Explore the Columbia River Gorge
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: Easily accessible ecozones that range through boreal conifer forests, oak woodlands, high desert grasslands and alpine environments in only 40 miles, 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, Abundant recreation opportunities including hiking, road/mountain biking, windsurfing and kiteboarding, whitewater kayaking and rafting, fishing, hunting, alpine/cross-country skiing and snowshoeing, Numerous award-winning wineries and breweries, restaurants and pubs, shops, galleries, museums, parks, hotels and campgrounds, And all this is lying at the back doorstep of Portland, Oregon. The Gorge is also a geologic wonderland, exposing stories about: The 40 million year history of the Columbia River, The series of massive Columbia River Basalt flows 18-12 million years ago, The rise of the Cascade Mountain Range since about 5 million years ago, The passage of numerous, up to 1000 feet deep Ice Age Floods that reshaped the Gorge 18-14 thousand years ago, Tectonic faulting and folding, landslides, earthquakes, forest fires, and The often intertwined lives and stories of the people who have lived here. 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.
Traveling the Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail
In September 2021 my wife and I took a trip to see what was new along the Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail and visit some places we did not make it to in our very first trip in 2004. The IAFI chapter brochures were very helpful in learning what there was to see in each area. We also remembered a preview of the National Parks Service unigrid map brochure that will come out hopefully later this year, so be sure and get one when it debuts. The other excellent tool was the online interactive map on the Ice Age Floods Institute website (https://iafi.org/floodscapes/), where you can click on a spot and see a photo and description of the site. All are great planning tools. We drove to Missoula, Montana and stayed there a couple of days as we made day trips. Our first one was to Ovando to see a granite glacial erratic that the Glacial Lake Missoula Chapter had etched and placed at the high-water line. You will find it at Trixi’s Antler Saloon which is a nice place to grab a bite for lunch. The chapter has a number of these high water markers placed already and have more planned to show the full extent of Glacial Lake Missoula. Unfortunately, due to the smoke from the wildfires we were not able to go to Hamilton to see the 8-ton granite erratics outside Ravaili Museum with four interpretive signs outside and additional displays inside. We drove up to the Paradise Center in Paradise, Montana. We had been there before in 2016 for the fall IAFI field trip and they were just dreaming of what the old Paradise Elementary School could become. They have done a wonderful job of making that dream come true. It was one of our favorite spots on this trip. They have dedicated an entire room to the Ice Age Floods story where an extremely accurate 3-D map of Glacial Lake Missoula has lights installed so you can push a button to light up the edge of the ice lobe and other features. Besides information about the Ice Age Floods, the Center also has wonderful displays about the trains & train yard that used to be in Paradise and the history of the Paradise Elementary School. We went to the Natural History Museum in Missoula and enjoyed the panels and video which told the Lake Missoula Floods story and also about Joseph Pardee, a very important pioneer in solving the mystery of these Floods. This museum also displays an amazing amount of taxidermy showing the wildlife and birds in the region. On our way up to Sandpoint, Idaho we passed through Eddy Narrows. Glacial Lake Missoula drained through this canyon going 80 mph leaving horizontal marks high up on the walls. Previously these were thought to be glacial striations, but Pardee speculated that these marks were from huge boulders as they shot through the Narrows. The Narrows is long with few places you can pull over on Highway 200, so it can be hard to really appreciate its scope. We got a good view from the Koo-Koo-Sint Bighorn Sheep Viewing Interpretive Site which has several interpretive signs that talk about the sheep and the geology of the Clark Fork River Valley. We then went over to Farragut State Park at the southern tip of Lake Pend Oreille to view the beginning of the outburst plain that formed the Rathdrum/Spokane Valley aquifer. Across Lake Pend Oreille is Green Monarch Ridge; the terminus of the Purcell Trench which held the 4,000 ft. ice dam that carved the steep walls. The display at the museum has several interpretive panels. The next day we met Consuelo Larrabee who gave us a personal tour of the 40,000 square foot Ice Age Floods Playground in Riverfront Park in Spokane, Washington. She and Melanie