stuff reaches this narrow
4:17	little constriction the water starts to
4:19	back up and pond and that's what we see
4:21	over here and also out over this way
4:26	then
4:27	as it pulsed through this narrow little
4:29	gap it continued down the columbia river
4:31	gorge all the way out to the pacific
4:33	ocean near astoria in fact there was so
4:36	much water coming through here
4:38	that this whole region here down to
4:40	eugene
4:42	was kind of like a back flood so he had
4:44	so much water just pulled all the way
4:46	down to here and then eventually went
4:49	out
4:49	believe it or not they even found a
4:51	chunk of a meteorite in the willamette
4:53	valley that we just looked at and as
4:55	they mentioned
4:56	on wikipedia which i'm not saying is
4:58	reliable but they say right here that it
5:00	is the largest meteorite found in the
5:02	united states there was no impact crater
5:04	at the site which led them to believe
5:06	that the meteorite landed in canada or
5:09	montana and was transported as a glacial
5:11	erratic during the missoula floods at
5:13	the end of the last ice age just as we
5:15	talked about as you're starting to
5:17	visualize all this in your mind you can
5:19	imagine that there's millions of
5:21	icebergs floating on these flood waters
5:23	and inside of these icebergs some have
5:25	large boulders and in this case a
5:27	meteorite
5:29	this video here was taken in new
5:30	hampshire and i thought it was a great
5:32	visual in regards to the wallula gap
5:34	floods because at woolula gap that's
5:37	where a lot of the water got stuck at
5:38	and began to back up so this is a great
5:41	visual to show you how when the water is
5:43	filled with ice
5:45	not to mention the trees and rocks and
5:46	icebergs and all that it really
5:48	changes the dynamics of those floods and
5:52	this just helps to give you a sense of
5:54	scale
5:55	if we look at this video here
5:57	this also reveals an important point
6:00	when that narrow gap got constricted and
6:03	filled with icebergs and rocks and trees
6:06	eventually the pressure got so intense
6:08	that the floods started to back up and
6:10	go in the reverse direction
6:12	there's actually stratigraphic proof
6:15	that shows that this happened during
6:17	those ice age floods the current of the
6:19	rivers reversed because there is so much
6:22	water trying to get through a narrow
6:23	area
6:24	and then as these icebergs and rocks and
6:26	trees get forced through that gap every
6:28	so often the water gushes down
6:31	these floods clear out a little bit but
6:33	then there's another constriction and
6:35	this keeps happening over and over again
6:37	which leaves us a lot of really
6:38	interesting evidence throughout the scab
6:40	lands
6:42	if we follow these
6:44	original features further north we can
6:46	see that they tend to go straight up
6:48	into canada
6:50	and this is an area where we have this
6:52	confrontation between the more
6:55	uniformitarian mindset and the
6:57	catastrophist mindset the current
6:59	mainstream theory is that all of the
7:01	erosion we're seeing in the channel scab
7:03	lands was caused by glacial lake
7:05	missoula catastrophically flooding out
7:08	what they say is that glacial lake
7:09	missoula would fill up with water in
7:11	fact so much water that would be the
7:13	size of lake erie and lake ontario
7:15	combined just to give you some idea and
7:17	when all this water would fill up it
7:19	would get stuck at the purcell trench
7:20	load near sandpoint idaho eventually the
7:23	pressure would become so strong that it
7:24	would burst through the ice dam and then
7:26	flood out through the scab lands and
7:28	cause all the erosion and the main
7:29	reason they came up with this idea is
7:31	because we can see similar events
7:32	happening in iceland today but there's
7:34	two big problems with this theory the
7:36	first is that they're saying this event
7:38	happened over 40 times in a row in the
7:41	span of a few thousand years that means
7:43	glacier lake missoula would have to fill
7:45	all the way up the ice dam would come
7:47	down block it off it would burst through
7:50	the ice dam is now gone the lake drains
7:53	the lake fills up again
7:55	the ice dam reforms and this just
7:57	happens over and over and over again and
7:59	when you look through the climate
8:00	history and just look at the physics it
8:02	doesn't make a lot of sense the other
8:04	problem is that they tend to ignore all
8:06	of these ice sheets north of the scab
8:09	lands for some reason and they still
8:11	attribute all of this erosion for the
8:12	most part to glacial lake missoula not
8:15	the ice sheets due north of it melting
8:16	and catastrophically flooding out and
8:18	this is why this map is so great because
8:20	we can see with our own eyes that
8:22	there's all these mountain valleys that
8:24	must have been filled with melting water
8:26	and ice pouring down into the scab lands
8:28	if we trace all of these valleys back to
8:30	their central location we find a very
8:32	odd flattened out area in the midst of
8:34	the rockies this is where prince george
8:37	is at today and this would lead us to
8:38	believe that maybe something happened
8:40	here during the ice age
8:42	therefore the logical assumption would
