Ice Age Floods Institute

Lunch and Lecture with Dr. Eugene Kiver- “Solving Geologic Problems: Megafloods of Lava & Water in Eastern Washington”
2023-10-09 11:30 - 14:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | The Hive, 2904 E Sprague Ave, Spokane, WA, 99202
Where: THE HIVE, Event A Room (Use Door Code 371047 # to enter.)

Bring your lunch and enjoy this Floods lecture from Dr. Kiver during the lunch hour. The Chapter will provide a variety of beverages, cookies, and plates, utensils, cups, and crushed ice. There will be plenty of time for questions and answers!
Description: The flat, non-mountainous topography of eastern Washington displaying mostly serene landscapes suggests a quiet geologic origin. However, a closer examination of the rocks, sediments and landforms tells a story of violence that would seem only Hollywood could invent!
Massive floods of lava, some over 200’ thick and 300 miles long about 17 to 6 million years ago buried a hilly landscape turning the Columbia Plateau or Basin into a vast lava plain called a flood basalt field. No human has ever experienced lava flows of this magnitude. Later during the Pleistocene, huge continental glaciers covered most of North America and ground much of the underlying rock into silt-size particles that would later become the famous Palouse Soil. The glaciers also created a huge lake that repeatedly failed catastrophically and ripped the rock surface into an astonishing system of coulees, lakes, and other landforms that make up the Channeled Scabland.
This lecture is free and open to the public. Dr. Kiver is Geology Professor Emeritus after teaching 34 years at Eastern Washington University. He studies glacial history in the West and volcanic history of the Cascade Mountains. He is a founding member of the Ice Age Floods Institute and a member of the IAFI Cheney-Spokane Chapter board of directors.
If you will be coming, please RSVP to iaficheneyspokane@gmail.com with the number of people. This will help us get the right amount of supplies. Thank you!

TOUR: The Five Great Lakes of the Missoula Floods
2023-10-07 08:00 - 17:00 | WA
FIELD TRIP LEADERS: Lloyd Stoess, Palouse Falls Chapter President and Jacqui Hair, Palouse Falls Chapter Vice President.
DESCRIPTION OF FIELD TRIP: This tour will visit much of the area covered by the temporary drainage known as Lake Lewis. At its maximum, the lake was over 1000 feet deep, with only a few “Lake Lewis Isles” rising above. Icebergs and other floating debris (including mammoth carcasses) drifted into quieter waters and ran aground along the shorelines of these islands, leaving behind boulders of exotic rock types (erratics) from hundreds of miles away. Ice Age flood site features will include, but are not limited to: Devils Canyon; Washtucna Coulee; Coyote Canyon Mammoth Dig Site; Lakes Lewis Isles; and the White Bluffs.
CHECK-IN: Your name badge and field guide will be available at the following times and locations:
Saturday October 7th: Prior to departure at the Washtucna High School.
WHERE TO MEET: Washtucna High School, 730 Booth Ave., Washtucna, WA >> Parking is available on site. <<
BUS LOADING: A chartered bus will begin loading at 8:45 a.m.; buses leave promptly at 9:00 a.m.
Buses will return around 5:00 p.m.. Restrooms are available at some stops.
CANCELLATION: Cancellation refunds will be made only if field trip registrar, Jacqui Hair, receives notice no later than September 24 and vacancies can be filled from a stand-by list. Jacqui can be reached at jacquihair05@gmail.com or (509) 301-0007.
ITEMS TO BRING WITH YOU: Binoculars, camera, sunglasses, and clothing for variable weather conditions.

$125* field trip fee– Registering as a non-Ice Age Floods Institute Member

$110* field trip fee– Registering as a Ice Age Floods Institute Member.
If joining now or renewing as an IAFI member, also include your IAFI Membership Application with your field trip registration, fees and liability release form. Please write one check to IAFIPF for registration and a separate check to IAFI for membership fee.

$95* field trip fee – Registering as a Palouse Falls Chapter Ice Age Floods Institute Member (thank you for your support!)

