Wayne Ranney's Geology Video Collection - Colorado Plateau Evolution - What a scientist sounds like.

This is what a scientist sounds like!

Many years ago my daughter gave me a book, “Ancient Landscapes of the Colorado Plateau” because she knew I liked geology.  What I found was an epiphany.  You see I’ve lived in the southwestern corner of Colorado since 1979 and it seemed like the more I got to know the San Juan Mountains and the Canyon Lands of the Colorado Plateau, and the more I read the geologic info available to the general public, the more overwhelmed and confused I felt.  Bits and pieces made sense, but there was no overarching clarity.  How did it fit together and unfold over time.  My head would spin trying to sort it out.  

Then came Ancient Landscapes, with it’s maps that look like satellite images, sequenced to reveal time unfolding and the landscape evolving.  Its concise internally consistent narrative colored in details.  By the time I was finished with it, the first time, it felt like my satchel full of fascinating but frustrating facts had been woven into a beautiful clarifying tapestry I'll never be able to describe the way they do.  Which is why you should see this for yourself.

Of course, as it goes with epiphanies, time happens, experiences are digested, and we realize whole new realms, along with a new set of questions.  The curiosity never ends, it’s a wonderful life and it’s not the destination, it’s the journey.  Enjoy.

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Ancient Landscapes of the Colorado Plateau with Wayne Ranney  

Geologist Wayne Ranney describes the history of the Colorado Plateau. With illustrations and excerpts from the book he Co-authored, Wayne Ranney explains live on the plateau over the last 500 million years. Presented by Grand Canyon Trust; the University of Utah Environmental Humanities Graduate Program, supported by The Nature Conservancy, SUWA,  Pax Natura Foundation.  (April 13, 2010)

Off Topic - but worth it. "Ancient Landscapes in Motion"

I'm going to go off topic for this post, though come to think of it, it isn't that far off topic since learning about this incredible planet I was born into, has been my passion from earliest memories.  This in turn, is why I've been paying attention to the developing scientific global warming story since I was fourteen.  And four decades of that has, in turn, lead to this website.  

But, for now I want to focus on the much more enjoyable topic of our fantastic planet's geologic evolution, which after all, is what made this frightening Anthropocene epoch possible in the first place.

I also want to plead the case for someone investing the support to develop the most astounding geologic maps yet, into a stunning, eye opening, high quality animation of landscapes in motion, or to be more direct the birth of our continent.  (The reference to Telluride, CO is because the Four Corners Free Press get's circulated up there.  A call from Sundance would do just fine too.  ;-}  )

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This is the sequel to my Four Corners Free Press article:

Understanding "Ancient Landscapes" of the Colorado Plateau

http://citizenschallenge.blogspot.com/2013/09/understanding-ancient-landscapes-of.html

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Back, in 1979, through a series of serendipitous cross-country hitch-hiking adventures I found myself driving down into Silverton, Colorado (elevation 9,318') and it was love at first sight, the setting, the town, the people, the community. Before I went to sleep that evening I knew it was going to be home for a long time. Indeed, I lived there for six years going strong, when a woman's love proved stronger and down to the "banana-belt" I scampered.

But, it's the mountains and geology I want to write about in this essay. Today I smile thinking back on that young buck looking down his nose at the jumbled mess of rocks that was the Rocky Mountains. Layers going this way and that way, hard layers on top of soft layers, cliff faces that seemed trustworthy, then crumbled and killed. I was unimpressed.

Back then, the Rocky's seemed