8:44	be that there was some maybe some sort
8:46	of impact right here into the ice sheets
8:48	and again you can imagine if there's a
8:50	mild thing of ice you're not going to
8:51	have a big crater beneath that
8:52	necessarily as the ice would absorb most
8:54	of that impact and then melt
8:57	and this is one of the things that
8:58	randall has spent the last 20 years
8:59	investigating and trying to find
9:01	evidence that would suggest that a lot
9:04	of these scab-lance floods started up
9:06	near prince george getting stuck at
9:08	certain points and creating these
9:10	massive ponds
9:11	and then flowing out to the pacific
9:14	ocean
9:15	another interesting side note is that
9:16	the channeled scab lands we've been
9:18	talking about here is mainly composed of
9:21	basalt this basalt was extruded from the
9:23	earth i think 16 to 10 million years ago
9:26	somewhere in that range and that alone
9:28	is mind-boggling because as you're
9:30	driving through these landscapes you're
9:31	seeing the erosion but it's happening on
9:33	top of this really hard volcanic rock
9:36	that's just piled for hundreds if not
9:38	thousands of feet high it's really hard
9:40	to comprehend what you're seeing
9:43	and that leads me to an interesting
9:44	theory about how the yellowstone super
9:46	volcano formed one of the leading
9:48	theories that i've heard is that the
9:50	yellowstone caldera was caused millions
9:53	of years ago by a very high energy
9:55	impact with an asteroid this asteroid
9:57	must have been very dense and moving at
9:59	a really high speed just straight into
10:01	the earth think of it like getting shot
10:03	with a rifle then as the earth began to
10:06	bleed from this wound it was extruding
10:08	all this magma through this region right
10:10	here in southern idaho speaking of which
10:13	the craters of the moon national
10:15	monument is a great place to stop if you
10:17	are traveling through southern idaho
10:20	and essentially what happened is after
10:21	our earth got shot by this asteroid if
10:24	you will
10:25	the continental crust moved very slowly
10:27	over millions of years and that left
10:29	this scar right here the wound itself i
10:32	don't think is technically moved because
10:33	it's part of the lower portion of the
10:35	earth and now it resides under
10:37	yellowstone and that's what all that
10:39	talk about the super volcano blowing up
10:41	could relate to is that it had its
10:43	origins and another catastrophic impact
10:46	that's just one interesting theory that
10:47	i've heard that explains this feature
10:49	right here
10:51	and right now we're looking at something
10:52	that most people couldn't even conceive
10:54	of the power of this one singular event
10:56	and all the erosion it's caused in this
10:58	little corner of northwestern america
11:02	and southwestern canada but if we
11:05	go over here
11:06	we'll see similar original features
11:09	you know if you've ever been to a stream
11:11	or the beach
11:12	you can almost start to see how the
11:14	water just came pouring down these
11:16	valleys and carved these immense
11:19	channels that nowadays we can't even see
11:21	without the help of maps like this
11:24	and in this region they had what was
11:26	called glacial lake agassi which again
11:29	if i'm not mistaken was basically a
11:31	giant melt water
11:32	pond at one point or another that
11:35	drained out ultimately down through the
11:37	mississippi river
11:39	which
11:40	really seemed to have taken most of the
11:42	flooding from central
11:44	and eastern united states and of course
11:46	up into canada and if we zoom in here
11:48	you can see things a bit better just all
11:50	the different flood channels coming down
11:53	converging on the mississippi river and
11:55	then pouring out into the gulf of mexico
11:57	another thing to keep in mind is that
11:59	we're only seeing the most recent events
12:01	because if you're going to have a
12:02	massive flood like this
12:04	on a continent-wide scale it's going to
12:06	completely obliterate
12:08	a lot of the previous
12:11	features of the landscape just from the
12:13	sheer erosion if we go to the
12:15	adirondacks up here which is a great
12:17	place to explore we can also see that
12:20	there is clearly a lot of water flowing
12:22	through what is now lake champlain
12:24	another factor to consider is isostasy
12:27	this is when you have miles of ice
12:30	pressing down on the earth the ice melts
12:32	and now the earth is rebounding and
12:34	actually rising in elevation
12:37	this would also affect how the water was
12:40	moving in and out during these chaotic
12:42	times
12:43	also the finger lakes which are well
12:45	known
12:46	these
12:47	were potentially caused by if you
12:50	imagine you had the ice sheet kind of
12:52	ending right here and then you would
12:54	have these very high pressure
12:56	sub-glacial flows underneath the ice and
12:59	this would over time carve out those
13:01	finger lakes
13:03	in fact just north of the finger lakes
13:06	we have what are called drumlands and
13:08	these are a pretty
13:10	interesting erosional feature the
13:13	drumlins indicate that again this was
13:16	all under the ice and as the water was
13:19	flowing underneath the glaciers it was
