Meeting

Name: Puget Lobe Lecture: Jeff Tepper on the Initiation of the Cascade Arc
Start: 2025-11-17T19:00:00-08:00
End: 2025-11-17T20:30:00-08:00
Location: Bellevue College Building T Room 127

July 2025
July 26 @ 9:00 am - 3:00 pm PDT

Ice Age FloodFest 2025

Dry Falls Visitor Center 35661 HWY 17 North, Coulee City, WA, United States

Get ready for the Ice Age Floodfest 2025, an unparalleled celebration of the cataclysmic events that carved out the Pacific Northwest's iconic channeled scablands! Dive deep into the geological story that spans millennia and reshaped the very landscape beneath our feet. From towering coulees to vast dry falls, the evidence of these ancient, colossal floods is everywhere, and this year's Floodfest promises to raise your awareness and understanding of their incredible power and lasting impact. Join us in the Lower Grand Coulee for a day of expert-led talks, fascinating field trips, and engaging exhibits that will transport you back to a time when mile-high ice dams burst, unleashing torrents of water that dwarfed any flood in human history. Whether you're a seasoned geologist or simply curious about the natural wonders around you, the Ice Age Floodfest 2025 is an event you won't want to miss! Presenters will share their knowledge and their appreciation of Ice Age Floods Geology, the Channeled Scablands, Shrub Steppe Ecosystems, Anthropology, Archeology, and History. Field Trip Hike: 9:00 AM – 10:30 AM Where: Lake Lenore Caves Heritage Area Bruce Bjornstad, a Research Scientist based in Richland, Washington and author of the popular ‘On the Trail of the Ice Age Floods’ guidebooks, will lead an educational hike from the Lake Lenore Caves trailhead. The park is situated above Lake Lenore, and it offers stunning views of the valley. The caves themselves are shallow basalt formations created during the Great Missoula floods. Outdoor Booths: 10 AM – 3 PM on the campus of Dry Falls Visitor Center. Featuring Federal, State, Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, Nonprofits, Historians, Authors, & Volunteers Where: Dry Falls Visitor Center – Sun Lakes Dry Falls State Park 35661 HWY 17 North, Coulee City, WA 99115 Ice Age Floods Institute - Lower Grand Coulee Chapter and other Ice Age Flood Institute chapters from Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Washington. The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation will have historic photographs telling the story and the history of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. They will also share the legends of the beautiful landscape of the Dry Falls area and surrounding landscape. Dr. Karen Capuder - Anthropologist and Senior Archaeologist Colville Tribes, will share some of the cultural and political history of the Colville Tribes, from time immemorial to the present day. Grant County Historians/authors: Dan Bolyard & John M. Kemble – Dan Bolyard has been a lifelong Grant County Big Bend area resident and railroad historian. John M. Kemble is a local historian and explorer highlighting Dry Falls, Sun Lakes, Steamboat Rock, The Grand Coulee, and Banks Lake. North Central Regional Library –April Harward, learn about the NCW Summer Library programs - captivating storytelling to engaging workshops and fun activities, everyone can unleash their unique voice and explore their passions. National Park Service – Justin Radford, Program Manager for the Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail with a Mobile Interpretive Center showcasing the Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail, the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area, and The Grand Coulee a National Natural Landmark. Foster Creek & Columbia Basin Conservation Districts – programs on Shrub Steppe ecology, water resources, wildlife, and native vegetation. Washington Department of Wildlife – wildlife found in Eastern Washington as well as the enhancement and preservation work that is done in the Columbia Basin. Archeologist – Mark Amara, Kim Lancaster, and Kellie Green; representing the Cascadia Conservation District, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. Their booth will highlight the importance of historical artifacts, tools of the trade, and hands-on activity too. Bureau of Reclamation – will have an overview of the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project, and the Grand Coulee Dam. Presentations: 10 am - 3 pm Where: inside/upstairs in the Dry Falls Visitor Center NPS Ranger Justin Radford Ranger David McWalter 10 am – 11 am: Justin Radford, Program Manager, NPS, Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail, will present an overview of this unique geologic trail starting in Montana, through Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. Interpretive Specialist, David McWalter, will present an overview of Washington's Ice Age Floods, introduce the rugged terrain of eastern Washington that was shaped by floods of unimaginable power during the last ice age, and share how the scientific views of the landscape have changed over the last century. 11:30 am – 12:30 pm: WA DNR, Geologist Joel Gombiner will present an update on recent studies of Washington’s Ice Age Floods and introduce a new lidar-based visualization of Dry Falls. 1 pm – 2 pm: WA State Parks, Interpretive Specialist 1, Sarah Overby will present "Brushstrokes: The Colorful Story of Lichen". From rocks, trees, soil, and pretty much anything that will sit still long enough, lichen will spring up in robust colonies. Crusty, leafy, or even… fuzzy? They paint beautiful bright oranges and greens across the dark basalt rock and the branches of the sagebrush, but what are they doing there? This 45-minute presentation aims to dive deeper into the complexities of lichen and discuss its impact on ecosystems as well as its impact on us. 2:30 pm – 3:00 pm: Viewing of Bruce Bjornstad’s - "Ice Age Floodscapes" Bretz’ Great Cataract Group Primordial Potholes Coulee Grand Coulee – NW Exposures Dry Falls Deep Lake Potholes Dry Falls Visitor Center - weather station - up-to-date weather conditions at Dry Falls provided by the National Park Service. Watch a timelapse of the past 24 hours by clicking on the small photo, enlarge, press play, and enjoy!
September 2025
September 3 @ 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm PDT

