The Vivid Blue Water and Fantastic Geology of the Grand Canyon's Little Colorado River
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- čas přidán 6. 07. 2024
- Take a soak in the amazingly blue waters of the Little Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park. Join geology professor Shawn Willsey as he explains where this vivid water emanates along with the geology visible here. Be sure to stick around to the end when he takes you bobbing down the little ripples of this beautiful river.
00:00 Intro and location
00:17 Little Colorado River and travertine
02:48 travertine deposition
04:00 full Paleozoic stratigraphic section
05:00 Tapeats sandstone
06:38 Other Cambrian units (Bright Angel Shale and Muav Limestone)
08:40 nice cross beds in Tapeats sandstone
09:06 float train through LCR (first person view)
09:57 float train (downstream view) Video by James Grover
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Shawn Willsey
College of Southern Idaho
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Twin Falls, ID 83303 - Věda a technologie
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Oh my goodness! This part of the river is GORGEOUS!!! I am 61 years old and did not know this portion of the Colorado River existed. Thanks for sharing this beautiful sacred place!!! ❤️
OMG, that would make a killer puzzle!
This is the Little Colorado, not the main river. It flows into the Colorado at the lower end of Marble Canyon. It's a,12 mile hike from the South Rim near the east entrance near Desert View.
The blue water of the Little Colorado was amazing. And the travertine was beautiful. Thanks for showing something that I know I’ll probably never visit.
9:07 Ahh THAT looks like a total blast!
I've never known about this Little Colorado River section, it's gorgeous. Also a reminder of how much groundwater is under the surface just about everywhere.
I love how descriptive you are. I wish I could have you in Newfoundland. I’ve worked with geologist from around the world but none of them have your teaching abilities. Thank you.
Could you please do something on soil samples including describing horizons and mineral content.
Thanks for the kind words and your viewership. I am not much of a soil scientist so I doubt I will do much with this topic.
@@shawnwillsey that’s fine. Honesty….another great virtue. I also like how you say it when you don’t know a lot about something. Gives me opportunity to dig deeper if need be.
Fun trip, fun video, beautiful river water and spectacular geology.....couldn't be better !
Like kids, barrel of monkeys fun! Hope everyone finds their caps!! So beautiful 💦. Thanks Shawn for taking us along.
Your explanation about the formation sequence of the Tapeats Sandstone, the Bright Angels Shale and the Muav Limestone was exactly what I was waiting for. Thanks so much!
You bet. Thanks for your loyal viewership.
The color of the water is breathtaking
I did the trip two months ago and my biggest surprise was the incredible color of of the Little Colorado.
Such a fascinating location. Just love the Geology. Wouldn't mind doing some white water river floating either.😂
I did this on two trips down the Colorado river. So much fun!
I had never heard of that blue water and dams. That's amazing!
Wow, absolutely beautiful water looks like a lot of fun
That is WONDERFUL! 😂 I've been lucky to have floated the Little Colorado and treasure every minute of my Colorado River trip. Your descriptions of the geology are super, Shawn. ❤👏🏻
Our homeschooling Geography work this year started with the Grand Canyon so…great timing! Excellent video and thank you for including the fun raft train.
Blue is my favorite color.
7:42 excellent visual explanation of a Cambrian sequence caused by sea level rise. It's astonishing to see the same rocks get submerged under a few hundred feet of water. Could those rocks also see deeper water from subduction, like if the plate they're attached to is moving towards a subduction zone out at sea?
Yes, but in this case the area was not a plate boundary but the passive margin of a continent.
I had no idea, but it makes sense that some tributaries are clear. Thanks for respecting Sipapuni.
Thank you Shawn. Your videos are educational and entertaining.
My pleasure!
Thanks! keep sharing your love for geology with us!
Thank you for supporting geology education.
I got to get out more. This place is absolutely beautiful Shawn.
Wow!!! How beautiful thanks Shawn
Thank you.
Let’s go let’s go adventure 💕🌺✌️👵
beautiful little river.
Loved this video. Thanks. Those cross beds are interesting.
Ive spent twenty years November to March backpacking the GC 1983-2003. Been up the Little Colorado to the Sipapu from the confluence and down the Little Colorado from Cameron to Blue Springs.
A global sea level rise like a biblical flood. Interesting. This is absolutely beautiful
Thx for the great video. Always learn more interesting stuff!
I've only watched a couple of minutes and I'm captivated!
A wonderful excersion and what a fun finale. Thank You
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks for this lesson in sedimentary rocks. I've mostly lived in the PNW and traveled in the Northern Rockies. So I've not seen a lot of sedimentary land. As we moved from VA to Seattle when I was 13 we did go on a tour of the Hannibal Caverns in MO. They go underneath the Mississippi River. I found it beach unit very interesting here on the little Colorado. Also the travertine. I have seen travertine in Yellowstone and did not know it can occur away from hot springs. This is a beautiful side canyon. I can understand why it is sacred land. Your doing more on side canyons than I've ever seen. Most grand canyon shows I've seen focus on the main river and history of the discovery. You're showing how the side canyons are really interesting and different from the main river. Thank you.
