Cheney at the Head of Channeled Scablands

In this overview, learn about the history of the Channeled Scablands. We look back to around 20,000 years ago at the end of the last glacial maximum and at the formation of two huge, glacially dammed, meltwater glacial lakes—Missoula and Columbia. We explore the subsequent failures of the Lake Missoula ice dam, which resulted in a series of megafloods that occurred between 18,000 and 14,000 years ago. Then, we discuss the geologic and hydrologic factors that control lake formations from the Medical Lake area to Fish Lake. 

Presented by Dr. Linda McCollum, professor emeritus of geosciences at EWU and of the Ice Age Floods Institute