Bell, the president of the Cheney-Spokane chapter, did an enormous amount of work as consultants on this fabulous, themed park. Kids can learn as they play on the three-story Columbian slide tower, Glacial Dam splash pad, log jam climber, an alluvial deposit fossil dig, and more. The park was filled with kids and the adults were enjoying it as much as the kids. We loved watching the excitement of a child as she saw the splash pad water fountains simulate the ice dam starting to rupture and then the cascade of water flooding over the manmade basalt rocks. Along the side of the building are actual basalt columns and the fossil dig led to many exciting discoveries by the children as they dug through the sand to reveal embedded replicas of fossils. Throughout the park are thoughtfully placed benches for people to sit and watch the fun going on around them. There are nine interpretive panels throughout the park adding a wonderful educational benefit to all the fun. This park will be quite a prize for years to come. The next day we drove along Highway 262 to W. McManamon Road to the Drumheller Channels National Natural Landmark. This outlet from the Quincy Basin, with floodwaters going 65 mph eroded not just the topsoil but the underlying basalt which created dramatic channels, basins, potholes and buttes. The viewpoints along the drive had several interpretive panels talking about these wonderful vistas. Since we live in Portland and this trip was to see places we had not recently seen, we skipped over the many wonderful places in the Columbia River Gorge, Willamette Valley & Tualatin. But for your trip, please check out the hundreds of beautiful and interesting sites to see in this region. The last stop for this trip was Cape Disappointment. The Floods debris flushing out the mouth of the Columbia River added substantially to submarine Astoria Fan and sediment cores have shown that ocean currents carried some of this debris all the way down to Cape Mendocino, California. Although not visible from the surface, the Park display has a relief map that shows the Astoria Canyon
Riverfront Park IAF Playground – Information Panels Installed
Permanent information panels have been installed in the Ice Age Floods Playground in Spokane’s Riverfront Park. The panels briefly describe: Fire: Basalt & Columnar Basalt Ice: Cordilleran Ice Sheet Water: Missoula Floods Rhythmites & Varves Erratics & Granite Giant Current Dunes Animals: Columbian Mammoths Animal Fossils The panels have a heavy duty permanent covering, impervious to weather & wanton destruction. They will add greatly to the experience of this special and very popular space. The Ice Age Floods Playground is a spectacular addition to Spokane’s Riverfront Park that is well worth a visit for kids and adults alike.
Initial Member Survey Results
Earlier this year we sent out our first IAFI member survey. A big THANK YOU to the 154 members who responded, an outstanding 30% response rate. You’re helping us see what we’re doing right, understand where we can improve, and where we should direct our efforts. Most of the responses affirm that we are doing a lot of things right at the national and chapter level to fulfill our Mission, “IAFI is committed to being a recognized advocate, educator, and marketer of the Ice Age floods experience as a significant international, natural and cultural heritage phenomenon.” We appreciate your confidence in our efforts and the fresh ideas you offered that are helping us think outside the box. We are particularly pleased at your enthusiasm for our public lectures, field trips, website content, our brochures and our newsletter. Though there was strong support for our chapter lectures, both in-person and Zoom, and for the recordings to be posted to YouTube for later viewing (22 new subscribers, 1,440 total views with nearly 400 viewing hours just last month alone), we are somewhat concerned to find that several members are not familiar with our YouTube channel, nor with our online IAFI Store. Direct links to these features can be readily found in the upper right area of our homepage at IAFI.org. Our IAFI YouTube playlists include links to a large and growing number of chapter presentations, geology lectures, and other Floods-related video recordings. Our online IAFI Store offers a number of Floods-related items, including books, maps, our very popular chapter brochures, clothing, prints, posters and more. As each chapter reviews their specific survey results and comments, you may see some changes and tweaking of the programs within your chapter. There were also suggestions for larger projects which will require action from the board and/or multiple chapters. These suggestions will be reviewed, discussed and prioritized at the IAFI board meeting in May. We will then present our plans for these ideas in the July Pleistocene Post, and will be looking for help from our members to bring them to fruition.
