How North America Almost Separated Into Two Pieces

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  • čas přidán 28. 06. 2024
  • It's hard to believe, but did you know North America almost split itself in two? 1.1 billion years ago, the land almost separated into two halves- and had it succeeded, there would now be an ocean where Lake Superior is! Learn all about this crazy separation with Hank in a new episode of SciShow!
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    Sources:
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    www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
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Komentáře • 1,6K

  • @TheRogueWolf
    @TheRogueWolf Před 3 lety +1893

    Political pundits: "America has never been so divided."
    Geologists: "Well, we came close one time...."

    • @pradutch
      @pradutch Před 3 lety +23

      America civil war too

    • @girlsdrinkfeck
      @girlsdrinkfeck Před 3 lety +30

      hopefully california separates itself off the main usa and we can put all the BLM liberals snowflakes feminists all on there

    • @jerry3790
      @jerry3790 Před 3 lety +24

      girlsdrinkfeck You know there’s more to California than LA right?

    • @girlsdrinkfeck
      @girlsdrinkfeck Před 3 lety +6

      @@jerry3790 yh but the rural cali people with migrate to the real America anyway

    • @karolinamikesova
      @karolinamikesova Před 3 lety +35

      @@girlsdrinkfeck Ok, boomer.

  • @espjoshua
    @espjoshua Před 3 lety +1192

    So THAT'S why I can't seem to lose weight! The density of the rocks under my bathroom scale must cause increased gravity at that point and the weight registers higher! What a relief...I thought it was just my bad diet and lack of exercise.

    • @patrickaycock3655
      @patrickaycock3655 Před 3 lety +50

      Nah man you forgot to add tobacco and alcohol to the poor diet and lack of exercise. Once you do that, the weight just melts off.

    • @cannamangoeatsheit2994
      @cannamangoeatsheit2994 Před 3 lety +24

      Cannabis regulates ur metabolism!

    • @cookiecola5852
      @cookiecola5852 Před 3 lety +8

      I usually just pull of fat, easiest way to go down in weight.

    • @shibolinemress8913
      @shibolinemress8913 Před 3 lety +4

      🤣🤣👍

    • @michealdean3750
      @michealdean3750 Před 3 lety +16

      Is that why my knees hurt more, and not because I'm getting older...

  • @kayakat1869
    @kayakat1869 Před 3 lety +101

    That's why there are a bunch of beautiful tiny mountains in northern Minnesota. They are all little extinct volcanoes, and I think that's pretty neat.

    • @haroldwilkes6608
      @haroldwilkes6608 Před 3 lety +13

      There's a neat row of extinct (or dormant) volcanoes in southeast Idaho leading to the current Yellowstone caldera...interesting sight.

    • @toughtittypdiddy4634
      @toughtittypdiddy4634 Před rokem +3

      ⁠@@haroldwilkes6608that’s because the magma chamber that is under Yellowstone today used to be in Idaho. Just about every super eruption in the hotspot’s history occurred in Idaho

    • @user-nz3fn5nx3n
      @user-nz3fn5nx3n Před rokem +3

      Those MN mountains are actually quite older than 1 billion years old

    • @davidelliott5843
      @davidelliott5843 Před 10 měsíci +1

      We have extinct volcanoes in UK. One of the most least geological active areas in the world. Some of them still have hot springs. One has a new lithium brine well.
      Yellowstone is a mantle plume hotspot. The tectonic plate moves over it leaving a trail of dead volcanoes.
      Canary Islands are unusual because islands at each end of the chain are active while the big one in the middle is dormant and probably dead.

    • @mnguy139
      @mnguy139 Před 7 měsíci +3

      And along the lakeshore, in Duluth, you can see the lava flows, with clear ripple/flow marks in what was pahoehoe lava.

  • @philpaine3068
    @philpaine3068 Před 3 lety +179

    I spent my early childhood in Northern Ontario, with the Canadian Shield under my feet. The stone everywhere was as hard as the strongest steel. Even the simplest construction --- digging a basement, laying down a sidewalk, or laying pipes, required endless blasting. As a result, every kid had access to the dynamite caps that were tossed about in the explosions. So much dynamite was floating around that some clever kids even had dynamite sticks, as well as the caps. It was a favourite game to launch empty tomato cans into the air with these toys. Later on, I visited places like Arizona, where "rocks" turned out to be crumbly stuff with the consistency of cheese.

    • @R.M.MacFru
      @R.M.MacFru Před 2 lety +39

      Ah yes, the difference between granite and sandstone.

    • @bryanbressem5026
      @bryanbressem5026 Před 2 lety +2

      We use to find it in well drillers rigs, right out in open, help yourself

    • @alsojuja
      @alsojuja Před 2 lety +10

      In the U.S. we just play with guns.

    • @just_kos99
      @just_kos99 Před rokem +5

      As a kid in NH in the early 60s/early 70s, I remember there was a PSA about blasting caps & finding them just laying about sometimes, warning kids that if you EVER see one of these -- DON'T TOUCH. After reading your comment, I can see why they had to say that. NH's granite is pretty tough, too.

    • @philpaine3068
      @philpaine3068 Před rokem +5

      @@just_kos99 Yes it's very similar. The Canadian Shield is mostly Precambrian granite and gneiss, mountains once higher than the Himalayas that have worn down to stumps and then scraped over by the mile-thick Laurentide Ice Sheet.There's an outlier of the shield forming the Adirondacks in upstate New York. New Hampshire's rocks are a little bit younger (mostly Devonian), but they're also granite and gneiss, also post-glacial --- and much prettier in my opinion, such gorgeous marble! We can both claim to have lived with REAL rocks, not those dumb cheesy crumbly things that others are stuck with.

