Major production funding for Wild Nevada is made possible by the Nevada Commission on Tourism, who encourages everyone to explore the Silver State's hidden treasures.

MUSIC >>Dave Santina: Hi, welcome to Wild Nevada.

I'm Dave Santina.

>>Chris Orr: And, I'm Chris Orr.

On this trip, we're gonna take a geological field trip just outside the Reno-Sparks area in Northern Nevada.

>>Dave: It's a 60-mile loop trail and we're gonna learn a lot about the geological features of this area, and they're fascinating, but we won't do it alone.

We're gonna have some help from a couple of experts from the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology.

>>Chris: Well, we have a lot of area to cover, so we should get going.

>>Dave: Okay.

MUSIC >>Chris: We'll be meeting our guides at Washoe County's Lazy 5 Regional Park.

From Reno, we head east on Interstate 80 into Sparks and then turn north on Highway 445, the Pyramid Lake Highway, and drive for 7 miles to the Lazy 5.

MUSIC >>Dave: It's early and a cold day.

>>Chris: [Laughs] >>Chris: Here we meet Jonathan Price and D.D.

LaPointe of the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology.

>>Chris: Hi, D.D.

How are you?

>>Dave: What a pretty map you have here.

Is this what we're doing today?

>>Jonathan Price: Yes, indeed.

We're gonna go visit some of the geology in the area around, around Pyramid Lake and farther to the west.

We're gonna start off by visiting some diatomite fossils and, uh, looking at some leaf fossils in diatomite that is about 15 to 16 million years old.

We're gonna take a look at some of the volcanic rocks in the region.

We're gonna stop over at Moon Rocks, uh, an area of older granitic rocks, take a look at the, at those rocks, and then continue on, uh, just outside of Nevada into California in the Red Rocks area, and then back into Nevada and collect some quartz crystals on Peterson Mountain.

>>Chris: Wow, it sounds fun.

>>Jonathan: So, that should be lotsa fun.

>>Chris: Yeah.

>>Dave: We're really good at finding rocks.

>>Dave: We continue north on Highway 445 for almost 18 miles, then turn left onto a dirt road.

It's not well graded, but we'll be able to follow Jon and D. D. in the van with careful driving.

A couple of winding miles along this road brings us to our first stop.

>>Chris: So, this is our first stop, huh?

>>Jonathan: Yeah, this is the first stop.

This is one of the stops that we use for the Earth Science Week field trips.

This is the, uh, diatomite that's about 16 million years old and we're gonna look for leaf fossils in the diatomite.

>>Chris: So, as a layman who layman who doesn't know geologic terms, diatomite is what?

>>Jonathan: Diatomite is a rock made of diatoms.

Diatoms are little plant fossils... >>Chris: Uh, huh.

>>Jonathan: ...uh, that have silica as part of their structure.

And, uh, it's very porous and makes a rock that sometimes even floats.

It's that, it's that lightweight.

And, it's actually mined in places in Nevada for, um, filter material.

Uh, they mine it in several, several spots throughout the state.

And, at this particular locality there was exploration.

They never actually made a mine here, but they dug some trenches exploring for the diatomite and, um, that's what we'll look at here, some of these exposures in the diatomite.

So, let's go on up and take a look.

>>Chris: Yeah.

>>Jonathan: This is trench that the, uh, that the mining company would've had dug to, uh, explore for the diatomite and you can see some nice light-colored rock exposed in the trench.

>>Chris: Mm, hmm.

>>Jonathan: That's the actual diatomite.

There are two trenches and we'll go over to the second one, and the second one has some, uh, some nice, uh, leaf fossils in it.

We should, may find some in here, too.

There are a bunch of other rocks around here that are very interesting.

In particular, the rocks right behind us, the higher hills up here are about 23.5 million year old rhyolite volcanic rocks.

>>Dave: They look like they're just pushed up.

>>Jonathan: They're, they're, it's very similar to that.

It was, it's almost like toothpaste coming out onto the surface.

