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IAFI's 2024 June Jamboree Is June 6-8 Register Now
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The Spokane area is key to unraveling mysteries of the Missoula Floods. Discover evidence hidden in flood rhythmites within ancient glacial Lake Columbia sediments that unlock insights into the multiple colossal Ice Age Floods that reshaped our landscape. Explore the connection between the Spokane area and the Channeled Scablands. This is a chance to stand where Bretz stood and witness firsthand the landscape that sparked his scientific revolution. See for yourself evidence that forever changed our understanding of the Earth's history.
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IAFI's June Jamboree Annual Membership Meeting, hosted June 6-8 by the Cheney-Spokane Chapter in Spokane, WA, is less than 2 months away. It will feature interesting presentations, field trips, hikes, a membership dinner, and a great chance to connect and explore with old and new friends. This is your chance to delve deeper!
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But space is limited and registration closes on May 15, so time is running out.
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Max Vuletich, a first grader at Jefferson Elementary in Spokane, Washington, prepared a display and shared the Floods story to many attendees at a STEM Event in March 2024.
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Max became interested in the Great Missoula Floods when he saw a Public Television video in Kindergarten. He went to a Library and began reading about The Floods and googling topics. His mother, Mariah, reported that he loves the Floods story and continues to be passionate about learning all he can.
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Perhaps he is destined to be a geologist!
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TRAVEL SEASON is Here! Time to begin planning your next Ice Age Floods Exploration
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In this newsletter we hope to give you some ideas and inspiration for planning where to go and what to see while exploring Ice Age Floods features this year!
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Wenatchee, Washington is often called the “Apple Capital of the World” or the “Buckle of the Power Belt of the Pacific Northwest”. Today the Wenatchee vicinity is known for the fruit industry, wineries, power generation, tourism and outdoor recreation. When you visit and look around the Wenatchee Valley, even today, much of the landscape was formed by Ice Age Flooding. Visit the Wenatchee Valley area to explore some of the interesting Ice Age Flood features found there.
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Toward the end of the Pleistocene Ice Ages, 17,000-12,000 years ago, much of the landscape in the Wenatchee area was changed substantially by catastrophic ice-age flooding. These flood(s), almost 1,000 feet deep, initiated out of glacial Lake Missoula in Montana, and some of the largest came through the Wenatchee area along the Columbia River drainage.
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Prior to the Okanogan Ice Lobe blocking the Columbia River valley north of Wenatchee, the early Missoula flood(s) could follow the present day path of the Columbia River around the “Big Bend” area of north-central Washington into the Wenatchee area and further south. Take a drive north of Wenatchee on highways US 97 or US 97A to see evidence of this flooding.
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As the Okanogan Ice Lobe advanced south it eventually blocked the Columbia River drainage north of Wenatchee. The water backed up by that Okanogan Lobe ice dam formed glacial Lake Columbia and forced subsequent ice-age floods to be funneled southward along the east edge of the ice lobe into Moses and Grand Coulees, and farther east through the Channeled Scablands of eastern Washington. When the Okanagan ice eventually retreated, one last flood from glacial Lake Columbia again followed the Columbia drainage through Wenatchee.
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Massive boulders (some 40 feet in diameter) and erratics (rocks foreign to the area) were transported at the base of the flood waters and embedded in huge icebergs floating on the floodwaters. They were deposited along the hillsides throughout the Wenatchee area as the floods waned and the icebergs became stuck and melted. Those erratics prompted our Ice Age Floods Institute chapter name “The Wenatchee Valley Erratics”.
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The two main erratic rock types in this area, granite and gneiss, are much different from the Eocene Chumstick Sandstone bedrock. The gneiss erratics transported a relatively short distance from outcrops just north of Wenatchee are often 10 feet in diameter. The nearest granite outcrops occur some 15 miles upstream in the Entiat area, so the granite erratics tend to be smaller, less than 3 feet in diameter. Some of the best locations to see these erratics are just south of the Old Wenatchee Bridge (first bridge over the Columbia River finished in 1908) along the Apple Capital Loop Trail near Patriot Plumbing & Heating, the Department of Social & Health Services and near the old train at Mission Street Park in south Wenatchee.