9/3-Mega Floods, Ice Ages, Earthquakes, Volcanic Eruptions, and other Major Earth Events. A look at our dynamic planet of things that could keep you awake at night but shouldn’t

Ritzville Public Library 302 West Main Street, Ritzville, Washington

This presentation by Lloyd Stoess will delve into ten of the causes of ice ages and climate change including the answer to how many ice ages have occurred. It will also look at big earth hazards here in the Pacific Northwest that have occurred in the past and if they should be of concern today.

Free
September 10 @ 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm PDT

9/10-Mega Floods, Ice Ages, Earthquakes, Volcanic Eruptions, and other Major Earth Events. A look at our dynamic planet of things that could keep you awake at night but shouldn’t.

Whitman County Library 102 South Main St., Colfax, WA, United States

This presentation by Lloyd Stoess will delve into ten of the causes of ice ages and climate change including the answer to how many ice ages have occurred. It will also look at big earth hazards here in the Pacific Northwest that have occurred in the past and if they should be of concern today.

Free
September 18 @ 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm PDT

9/18-Mega Floods, Ice Ages, Earthquakes, Volcanic Eruptions, and other Major Earth Events. A look at our dynamic planet of things that could keep you awake at night but shouldn’t.

Connell Library 118 N. Columbia, Connell, Washington

This presentation by Lloyd Stoess will delve into ten of the causes of ice ages and climate change including the answer to how many ice ages have occurred. It will also look at big earth hazards here in the Pacific Northwest that have occurred in the past and if they should be of concern today.

Free
September 27 @ 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm PDT

Joseph Pardee – Swiss Army Knife for the USGS! w/ Bill Burgel

Hal Holmes Community Center 201 Ruby St, Ellensburg, WA, United States

Joseph T. Pardee Bill Burgel will be speaking on the career and contributions of Joseph Pardee to our understanding of the Ice Age Floods. Joseph T. Pardee was a USGS Field Geologist who, for 32 years (1910-1941), focused on a variety of geologic issues throughout the country. His geologic acumen was vigorously sought after by nearly every department within the USGS. Pardee is most widely known for quipping that “he knew where Bretz’ water was.” As retirement approached, Pardee used his intense observational skills and his incredible patience to finally devote himself to his secret love of Glacial Lake Missoula (GLM)when he published his “Unusual Currents.” It made clear that GLM drained catastrophically fast and flowed at incredible speeds. He thus provided a possible source for the catastrophic flood that Bretz had been postulating. Doors will open at 3:30 pm with the presentations beginning at 4:00pm. This event will offer an opportunity to browse and purchase such Ice Age Floods items as books, maps, posters and baseball caps. All purchases must be with cash or check only please. Bill Burgel, Professional Geologist Registered in Oregon and Idaho, retired in 2015 after a successful 45-year career in the railroad industry. He worked for several railroads nationwide in both the engineering and operating departments. While working for the railroad, his interest and training in geology was often called upon to resolve landslide issues and rerouting studies, implement early earthquake warning strategies, and conduct numerous long railroad tunnel analyses. Bill has given numerous presentations on rail issues as well as earthquake preparedness and topics pertaining to regional geology to local audiences throughout the Pacific Northwest and on cruise ships.