Puget Lobe Chapter Field Trips
The Puget Lobe Chapter sponsored field trips enable IAFI members and the public to join in these educational opportunities. The Puget Sound area is remarkable for Cordilleran Continental Ice Sheets that issued forth from British Columbia and abrading and deforming the area between the Cascades and Olympic Mountains from the area to the Pacific Ocean “north” of the Olympics and there called the Juan de Fuca Lobe. “North” is a relative term, as the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) was a condition of the ice sheet size at any given time. For example, the Double Bluff Glaciation LGM (190 Kya – 130Kya {T2*}) extended to ≅Tenino, while the Puyallup Glaciation (80-59Kya) LGM only extended ≅ Bremerton. The Fraser Glaciation (30Kya – 15Kya {T1 at 11Kya}) LGM terminated just below Olympia. We also had Alpine Glaciation in the Cascade and Olympic Mountains. For example, prior to the Fraser ice sheet flowing into the Puget trough, the alpine glaciers had advanced and receded from the same area (LGM 22Kya). (Note: T2 and T1 are Termination Points) The Puget Sound area was isolated by the Cascades Range from the large number of ice sheet lobes found in Eastern Washington, Idaho, and Montana, Similarly, we were isolated from the Missoula Floods and the effects of those floods which rampaged down the Columbia River and turned west at Longview – a mere 20-30 miles south of the Puget Lobe LGM. Yes, all the ice lobes in our area were called “Puget Lobe” except where the Puget Lobe couldn’t get past the Olympics. Forced to take a westerly turn towards the Pacific Ocean, that was called the Juan de Fuca Lobe. The first of our four Spring Field Trips: 1. Building Stone of Seattle, (Completed) 2. Ice Age geology of the Snoqualmie Valley, (full not accepting participants) 3. June 1-3: Frenchman Springs Coulee and the Ice Age Floods This trip is completed 4. June 30: The Advance and Retreat of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet Revealed at Discovery Park This trip is completed
What Did You Do for Geologist’s Day?
Geologists Day, a day dedicated to an underappreciated science, takes place on the first Sunday in April every year. Without geologists, we would know nothing about the over 4.5 billion year history of the earth. Geology is a science that studies the materials, natural features, and processes found on earth, as well as the history of all life that’s ever lived. Geologists around the world have made an enormous contribution to our way of life by discovering and developing our natural resources of minerals, hydrocarbons and water, by understanding the evolution of our planet and our solar system, by defining the evolution of life on Earth, by identifying the risks associated with natural hazards such as earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions, and by the technological and innovation spin-offs derived from many branches of geoscience such as geophysics and geochemistry. History of Geologists’ Day Geology, or the study of the composition of rocks, soil and other materials, has been around since the times of Ancient Greece. In their pursuit of understanding the world around them, Greek scientists, who wondered how the rocks were formed, began studying fossils and generating theories to go along with their ideas and research. Later, during the Middle Ages, when science was thought to have challenged the Catholic Church, more advances came (albeit sometimes subversively) in the field of geology. During this time, Leonardo da Vinci explored the functions of the human body but also, one of his lesser-known pursuits, is that he became a pioneer in geology. One of da Vinci’s interesting lines of research was related to fossils. He concluded that the fossils he and others had found embedded on mountain tops must have been from animals that swam on an ancient sea bed, though none of them were exactly sure how they could have gotten there. During the 17th-century, scientists began to make important links between certain sedimentary deposits in the oceans and the strata observable in rock formations. Much of the explanation as to how that happened, however, continued to remain a mystery until James Hutton and William ‘Strata’ Smith came along. These two well-known geologists helped find the explanation of the earth’s long and slow development over the course of thousands of years. Smith was also credited as the creator of the first, geologically detailed, national map of any country in the world. In this case, the country was England and he has since become known as the ‘Father of English Geology’. Geologists’ Day, itself, was actually the idea of a group of well-known Soviet geologists who established it in April, 1966. The day was chosen in the spring because it notes the end of winter and is a time that ramps up to the summer season field work when geologists are so active. While it continues to be a favorite day of the Russian Mineralogical Society, the day eventually made its way beyond the former Soviet Union and began to be celebrated by geologists, geophysicists and geochemists in various places in Europe, the United States and other countries around the world. How to Celebrate Geologists’ Day Held on the first Sunday in April, the celebration of Geologists’ Day can be fun for professional rock lovers and hobbyists alike! This day strives to help further the study of how the earth came to be. Geologists’ Day is all about learning the history of the earth, the geologists who studied the earth, and helping to inspire people out there to study geology. Learn More About Geology Give a nod to Geologists’ Day by learning a bit about what the discipline of geology is and how it works. Digging in rocks, observing maps, and studying how they all came to be is what a geologist’s job is all