  • @jamesburgess2k
    @jamesburgess2k Před 3 lety +1036

    Learning about tectonic plates can be a coin toss on being either extremely boring or interesting as hell

    • @wikansaktianto9215
      @wikansaktianto9215 Před 3 lety +30

      Except if you lived in the active tectonic plate like Pacific Ring of Fire.

    • @emilyplunkett6034
      @emilyplunkett6034 Před 3 lety +64

      Extremely boring, interesting as hell...or absolutely terrifying.

    • @dorian4646
      @dorian4646 Před 3 lety +13

      @@emilyplunkett6034 constant fear of tsunami and earthquake...

    • @lotsofspots
      @lotsofspots Před 3 lety +4

      Extreme boring? czcams.com/video/zz6v6OfoQvs/video.html

    • @dianewallace6064
      @dianewallace6064 Před 3 lety +3

      @@lotsofspots Just watched it. 40K foot hole dug by man. Took 24 years. Pretty cool.

  • @TheLucidDreamer12
    @TheLucidDreamer12 Před 3 lety +217

    North America 1 billion years ago: *destroying itself*
    North America today: *destroying itself*

    • @csweezey18
      @csweezey18 Před 3 lety +9

      IT'S THE CIRCLE OF 'MURICA!

    • @ortherner
      @ortherner Před 3 lety +10

      *Humans in North America destroying themselves lol.

    • @kmk8284
      @kmk8284 Před 3 lety +5

      Something never change

    • @Yha1000itz
      @Yha1000itz Před 3 lety +7

      @@ortherner I'm sure Mexicans and Americans do it, but Canadians?

    • @Tht1Gy
      @Tht1Gy Před 2 lety +6

      No. Not "North America today: destroying itself". Canada and Mexico are doing OK. Lol

  • @jessjitsu86
    @jessjitsu86 Před 3 lety +45

    Little known fact about the state of Minnesota, my home state... We are actually at risk for seismic activity near this Rift... But not because of the failed Rift itself, but because the ground here is still inflating after the compression it took during the Ice Age. The Upper Midwest is a very cool geological place :-)

    • @righthandstep5
      @righthandstep5 Před 7 měsíci +2

      Clearly. Canada has but a tiny fraction of its own Midwest from alberta to manitoba so it's very much small in size.

  • @itsjustlukeRevive
    @itsjustlukeRevive Před 3 lety +301

    4:59 poor fishies

    • @wikansaktianto9215
      @wikansaktianto9215 Před 3 lety +7

      Not to worry, they can migrate elsewhere...if they had no competition, they will still alive even when their home completely dried out.

    • @Dragrath1
      @Dragrath1 Před 3 lety +8

      don't worry too much 1.1 Ga there weren't any fishies to hurt yet. But yeah fish and other marine life need more respect

    • @wikansaktianto9215
      @wikansaktianto9215 Před 3 lety +9

      @@Dragrath1 Indeed..stop throw the trash on the river.

    • @kinghal123
      @kinghal123 Před 3 lety +1

      There were no fishes

    • @scottlennon9388
      @scottlennon9388 Před 3 lety

      @@wikansaktianto9215 i throw trash in river, a truck load every week

  • @Swanke
    @Swanke Před 3 lety +272

    Yeah well, it's kinda trying to do that right now..

    • @Rien--
      @Rien-- Před 3 lety +14

      but when you truly think about the situation you come to the conclusion that elephants are the only animals that cant jump

    • @solchapeau6343
      @solchapeau6343 Před 3 lety +4

      @@Rien-- Have you heard of bacteria, worms, most snakes, most insects, and most sea animals?

    • @myrinsk
      @myrinsk Před 3 lety

      Sun Hat well maybe it’s just a mammal thing

    • @thirstfast1025
      @thirstfast1025 Před 3 lety

      North America is not rifting. It's being compressed from the east by the expanding Atlantic, and the subduction of the Pacific and Juan de Fuca plates on the west. The San Andreas is a major fault, but it's a strike-slip fault, not a rift.

    • @evilsharkey8954
      @evilsharkey8954 Před 3 lety +1

      Thirst Fast, they’re not talking about North America ripping itself apart, just the United States of America.

  • @cinderball1135
    @cinderball1135 Před 3 lety +172

    Be real here - if you hadn't watched this video, the "Midcontinent Gravity High" would either sound like the world's coolest high school, or the world's most illegal drug.

  • @beaurenov
    @beaurenov Před 3 lety +167

    When he says "1.1 Billion years", the .1 is still 100 million years

    • @arthas640
      @arthas640 Před 3 lety +7

      100 million years sounds too long, i'd rather wait 0.1 billion years instead.

    • @Eric-sy1xu
      @Eric-sy1xu Před 3 lety +10

      Shouldve said 1.1×10^-3 trillion years, to confuse everyone Properly

    • @mateovazquez6685
      @mateovazquez6685 Před 3 lety +1

      @@arthas640 0.1 billion years sounds longer than a mere 100 millionq

    • @ortherner
      @ortherner Před 3 lety +2

      Call me weird, but 0.1 Billion Years sounds longer then 100 Million Years.

    • @mateovazquez6685
      @mateovazquez6685 Před 3 lety +1

      @@ortherner same

  • @theotherVLF
    @theotherVLF Před 3 lety +342

    We just learned about this today in my geology class! What a coincidence.

    • @wikansaktianto9215
      @wikansaktianto9215 Před 3 lety +16

      *X-Files theme play in the distance*

    • @thirstfast1025
      @thirstfast1025 Před 3 lety +9

      I hope you learned the word "aulacogen"!

    • @wikansaktianto9215
      @wikansaktianto9215 Před 3 lety +4

      @@thirstfast1025 Hello there..We meet again, what is Aulacogen? Some short of retracted fiture of geological landscape? How come the mantle and crust keep opening and closing at the same time?

