Hi. You wanna learn a cool thing? Okay, so, this is the site of North America’s
largest failure. And I’m not talking about, like, politics
or society or culture here — I am literally talking about the land that is now North America,
and it’s literal largest failure. At least, as I define it. Because at this spot on Lake Superior, about
a billion years ago, the continent that’s now North America tried to do something that
other continents have been doing successfully for millions of years: It tried to rip apart. And it failed. So, that means a couple of things: First of
all, there could have been an ocean in the middle of North America. And also, as I learned this summer, there
are some pretty amazing stories here. So, this is my adventure to the site of North
America’s largest failure. It starts with 20 million years of lava, and
it ends… by visiting an abandoned mine. Let’s go learn some stuff. [music] My husband and I celebrated our first wedding
anniversary this year, um, and to celebrate, we wanted to take some kind of trip that would
be safe in the midst of this… y’know, all of this. So, we decided to visit a little town in the
very, very northwest corner of Michigan called Ontonagon. Ontonogan is primarily home to a really lovely
state park called Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park. Which, really, is highly worth a visit. So, visiting that was our main motivation
for going there. Except, I decided to look up the geology of
the area just for funsies before our trip, and now, I’m /slightly/ obsessed. Because it turns out, the western part of
Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is built on ths 1.1-billion year old rock, and it’s at the
center point of this /amazing/ event called the Midcontinent Rift. AKA that time what’s now North America tried
and failed to split in half. But instead of just explaining what the Rift
is, I, uh, I want to show you what I found. Hi. This is my giant piece of basalt. It is… It is larger than my head. That is very big. Basalt is just a kind of rock, and Lake Superior
is /full/ of it. Like, if you wander out into the water and
pick up a giant handful of rocks, I’m willing to bet you, like, a dollar that at least one
of those rocks will be basalt. And that’s actually really important. Because, check this out: Okay, so, you see these ripples in the rock? They almost look like the pattern that, like,
waves would leave on the sand? I can’t say for sure, and I don’t know
if there /is/ a way to tell for sure. But my educated guess is that these layers
are remnants of /flowing lava/. Yeah. Basalt just forms when lava cools and hardens. And if Lake Superior is full of this stuff
— and it is, and so is the surrounding area — you know what that means? There was some serious volcanic drama here. And that was the Midcontinent Rift. The rift started forming about 1.1 billion
years ago, so just… wind the clock way back. Back then, what’s now central North America
was a landmass called Laurentia. And it was connected to /another/ landmass
called Amazonia, which today is mostly Brazil. But eventually, Amazonia started pulling away. And when it did, that created a huge amount
of stress on Laurentia — so much that the lad started breaking apart. And when it did, a /stupid/ amount of magma
came rushing to the surface, leading to roughly 15 to 20 million years of lava and eruptions
in what’s now the American Midwest. Yeah, you see how nice and lovely and peaceful
this lake can look? Well, a billion years ago, it was lava city
around here. Like, geologists have found more than 200
separate lava flows on the Keweenaw Peninsula alone. So, when I went into Lake Superior and found
this piece of basalt — along with a bunch of others — I was pulling out 1.1-billion-year-old
lava rock from a time where everything was basically fire. Now, if you’re wondering why the rift stopped,
and why there’s not, like, properly an ocean in the middle of North America, it’s a very
good question. Most geologists as of right now think that
when Amazonia properly tore off and broke away, that relieved the pressure on Laurentia,
and the rifting stopped. But for the record, the magma did keep going
for quite a long time after that. So, just… basalt everywhere. Now, okay, here’s the thing. I’ll be honest with you. If all the Midcontinent Rift had left behind
was a bunch of, like, nice, dark rock… I mean, that would’ve been cool. The story still would’ve been interesting…
but it, like, maybe wouldn’t have been something to just make a video about, yeah? Well, my friends, the plot thickens. Because not only did the Midcontinent Rift
leave behind a bunch of basalt. It is also the reason that Lake Superior — this
giant, deep, cold body of water… It is the reason that Lake Superior exists
as it does. The lake! It was basically formed by lava! I am just so genuinely delighted about this. It’s just so interesting. See, here’s the thing: Basalt… Basalt is pretty dense and pretty heavy. And all the volcanic activity during the rifting
put down, like, layers of this stuff. Like, there are spots in Lake Superior with
layers of basalt 10 to 30 miles thick. /Miles/. So, over time, under all that weight, the
land sunk. And it formed a shallow basin. And then, fast forward millions and millions
of years, when glaciers came along during the last ice Age, they scooped out that basin, made it even
deeper, and formed what we now know as Lake Superior. Lake Superior is a major shipping route these
days, which… I actually learned while researching this
video, so… my bad. Turns out, it’s /very/ important for shipping. But also, it’s just a very good body of
water, and highly worth a visit if you ever get a chance, really. So, it just blows my mind that the reason
that lake exists as it does, and the reason that lake is so big and so deep, is just…
a bunch of lava. A bunch of fire. But. Okay. There is one more thing. Turns out, the Midcontinent Rift is also responsible
for something Michigan used to be /extremely/ famous for: copper. And this is where the abandoned mine comes