>>Dave: [Chuckles] >>Jonathan: In part, they intruded into older volcanic rocks in the area and in part flowed out on to the surface.

So, this whole area that has, is dotted with a number of these rhyolite domes, it was a big volcanic center at about 23.5 million years ago.

>>Dave: So, we're headin' this way into this?

>>Jonathan: We're gonna, gonna go and take a look at the diatomite.

>>Dave: Alright.

>>Chris: So, what are we looking for as we do this?

>>D.D.

: LaPointe: You're looking for an impression of a leaf.

It's very faint, it's white-on-white.

Sometimes just beige-on-white.

They look a lot like modern day leaves.

Birches, willows, alders, that kind of a leaf and, uh, just a very faint impression.

Not a great one, but it, you can just kinda see the outline.

>>Dave: Oh, yeah.

>>Chris: Oh that little impression.

>>D.D.

: Yeah, the faint outline of the leaf in there.

>>Dave: It's just right around there.

>>Chris: Yeah.

>>Dave: And, a line right down the middle.

>>D.D.

: The vein of the leaf.

>>Dave: That is pretty cool.

>>Chris: One of the first things you notice about the diatomite is how light it is.

A large chunk of rock is easy to pick up and handle.

It's also easy to chip away at as we search for fossils.

>>Chris: How pretty!

>>Dave: This fossil plant site was discovered in 1951 by Dr.

Ira La Rivers of the University of Nevada's biology department.

Over 1,400 fossils were recorded here and the best of them are kept in the Museum of Paleontology at the University of California at Berkeley.

>>Chris: Found another one!

>>D.D.

: Whoo, that's a beauty.

>>Dave: Ha, ha, ha!

>>Jonathan: Ya got one?

>>Dave: Look at that!

>>Jonathan: Great, great.

>>Dave: Found my own fossil, how 'bout that, eh?

>>Chris: Scientists who have studied the fossils at this site believe that at the time these leaves were alive this area received about 35 inches of rain a year and had a mean annual temperature of about 45 degrees.

Today, it averages 7 inches and more than 50 degrees.

What a difference a few million years make.

>>Jonathan: These leaves are leaves from big trees.

Oaks, alders, birches, uh, those sorts of trees.

And, the paleontologists have interpreted this stuff to, um, imply that it was a much wetter climate than it is today.

In fact, that's some of the, some of the good information that we have that, to know that the Sierra Nevada which makes the big rain shadow today, it makes Nevada a, a desert, that was probably not a mountain range at this time.

>>D.D.

: Pretty soft and it just, brown on beige.

>>Chris: So, have we spent enough time hammering?

Should we get goin'?

>>Jonathan: Okay.

>>Dave: What, have you exhausted all the rocks in the world and gotten every fossil?

>>Chris: Did you finally find yourself one ?

>>Dave: That's very funny.

>>Chris: [Chuckles] >>Dave: I found two.

But I'm stopping there... >>Chris: I found four or five.

>>Dave: ...out of consideration for the other people who might come here, unlike you.

>>Chris: [Laughs] MUSIC >>Dave: To reach our next stop, we return to Highway 445 and head south to the junction of Winnemucca Ranch Road, which we follow northwest for a little over 4 miles of paved road and then 2 more on the dirt.

Just past an alfalfa field we take a left turn on an unnamed dirt road and follow it for one more mile.

Our destination is obvious.

>>Jonathan: Okay, here we are.

Moon Rocks.

>>Dave: What is it that, that makes this stand out?

'Cause drivin' over here we really could see this outcrop separate from everything else, it looks so distinct.

>>Jonathan: Well, this is, this is actually a big, wide dyke of granite.

A dyke is a kind of igneous intrusion.

This was magma that was working its way up towards the surface and it's cutting up through the other granitic rocks in the area.

So, it's a big wide, big wide dyke, uh, and it erodes out in a fairly characteristic manner.

The, uh, the rounded knobs that you see are what the geologists call 'spheroidal weathering', it makes spheres as it erodes.