    • @thirstfast1025
      @thirstfast1025 Před 3 lety +15

      @@wikansaktianto9215 An aulacogen is the third arm of a continental rift that always fails during a continental rift. Because of the shape of the planet, and the forces generated by the rotation of the planet, when continental crust fails, or begins rifting, it always takes on the shape of a "Y" at first. But then one of the 3 branches of the "Y" closes, and the rift follows the other two branches. Then you get a spreading centre, like the mid-Atlantic rift. The third, failed branch now follows what is called an "Euler pole", around which the new, fragmented plate rotates. But that's getting very complicated..... This failed mid-continent rift is peculiar in that all 3 branches ended up failing, despite the tremendous outpouring of basalt mentioned in the video.
      As for the second part of your question, we've already touched on why the mantle keeps getting 'exposed'. The main mechanism is slab-pull. Once a tectonic plate begins to subduct, it drags the whole conveyor downward, pulling it apart somewhere else. Like you said, wherever the crust is thinnest. Be that a cold, old continental sag, causing a rift, or the middle of an oceanic rift, like the mid-Atlantic.

    • @wikansaktianto9215
      @wikansaktianto9215 Před 3 lety +9

      @@thirstfast1025 Hmmmm...thanks for explaining the slab-pull once more, forgive me for being slow learner. But yet again, does that mean the so called "Third branches" or the remnant aulacogenesis process(If I am correct) got turned off due to some hugh masses clumping out the mantle?

  • @anarchyantz1564
    @anarchyantz1564 Před 3 lety +524

    That time North America tried to tear itself apart: 2020, concludes around mid November.

    • @richdobbs6595
      @richdobbs6595 Před 3 lety +39

      Do you really think that it ends? Seems really doubtful.

    • @thekingoffailure9967
      @thekingoffailure9967 Před 3 lety +25

      Cute you think either side will gracefully accept defeat

    • @50sfan14
      @50sfan14 Před 3 lety +4

      Trump

    • @jacobjonesofmagna
      @jacobjonesofmagna Před 3 lety +23

      No matter who is elected, there will be no conclusion to this

    • @anarchyantz1564
      @anarchyantz1564 Před 3 lety +8

      @@thekingoffailure9967 Yeah I mean it isnt like either side doesnt have a history of vote tampering

  • @InstallaFriend
    @InstallaFriend Před 3 lety +231

    They went to counselling and with a lot of long and hard work, they saved their relationship

  • @post-leftluddite
    @post-leftluddite Před 3 lety +38

    If anyone is really interested in geology like I am, look up a documentary series by the BBC from called "Earth Story" hosted by Aubrey Manning.... It's THE BEST history of the earth series I've ever seen and it's because it doesn't just tell you what they know, it explains how they figured it out, when they figured it out, and who figured it out, which I love because if you're intelligent, you don't just want to know the facts, but how they were arrived at.

  • @ScrybeSG
    @ScrybeSG Před 3 lety +18

    I travel for work professionally. I collect unique mementos from wherever I go. I have a sample of volcanic basalt laced with olivine as a souvenir from my time in Wisconsin (near Brule River State Park). They use it as loose road gravel. This is where it came from. :)

    • @nicoleabrahamson1883
      @nicoleabrahamson1883 Před 2 lety +3

      We mine it not far from where I grew up, in Dresser, WI. We call it trap rock, and the railroad still hauls it!

  • @KittiLumpo
    @KittiLumpo Před 3 lety +85

    my brain, immediately: "oh you mean right now today in current real-time?"

  • @aldenconsolver3428
    @aldenconsolver3428 Před 3 lety +19

    Good Job to SciShow, a difficult part of the geology of the mid-continent explained pretty well in just 10 minutes - and this is from a geologist who lives in Kansas. Most instructors would not have even finished up confusing the students when you had moved on to glaciers 15000 years ago when you started out at a billion

    • @donaldstrubhar4697
      @donaldstrubhar4697 Před 2 lety

      I was born in Kansas, which was the floor of the ocean , this yakky yak , can't explain why whale bones are found across the plains of Kansas , Nebraska, Oklahoma,

  • @hgbugalou
    @hgbugalou Před 3 lety +16

    The New Madrid fault is thought to be related to the intrusion of magma into the crustal rock causing major density differences in horizontal strata.

  • @whtbobwntsbobget
    @whtbobwntsbobget Před 3 lety +88

    1:40 Gravity maps are REALLY useful for nuclear war. The gravity inconsistencies are enough to throw off the accuracy of an ICBM. So having accurate maps was VERY important to the military.
    Just thought I'd throw that in there! :)

    • @wikansaktianto9215
      @wikansaktianto9215 Před 3 lety +4

      Hmmm...the ballistic trajectory of a rocket can be distrupted by the continent alone, interesting...

    • @curiouswafi
      @curiouswafi Před 3 lety +10

      @@wikansaktianto9215 why does it sound like you're plotting some mega-bad-evil-malicious manifesto for world domination?

    • @wikansaktianto9215
      @wikansaktianto9215 Před 3 lety +9

      @@curiouswafi Because I am super-duper-ultra-malevolent-heinous-fiend lad.

    • @curiouswafi
      @curiouswafi Před 3 lety +4

      @@wikansaktianto9215 understandable, have a great day

    • @lukestrawwalker
      @lukestrawwalker Před 2 lety

      Same reason "sea level" varies by as much as 13 feet in different areas of the world... over seamounts and mid ocean ridges the higher gravity pulls at the surrounding water attracting a "mound" of water making the local sea level actually higher than it is over much of the abyssal plains... Later! OL J R :)

  • @ooops8415
    @ooops8415 Před 3 lety +61

    *looks at title*
    ah yes who could forget

  • @horse14t
    @horse14t Před 3 lety +42

    I vaguely remember my grade 2 teacher talk about this.
    Though she didn't go into it with much detail. Got to the point many years later where I thought she might've gotten her facts wrong or something. Good to know that she wasn't entirely wrong!

