Ozarks by lidar: 7 neat geologic features

Explore the Ozark landscape as revealed by lidar. With these laser-measured elevation data, we can look beyond vegetation and land use to highlight sinkholes, plateaus, bedrock layering, escarpments, cut-off meanders, lost hills, and some mysterious patterns of natural mounds. Join us on this tour of geologic highlights from southern Missouri, northern Arkansas, and eastern Oklahoma; a great way to explore the region when you can't get outdoors!

Sections:
00:00 Intro
00:44 Sinkholes
01:12 Upland flats
01:30 Bedrock layering
01:54 Escarpments
02:36 Cutoff meanders & lost hills
03:35 Prairie/mima/pimple mounds
04:45 Mound/sinkhole optical illusion

Resources:

[budm]

Being a Missouri native who spends much time hiking and fishing in the Ozarks, I find this quite interesting. More of this type of production would be great.

[shawnbottom]

I was born in Rolla, and also had grandparents in St. Robert (retired Army, Fort "lost in the woods"). I now live near Indianapolis and Lidar imagery helped amateur historians locate remnants of a 19th century canal that was never completed. Very cool stuff!

[grumpy]

In Australia that stranded loop of a river is called a billabong. 2:59

[justjoe]

I'm in the Arkansas river valley and am a rock and fossil hound. Love traveling north looking for exposed limestone and the nested Chert I collect and polish. I checked out your list of videos and subscribed; you're a valuable resource. God bless.

[kenycharles]

Look at those pimple mounds again from a different mindset.
Imagine thousands of people having wigwams or huts built on those mounds.
On the east side of Siloam Springs, Arkansas, going north to Gentry, Arkansas on highway 59, there are several small mounds. Those mounds are typically about a stone's throw apart.
I first speculated about this after I investigated the Spiro Mounds archeological site north of Spiro, Oklahoma, on the south bank of the Arkansas River in 1989. From that site, traveling westward, on highway 9, there are over 100, 000 of those house mounds. Arrowheads and pottery fragments abound on and around those mounds. Now, with the aid of LIDAR, those ancient house mounds can be located in researched. Those pimple mounds are ancient permanent communities of civilizations living in the Ozarks.

That's my hypothesis, and I'm sticking to it.

[Brian-Ahavah]

One of my instructors in college, who was a geologist, told me this area of SW Missouri was once an inland sea.

[budgarner]

Many thanks for such a fine geologic presentation.

[TedKehl-iwlv]

I've always wondered about the mounds. We used to put up hay on some never tilled prairie ground. There would be a few of these in a field, but you never really noticed them until the hay was cut or the tractor was going over one of them. Dad always called them Buffalo mounds, but we didn't know anything about how they were formed. Fairly common in southern pettis/northern Benton county MO.

[amdan]

- The smooth rounded igneous peaks of the St. Francois mountains with skirts of dissected sedimentary rock.
- The weathered faults cutting straight lines across multiple adjacent igneous St. Francois mountains.
- The telltale smooth domes of a couple igneous hilltops in far southern Franklin County, far removed from the St. Francois mountains.
Oodles more details I don't recall at the moment. This is a great topic.

[Peachy]

Loved watching this! I'm a map geek so this was fascinating to me! Just subscribed!

[johnpettersen]

I would have never guessed that the "pimple" mounds existed, or were so common. Thank you. I'm going to share this with my brother and others.

[elizabethallemann]

Thanks for uncovering another layer of beauty in Missouri. You guys are great!

[Zman-]

As an amateur geologist that lives in the area, this is fascinating to me. Thank you for uploading :)

[donhuber]

I ride my bicycle on the back roads of northern Benton County. The subtle, yet also dramatic change is noticeable south of Windsor, when you leave the Flat Creek/Lamine River watershed and enter the drainages of Barker, Brush, Duck and Tebo Creeks that flow south to the Osage Valley. I'm thrilled that this made it into your video!

[kulkidzunleashed]

Thank you for the great production and education. I am fascinated with Ozark geology. You have a new subscriber.

[randycompton]

I grew up in western Barton County in southwest Missouri. Our family farm, and all the area around there, was littered with what we called Indian mounds. A lot of them are lost to agriculture tillage. Native American arrowheads are found all throughout the prairie, near the mounds.
Are you saying they’re not man-made? We assumed there was an early civilization, like the mound people, gathering dirt, to build a pad with drainage for their tents.

[Numba]

As an Ozarkan, I thought this was fascinating! Lidar is such a useful tool all over the world. Thank you for sharing!
God be with you out there, everybody. ✝️ :)

[watchman]

Tnats awesome. Thanks for sharing.
Also your home looks amazing!

[pguiett]

This channel is great! Keep up the work. And yes, explanations of lidar are greatly enjoyed.

[raycar]

I don’t expect you to take my word for it but these are electrical phenomena.