And, we'll see some nice, uh, chunks of these spheres as we go along.

We're gonna walk up a, uh, a fault plane and a plane along which some minerals have precipitated.

We can just see it right now.

>>Dave: Oh, yeah.

>>Jonathan: There's a fairly sharp break going up along the side here.

>>Chris: Yeah.

>>Jonathan: And, there are a couple of parallel breaks, too.

Uh, and you can see there some, uh, there's some minerals that are precipitated along those, those breaks.

That was a fault plane and it was probably also a place where, uh, hot water moved through and deposited, uh, crystals of, of various minerals and there it's mostly... >>Dave: Those dark patches?

>>Jonathan: ...uh, the, uh, it's actually the lighter, the lighter pieces.

>>Dave: Oh, okay.

>>Jonathan: It's mostly, uh, feldspar and quartz that have deposited there.

Those are minerals that are typical in the granite, but these are, uh, these are little layers that have come out with, from, uh, hot water that was moving through.

>>Chris: So, you can see it, actually a crack along the, the rock there?

>>Jonathan: Right.

Right.

>>Chris: Is that where it would slide against each other?

>>Jonathan: Yes.

>>Chris: Or is that just from pressure?

>>Jonathan: Indeed, that's, uh, it, there was, there was probably sliding along that, that surface.

And, I think we'll see some of that.

Here's a, a surface here that you can see.

>>Chris: Yeah.

>>Jonathan: And, there's a, there's some black mineral that's precipitated along there.

>>Chris: Uh, huh.

>>Jonathan: That's actually tourmaline.

Uh, tourmaline's a gemstone in some places, but ... >>Chris: I was gonna say, you can actually buy tourmaline, I know.

>>Jonathan: ...but, uh, but here it's, it's black, it's a kind of tourmaline that's black and not, and not a gemstone here.

But, still a pretty neat mineral.

So, these are great knobs of, of granite here with a nice spheroidal weathering.

As we look off in this direction, though, you can see not only rounded knobs, but there is, in fact, a preferred orientation.

>>Chris: Oh, wow.

>>Jonathan: You can see a bunch of fractures.

And, there's discoloration along, along the fractures.

There's a, an orangish color... >>Chris: Uh, huh.

>>Jonathan: ...uh, in addition to the, to the white and that discoloration is related to ground water moving down along those fractures and then moving into the rock, oxidizing a little bit of things like the magnetite, uh, in the granite, and creating iron oxyhydroxide, the, the orange color that we see.

So, what we're gonna do is walk over some of these areas of the liesegang banding, uh, in the granitic rock.

That's what that, that orange coloration is called.

>>Chris: What's it called again?

>>Jonathan: Liesegang banding.

>>Chris: Liesegang banding.

>>Jonathan: And, it's, uh, it's chemically the same thing as, uh, chromatographic transport.

>>Chris: [Laughs] >>Jonathan: Um, there's a >>Dave: [Laughs] Is there gonna be a quiz?

>>Chris: [Laughs] >>Jonathan: Yeah.

We can see the, the banding, that liesegang banding coloring going through the, goin' through the rock here.

And, you can tell that the rock is, is a little bit porous because it's kind of punky, it's easy to... >>Chris: Yeah.

>>Jonathan: ...it's easy to break up.

It's not as solid as most rock.

>>Chris: So, is the color just on the surface or is it all the way through the rock?

>>Jonathan: Uh, it'll, it'll go, uh, fairly far into the, into the rock.

Uh, we, we can see behind this... >>Dave: Wow, that is really impressive.

>>Jonathan: ...some, uh, stripes that are, that are going along fractures.

And, you can see there's a surface over here to the, to the left that has a lot of that brown coloration right on the surface.

>>Chris: Uh huh.

>>Jonathan: That's, that's actually water moving down along one of those cracks.

>>Chris: This area is a good example of how alive and dynamic our environment is.