    • @annotten7413
      @annotten7413 Před 3 lety +8

      It’s not that teachers where wrong back then - much of what we know and can prove about geology has just been done in the past 20 years thanks to technology that allows us to prove or disprove what was once just theories.

    • @MahoThe
      @MahoThe Před 2 lety +2

      She was right - at the time. 2nd grade teachers are saints.

    • @mrcryptozoic817
      @mrcryptozoic817 Před rokem +2

      For you to remember that from 2nd grade, even if imperfectly, tells me she was a remarkable teacher. Kudos to her.

    • @horse14t
      @horse14t Před rokem +1

      @@mrcryptozoic817 She was easily one of my favourite teachers! I remember being so excited to have her again the next year because her sister got a job at the school so she got moved to teaching 3rd grade!
      Her sister went by her middle name so no one would get confused about two teachers with the same name XD

  • @chardude
    @chardude Před 3 lety +11

    Me: Literally of figuratively?
    Scishow: Yes

  • @johnopalko5223
    @johnopalko5223 Před 3 lety +25

    I saw the title and immediately began singing:
    "Oh, the land sank down and the ocean hurried in
    And we lost a fifth of our geography.
    Nearly fourteen million souls found their way to Heaven's rolls
    With the coming of The Great Nebraska Sea."
    It's a filk song by Blake Hodgetts and is based on a 1963 short story by Allan Danzig.

  • @Trtevoorryu
    @Trtevoorryu Před 3 lety +6

    Brings a whole new meaning to East vs. West

  • @devinsmyname
    @devinsmyname Před 3 lety +16

    Shout out the the Mod Continental Rift for making some of the best rock climbing in the MN/WI area!

  • @Servingourstories
    @Servingourstories Před 3 lety +7

    Also: this explains so much considering the absolute treasure trove of Tacatite we have in Minnesota, I'm not even joking my dad and I could just go out by the railroad tracks and find it everywhere because so much is shipped out and it still is; it's neverending

    • @stevemoren286
      @stevemoren286 Před 3 lety +3

      It is called Taconite. It's an iron formation. Those pellets are man-made from taconite rock which is a 9 on the hardness scale.

  • @robertdefoe2396
    @robertdefoe2396 Před 3 lety +5

    When a rifting event begins it is not always successful first time. From geologist that discussed this with, the Atlantic Ocean originally tried to open a couple of times east of Scotland before forming in its current position. As for something like the Red Sea, it is produced at a triple junction, the south of the junction being the East African Rift and the east being the Indian Ocean.

  • @KEVMAN7987
    @KEVMAN7987 Před 3 lety +52

    "YOU'RE TEARING ME APART, GEOLOGY!"

  • @deathsyth8888
    @deathsyth8888 Před 3 lety +38

    "America, you're tearing me apart!"
    - Johnny, The Room

  • @adamsullivan8052
    @adamsullivan8052 Před 3 lety +59

    Fun fact. The Connecticut River Valley in WMass is also a failed Rift Valley.

    • @bigboy4006
      @bigboy4006 Před 3 lety +8

      So is the New Madrid fault line here in the Midwest.

    • @absalomdraconis
      @absalomdraconis Před 3 lety +8

      @@bigboy4006 : The video was talking about New Madrid, it's a branch of the larger structure.

    • @bigboy4006
      @bigboy4006 Před 3 lety +2

      @@absalomdraconis I thought it did.

    • @bigboy4006
      @bigboy4006 Před 3 lety +2

      @@absalomdraconis I know that the fault is part of what's called the Reelfoot Rift. I'm not sure if that's the name for just the branch or it's the name of the entire structure.

    • @baileyjerman5573
      @baileyjerman5573 Před 3 lety +1

      Americas just filled with failed things aint it

  • @Shaden0040
    @Shaden0040 Před 3 lety +18

    Oooh, a Gravy-meter. Yum!

  • @johnz8843
    @johnz8843 Před 3 lety +30

    This was really interesting science so well explained. I enjoyed it. Thanks so much.

  • @mersilvaureus1525
    @mersilvaureus1525 Před 3 lety +60

    There's no uncertainty about what all the comments will be about on this video

    • @eval_is_evil
      @eval_is_evil Před 3 lety +3

      The most important statement for the beginning of wisdom is "I do not know".

    • @carissstewart3211
      @carissstewart3211 Před 3 lety +1

      Oh, you mean the historic Middle East Peace deal. 😊 🇮🇱🇦🇪🇧🇭

    • @carissstewart3211
      @carissstewart3211 Před 3 lety +1

      @hawkturkey

  • @jessjitsu86
    @jessjitsu86 Před 3 lety +4

    Seriously, I grew up and in the area of Minnesota that is right over that Rift, and you just explained it in such a way that should be taught at school. You all just earned yourself another Patron! All of you guys are the best! I look forward to every video

  • @systlin2596
    @systlin2596 Před 3 lety +10

    Live in Iowa, so this runs literally almost right under my feet. The Plum River fault, a remnant of this, is not far at all from my house.
    Strange to think that the land I walk on every day was once such a geologically active place.

  • @DFX2KX
    @DFX2KX Před 3 lety +11

    tried to tear itself apart? well, that sounds.... exciting.

  • @heronimousbrapson863
    @heronimousbrapson863 Před 3 lety +161

    That time North America tried to tear itself apart: 2020...

    • @AlexGreat87
      @AlexGreat87 Před 3 lety +11

      North America is not only the US

    • @WeChallenge
      @WeChallenge Před 3 lety +9

      You mean 2020, that time the US had some fools try to tear it apart for political gain?

