The Line Time Erased; Where Will It Be Drawn In The Future?

Many have asked about the Chicxulub impact and it's affect on the gulf. Unlike it's affect on life, the effects it left behind in the rock record are only visible in the immediate vicinity. The history described in this video is a great example of our earth recycling rocks. The folded and deformed layers of rock in the Rocky Mountains are being eroded and transported out into the gulf where they are redeposited as nearly horizontal layers of sediment/rock. At some point in the future, the layers of rock in the gulf will be uplifted/folded and eroded with the sediments carried by rivers to the ocean and redeposited.

I grew up in San Antonio, Texas. Like most kids back in the 50s, we had an intimate connection with the dirt, rather than with TV and computer screens. I remember digging in the alley behind our house. What did I find there, 660 ft above sea level and 150 miles inland? Limestone coral and fossilized shells.

Dear Mr. Cook, I just want to thank you for your wonderful videos. I was recently talking to my brother about how YouTube has made information available to us that we could only dream of in the past. You are a wonderful example of how I can go back to geology class but in a fun and friendly and understandable way. It's like ongoing learning about subjects I barely touched in school has become so much richer because of people like you. I'm just so grateful for the effort you make to share your passion and knowledge with us! 😀

At first, I saw this video was 46minuets and I doubted I wanted to watch it all. I ended up pausing in several places to think about what I was learning, and even rewinding at times to hear it again.

I can't believe you aren't sponsored by a whiteboard manufacturer.

I am a retired Structural Engineer and used to work with Geologists and Geotechnical Engineers several years ago. I was always fascinated with their ability to look at the features of at and below the earths surface and explain how the various formations came about. I wanted to take but was unable to schedule a geology course back at University. Taking that Geology course would have been very memorable if someone like Myron was teaching the subject matter. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience.

Has anyone ever told you that you're the "Bob Ross of geology"? You've got that calm gentle voice, ability to teach people things they didn't realize they'd be interested in, unique wholesome catch-phrases, and even a white canvas where you draw a famous little tree. Bob Ross made it interesting to watch paint dry; Myron Cook makes it interesting to watch rocks stand still. The parallels are uncanny!

Oh my goodness, Mr Cook you just made mine and many others night. Still cant get over how well put together and easy to understand your videos are. You make learning fun and we all thank you for that.

You are amazing at communicating not only the idea, but your enthusiasm for it. It’s infectious and it’s a teaching that holds so much stronger than any list of dates and names. Thank you for sharing your life with us!

Ya, the fact I watch the whole videos without any fast-forewarding is testament to how interesting you make this subject.

I love your Socratic teaching style. Your videos are so absorbing. When you say things like "Now what could have caused this?" I automatically try to come up with the answers. Your teaching is working because I'm right more and more of the time! Thanks so much for giving us these wonderful videos.

What a superb teacher Myron is! He doesn't just dish out facts and explain processes, he makes you THINK. He challenges you to work out why things are the way they are, especially when what you see doesn't seem to make sense at first sight. Then he takes you on the journey of explanation and understanding.

It's easy, and a little dry, to say the Rockies are filling in the Gulf of Mexico. You managed to make the connection between Wyoming and the Gulf so real I can feel it happening.

Thanks for another amazing presentation! Your videos previously inspired me to learn more about the formation and evolution of basins. My brain feels rewired now, thinking about the hundreds of millions of years of geologic history I can travel through in a few short hours of horizontal travel, and thinking about how the surface-level rocks in one spot may be hundreds of meters below my feet in the next spot. There is something almost terrifying about it: Like a snapshot of a stormy, churning ocean. That photograph may not appear to move, but you get a sense of the unfathomable and unstoppable forces that are continuing to play out.

Prime time Friday night. What a pleasant surprise 😊

Mr Cook. I would like to share a boyhood story. In the 1950's my Dad bought a small farm about 10 miles east of Elgin, Texas (along US High 290 -- to Houston). At the time I noted as a boy that we had a heckava time getting regular wooden / cedar posts to stay in the ground when building fences and cattle pens for our dairy cows. The sand in that are is about 2 feet - 5 feet deep. And it is like beach sand -- fine / white very soft composition. It was/is so soft it was very hard to set fence post so we changed to "low-voltage electric fencing for our pastures. This band of sand runs for many miles thru that area and is great for peanuts, cantanlopes, watermelons, etc. The sand holds water very well. In my college years, I made friends with a guy who was a geology major (Univ of Texas -- I was too poor to go away to college -- I served in the US Army and got my degree like many ex-GI's in 1968 thru the VA program. Anyway, this geology student was also a Veteran (back from Vietnam) and I mentioned this sand to him -- what could it be. He was intrigued and so we headed out to Elgin on a Saturday morning to check out my Dad's farm. Sure enough. His theory was that the sand in that region (Bastrop County Texas) was the site of an ancient beach where the ocean came to end as you note in your drawing --- I can tell you that area does not have soil like the area between Elgin and Austin only 25 miles west on Hwy 290. The soild there is black clay and much more dense. Thanks for your great show. H Dunbar, Austin

Ok, I’m dialing up the request line. Please add a follow-up video along this topic, but covering the formation of the Western Interior Seaway, along with general timelines. Timelines so we better understand why we find Jurassic fossils in Colorado, but not later Cretaceous.

You do such a fantastic job of instilling wonder and explaining the processes in simple terms without treating your audience like idiots. Thank you for these fascinating stories of our planet and the systems which shape it.

It's good to see you again Myron! Thank you. ❤

This channel is an example of the POSITIVE potential of Social Media! 👍🙏