We, as humans, are just not around long enough to notice the changes as they happen.

Jon and D.D.

keep us moving as we're off to see another feature in the area.

We continue west for a mile or so, and then turn south for a short distance and stop at the side of the road.

The subject of our attention is at the top of the ridge.

>>Jonathan: So, here we're gonna go see a ash flow tuff similar to some of the other rocks that we've seen.

This one's about 31 million years old.

It erupted from a volcano that would've been somewhere in Central Nevada... >>Chris: So, it traveled quite a ways.

>>Jonathan: ...at the time.

Yeah, probably at least a hundred miles.

>>Dave: The rocks in this area are known as the Tuff of Whiskey Springs, but the more casual name is the Big Sanadine Tuff.

This rock has been radiometrically dated at over 30 million years old.

That's older than the Sierra Nevada.

>>Jonathan: And, right here's a great example.

You can see the surface of the rock here.

It looks like it's polished.

>>Chris: Oh, it's like, it's actually almost soft.

I mean, it's smooth to the touch.

>>Jonathan: Yeah, it's very smooth.

But, look at the groves on it.

It looks like there's a preferred orientation this way.

>>Dave: Yeah, there's just sort of a slight indentation all along it.

>>Jonathan: And, that's probably telling us what the, what the average wind direction was.

Here's a compass.

So, it looks like that wind was blowing off to the northeast on the average.

The, the mountains off to the west of us here are more of the granitic rock.

And, so storms blowing off of that mountain probably picked up a lot of sand and, uh, as the, the wind blew across here over perhaps thousands of years, um, it sculpted this rock to give it these, these are called vent effects.

>>Chris: Here's another good example of our living planet.

Imagine the force necessary to project this volcanic rock all those miles from Churchill County.

MUSIC >>Dave: It's been a whirlwind of a day so far, but we're not finished yet.

We've got a long drive ahead of us to begin the second half of our trip.

MUSIC >>Dave: We're ready for the second part of our trip.

After we left the Moon Rocks area, we drove through Bedell Flat on a very washboard-heavy road, so beware if you ever take that road.

And, in doing so we saw some beautiful sites.

Antelope running across the, uh, the canyon floor and also some wild horses.

It was fantastic.

And, then we went into the Red Rock Valley to our spot here at Red Rock Canyon.

>>Chris: Now, we still have a lot of fun ahead because we're gonna go hunting for quartz crystals.

But, before we do that, we have a bit of a hike and we're gonna see some great tuff rock formations.

We're gonna meet up with D.D.

and Jonathan.

>>Dave: Hi, guys.

>>Jonathan: Hey.

>>Jonathan: Hi.

>>Dave: Thanks for that smooth ride along the valley floor.

>>Jonathan: [Laughs] Good, good.

>>Dave: Appreciate that.

>>D.D.

: Just a washboard, you know.

>>Dave: Wonderful.

So, where we goin' up here?

It looks beautiful up there.

>>Jonathan: Yeah, we're headin', headin' to Red Rock.

This a little, uh, local park.

Uh, and we're gonna go visit the, the red rocks and the gray and white colored rocks below 'em are more tuffs.

Uh, and we'll get to see some real nice pumice in these tuffs.

>>Dave: Sounds good.

>>Chris: Now, is this the landmark that give the area its name?

>>Jonathan: Yes.

>>Dave: It better be.

That's red rocks.

[Laughs] MUSIC >>Chris: It's a relatively simple hike at first, a steady incline, but nothing too difficult.

The icy cold of this morning is a distant memory as we climb in the mild afternoon air.

MUSIC >>Chris: The higher we go, the tougher the terrain.

It gets a bit slippery with the looser rock, so we have to be careful from here on out.

Hiking shoes or boots are recommended.

>>Jonathan: We can see some nice pumice in the tuff here.

All these white balls are bits of pumice blown out of a volcano.

>>Chris: Now, that just flaked right off when you hit it, so... >>Jonathan: Yeah.

You just pulled the, pulled the pumice ball right outta there.

