Why Idaho Is Sitting On The Most Valuable Land In Human History

Why Idaho Is Sitting On The Most Valuable Land In Human History Idaho looks like mountains, farmland, and potatoes. But underneath it is something much bigger. Southern Idaho sits across the ancient track of the Yellowstone hotspot — a mantle plume that burned a line of giant volcanic systems across the state for roughly 16 million years. That volcanic history created the Snake River Plain. The Snake River Plain created one of the most productive aquifers in America. That water helped build Idaho agriculture, trout farming, geothermal heating, and eventually one of the most important nuclear research sites in the world. And in northern Idaho, ancient rocks hold one of the richest silver districts ever discovered. In this video, we break down 25 incredible facts about Idaho’s geography, geology, resources, energy, agriculture, and hidden history. We cover: • The Yellowstone hotspot • The Snake River Plain • Idaho’s ancient supereruptions • Basalt lava fields • The Eastern Snake River Plain Aquifer • Thousand Springs • Idaho trout farming • Boise geothermal heating • Craters of the Moon • The Bonneville Flood • Glacial Lake Missoula • Precambrian rocks in northern Idaho • Coeur d’Alene silver • Idaho star garnets • Idaho potato farming • Snake River irrigation • Water-right conflicts • Hells Canyon • Frank Church Wilderness • Idaho hydropower • Idaho National Laboratory • Experimental Breeder Reactor I • Arco and nuclear power • The SL-1 accident • America’s largest concentration of reactor research One of the strangest facts is that the Snake River Plain is basically the old path of Yellowstone. As North America moved southwest over a relatively stationary mantle plume, massive volcanic centers formed one after another across southern Idaho. The farther west you go, the older the volcanic system becomes. Yellowstone sits at the youngest end of the track today. Then the eruptions covered the plain in basalt. That basalt cooled full of fractures, bubble