How Snowball Earth Leveled Mountains and Created the Great Unconformity

Viewer, Thomas Cheymol suggested that I should mention isostasy. I thank him for the suggestion and agree! At 18:00 I talk about deeply buried sediments being continually uplifted and eroded in an approximate equilibrium to eventually bring metamorphics and granites to the surface. I should have mentioned that most of this uplift, after the initial formation of mountains, is through isostasy. When you load the crust with weight (mountains, sediments, ice) the crust sinks into the mantle (basins like the one on my sketch do this) and when you erode or remove weight the crust slowly rebounds, bringing deep rocks to the surface. Therefore, the principle of isostasy is key in both deep burial and massive uplift. NOTE #2 Concerning glacial periods. I mostly referred to a period from about 800 to 600 million years ago when at least three major glaciations occurred. The three biggest ones we know of are named the Sturtian, Marinoan, and Gaskiers. There was also at least one about 2.5 billion years ago.

As a retired geologist, who spent majority of his working years in well logging, you do a wonderful job explaining everything to non geologists! I love how you use modern technology with old technology to explain things and you do it in a way that people can grasp the concept, the present is the key to the past! Well done!!

Somehow the earth warmed its self up even with no one here burning fossil fuels.

What an exciting luxury to have such a field geologist pointing and explaining with such narrative joy. I wish I could recognize the 'pages', the unconformities and all these phenomenons with that kind of ease.

So glad I found your geology site. I am a former mudlogger of 14 years. I was always so excited to find microfossils in my samples. Especially knowing I am the only human to have ever seen those particular mud samples. Everytime I see strata I wonder where it is from and how it has formed. It must be truly amazing to put your hands on all those rocks. And yes, I truly wish I could touch them also. Your teachings are magnanimous! And I will continue to and look forward to your next teaching.

My college geology classes are coming back to me. I was a zoology major when I took my first geology class in 1970. If I hadn't put in two full years into a zoology degree, I would have switched majors. Sometimes. I still wish I had. I love listening to the great geology lectures on You Tube. Thank you!

I'm from the UK, which, for a small island, has a mass of geology. But what a fantastic insight into american geology Myron gives. As another comment said, it's a great storyteller. Thank you, Myron.

I'm a geologist in Ohio, but I worked in Wyoming as a young man. I have never touched the great unconformity. It's on my bucket list. This video is enthralling. It's been 45 years, but I have got to make it back the Wind River Canyon and see the surface that has alluded me.

I'm so glad you put this one together. In 1951 when I has 5 we moved from Lander to Worland. My dad was in oil exploration ( a seismograph crew) for Phillips Pet. It was the first time I ever remember going through the wind river canyon. I have gone through it many times since. But have not lived in Wyoming since the 50's. Thermopolis and Tensleep where areas we visited many times as well. You have just explained some of the Geology of my childhood. That I never knew how those features were made. Now I know and it is amazing. I knew a little geology from what my father learned as he worked on the seismograph crew. Plate tectonics' was not understood back then. It is a joy to learn about now and how it has shaped the areas were we live. Thank you so much.

Your videos are wonderful. My father was a geologist and wanted me to study geology. I didn’t think I was proficient in math and science to do so. He always took on rock finding hikes in the San Gabriel mountains, Los Angeles National Forest. He lived and breathed geology. Every day I look at those mountains and remember those moments.

This 82 years old engineer is your latest student. Thanks, Myron.

As a non-geologist this was a very informative and easy to understand video. I really liked that you actually went out and showed the real rock formations, and your enthusiasm was very contagious.

People think geology is a dry subject but the geologists I know of are some of the most enthusiastic and passionate folks around!

Myron is so enthusiastic, you must listen to his stories. I love to learn this way.

Please keep at it Myron. We get a lot out of these. We were started with Nick Zentner's stuff and we are real geology fans now, my wife and I. Thank you.

It is creators and channels like this that are the heart and soul of youtube for me. Thank you for all the hard work you are putting in to bring the joy of geology that you clearly feel to us. I am loving all of your videos!

Over 45 minutes with Myron! Awesome. Thanks Myron and also thanks to your photographer. Great work.

This is fantastic. I had a real interest in geology when I was but 5 years old; it didnt go away. I can't tell you how much I appreciate these educational videos. You are a truly great science communicator. I would love to go on a field trip with you. My uncle is a geologist and on our camping trips he spoke like you do :) Thank you so much.

"... which overwhelms me with a sense of awe.": you make it contagious! Thank you for your passionate insight into this often disregarded but quite inescapable facet of our gorgeous blue ball, and please live long and proper. :)

I drove down that road once and was baffled and excited by the rocks. How nice to get a geologist tour with a drone of this place!