>>Chris: Now, what is pumice?

How is it different from than the... >>Jonathan: Pumice is, uh, a frothy volcanic glass.

And, it's got lotsa holes in it.

If you look at it in the hand lens you might actually be able to see the individual holes.

Yeah, you can see, you can see that it's very porous material.

Take a look at it.

>>Chris: Oh.

>>Dave: So, what, how does it end up in the middle of this other rock?

>>Jonathan: It's, it's actually a, a ball of pumice that's flowing through the air and is entrained in this, in this ash flow as it's being deposited.

>>Jonathan: Okay, we're ready to go?

>>Dave: Yeah, are we gonna head up to the orange next?

>>Jonathan: Yeah, let's go on up to the next outcrop.

>>Jonathan: There's some nice tuff to the left there.

>>Jonathan: Watch your step.

It's pretty treacherous.

>>Dave: That's a pretty useful tool.

>>Chris: Whoops.

>>Dave: Careful there.

>>Chris: Yep, yep.

I caught myself.

>>Dave: Up here, we have to be very careful.

This area may be beautiful, but the volcanic rock has eroded over the years and, as a result, we're standing on a very loose and sandlike surface.

>>Jonathan: Okay.

Watch your step here.

>>Jonathan: Now, what we're looking at here is the, the contact between the, the red tuff on our right and the white tuffs on the left.

And, we can see a nearly vertical contact here and nearly vertical layering in the white tiff.

There's a zone in there that looks like it has a lot of rock fragments, pebbles, little tiny pebbles in it.

And, uh, it has a, a white, uh, tuff sitting on top of it that is, uh, looks like it's dipping off, uh, steeply to our left.

And, what we think is that, is that this white tuff is younger than the red tuff and they were both originally, uh, deposited nearly horizontal and then the whole, the whole mass of rock here, the red and the white, has been tilted up to nearly vertical.

Pretty spectacular.

>>Chris: Yeah.

>>Jonathan: Watch your step.

And, why don't you stop right about there and take a look, take a look behind me.

This is a fantastic outcrop.

You can see the, the red tuff sitting on top of the white material.

And, it looks like there's a horizontal contact.

>>Dave: Yeah.

>>Jonathan: Um, and what's happened there is that the, the red tuff you remember is older than the white tuff.

>>Dave: Yeah.

>>Jonathan: It was sitting below the white tuff where we last saw it.

The red tuff has probably been tilted up, uh, along with the white tuff, and then shoved on top of the white tuff.

So, imagine those two being deposited nearly horizontally with the white on top of the red, got tilted up and then near the end of the tilting, the red material just got shoved over on top of the white.

That's what we think happened right there.

>>Dave: The difference between a violent collision and a more gradual... >>Jonathan: Well, this... >>Dave: ...transfer.

>>Jonathan: ...the plane on which those, uh, the red sits on top of the white is, in fact, a fault plane.

>>Dave: Hmm.

>>Jonathan: So, there were probably earthquakes generated... >>Dave: Okay.

>>Jonathan: ...as that moved across the, the white tuff.

>>Chris: Now, what creates the spired columns on there?

>>Jonathan: That, that's just erosion.

Erosion.

>>Chris: This area is as visually stimulating as it is scientifically intriguing, but we have one more stop to make, so it's time to return to the vehicles for the last leg of our trip.

MUSIC >>Dave: From the Red Rocks trail head we continue west on Red Rock Road all the way to the junction of US 395.

A left turn takes us south and 2 miles down the road we take another left through a gate at the base of Peterson Mountain.

We have to leave the van at this point and join Jon and D.D.

for the last 2 bumpy miles.

>>Jonathan: So, here we are at Peterson Mountain.

It's a excellent quartz crystal collecting site.

It's granite, uh, much like some of the other rocks we've seen today.

Uh, but inside the granite are veins and vugs and, openings that, uh, have... >>Dave: Vugs?

>>Jonathan: ...quartz, quartz crystals grow in 'em.