Free
October 2025
October 11 @ 11:00 am - 4:00 pm PDT

Cheney-Spokane Members Meeting and Public Lecture

Doris Morrison Learning Center (DMLC) 1330 S Henry Road, Greenacres, Washington

This event is open to the public, but only IAFI Cheney-Spokane members can vote during the member meeting. It will be held at the beautiful new Doris Morrison Learning Center at 1330 S. Henry Road. Exit the freeway south on Barker Road, turn left at the roundabout at Sprague Road, then right at the three-way junction on Henry Road. Saltese Uplands Conservation Area hike: 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM (Note: A completed liability form is required for this 3-mile hike. It is of moderate difficulty and consists of a dirt and rock trail with switchbacks, spanning about 700 vertical feet. Bring your own snacks & drinks, good hiking shoes, and dress appropriately for mid October weather conditions. Lunch is not provided. Meet the hike leader at the Saltese Flats Wetland trailhead at 11 AM.) Member meeting: 2:00-3:00 PM Speaker: USGS Geologist Jim O'Connor (beginning after the Member meeting) "A Century of Discovery: 102 Years of Studying the Ice Age Spokane Flood" Synopsis: For more than a century, geologists have investigated the massive Ice Age floods that swept through Spokane, reshaping the region’s terrain and sparking global scientific interest. USGS Geologist Jim O'Connor will review some of the discoveries made in our understanding of these cataclysmic events—from their origins and pathways to the dramatic landforms they left behind. He will also highlight some of the enduring questions that continue to drive new research, revealing how much there is still to learn about one of North America's most extraordinary geological phenomena. Note: At present, we have three openings on our chapter board. Our board meets the third Tuesday of each month from 3-5 PM at the Wren-Pierson Building in Cheney. Interested? Members with expertise in accounting or K-12 education or medical experience or any other expertise that would aid our chapter's mission should send a very brief vita to Dr. Linda McCollum, President, IAFI Cheney-Spokane Chapter, lmccollum@ewu.edu Please use the button below to sign up for the event and optional hike. Your registration helps us plan more smoothly and ensure a great experience for everyone.
October 11 @ 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm PDT

Northern Kittitas Valley Fault Trace Research – Postponed

Hal Holmes Community Center 201 Ruby St, Ellensburg, WA, United States

Stephen Angster, +one Our speaker, Steven Angster, scheduled for October 11th is going to have to be rescheduled as he is a federal employee with the USGS and is not allowed to do any work related activities during the shutdown. We are tentatively looking at a new date in late June of 2026. We are still working on the details of that. Stephen Angster, a research scientist at the Seattle Field Office of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Earthquake Science Center, focuses on characterizing and integrating upper-plate fault source parameters for probabilistic seismic hazard analysis in the Pacific Northwest. He employs a multidisciplinary approach—emphasizing paleoseismic trenching as a tool alongside geophysical and geological investigations—to better understand the spatial and temporal patterns of prehistoric large earthquakes. Doors will open at 3:30 pm with the presentations beginning at 4:00pm. This event will offer an opportunity to browse and purchase such Ice Age Floods items as books, maps, posters and baseball caps. All purchases must be with cash or check only please. Steve currently leads active research projects on both sides of the Cascades. On the west side, he has identified new fault scarps along the Seattle fault zone and the Canyon River fault. East of the Cascades, his work focuses on constraining the nature and extent of back-arc deformation. Understanding strain accommodation across the Kittitas Valley is a key component to that research. He will present new data from studying several strands of a fault trace that spans many kilometers of the northern Kittitas Valley. Stephen holds a B.S. from Western Illinois University, an M.S. from the Colorado School of Mines, and a Ph.D. from the University of Nevada, Reno.