13:21	subject to very high pressure and it
13:24	caused these really interesting
13:25	landforms that are still visible today
13:27	with the help of these maps
13:29	and we see almost identical drumlands
13:31	over near where i'm living now in
13:33	washington
13:34	notice how they just kind of fill up
13:36	this whole area and give us an idea of
13:38	where the southern edge of the ice
13:40	sheets used to be so here's the drumlins
13:43	in new york let's take a look at them
13:45	over in washington next right now we're
13:47	looking at the puget sound area
13:49	seattle's up over here olympia would be
13:52	down here tacoma
13:54	and the drumlins here aren't as
13:56	noticeable i guess you could say but
13:57	when we get a little bit better
13:58	resolution we'll be able to see that
14:00	this whole area shows these vertical
14:02	streaks which again are the drumlins
14:05	associated with really high pressure
14:07	water running underneath the glaciers
14:09	and in fact this whole area really
14:11	showcases what happened
14:14	again about 12 000 to 11 000 years ago
14:17	with that catastrophic melting another
14:19	thing you want to keep in mind is that
14:21	sea levels were 400 feet lower
14:24	during the ice age and the reason for
14:26	that is because a lot of the water was
14:27	locked up in these gigantic ice sheets
14:30	covering canada as those miles and miles
14:32	of ice melted that was enough to raise
14:34	global sea level about 400 feet in a
14:37	surprisingly short amount of time
14:40	and we can't forget about the ice sheets
14:42	in northern europe there's a lot of
14:44	evidence that shows that these
14:45	catastrophically melted as well probably
14:48	during the same time frame
14:51	[Music]
14:58	we're jumping around again this time
15:01	we're in the border of arizona and utah
15:04	we have the grand canyon right here
15:06	and this is arguably one of the most
15:08	interesting areas to notice the erosion
15:10	if you know what you're looking at i did
15:12	another workshop with randall in may and
15:14	this was a southwestern trip and we went
15:17	from flagstaff arizona all the way up to
15:20	moab and back and along the way we saw
15:23	really clear evidence of massive
15:25	rainfall that scoured this desert
15:27	landscape
15:28	most likely around the time of the
15:30	younger dryas
15:32	it doesn't show up too well here on the
15:34	tinted hillshade map
15:36	but i'll probably do a separate video if
15:38	anybody's interested where i show you
15:40	the photographic and google map evidence
15:42	that really drives home these points of
15:45	just unfathomable rainfall in the desert
15:48	of course 12 000 years ago the climate
15:50	of the southwest was probably quite a
15:52	bit different than it is today
15:54	and if we go up into canada
15:56	we can see the final remains of the
15:59	flooding as the ice sheets melted away
16:01	again we have these streamlined
16:03	erosional features but these are massive
16:05	you know this isn't just some little
16:06	thing at the beach these are just really
16:08	huge
16:09	areas of canada
16:11	just completely stripped through and
16:13	nobody would have any idea because now
16:14	it's just covered in forests and
16:15	prairies and plains and you can't really
16:17	make sense of it unless you see it with
16:19	the tinted hill shade which is another
16:20	nice benefit of our modern technology
16:22	even up over here we can see
16:25	the remains of these flood areas
16:27	reaching out
16:29	and just taking out everything along
16:31	with it i think it's pretty obvious that
16:33	we had multiple catastrophic events
16:35	happen from the balling allorod to the
16:37	younger driest and all the evidence
16:39	backs that up from a mass extinction of
16:42	animals across the globe
16:44	to sea levels rising 400 feet
16:47	to the
16:48	mile thick ice sheets across all of
16:50	canada melting within just a few hundred
16:52	years clearly that's going to have some
16:54	impacts on the planet and the erosion
16:57	that we see here would obviously tie
16:58	right into that
17:00	but that's really all i wanted to talk
17:01	about today i really just wanted to let
17:03	you guys know this resource is here
17:04	because i personally think it's
17:05	fascinating just come in here
17:07	and spend however long you want just
17:09	looking at all the erosion maybe where
17:11	you live and get an idea of what might
17:12	have happened during these chaotic times
17:15	and if you want to learn more about this
17:17	i'll have links to randall carlson's
17:18	page he's really the the main guy
17:20	talking about this from what i've seen
17:21	and he does a really good job of laying
17:23	it all out well i hope you guys enjoyed
17:25	this radically different video and i
17:27	might do one or two more videos if you
17:29	guys are interested showing you some of
17:31	my photos that i've taken living on the
17:33	road the last few years and now that i
17:34	have some more context to put these
17:37	really cool landscapes of the southwest
17:39	in with the global changes that we've
17:42	experienced within the last 15 000 years
17:45	so thanks for watching and i'll see you
17:47	guys hopefully in another video
17:50	[Music]
18:02	[Music]
18:10	[Music]
18:32	you