Vugs, yeah.

>>Dave: What's a vug?

>>D.D.

: A cavity.

>>Jonathan: A vug is a cavity, a, like a small hole in the rock.

>>Dave: Vug?

>>D.D.

: Yeah.

>>Jonathan: A vug.

>>Chris: [Laughs] >>Jonathan: In the, in these veins and, and cavities and the vugs in the rock are nice quartz crystals.

And, we can find, uh, lots of different crystals.

Uh, many of them are long.

Some of 'em are short and stubby.

Uh, some of them have terminations at the end of them.

Uh, nice points at the end.

Quartz crystals are typically six-sided prisms, uh, and at the end, uh, the six sides come to a point.

Those are the nice, nice tourmanated crystals.

>>Chris: Now, we can just branch out and go in search of 'em?

>>Jonathan: Yeah, they, uh, the veins occur throughout the granite in this area and weathering has broken up the rock and made little, uh, crystals, little crystals drop outta the vugs in the, in the veins.

So, we can find, uh, crystals scattered throughout the ground.

The idea is just to work our way up the side of the hill and see what we find.

>>Chris: Well, I'm anxious.

Shall we get it goin'?

>>Dave: Yeah, let's do it.

>>Chris: And see what we can find?

>>Dave: I'm gonna go ahead of you so you don't get all the rocks.

>>Chris: [Laughs] >>Jonathan: Take advantage of the, the light, the sunlight in the late afternoon it's, it'll be reflecting off of the crystal faces.

So, if you get a good crystal it'll usually have a nice, uh, reflective face.

Here's a, here's one that you can see a bit of a flash off of it.

>>Chris: Mm, hmm.

>>D.D.

: Uh, that's just a cleavage fragment off of it.

But, sometimes you'll see good reflections off the faces.

And, use that light to zero in on where it, where there might be good crystal.

And, then poke around in the sand and see if you can pull out a good lookin', a good lookin' quartz crystal.

>>Chris: There might be quartz anywhere on this slope.

The trick is to look for a glint in the sunlight and then see if it comes from quartz on the ground.

Visitors should be aware that there are patented claims on the top of the hill.

Those areas are to be respected and left alone.

>>D.D.

: You'll just see one face flash at you and then you dig it outta the dirt.

>>Dave: Wow!

>>D.D.

: And that one's got terminations on both ends.

MUSIC >>Jonathan: Yeah, there's a vug.

>>Dave: A vug!

A vug!

>>Jonathan: And, it's got crystals growin' in it.

>>Dave: Okay.

>>Jonathan: You can imagine a bigger pocket like that, and then erosion comes along and chips those crystals out.

>>D.D.

: Six, a little six-sided prism.

>>Chris: How are you doin'?

>>Dave: I'm not doing well finding quartz, but even in my fruitless search I recognize that this disbursed rock represents our trip's final example of the way the earth's surface moves in subtle ways.

>>Dave: I picked it up.

Jon found it.

MUSIC >>Chris: With the light fading, we thank Jon and D.D.

for a great trip and head home.

>>Chris We had a lot of fun this trip.

We got to find fossils and crystals, visit the Moon Rocks, see Red Rock Canyon.

>>Dave: Yeah, it's fun and, you know, they call this a field trip because the public can come out and do these things, and it was kinda like being back in school because we got to play with some toys.

>>Chris: Tools.

[Laughs] >>Dave: The little tools, learn a few things such as my new favorite word, vug.

>>Chris: [Laughs] >>Dave: Which I will say for the rest of my days.

>>Chris: If you want more information about this trip or any of our trips, you can visit our website at knpb.org.

While you're there, send us an e-mail and tell us about some of your discoveries.

>>Dave: And, until our next Wild Nevada adventure, you get out there and enjoy this beautiful state for yourself.

MUSIC Major production funding for Wild Nevada is made possible by the Nevada Commission on Tourism, who encourages everyone to explore the Silver State's hidden treasures.