Free
October 14 @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm PDT

Expansion of Early Roads in the US West

Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center 127 S. Mission, Wenatchee, WA, United States

Building new roads, and connecting roads, was difficult and expensive. No entity wanted to do that. Not the Federal government, nor the states, not the counties. They got pushed into road-building. What happened?

Free
November 2025
November 4 @ 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm PST

EVOLUTION OF THE COLUMBIA RIVER SYSTEM

The Reach Museum 1943 Columbia Park Trl , WA, Richland, WA, United States

We have always assumed that the Columbia River and its tributaries have been the same for many millions of years. The Earth is constantly fooling us like that. In reality most river systems are dynamic, and the Columbia River is no exception. We will explore how it has changed over the past 16 million years. We’ll see how in earlier times locations such as like Yakima, Prosser and Benton City would have been on the Columbia River, while the Tri-Cities would have been left high and dry. The Columbia River system is one of the great river systems of North America, draining much of the Pacific Northwest, as well as parts of the western United States and British Columbia. The river system has had a long and complex history, slowly evolving over the past 17MY The Columbia River and its tributaries have been shaped by flood basalt volcanism, Cascade volcanism, regional tectonism, and finally outburst floods from Glacial Lake Missoula. The most complex part of river development has been in the northern part, the Columbia Basin, where the Columbia River and its tributaries were controlled by a subsiding Columbia Basin with subtle anticlinal ridges and synclinal valleys superimposed on a flood basalt landscape. After negotiating this landscape, the course to the Pacific Ocean led through the Cascade Range via the Columbia Trans-Arc Lowland, an ancient crustal weakness zone that separates Washington and Oregon. The peak of flood basalt volcanism obliterated the river paths, but as flood basalt volcanism waned, the rivers were able to establish courses within the growing fold belt. As the folds grew larger, the major pathways of the rivers moved toward the center of the Columbia Basin where subsidence was greatest. The finishing touches to the river system, however, were added during the Pleistocene by the Missoula floods, which caused local repositioning of river channels.
November 17 @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm PST

Puget Lobe Lecture: Jeff Tepper on the Initiation of the Cascade Arc

Bellevue College Building T Room 127 3000 Landerholm Cir SE, Bellevue, WA, United States

Dr. Jeff Tepper The Cascade volcanic chain, the world’s youngest continental arc, was “born” shortly after accretion of the Siletzia oceanic terrane ~50 My ago. That collision, which led to formation of the Olympics, terminated the earlier subduction system and caused a portion of the subducting Farallon slab to break off. When Cascade magmatism began less than 5 My later, there was a new trench located outboard of Siletzia. In this talk I will present a new model, based on petrology, geochronology, plate motion reconstructions, and mantle tomography, that explains how subduction was initiated so quickly and in a setting where the slab was young and hot and in theory too buoyant to subduct.

Meeting

July 2025

Ice Age FloodFest 2025

September 2025

9/3-Mega Floods, Ice Ages, Earthquakes, Volcanic Eruptions, and other Major Earth Events. A look at our dynamic planet of things that could keep you awake at night but shouldn’t

9/10-Mega Floods, Ice Ages, Earthquakes, Volcanic Eruptions, and other Major Earth Events. A look at our dynamic planet of things that could keep you awake at night but shouldn’t.

9/18-Mega Floods, Ice Ages, Earthquakes, Volcanic Eruptions, and other Major Earth Events. A look at our dynamic planet of things that could keep you awake at night but shouldn’t.

Joseph Pardee – Swiss Army Knife for the USGS! w/ Bill Burgel

October 2025

Cheney-Spokane Members Meeting and Public Lecture

Northern Kittitas Valley Fault Trace Research – Postponed

Expansion of Early Roads in the US West

November 2025

EVOLUTION OF THE COLUMBIA RIVER SYSTEM

Puget Lobe Lecture: Jeff Tepper on the Initiation of the Cascade Arc

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