The blue green waters of the lower Little Colorado come out of a warm spring. And also the water of Havasu Creek is turquoise as well on the other end of the Grand Canyon. The LC and Havasu are both about 70°f during non monsoon floods.
Nice to get away from that Lake Powell ice water and enjoy the Little Colorado! Fun video. I've been on two private trips down the Canyon.
Just so beautiful. Thanks😊
❤ so beautiful and much fun!
Thanks!
fun little ending there!
Thanks for this video, very well done!
WOW !
Awesome...
AWSOME !!
Great video!
I'm shocked and then astounded by the water. I've always imagined the water in the Colorado to be this syrupy muddy thick yucky water.
This not the main Colorado River, it is a side stream called the Little Colorado River.
In any event, the Colorado river here is mostly the outflow from Glen Canyon dam, where the vast percentage of the sediment precipitated out. Only during downpour events between the dam and here may the water appear muddy.
Hey Shawn .. thanks for showing us this blue wonder of the Little Colorado! Reminds me of Bear Lake UT/ID and Lake Tahoe. This blue has been a fascination for me to study. I noticed Bear Lake/Lake Tahoe, both are located near volcanism and run a north to south direction. Seeing your video, I had to know if there was similar with the Little Co. River blue, and to my surprise Little Co. River is tucked between the Uinkaret and San Francisco Volcanic Fields. *Could* the presence of volcanism (somehow), along with other processes also contribute to the this beautiful blue? There's another "blue" lake in Michigan -- Torch Lake. It too runs a North/South direction, but I haven't been able to find any volcanic connection, other than its in the region of the ancient Mid Continent Rift. Correlation isn't causation, but what I've seen sure makes me wonder. Any thoughts on this? I'd love to hear them. Thanks!
Blue color is not due to volcanism. It's totally a consequence of the dissolved calcium carbonate in the water. The same thing occurs further downstream in Havasu Canyon. Bear Lake likely gets its color for a similar reason with so much limestone surrounding the lake. Not sure about Lake Tahoe or the lake in Michigan. Cool stuff!
I once went sea kayaking and lost a pair of good glacier googles playing in the water like that. Be sure to tie all your gear down well.
Nice, thank you. I got a question about the cross bedding, does that tell you the direction(orientation) the beach faced?
These cross beds are from streams along coastline. They form along point bars as they meander or swing back and forth as they deposit sediment and change their course.
❤
Wish I came with you guys
Great video Shawn, as usual! Is there any petrified wood in the Grand Canyon?
Not in the canyon proper but the younger layers above (such as at Lee's Ferry) do have some (see my video at Marble Canyon). Most of the rock units in the Grand Canyon formed either before land plants evolved or were deposited in marine depositional environments where trees don't live.
@@shawnwillsey Makes sense...thank you!
Yes, there is on Horseshoe Mesa below Grand View Point off the S. Rim. But it's eroded down into tiny pieces.
Where do the springs join the Little Colorado? If you drive to the South Rim though Cameron via AZ-64, you come across The Little Colorado River Gorge. (It's a Navajo Tribal Park.)
The water is still brown there. I assume the springs are further downstream....
Springs emerge in the LCR about 8 or so miles upstream from the confluence.
Love watching your videos, but 4k or at least 1440p resolution would be much better. 🤓
Hmm. I'm not knowledgeable about such things. Why is the 1080p resolution not adequate? The videos look fine on my monitors.
The water comes out of the base of the Glen Canyon Dam at 49 degrees F. The Little Colorado River water must be considerably warmer and bearable.
Yes, the Little Colorado is as warm as 70°F. It flows from a place called Blue Spring about 9 miles upstream of the confluence with the main Colorado River.
Shaun, does the Grand Canyon have the layer where the Astroid hit and killed the dinosaurs? If so, which part of the stone layers does it exist on?
Excellent question.
No, the Grand Canyon's rocks are too old. The uppermost layer on the rim is Kaibab Limestone, a Permian age (~260 million years old) deposit from the seafloor. The dinosaur extinction occurred about 65 million years ago so you would need to go elsewhere to see rocks of that time interval.
@00:17 Google earth satellite photo of that is quite a bit different than Google maps' satellite image of the same spot. In Google Maps the little Colorado junction to the Colorado river looks quite sand color.
I picked a different year's imagery that showed the blue color. The drainage is prone to flash flooding which will turn the water brown-red due to sediment load.
@@shawnwillsey I could see from your visitation footage it was beautifully turquoise water
Could it be that the water levels kept rising because of more and more sediment was layed down over the millions of years? That's what I thought while looking up across the water. Fo course, if the beds beneath the ocean or river rises that will lift the water.
Thanks!
Thanks!
Much appreciated. Glad you enjoyed this.