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An enormous crescent-pendant Pangborn Bar topped with huge current ripples was deposited in east Wenatchee where the Columbia River drainage takes a right (easterly) turn. The bar elevation is 500 feet above the Columbia River today. On the surface of Pangborn Bar are giant current ripples with crests up to twenty feet tall and ripples spaced some 300 feet apart.
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Travel up Grant Road, 4th Street in East Wenatchee and then out onto Batterman Road northwest of Rock Island to travel across the entire Pangborn Bar from west to east. The giant current ripples are best observed on 2nd or 4th Streets, where these roads go up and over the current ripples east of Nile Avenue in East Wenatchee, Washington.
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Just about a mile northeast of Pangborn Memorial Airport is a very significant archaeological site, the East Wenatchee Clovis Site (Richey Clovis Cache), discovered in 1987 and excavated until the site was closed and covered in 2004. This site lies on top of one of these current ripples. Pristine Clovis spear points as well as other archaeological specimens (about 13,000 years old) were discovered and some are now on display at the Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center in Wenatchee.
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Brent Cunderla, Wenatchee Erratics
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Tualatin, Oregon, lies in its own valley near the head of the Willamette Valley. In the time of the Ice Age floods, about 18,000 years ago, the area was a rich wetland. The gift those floods left behind was a hearty silt containing loess that was picked up from lands in Eastern Washington in the rush of the flood waters. The depositied loess supported abundant plant life that supported the megafauna animals that benefitted from this rich land, including Columbian Mammoths, Mastodons, Giant Sloths, Grey Wolves, the first Horses, Bison and others in the Pleistocene Age. In today’s world, fossil hunting for these extinct animals is a fruitful treasure hunt and celebrated in the Tualatin area.
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Tualatin has helped lead the way in displaying Ice Age fossils at various family friendly sites in the City:
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Charles Hall, Lower Columbia Chapter
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Tualatin Public Library: Enter, and the first thing you see is the Mastodon skeleton displayed high behind the checkout desk framed in an etched glass panel depicting the grassland and the Mastodon’s body. This fossil skeleton was discovered nearby during a site excavation for a large retail store. Further on into the Library are a group of lighted display cabinets for fossils arranged on shelves. The cabinets are arranged side by side in a gentle arc for easy family viewing. 18878 SW Martinazzi, Tualatin, 97062.
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Tualatin Greenway: To the right and behind the Library/City Building is the entrance to the Tualatin Greenway, a trail system along the Tualatin River. It is complete with signage concerning Ice Age Floods. The primary trail is a long winding concrete path with a blue meandering mosaic center strip representing Tualatin’s part of the National Ice Age Trail. It’s a favorite for joggers, cyclists and those who love to walk.
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Tualatin Heritage Center: Here, Columbian Mammoth and Mastodon tusks are featured among other Ice Age fossils. Of special interest are the large granite boulder erratics on display outside, all with explanatory plaques. 8700 SW Sweek Dr., Tualatin, Oregon 97062
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Cabela’s Shopping Center: Return from the Greenway to the front of the shopping center building. See the full-size juvenile Mastodon sculpture being admired by a farm boy holding a spade with which to find a fossil skeleton. At his farm, a molar tooth is a barn doorstop. Read the story on the plaque. Brian Keith is the sculptor. Inside Cabela’s store, see the Cave at the back which shows Ice Age fossils displayed in context.
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Although the Seattle region was not impacted by the large floods from Glacial Lake Missoula, Glacial Lake Columbia, or other glacial lakes east of the Cascades, the Puget Sound region has its own glacial story to tell. It's interesting that J Harlen Bretz, who first imagined that a massive flood produced the Floods features in the Columbia Plateau, also did his PhD on "Glaciation of the Puget Sound Region".
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The Puget Lobe of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet advanced and retreated over the Puget Lowland at least seven times during the Quaternary Ice Age. In the process, it left behind rocks, sediments, and other geologic clues that tell the intriguing story of ice, proglacial lakes, and flooding across the landscape near Seattle.
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Snoqualmie Falls, near North Bend, WA east of Seattle is a popular tourist destination. At the falls, the Snoqualmie River plunges 82m over a wall of volcanic rock. Few tourists, however, understand the role that the Puget Lobe of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet played in the formation of the falls.
