Latest / PlanetGeo: The Geology Podcast / Glacier Questions From Our Live Event (GeoShort)

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Glacier Questions From Our Live Event (GeoShort) · PlanetGeo: The Geology Podcast

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Planet Geo, the podcast where we talk about our amazing planet, how it works, and why it matters to you.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, welcome to the Planet Geo Geo Short.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: Today, this is a bit of a different one because we just did a live podcast recording in collaboration with Mappy Hour this past Tuesday.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Mappy Hour, that's like Happy Hour, but with maps, is a community of urban dwelling outdoor enthusiasts who get together, well, virtually in the time of COVID, to discuss maps, outdoor adventures, guidebooks, and importantly, beer.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Chris and I recorded a live episode this past Tuesday on the geoscience of Glacier National Park.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: The geoscience there is just absolutely stunning.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: And next week, we'll release the full podcast episode, so stay tuned to that.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: This week, though, we have a short teaser with some of the listener questions that we got during this live event.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: So tune in next week for a full discussion of Glacier National Park.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: And until then, enjoy a few great questions.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have any recommendations for books or apps for local geology that are not too advanced?
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that the roadside geology series of books is amazing.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: So if you just look up the roadside geology of Montana, um they have what I'm sure they have a whole lot of geological information, including Glacier National Park information.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have any other suggestions?
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: I do.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: I'm assuming that this question from Ari is specific to glacier.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: And so there is a really, really good book.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know exactly the title, but if you Google this, this will be the first thing that comes up.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: Is gonna be The Geology of Going to the Sun Road.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: And it's an amazing book, it's very well written.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: Diagrams are amazing.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: It's that that's my top recommendation by far.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's a great one because we also have another question.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know why the highway to the sun road took so long to build?
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know the answer to this.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: I have a guess.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: It looks like a road I would not want to build.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm not a geological engineer.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: I know a lot of them though, and this looks like a pain in the ass to build, to be honest with you.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that road is stunning.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: It is on a cliffside.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's like one of these roads you see images of from like the Himalaya where there's like people falling off the cliff and you fall to your death.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is the road, right?
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's insane.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: It's a white knuckle drive for sure.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: I can't imagine trying to build that.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: And actually, I have a funny story about this.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: My friend grew up at Big Fork, who I visited there many years ago.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: They had this uh little thing when they were in high school where they would drive up to drive up the highway to the sun road at dusk, and they would mountain bike down it at night with headlamps on.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: They would get huge big beam headlamps on, and they would mountain bike down this thing, and they would just rip down it.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: I did not get the opportunity to do that.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: I really wish I could have.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: That sounds super fun and potentially get in some trouble doing it.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: I would guess that it's a really complicated engineering feat and probably ran over budget, but I don't really know why it took so long to build and answer that question.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: But maybe it's in this book, right, Chris?
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's not actually.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: The book straight up deals with the geology, not the geologic engineering of something like that, but it's just steep.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's you know, it's uh I couldn't do it.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they limit the size of vehicles that can even go on the road.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: Like I can't take my bus on it with my students.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: We have to hop off the bus and get on the shuttle.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you're not that great of a bus driver, I'll admit.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm pretty good.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Pretty good.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Another question is if you could hike in Glacier with any person in history, who would you choose?
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Chris, why why don't you take this and give me a minute to think about this one?
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I don't I don't know.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, way to put me on the spot, by the way.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for that.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: No problem.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: You can't answer that question that fast.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um I guess you know, hiking in Glacier National Park with John Muir would be amazing.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: John Muir, who's John Muir for those who don't know?
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: John Muir, he had a heavy presence in Yosemite, and he was interested in everything.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: He was interested in in preserving the lands, he was interested in geology.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, you know, I'm preparing to go on a trip to Washington State to climb Mount St.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: Helens in June, and then we're gonna work our way down and end backpacking for a week in Yosemite this summer.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, you when you research Yosemite, John Muir can't avoid it.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: That influenced me for sure.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: That was a nice little tangent for Chris Boyce, too.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: I would say my favorite person or my uh my my person I would choose.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: Well, first of all, if not in history, I would choose Chris Boyce.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: I've never been there with Chris Ballhois, I would choose Chris Boyce.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a bad thing.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Take that, Chris.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: I'm telling you.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, seriously, I I would take um there was this guy who I met, and I'm sure he's passed away now, but when I was in graduate school, I met this guy who was an old-time geologist, one of these prospector types.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: And he had during his undergrad, uh, he went to McGill University and he had mapped the Canadian Rockies just north of the border by donkey.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: So he had been one of these like mule pack things that crossed the Rockies like when they were looking for railroad passes and stuff.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: But he was a geologist hired on this thing.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: And it would be so fun to hike.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: I never got we I just met him, you know, and we were on a like a trip together, but we did never do any field work.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to like go through the this kind of it's the same geology from glacier all the way up north, basically into the Northwest Territories, same geology all along the Rockies to walk along that with a guy like that with that kind of experience would be super fun to do.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that's cool.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: All right, thanks for listening to Planet Geo.
• 5:32
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• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: We're at Planet GeoCast, and our email is planetgeocast at gmail.com.
• 5:39
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• 5:42
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• 5:49
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• 5:51
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• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: Take care, everybody, and talk to you next week.