Nick on the Rocks

Outside Othello, Washington, a labyrinth of canyons conjure images of the desert Southwest, but these channels weren’t carved by rivers. Join local geologist Nick Zentner as he examines the surreal landscape of Drumheller Channels for evidence of massive Ice Age floods.

Journey with Nick Zentner high above the city of Wenatchee, Washington, where a group of spires made of a unique type of 44-million-year-old rock tell the story of extreme volcanic activity and ancient vents of magma older than the Cascade volcanoes.

The story of Moses Coulee is a tale of two canyons. Geologists believe the canyon was created by Ice Age floods just 16,000 years ago - but the ghostly hanging valleys on the canyon walls tell a different story.

There’s a basic rule in geology: Sedimentary rock layers build up horizontally. So how did the slabs of Big Four Mountain in Western Washington end up with nearly vertical layers, tilted 82 degrees away from their original positions?

Greenschist is a special type of rock that gets its green tint from minerals compressed long ago deep under the ocean. Join Nick as he explores how the entire top of mighty Mount Shuksan is made of this unique green stone.

Over thousands of years, the glaciers of Mount Baker carved away rock to reveal a surprising history: Not just one, but three ancient and distinct volcanoes have lived and died in the volcanic field over the past million years.

The oldest bedrock in all of the North Cascades sits high in the mountains near the Canadian border. Its origin story began over 400 million years ago and an ocean away - in Northern Europe.

Just north of Withrow, Washington, the pancake-flat farms and fields are dotted by massive mysterious basalt boulders. These rocks, picked up and moved by ice sheets in the last Ice Age, help Nick visualize the moraine of a giant bygone glacier.