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Prior to glaciation, Snoqualmie Falls did not exist, instead, the river flowed in an incised channel east of the current falls. As the Puget lobe advanced into the Puget Lowland about 18,700 years ago, the glacier’s eastern margin blocked drainage from rivers flowing out of the Cascades, including the Snoqualmie River. A large glacial lake known as Glacial Lake Snoqualmie formed over North Bend and over the Snoqualmie Valley. Tokul Creek, one of the tributaries, formed a thick underwater delta in the lake as its sediments poured into Glacial Lake Snoqualmie.
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When the Puget Lobe retreated, Glacial Lake Snoqualmie drained to the west and the Snoqualmie river attempted to follow its original channel. However, the original course of the river was blocked by the delta deposits from Tokul Creek and the river was forced to flow over a narrow band of rocks from an eroded volcano further to the south.
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Snoqualmie Falls flows over this volcanic rock today, but since the last glacial maximum, cataract recession has rapidly eroded the rocks back to a 200m wide band of andesite and volcanic breccia. Behind the thin volcanics is a thick layer of soft alluvium. At the current rate of recession, the Snoqualmie River will erode through the volcanic rock in about 7,200 years. When that happens, the river will hit the alluvium and the falls will quickly devolve into a series of rapids. You might want to hurry to see the falls before they disappear!
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Other glacial lakes were formed at the southern margin of the Puget Lobe near modern day Seattle. As the Puget Lobe advanced south, it dammed rivers and streams that were flowing north. In places, the bluffs surrounding modern Puget Sound hold a record of the advancing glacier and the pro-glacial lakes backed up by the ice front. One good place to view these sediments is from the beach at Discovery Park in Seattle.
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A layer cake of sedimentary units records the pre-glacial river system, the advance of the ice, the damming of the proglacial lakes, and the retreat of the ice sheet to the north.
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At the base of the cliffs the Olympia Formation records the pre-glacial environment of north-flowing rivers and streams. The Lawton Clay layer indicates the formation of proglacial lakes. The Esperance sand represents a period of glacial retreat.
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The glacier that repeatedly covered the Puget Lowland left behind multiple geologic clues for us to interpret. The Puget Lobe of IAFI welcomes members from other chapters to join us as we explore the glacial history of the Puget Lowland.
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Article by Dale Lehman - Puget Lobe Chapter President
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Palouse Falls is visited by thousands each year. The number has increased markedly since it became the official state waterfall of Washington in 2014. Since then, I have listened to people at the park who admit that it is their first visit and are glad they took the time to do it.
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Most visitors come during the spring runoff when the waterflow is the highest. If that has been your only experience, I invite you to some alternative options.
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Consider winter after two weeks of sub-freezing weather. The spray from the falls freezes on the surrounding basalt creating an icy wonderland. The longer the cold snap, the bigger the dome of ice builds at the base of the falls.
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Arrive in the dark before the sun comes up and enjoy the first rays of daylight. Or stay until the sun sets and darkness once again envelopes the falls.
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If you want another interesting day, arrive in the dark and stay all day until the sun sets. Try to do this on a sunny day and experience the shadows as they move across the falls and sometime in the afternoon you will see a rainbow in the spray.
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I was recently visiting with my primary physician who reminisced about his time visiting the falls with his father. He said it was almost a spiritual experience which was also expressed by the Palouse Indians who lived in the area. You may have the same feeling, especially when the crowds are much smaller in the off-season and early and late hours.
