Oklahoma's Floods of Lava; The End-Ediacaran Mass Extinction

Oklahoma was once the site of a major flood which was not composed of water but rather, lava. As Oklahoma ripped apart, a flood of lava erupted onto the surface, covering an area the size of New Jersey. This process would then repeat another 100 times, leading to the End-Ediacaran mass extinction. The aforementioned process occurred at what is known as the Southern Oklahoma Aulacogen, which was so impactful that it even shaped the modern landscape. Today, remnants of this mass extinction event linked volcanism can be found via granite and rhyolite in the Wichita Mountains & Arbuckle Mountains.

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Sources/Citations:
[1] U.S. Geological Survey
[2] Darroch, Simon & Smith, Emily & Nelson, Lyle & Craffey, Matthew & Schiffbauer, James & Laflamme, Marc. (2023). Causes and consequences of end-Ediacaran extinction: An update. Cambridge Prisms: Extinction. 1. 1-30. 10.1017/ext.2023.12. CC BY 4.0.
[3] Chase, Brandon & Unsworth, M. & Atekwana, Estella & Evans, Rob & Zhu, J.. (2023). Magnetotelluric Imaging of the Lithospheric Structure of the Southern Oklahoma Aulacogen: Evidence for Long‐Term Weakening Caused by Rifting. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. 128. 10.1029/2023JB026555. CC BY 4.0.
[4] U.S. Geological Survey, Oklahoma Geologic Map

0:00 Ancient Cataclysm
0:28 Flood Basalt
1:33 End-Ediacaran Extinction
2:52 Southern Oklahoma Aulacogen
4:11 Rhyolite & Granite

[libbidickinson]

Oklahoma geologist here...appreciate your videos!
❤ from Oklahoma

[-shadyG]

My dad used to take K-state students on field trips to the Arbuckle’s. He was a petroleum geologist. I remember hunting rocks and arrow heads and barium sulfate (rose rocks) south of Ardmore. The geology bug never stuck with me as we grew up.

[MarcusBP]

I got my Geology degree from the University of Oklahoma back in 1982. Had the usual field trips; most of which were in southern Oklahoma. Never spent much time on, nor understood what occurred with this event. Thank you for explaining it so well, and what the ramifications were! I love Oklahoma, but my interest in volcanoes makes me spend a lot of time in other places.

[exmcairgunner]

I wondered about this more once over my years as a trucker.👍

[InMyField]

Thank you. I enjoyed yesterdays explanation of Olivine and Granite as well as today’s Rhyolite and Granite. The heart of the matter.

[ytadventurer]

Something kind of terrifying to think about: Compared to the formation of the Earth, this was only 12-13% ago. On that sort of timescale, we're not really all that far removed from when this happened. At any point, the world could slip into a volcanically active period, and humans could struggle to avoid extinction.

[gojirageek]

happy to see you do another video on oklahoma

[danoakes]

I have lived in and studied the geology of the Wichita's for twenty years, and I can tell you it is still active there. That it was tied to a major extinction event does not surprise me. Thanks for the video posting.

[xwiick]

Thanks for all the hard work on these videos!

[SB-qmwg]

Still tons of hot springs from N Texas into Arkansas along that track.

[TheSpaceEnthusiast-vlwx]

Thanks as always! This is very fascinating. Failed rifts (aulacogens) are also very interesting.

[hertzer]

Gosh, a lot has happened since the old days.

[atomdent]

Love the Wichitas. It gets hot in Central Oklahoma, but the camping is awesome there! A mini mountain chain

[Amalgamotion]

That’s interesting, the Wichita’s I loved to explore as a kid and young adult I always wondered why it looked like some of the mountains looked so old they fell over…

Thank you for all the content making geology fascinating one day at a time!

[jrkorman]

Thank you. I now live about 100 miles south of the Wichita Mtns and had done some reading but that had not mentioned the rifting and volcanic activity events.

[ReclinedPhysicist]

I've been to the Wichita mountains many times and seen that granite. There are huge boulders of it so weathered that you can peel off the outer skin like an onion.

[rob-vy]

Hey...I live in the middle of that!
Wichita mountains and stuff.
That and being on the edge of the great mid continent ocean is amazing stuff.
Lots of old granite around here...including the town of ....Granite.

[Mommeyerr]

Have you ever been interested in making a video about Galicia, in Northwest Spain? Geologically very interesting area, a lot of granite and hot springs

[kinexkid]

Did you hear about the hydrothermal explosion at Biscuit Basin in Yellowstone? It jusy happened at 10:19 this morning and so far it seems there was only one video to captire the event. I eagerly look forward to your analysis on it!

[dwightmansburden]

I just saw there was an explosion at Yellowstone that destroyed a boardwalk!