    • @evilsharkey8954
      @evilsharkey8954 Před 3 lety +4

      Canada and Mexico are probably wishing they could separate from the US about now. If we succeed at tearing ourselves apart, it will be a humanitarian disaster unseen since the first half of the last century, and they’ll be flooded with Americans, and we’ll be the worst refugees ever, so entitled and self centered!

    • @LizzyThatB
      @LizzyThatB Před 3 lety

      There was a whole civil war which was a literal political division of the United States don't act like 2020 is the worst year.

    • @heronimousbrapson863
      @heronimousbrapson863 Před 3 lety

      @@LizzyThatB I had an ancestor in the Union army killed at Gettysburg, so I would thank you not to lecture me, thank you very much...

  • @christinacody5845
    @christinacody5845 Před 3 lety +6

    So, I'm extremely familiar with the New Madrid Fault Line, which I was often told as the explanation for it's existence about how it's the remnants of the continent trying to tear in two. I watched this expecting to see the fault line referenced, to no avail.

    • @steveboguslawski114
      @steveboguslawski114 Před 3 lety +1

      The New Madrid fault zone is due to a different rift which formed around the time when supercontinent Rodinia was breaking up. The event discussed here occurred at or just before the time when Rodinia was assembling.

  • @matthewstrawn1601
    @matthewstrawn1601 Před 3 lety +2

    The mystery spot is definitely a great spot to use a compass

  • @Reticulosis
    @Reticulosis Před 3 lety +139

    This video: that time North America almost split up
    2020: 🤔

    • @Cybernaut551
      @Cybernaut551 Před 3 lety +1

      Ah yes, the news reporter.

    • @jakeryker546
      @jakeryker546 Před 3 lety +1

      If Trump didn't go around killing black people, this never would have happened.

    • @chefdan87
      @chefdan87 Před 3 lety +1

      @@jakeryker546 Which black people has Trump killed? I would love to hear that explanation.

    • @arthas640
      @arthas640 Před 3 lety +2

      Nothing new. The US considered invading Canada in the 40s, 30s, and 20s. The US and Mexico went to war in the 1840s (both sides instigated that conflict). US allied Canadians launched an "invasion" from Ontario into the rest of Canada in the 1840s. The US invaded Canada in 1812 and in the 1770s and Canadian soldiers invaded the US during the Revolutionary war as well. The US Civil War of the 1860s drew in a lot of international attention and basically tore North America apart in much the same way the Revolutionary War did. North America has torn itself apart plenty, but far less often than most other continents.

    • @MaryAnnNytowl
      @MaryAnnNytowl Před 3 lety

      *2016

  • @dereklam1225
    @dereklam1225 Před 3 lety +16

    7:42 Scotland specifically and not the rest of the UK, because apparently only Scotland came from that landmass. It may partly explain the Scottish-English _map_ border too because the border between the different landmasses is almost bang on the cartographic one!
    Thanks Map Men :D

  • @JessicaSanchez-pq7fh
    @JessicaSanchez-pq7fh Před 3 lety +6

    I live in Duluth, MN on Lake Superior so this video is incredible to me. I love you all for this. One thing to add on, the glaciers totally wiped away the basalt layers and crusty rocks and turned it into sand. Now northern Wisconsin and Michigan are covered in sand because the wind carried it south but the north shores are incredible because you get to see what it’s like under a flattened mountain. There are geodes the size of your head overlooking the shore from a cliff. Rocks you’d never see unless the rock tumbler that is a glacier swiped the land. Incredible how the volcanic activity you speak of formed these rocks and the glaciers revealed them.

  • @aSpyIntheHaus
    @aSpyIntheHaus Před 3 lety +4

    I love it how when a ocean appears fish just show up like they own the place.... Its a bit like how if you dig a big enough pond ducks do the same things. Its good to know its not just humans that do this to the earth.

  • @alexseguin5245
    @alexseguin5245 Před 3 lety +4

    "That time Québec almost physically separated from the rest of Canada"

  • @Tomservoca
    @Tomservoca Před 3 lety +10

    Gravimetery, my favourite survey. You need patience, a certain degree of OCD and wonderful post processing and interpretation.

  • @thejuanderful
    @thejuanderful Před 3 lety +6

    "In geology, and really, in just about everything else, there's a lot we don't know and that's part of this whole human experience thing".
    -Hank

  • @Leftatalbuquerque
    @Leftatalbuquerque Před 3 lety +37

    I thought this would be about Canada finally telling the US that enough was enough...

  • @emilyplunkett6034
    @emilyplunkett6034 Před 3 lety +63

    So basically how the Niagra Escarpment came to be. :)
    Also, am I mistaken to think there was made for TV disaster movie about this sometime in the late '90s or early 2000s? I seem to remember there was one about some ungodly strong earthquake occurs in Oklahoma or something, and it splits the continent in half from Hudson Bay straight through to the Gulf of Mexico. (Also, I think it was a sequel. The first one dealt with an earthquake that split California off from the mainland.)

    • @blcmd
      @blcmd Před 3 lety +1

      Are you thinking of MegaFault (2009)?

    • @emilyplunkett6034
      @emilyplunkett6034 Před 3 lety +2

      @@blcmd No. It's definitely older. Came out during the wave of Dante's Peak/Volcano/Armageddon disaster movies, and I believe it was on network TV.

    • @Brianguy420
      @Brianguy420 Před 3 lety +3

      Was that 10.5?

    • @Brianguy420
      @Brianguy420 Před 3 lety

      With Jeff bridges?

    • @TheCondorjc
      @TheCondorjc Před 3 lety

      *Viagra*

  • @bengoodwin2141
    @bengoodwin2141 Před 3 lety +14

    Sometimes I feel like it would be a whole lot better for everyone if North America had a bunch of ocean in between

    • @Suncast45
      @Suncast45 Před 3 lety

      Or covering it in about 1000 feet of saltwater!