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Lloyd Stoess, Palouse Falls Chapter President
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The Columbia River Gorge is an incredibly popular area to visit, and that’s for good reason, the setting is uniquely spectacular. The Gorge encompasses:
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- Dazzling viewpoints and scenery, including beautiful waterfalls that cascade over the high basalt ramparts that bound the relatively narrow Gorge and the majestic Columbia River running through it,
- Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Hood, imposing snow-covered stratovolcanoes lying less than 40 miles north and south of the Gorge,
- Picturesque small towns that are bounded by extensive federally- and state-protected natural areas throughout the length of the Gorge,
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- Abundant recreation opportunities including hiking, road/mountain biking, windsurfing and kiteboarding, whitewater kayaking and rafting, fishing, hunting, alpine/cross-country skiing and snowshoeing,
- Easily accessible ecozones that range through boreal conifer forests, oak woodlands, high desert grasslands and alpine environments in only 40 miles,
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- Numerous award-winning wineries and breweries, restaurants and pubs, shops, galleries, museums, parks, hotels and campgrounds,
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The Gorge is also a geologic wonderland, exposing:
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- 40+ million years the Columbia River has been here,
- Massive Columbia River Basalt flows from 17-12 million years ago,
- Cascade Mountain Range building since about 5 million years ago,
- Numerous Ice Age Floods, up to 1000 feet deep, that reshaped the Gorge 18-14 thousand years ago,
- Tectonic faulting and folding, landslides, earthquakes, forest fires,
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- The often intertwined lives and stories of the people who have lived here for 1000s of years
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And all this is lying at the back doorstep of Portland, Oregon. Of course, with all this bounty the area is also a robust tourist mecca, which can mean limited accommodations for summer crowds. Most attractions are easy to drive to, but bus tours and river cruises are also available. Due to the popularity, some of the iconic attractions now seasonally restrict vehicle access and require permits.
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Lloyd DeKay, Columbia Gorge Chapter
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Moses Coulee, a Washington state wonder, has puzzled geologists for over a century. This massive canyon, carved into solid basalt, stands as a testament to some powerful force. The culprit? The Ice Age Floods, a series of catastrophic deluges that reshaped the landscape. If you’ve ever visited, or even just passed through Moses Coulee, you may not have been aware that this awe-inspiring coulee has been an Ice Age Floods conundrum since the time geologist J Harlen Bretz first noted it in 1922.
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The problem? Moses Coulee doesn't quite fit the picture. As Bretz described it, “The head of Moses Coulee is just north of Grimes Lake. It is an abrupt termination, walled by 100 foot cliffs, identical with the features of channeled scabland which are called abandoned cataracts.” The head of the coulee ends abruptly, lacking any clear connection to the known flood paths.
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Theorists proposed a missing link, a path obliterated by the Okanagan Ice Lobe, but no evidence of such a grand passage has ever been found. The mystery has persisted and become more enigmatic as Ice Age Floods research has flourished over the years: what colossal force carved this immense coulee?
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Lloyd DeKay, Columbia Gorge Chapter
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A new study by Gombiner and Lesemann (Geology, 2024) offers a radical new hypothesis. They propose a surprising source for flood waters: meltwater trapped beneath the massive Okanagan Ice Lobe glacier.
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Imagine the giant Okanagan ice sheet pressing down on the Waterville Plateau. Meltwater pooled in valleys beneath the ice, trapped and pressurized. This water, according to the theory, found a surprising escape route. Flowing through a network of hidden channels, it carved its way across intervening ridges and valleys, eventually funneling into Moses Coulee.
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This "tunnel channel network," as the researchers describe it, explains the unusual path of the water. The channels themselves, carved in basalt, climb slopes and defy normal drainage patterns. These features, along with glacial landforms like eskers, suggest a watery escape route beneath the ice sheet.
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The study doesn't rule out the role of traditional Ice Age Floods. Water from massive glacial lakes might have also contributed to Moses Coulee's formation by flowing along the eastern edge of the glacier.
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This new hypothesis could be a game-changer. It suggests a hidden world of pressurized meltwater sculpting the landscape beneath the ice. While the debate continues, one thing is certain: Moses Coulee remains a captivating enigma, a place where the power of water and ice continues to unfold its secrets.
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In my “Tales from the Trail” I usually highlight a place important to our story. This time, I would like to highlight someone important to our story. On December 31st of 2023, Dan Foster, long-time Superintendent of Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area, and Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail retired after over four decades of public service. While he worked on many efforts over the years with multiple state and federal natural resources programs, Dan’s time supporting Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail is something we should all be grateful for.
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Since 1992, Dan has worked for the National Park Service in various resource management positions, including Superintendent at Niobrara National Scenic River. In 2013, he became the Superintendent of both Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area and Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail. In 2014, Dan’s leadership led to the development of the Trail’s Foundation Statement, which is still instrumental today in directing the focus and daily activities of the Trail. It solidified the notion of this public-private partnership we all call Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail today.