about. Make use of these online resources to learn more about geology: Ice Age Floods Institute website The Geological Society of America Society of Economic Geologists International Association for Promoting Geoethics Those who are even more interested might take the time to join a few online classes to further their studies. Take a look into the history of geologists, what they believed about the earth at the time they lived. If it turns out there’s an inner rock-lover in there, just waiting to get out, why not go for a degree while you’re at it?! Show Appreciation to a Geologist Geologists’ Day aims to show appreciation for the geologists that continue to study rocks and all their formations. In fact, this is the perfect day to gather with some friends or family to thank some of those favorite geologists, or even just a science teacher, who may have made a difference in the understanding of the world we live in. Listen to a Geology Themed Playlist Hop onto Spotify or another favorite music hosting site and enjoy these songs that are reminiscent of the study of the earth, rocks, landslides and all the beautiful things that go along with geology: We Will Rock You (1977) Queen The Geologists are Coming! (2017) The Amoeba People Landslide (1975) Fleetwood Mac The Petroleum Age (2011) Philip Gibbs Geology Rocks (2017) Los Beekeepers Uranium Rock (1973) Warren Smith Sweet Geology (aka The Mineral Song) (2007) The Akkademiks Share Geology Day with Friends Show appreciation for the studies of geologists by sharing this holiday with friends and family. Go big by throwing a geology party, or keep it small by simply gifting friends or coworkers with a small stone or rock as a token of the day. Whatever method is chosen, just the acknowledgment of this day is a step in the right direction toward appreciating the earth and its scientists! (credit https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/geologists-day/)
First Americans Toxic Debate Hobbled Archaeology for Decades
Bluefish Caves directly challenged mainstream scientific thinking. Evidence had long suggested that humans first reached the Americas around 13,000 years ago, when Asian hunters crossed a now submerged landmass known as Beringia, which joined Siberia to Alaska and Yukon during the last ice age. From there, the migrants seemed to have hurried southward along the edges of melting ice sheets to warmer lands in what is now the United States, where they and their descendants thrived. Researchers called these southern hunters the Clovis people, after a distinctive type of spear point they carried. And the story of their arrival in the New World became known as the Clovis first model. Jacques Cinq-Mars, however, didn’t buy that story—not a bit.
Earth Appears to Have a 27.5-Million-Year ‘Heartbeat’
Geologists have been investigating a potential cycle in geological events for a long time. A recent analysis on the ages of 89 well-understood geological events from the past 260 million years show a catastrophic 27.5 million year pulse in eight clusters of world-changing geologic events over geologically small timespans. This pulse of clustered geological events – including volcanic activity, mass extinctions, plate reorganizations, and sea level rises – is incredibly slow, a 27.5-million-year cycle of catastrophic ebbs and flows. As you can see from the graph, some of those times were tough – with over eight of such world-changing events clustering together over geologically small timespans, forming the catastrophic ‘pulse’. “These events include times of marine and non-marine extinctions, major ocean-anoxic events, continental flood-basalt eruptions, sea-level fluctuations, global pulses of intraplate magmatism, and times of changes in seafloor-spreading rates and plate reorganizations,” the team writes in their paper. These cyclic pulses of tectonics and climate change may be the result of geophysical processes related to the dynamics of plate tectonics and mantle plumes, or might alternatively be paced by astronomical cycles associated with the Earth’s motions in the Solar System and the Galaxy. Luckily for us, the research suggests we have another 20 million years before the next ‘pulse’.
First Peoples Ice-Free Corridor Migration to Americas Reexamined
Analysis of how long erratics have been exposed on ice-free ground in the hypothesized “Late Pleistocene ice-free corridor migration route” suggests that route was not fully open until about 13,800 years ago, and the ice sheets “may have been 1,500 to 3,000 feet (455 to 910 m) high in the area where they covered the ice-free corridor,” according to study lead author Jorie Clark, a geologist and archaeologist at Oregon State University. Clark said, “we now have robust evidence that the ice-free corridor was not open and available for the [Late Pleistocene] first peopling of the Americas.” If evidence of humans in the Americas prior to the 30,000 years ago is ultimately found, that evidence does not preclude the possibility of ice-free corridor migration before closure of the corridor.
Humans in the Beringia Yukon ~24,000 Years Ago
Archaeologists have long debated how and when people entered the Americas. Throughout the 20th century, the mainstream hypothesis was that the Clovis people were the first to pass into Alaska about 13,000 years ago. Stemming from his excavations between 1977 and 1987 at the Bluefish Caves in northwestern Yukon, Jacques Cinq-Mars, a Canadian archaeologist, unearthed evidence that hunters were using the site some 24,000 years ago. Lauriane Bourgeon, a French archaeologist, has spent much of her career re-examining and dating the Bluefish Caves collection to clarify the history of the contentious site. Her research has shown that at least 15 bones from the Bluefish Caves were cut-marked by people as early as 23,500 years ago.