Hi this is George Miller from the
Buffalo Bill Center the West in Cody
Wyoming, and we are here in the
Northern Bighorn Basin in Wyoming.
I'm here with my dogs Jannu and
Murphy. And we're taking a look today at
some of the geology here in Northwest
Wyoming.
It's a geologists dream. There's very
little tree cover so we can see a lot
of interesting formations. Well, down here
is the sagebrush steppe.
The sagebrush steppe is like an ocean of
sagebrush. Very few trees grow down here,
because of a lack of water. Right along
the riverbanks we see cottonwood, and
that's about all. It's really dry down
here. This is a beautiful part of the
country. If you look at the mountain in
the distance that's Heart mountain.
About 53 million years ago there was a huge landslide and the top of Heart
Mountain slid from around Cooke City,
Wyoming to its present location.
It's very unusual because older rocks are
usually under younger rocks,
but in this case older rocks are on top.
Well, the Bighorn Basin is an amazing
place, because there's so many different
geologic formations. As we pan to the
west we see the Absarokas, which are
volcanic mountains, and we see the
Beartooth which are very very old
mountains. Those Beartooth Mountains are
some of the oldest rock on earth. And
they were uplifted during the Laramide
Orogeny. Don't you just love that word--Laramide Orogeny.
That's the mountain building process for
the Rocky Mountains. Well, that was a all
uplifted. And, so, the Absarokas are mostly volcanic from around 50 million years ago.
So, they are very different kinds of
mountains. Now, coming out of the
mountains is the Clark's Fork of the
Yellowstone River. And that has carved a
canyon that's also been additionally
carved by glaciers.
Most of this country was
glaciated. The high country was glaciated
during the Pleistocene glaciations. Well,
here we are in the northern end near Red
Lodge, Montana looking down into the
basin and we can see some of the
mountains in the distance. If you look
right out on the horizon you'll see the
Bighorn Mountains and you'll also see
the Pryor Mountains. The Bighorn Basin
is surrounded by mountains. Well, here we are
in the foothills of the Bighorns, or excuse
me, the foothills of the Beartooth and
you can see some red rock there. This red
rock is called the Chugwater formation.
And, it was formed in the Triassic period, about the time of dinosaurs. Well, we're
gonna have lots more to say about the
Northern Bighorn Basin, and it's
geologic history, and some of the history of the animals in this area. So, stay tuned
we'll be back with you next week. Thanks
for watching. For more information go to
centreofthewest.org