    • @jacobarmstrong2343
      @jacobarmstrong2343 Před 3 lety

      You would be speaking German if that had happened.

    • @bengoodwin2141
      @bengoodwin2141 Před 3 lety +1

      @@jacobarmstrong2343 if you mean world war 2 would have been lost, you're very much mistaken. Germany never had any chance of victory even without the US involved. Even so, so much would have been different just by some butterfly effect that it's not a safe bet that the course of history would have led to a second world war, or even a first.

    • @charleswieand4445
      @charleswieand4445 Před 2 lety

      No way we need the ancient fault lines under the east coast and fault lines under California to go active Sliding both sides into oceans leaving MIDDLE AMERICA to be great again

    • @charleswieand4445
      @charleswieand4445 Před 2 lety

      @Janitor Queen only reason USA went to war was J P Morgan thought he might lose his 2 million dollars he loaned to France and England for war and he had presidents ear .
      Also rich didn’t want to lose the properties in Europe .
      War also gave them a chance to get richer

  • @bonniegreatorex72
    @bonniegreatorex72 Před 3 lety

    I just found your channel this morning and I am so hooked! Thank you so much ❤️

  • @retropipes8863
    @retropipes8863 Před 2 lety

    Fascinating stuff. Thanks for sharing!

  • @alexaadamczyk9607
    @alexaadamczyk9607 Před 3 lety +6

    "Gravity high" sounds lit

  • @shaunmurphy4516
    @shaunmurphy4516 Před 3 lety +4

    Nice shirt. Did somebody palm it off to you?

  • @charleswieand4445
    @charleswieand4445 Před 2 lety +1

    And here I always that it was the fallen stars, meteorites, and cosmic dust being attracted to earth making gravity stronger dragging me down and making things heavier as I get older

  • @passingwind2681
    @passingwind2681 Před 3 lety

    Excellent information well presented thank you.

  • @djakelly
    @djakelly Před 3 lety +9

    It would be neat if they could also make an episode about the fact the failed rift has the world's largest concentration of native copper exposed on the southern shore of lake superior. I loved this episode!

    • @RedRocket4000
      @RedRocket4000 Před rokem +1

      Read up on the Native tribe or tribes that got major into making copper tools at first for a good while then switching to copper ornamentals for trade in part taking good stone tools in return. Speculation the stone was good enough so making wealth selling the copper better than making tools of it. And understandably copper tools are limited.
      Some hints they also hit some iron but it did not go big otherwise the white relatives coming later would have had a lot more problems dealing with iron and steel weapons.
      Relatives because a large amount of European DNA in the Eastern tribes. Enough that some members could pass as European and people thought they could pull off being Indians at Boston Tea Party and later Canadian whites passed as Indians helping the Miami and other Ohio tribes beat the US army and then bairly loose in the end.
      One of that regions tribes one of the oldest story is when they arrived at what became their lands whites were already there.
      This has to be cross overs during the Ice Age either with primitive boats going along the Ice Bridge between Europe and America or traveling across Siberia and then Western America to settle in east. Discovery of European DNA a good deal across Siberia has the second theory but why not settle at all in the West and only go East the ice bridge theory works better.
      Europeans arriving later though this was survivors of Atlantis maybe.
      Explains the high regard in part that many Colonists leaders and those normally not on the frontier had for the tribes even using part of their government organization in US constitution.
      The why the land taking? That what whites did to other whites did in Europe many cases of Small Pox being used as a weapon in Europe they really did not understand how disease worked and did not realize that it would come back to bite them later. You cannot in first few centuries say the Europeans treated the natives any worse than they treated each other and treated their commoners in Europe. See 30 years war and sack of Antwerp and others for examples. The racism more around Andrew Jackson's time as Europeans started believing treating other whites this way wrong. The racism the excuse to not apply the growing rights of man Enlightenment to those not white.
      Also explains how the vanished first colony population could have merged with the local tribe and not be noticed as different. One old Free Black settlement area fairly near there claims the men were killed and the women taken by the tribe and one family traces their ancestry to the famous daughter of the leader left there as the natives merged with the free Black.

  • @michaelhowell2326
    @michaelhowell2326 Před 3 lety +6

    Not even the Earth herself could tear America apart.

    • @Johnboy33545
      @Johnboy33545 Před 3 lety

      It takes IMPOTUS and Moscow Mitch. They're doing a fine job.

  • @tikitiki7610
    @tikitiki7610 Před 3 lety

    love your shirt! and of course, your info. thank you

  • @carschmn
    @carschmn Před 2 lety +1

    Highly recommend visiting Taylor’s Falls/Interstate Park on the Minnesota Wisconsin border and Grand Marais on the MN Superior shore to climb on the flood basalts.

  • @AlecMader
    @AlecMader Před 3 lety +30

    "That time North America tried to split apart"
    Yeah. 2016-2020. We were all there.

  • @MrCarolineiscool
    @MrCarolineiscool Před 3 lety +69

    I really thought this was about to be a current events video...

  • @rogersledz6793
    @rogersledz6793 Před 3 lety +1

    @SciShow Thank you for this and all the other amazing videos
    YOU AND ALL YOUR ASSOCIATES have uploaded. Not only do I
    learn so much, but MORE IMPORTANTLY it is a great resource
    to all SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE PEOPLE who are however they
    can, are trying to voluntarily limit non-essential in person contacts.
    YOUR VIDEOS KEEP US SANE!
    Roger J. Sledz, Staten Island ( NYC ) 9/23/2020 👍🇱🇷🗽

  • @gabrielhoy6790
    @gabrielhoy6790 Před 2 lety +1

    So remember: No matter how bad a break-up you're going through, it will never be as rough as a continent with mother nature.

  • @briangarrow448
    @briangarrow448 Před 3 lety +3

    Flood basalts, the beautiful cliffs of Central Washington state.