in! These days, most copper in the United States
is generally mined in the west part of the country. But actually, from the 1840s to the early
1900s, Michigan was a /huge/ copper state. Like, the Gold Rush was fine and important
and everything, but the first big mining rush in the
United States was people coming to Michigan for copper. And like, for good reason! Apparently, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan
is home to the largest collection of native copper deposits in the world — native copper
being copper that isn’t mixed with a bunch of other elements, so is a lot easier to process. And actually, what’s way cooler to me in
terms of like, human history plus copper, is that from what we can tell, Indigenous
peoples started mining copper in this area 7000 years ago. I actually didn’t realize how long ago that
was, so I looked up a couple of things for context, and I realized: Paper was invented 2000 year ago. And what we traditionally consider the start
of written history started 4600 years ago. And all of those thousands and thousands of
years of mining were brought to you by… a giant rift a billion years ago. At this point in the game, I just feel like
I need like, uh… a failed rift champions t-shirt or something. Now, it turns out that, um, figuring out exactly
how the Midcontinent Rift led to copper in Michigan is kind of a project. But hey. Many papers later, I think I figured out the
basics. The basic idea — and disclaimer: not all
geologists are 100% on board with this. But the basic idea is that the copper got
there thanks to hot water rising up through the rocks. And the hot water contained copper. So when the water ended up moving into the
rocks above it, it cooled and reacted with those rocks and the groundwater, and it dumped its shiny penny minerals in
all sorts of cracks and gas bubble holes and fissures. Admittedly, when I read that, that still didn't
really answer my question. That just gave me, like, new questions. Like, where did the water come from? And why did the water have copper in it? And it turns out, if you want to get any more
specific than that, things get… a little bit messy. But, I did find a paper from 2017 — so,
only three years ago — that was actually very helpful. According to this paper, the most widely-accepted
hypothesis is that the copper ultimately came from the magma from the Midcontinent Rift. The magma contained copper from deep within
the Earth, so when the magma erupted and the lava cooled, the copper just kinda got baked
into the rocks. And then, the hot water came along — possibly
from an aquifer — the hot water leeched the copper out from that volcanic rock and
dropped it in higher concentrations elsewhere. So… you wanna see the inside of one of those
mines? Because, they’re not that much to look at
— I will say this up front. But we did visit several abandoned, 1800s
copper mines. The first one was… I’ll be honest, it a little bit of a dud,
because just about everything was caved in. The trail! The trial was lovely, though. It’s called Union Mine trail, and the route
includes a bunch of journal entries from William Spalding, who was a guy who worked in the
Union Mine. My personal favorite of his work was from
May 3, 1846: “Sunday, done nothing but eat maple sugar.” Because same, dude, same. At the very last minute, though, we did find
a mine called Carp Lake Mine, or Mead Mine depending on where you look. It’s actually tucked away on the side of
the road, and it’s across the street from a very cute park and a really very lovely
cliff overlooking Lake Superior. It actually took us, like, half an hour to
get to the mine just because this cliff was very nice. But when we eventually got there, but the
big thing is: You can actually see inside the mine. These days, most of the mine is closed, and
it’s actually used for bat research, which is cute. But if you grab a flashlight and peek around,
you can see the adit — that’s the horizontal entrance there. You can see the adit that miners blasted out
in the 1800s. I mean, it took some imagination and everything,
but it was cool to think about the people who went into that dark, chilly, damp mine
day after day to just pull copper out of the ground. And there’s actually a mine near Ontonagon
you can tour properly, so… That’s now item number two on my exactly
two-item bucket list. And, uh, if I ever go back, I don’t know. Maybe I’ll buy a GoPro or something. That… that seems fun. Overall, though. Where does that leave us? Well, about a billion years ago, what’s
now North America tried to rip in half, and… it didn’t work. But along the way, there were stil 15 to 20
million years of lava and eruptions, and now, there’s a giant beautiful lake and a once-thriving
copper industry. I mean, I know I called the Midcontinent Rift
“North America’s Largest Failure,” and I do stand by that bit. But I dunno, there’s also the hopefulness
in me that’s just like, yes, it was a failure. It didn’t work. But look at all the beautiful things that
came out of it. I mean, good things come from unexpected places. Are our lives not all Midcontinent Rifts? Yep. I have the hiccups now. In the end, though, I loved getting to visit
Ontonagon. We had a great time, I loved learning about
this, and I hope you enjoyed learning with me. If you liked this video and thought it was
worth your time, would you consider sharing it on social media or maybe sending it to
a friend or two? This was a really big, fun project for me,
and I’m trying to get a sense if these sort of travel plus science, story of a place videos
are interesting to anyone else. So, thanks a ton for considering that. And if there are any places you think I should
go next — especially if they’re in Michigan, because you know, pandemic — let me know
in the comments. For now, though, thanks a ton for watching. I hope you learned something cool, and I’ll
see you next time. I have had the hiccups for the last third
of this video. What did I do to deserve this?