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Justin Radford is Program Manager for the Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail and Acting Park Manager for Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area
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Working in collaboration with partners across four states, Dan also led the development of the 2016 Long Range Interpretive Plan and, the following year, the Trail’s first Junior Ranger book. Dan was instrumental in influencing the City of Tualatin to develop an Ice Age Floods theme for many city attractions, including city parks, hiking trails, the library, and local businesses.
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Dan’s commitment to securing additional resources for the Trail led directly to the National Park Service creating the Program Manager position which I am grateful to occupy today. For over a decade of his career, Dan led the Nation’s only National Geologic Trail. It’s not easy being the first, and Dan’s years of experience and leadership have given our Nation Trail a solid foundation to build upon.
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Dan still lives in Grand Coulee, Washington, right on the Trail in the middle of Grand Coulee, and you just might see him paddling away out there on Banks Lake. Dan, we are truly grateful for everything you have done for the Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail!
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Interesting articles and answers to questions about things related to the Ice Age Floods
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Use our online form to submit an article or question to our Question Corner page
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New analysis of a 14,000-year-old woolly mammoth tusk has pieced together the life of a female mammoth that likely died at the hands of hunters close to Alaska's oldest archaeological site.
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Mammoths are watched by ancient Indigenous people from dunes near the Swan Point archaeological site (Art work by Julius Csotonyi)
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Scientists have retraced the journey of a female woolly mammoth from her birthplace in present-day Canada to eastern central Alaska, where she met her end around 14,000 years ago at the hands of hunter-gatherers.
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The mammoth, whose name Élmayuujey'eh translates to "hella lookin" in the aboriginal Kaska language, was likely killed by early Beringian hunter-gatherers when she was 20 years old. Her existence is known thanks to a complete tusk discovered at Swan Point, one of the oldest archaeological sites in the Americas.
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Élmayuujey'eh, or Elma for short, was born toward the end of the last ice age in what is now the Canadian province of the Yukon, where she likely stayed for the first decade of her life. A new analysis of the mammoth's tusk suggests she then set off across the frozen landscape, covering roughly 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) in under three years.
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"That's a huge amount of movement for a single mammoth," study co-author Hendrik Poinar, a professor of anthropology at McMaster University in Canada and the director of the McMaster Ancient DNA Center, said in a video released by the university. Elma trekked all the way into Alaska and eventually slowed down, Poinar said.
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Her remains indicate she was closely related to both a juvenile and a newborn woolly mammoth whose bones were also unearthed at Swan Point. The trio may have belonged to one of two matriarchal herds that roamed an area within 6.2 miles (10 km) of Swan Point.
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The researchers analyzed ancient DNA in Elma's tusk and compared it with the remains of eight other woolly mammoths found in and around Swan Point, including the two youngsters. Their results revealed the mammoths belonged to at least two distinct herds that may have gathered in the region along with other mammoth herds — a congregation that would have attracted humans.
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"Indigenous hunters clearly saw that the mammoths were using this as a really important location for feeding," Poinar said in the video. "The data to me suggest that these were Indigenous people that appreciated, looked at, loved these phenomenal beasts walking on this landscape. But it would make sense too, that in times of need, that you would kill them — a mammoth like that could provide food for a huge number of people over a long period of time."
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Elma's remains indicate she was in the prime of early adulthood and well nourished at the time of her death. She likely died in late summer or early autumn, which coincides with when humans would have set up their seasonal hunting camp at Swan Point and suggests she died at the hands of hunters, according to the study.
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Very little is known about the geographic movements and behaviors of woolly mammoths — or about how these animals interacted with early Americans — but stories like Elma's can paint us a picture.
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"This analysis of lifetime movements can really help with our understanding of how people and mammoths lived in these areas," co-author Tyler Murchie, a postdoctoral researcher and former member of the MacMaster Ancient DNA Center, said in a statement. "We can continue to significantly expand our genetic understanding of the past, and to address more nuanced questions of how mammoths moved, how they were related to one another and how that all connects to ancient people."
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Ice Age Floods Institute (IAFI) is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, non-profit educational organization (EIN 91-1658221), founded in 1995 and recognized as an official authority on the Ice Age Floods, providing accurate, scientific-based advice to members and the public. We were instrumental in 2009 Federal legislation authorizing National Park Service designation of the Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail (IAFNGT).
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