  • @InertFoxtrot117
    @InertFoxtrot117 Před 3 lety +6

    For any interested, there's actually a historical fiction book series on how history would've developed differently if North America had split apart like mentioned in the video. It's the Atlantis series by Harry Turtledove, and it's a really interesting read.

  • @nofaithrequired859
    @nofaithrequired859 Před 2 lety +1

    Great video! I've watched lots of geology video and can't beleive I've never heard the term 'Wilson Cycle'.

  • @JimB7215
    @JimB7215 Před 3 lety +1

    Around here in Minnesota, we call this "Traprock". Used in some areas for building roads.

  • @NoxideActive
    @NoxideActive Před 3 lety +5

    If you were standing in the middle of what is now known as Minneapolis or Detroit, you would not recognize it.
    ....I swear you’re making this too easy.

  • @guilhermebecker17
    @guilhermebecker17 Před 3 lety +3

    I know it's Hank presenting the video just by reading the title, I can even hear with his voice

  • @Frankenador
    @Frankenador Před 3 lety

    Love your Shirt!!!!!! and your show thanks for both!!!!!

  • @jessicaminnen7757
    @jessicaminnen7757 Před 3 lety

    love the shirt hank!

  • @violetholiday
    @violetholiday Před 3 lety +5

    Muscle Hank could rip it apart....

    • @lyndsaybrown8471
      @lyndsaybrown8471 Před 3 lety

      Muscle Hank is still moving the Continents. He is just taking more time these days cause he needs to comment every once in awhile

  • @jeffyowell
    @jeffyowell Před 3 lety +3

    You didn't mention the New Madrid fault zone in NE Arkansas, bootheel of Missouri, western Tennessee, etc. Was not this failed rift the cause of the earthquakes we see in that area today, and in fact may in the future result in the type of cataclysm seen in 1811-1812?

    • @christinacody5845
      @christinacody5845 Před 3 lety

      I noticed that he didn't mention it either. I actually watched this expecting it to get name checked. I used to volunteer at the Saint Louis Science Center, and I was told that the working hypothesis for the New Madrid/Wabash Valley Seismic Zones' existence was because the continent tried to rift in two at one time in the LONG ago past and for some reason it stopped. His explanation makes sense for that but the imagery they show is of a fault system that goes around the western part of MO, not the eastern.

    • @jeffyowell
      @jeffyowell Před 3 lety +1

      @@christinacody5845 Right. Also should remember, however, that the "continent" I referred to was not North America, but one of the ancient ones, I believe Rodinia.

    • @jeffyowell
      @jeffyowell Před 3 lety +2

      @@christinacody5845 Regarding the fault zone on the western part of Missouri, if you drive north/northwest of KC, there is land that has what appears to be "waves" or "ripples," it's very interesting. I'm not a geologist (just study it), but I wonder if those dramatic ripples are left over from earthquakes that occurred there millennia ago.

    • @reicemo13
      @reicemo13 Před 12 dny

      @@christinacody5845the new Madrid system was a separate rift after this one had closed up.

  • @12gaSword
    @12gaSword Před 3 lety +2

    How do faults on the interior part of a plate work? Like the New Madrid fault in Missouri? I was always told an earthquake from the NMF would make the Mississippi river run backwards for a little while.

    • @christinacody5845
      @christinacody5845 Před 3 lety +1

      That's both what the evidence from the 1811/12 Earthquake Swarm and the anecdotes say happened.

  • @Bangers_mostly
    @Bangers_mostly Před 2 lety +1

    we love you hank

  • @johnbagley5341
    @johnbagley5341 Před 3 lety +105

    "Gravimeter" - Quit making up words, I know when I'm being mocked.

    • @massimookissed1023
      @massimookissed1023 Před 3 lety +7

      The fing wot one does gravimetrics wiv.

    • @naamadossantossilva4736
      @naamadossantossilva4736 Před 3 lety +9

      It is as real as torsion balance or hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia.

    • @HienNguyenHMN
      @HienNguyenHMN Před 3 lety +11

      "All words are made up." -Thor, King of Asgard

    • @TheCondorjc
      @TheCondorjc Před 3 lety +1

      “Columbus used a penis ruler, a ruler for specialists in Dirtonomy...”
      Yeah
      It’s safe to say that was a load of BS

    • @healthya7975
      @healthya7975 Před 3 lety +2

      Thats more related to Analonogy

  • @stevenbaumann8692
    @stevenbaumann8692 Před 3 lety +5

    I’m glad you did the midcontinent rift (MCR). I study it. We are trying to date a couple rocks to answer an unknown about late stage volcanism.
    There actually was a successful rift in the area at 2.5Ga. It’s how the Huronian formed. The Penokean eventually completed that Wilson Cycle at 1.8Ga.
    There are other failed rifts at about the same age. Like the Gardar in Greenland.
    You mentioned the Grenville. Good job. You are correct. It isn’t the cause.
    The largest single lava flow on the planet is about 5 miles from my cabin. It is informally called, the greenstone flow.
    Overall you did good by the MCR. I’m impressed.
    The MCR clastic deposits that filled the rift (you mentioned them), may toss a wrench into snowball earth.

  • @forestgreen916
    @forestgreen916 Před 6 měsíci

    thank you for this video -- so well done

  • @whitefordpipeshandmadebymi7238

    Wow I learned much from this presentation! Thanks! Take care! Peace ✌️ from Welland Ontario Canada 🇨🇦

  • @gaminawulfsdottir3253
    @gaminawulfsdottir3253 Před 3 lety +3

    Almost split up... but reconciled. For the sake of the children.

  • @jmonty
    @jmonty Před 3 lety +15

    I would like to see how this effects the New Madrid rift zone running thru Missouri, Arkansas Tennesee, and Kentucky. We still have earthquakes on this fault several times a month.

    • @haroldwilkes6608
      @haroldwilkes6608 Před 3 lety +1

      I've seen Idaho faults, California faults and Alaska faults but New Madrid is the most deceptive...the area looks so blah until you get it mad, then it's Katy bar the door. Nice people though.

    • @milenaresources4244
      @milenaresources4244 Před 2 lety +1

      The New Madrid Rift is a much much later thing. The Mississippi/New Madrid system follows a rift that is much younger and is still slowly spreading.

    • @reicemo13
      @reicemo13 Před 12 dny

      @@milenaresources4244it’s a dead rift but the seismic activity hasn’t fully subsided.

  • @Master_Yoda1990
    @Master_Yoda1990 Před 3 lety +1

    There’s a gravitational anomaly in the Black Hills of South Dakota, just a small area, I forget the name of the place, but there’s weird stuff there like altered perceptions. You’ll think you’re standing straight, but if you get your picture taken, the picture will show that you’re leaning to the side, things like that. I believe there’s also cases of hallucinations there too.

  • @Convolutedtear
    @Convolutedtear Před 3 lety

    thanks so much ...more pleaseee

  • @Scribe13013
    @Scribe13013 Před 3 lety +9

    North America does that all the time...keeps things fresh and exciting

  • @danijelandroid
    @danijelandroid Před 3 lety +15

    7:45 if North America had split up, Scotland would have been a lot bigger.

    • @erraticonteuse
      @erraticonteuse Před 3 lety +11

      Nova Scotia would just be regular old Scotia.

  • @steveperry1344
    @steveperry1344 Před rokem

    well, i knew a little bit of this stuff but there is so much more to it. thnx for the info.

  • @DavidRice541
    @DavidRice541 Před 3 lety

    1:00 I love how you can see the hieght differences across the country

  • @thirstfast1025
    @thirstfast1025 Před 3 lety +14

    I was expecting to hear the word "aulacogen" in this video. And around 5:00, I was expecting to hear "ophiolite".
    Also, mantle plumes have little to do with rifts. Rifts are more to do with slab-pull. If rifts were solely caused by mantle plumes, the Pacific plate would have been rifted by the Hawi'ian and Easter hotspots. This particular failed rift is also responsible for the beautiful Lake Superior Agates, as well as much of the amethyst around Thunder Bay that mineral collectors treasure.
    Cheers!

    • @privateuser7
      @privateuser7 Před 3 lety +1

      What are you, some fkn rock-man? Why do you know about all of em?

    • @wikansaktianto9215
      @wikansaktianto9215 Před 3 lety +1

      So...if slab-pull contribute their movement...was the massive continental plate acted like a jutting spoon?

    • @thirstfast1025
      @thirstfast1025 Před 3 lety +2

      @@wikansaktianto9215 I'm not sure what you mean about the spoon, but "continents" and "plates" are different things. Both continental and oceanic crust 'rides' on tectonic plates. When a plate subducts, the oceanic crust is pulled down by gravity, and due to it's density is capable of descending through the less dense asthenosphere rock. Continental crust is less dense (considerably) than oceanic crust, so it always 'stays afloat' during subduction. That's why you end up with a melange of exotic terranes on the coast of a continent where the tectonic plate subducting is pulling the oceanic crust toward the over-riding plate, and only ever mountains where continental crust meets continental crust. You get very deep trenches where oceanic crust meets oceanic crust.
      I hope this helps!
      Cheers!

    • @thirstfast1025
      @thirstfast1025 Před 3 lety

      @@privateuser7 I am some kind of rock man. I like that. I might start calling myself "rock man". :)
      I love geology. I read lots of books, especially textbooks if I can get them.

    • @thirstfast1025
      @thirstfast1025 Před 3 lety

      @@privateuser7 Oh, I also live on the shore of Lake Superior....

  • @Deadpool3E
    @Deadpool3E Před 3 lety +4

    I'm surprised this isn't about the Western Interior Seaway! Nice!

    • @tessat338
      @tessat338 Před 3 lety

      Yeah! That's what I thought that this was going to be about as well!

  • @alexander-kirk
    @alexander-kirk Před 3 lety

    Yaaaay Hank's not too busy at his microscopy channel!

  • @rei_cirith
    @rei_cirith Před 3 lety

    My head hurts... Definitely need more visuals for this one.

  • @sathvikkakanuru8201
    @sathvikkakanuru8201 Před 3 lety +3

    You mean the Civil War?

  • @roygordon2500
    @roygordon2500 Před 3 lety +3

    These videos keep me going during this covid time

  • @janmelantu7490
    @janmelantu7490 Před 3 lety +1

    Wasn’t expecting an Eons video uploaded to the SciShow channel

  • @BS-vx8dg
    @BS-vx8dg Před 3 lety +1

    I'm a bit puzzled to hear that geologists, who were not going to accept plate tectonics until the 1950s, were discussing the concept of plate tectonics in the 1940s (1:06).

  • @jayambrose9998
    @jayambrose9998 Před 3 lety +12

    Notification squad

  • @Josiahiswatching
    @Josiahiswatching Před 3 lety +4

    Out of all the Scientist names “Geophysicist” has to have the most “could be a Wizard” energy

    • @MicrowavedAlastair5390
      @MicrowavedAlastair5390 Před 2 lety +1

      You know, you're right. Astrophysicist sounds cool as hell, but it doesn't have the same energy.

    • @Josiahiswatching
      @Josiahiswatching Před 2 lety

      @@MicrowavedAlastair5390 Different school of magic. still powerful though

  • @vampireadjacent
    @vampireadjacent Před 3 lety

    hank’s shirt here is amazing, i want it!

  • @billsabado9393
    @billsabado9393 Před 3 lety +2

    I bet Muscle Hank could have finished the job.