*FIELD TRIP FEE covers: 1) outstanding and knowledgeable field trip leaders, 2) a very detailed and well-illustrated Field Trip Guidebook, 3) delicious lunch, snacks, and drinks, and 4) comfortable deluxe chartered bus with microphone system for lectures while in route.
Registration and liability forms are available for download.

Cheney-Spokane Chapter Member Appreciation Picnic & Hikes
2023-09-30 11:00 - 16:00 | Camp Caro Lodge, 698 S Sargent Road, Spokane, WA, 99212, United States
Members and Friends of the IAFI Cheney-Spokane Chapter are invited to a picnic where you can meet and network with others interested in the Floods Story. Also you can have an opportunity to ask several geologists questions about The Floods, meet Board members and learn more about the Chapter, go on a short hike in Dishman Hills after lunch, and have some fun while you learn more about where you live, work and play. Your immediate family is invited, too, and you can also bring potential new members. Be sure to RSVP!
Camp Caro Lodge is the gem of Spokane Valley and a part of the Camp Caro Community Park. It borders the Dishman Hills Natural Area and offers 360 degrees of panoramic views. There is a well-maintained lawn that borders the bluffs of Dishman Hills and there is plenty of parking!

Bring your own lunches, fruit and chips. The Chapter will provide a variety of beverages, cookies, desserts, and plates, utensils, cups, and crushed ice.
Bring your Floods questions written on a strip of paper for drawings with special prizes! Some games will be available on the grass lawn.

Please RSVP to iaficheneyspokane@gmail.com for all individuals attending in your party. Let us know as quickly as you can so that there will be adequate items available for a successful gathering of “flood enthusiasts!”
A word about the hikes:
The geologic hikes will start at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. and are free. We will meet at Camp Caro lower parking lot off of Appleway Boulevard. Geology tour guides will explain and show how the giant floods of the Ice Age sculpted the land in the Dishman Hills. The 1 p.m. hike will be a bit shorter, and the hike beginning at 3 p.m. will be a bit longer and more involved. Bring a picnic lunch at noon to meet members of the local chapter of the Ice Age Floods Institute at Camp Caro Lodge and check out displays with lots of free information. Questions? Call Michael Hamilton 509-747-8147.

Palouse Falls Chapter Member Appreciation Picnic
2023-09-23 11:00 - 14:00 | Lyons Ferry State Park, 620 Marmes Road, Washtucna, WA, 99371, United States
Save the date!
You are invited to join us for a member appreciation picnic on September 23rd at Lyons Ferry! This coincides with a free state park day, so no pass is required. We will be providing hot dogs and chips with some light refreshments. This is a potluck but you aren’t required to bring anything other than your lovely selves. If you can bring an item, call Lloyd (509) 954-3927 and let him know what you can bring.
Please register below (it’s free) to let us know how many to expect. We hope you can join us!

Mike Full - In Search of Ice Age Beasts - Library Tour Beforehand
2023-09-21 06:30 | Tualatin Public Library, 18878 SW Martinazzi Avenue, Tualatin, Oregon, 97062, United States
Mike and Volunteers with Grey Wolf jaw bone
Mike Full will present an introduction to the Ice Age Megafauna found in the Willamette Valley and the basics of fossil hunting for them. Mike’s presentation will be 7:00 – 7:45PM in the Tualatin Public Library meeting room.
Columbian Mammoth partial tusk socket fossil
The Willamette Valley Pleistocene Project explores the late Pleistocene and early Holocene of the Willamette Valley in Northwest Oregon. Composed of local volunteers and resources, avocational paleontologists, land owners, and local government working alongside trained professionals and museum staff, our goal is to discover, study and preserve our prehistoric past.
Every fossil is collected according to scientific standards, documented, stabilized and curated into a database open to the public. The entire collection is destined to stay within the public domain and will ultimately be donated to an appropriate educational institution.
Join us beforehand at 6:30PM for a special Library Tour of Ice Age fossils on display. Mike’s talk will follow in large Meeting Room at Library entrance. Library Director, Jerianne Thompson, will give tour of unique megafauna ice age fossils on permanent display. Please note the Library closes at 8PM sharp.
Mike is a retired Police Officer and native Oregonian with a life long fascination of fossils and prehistoric life. Each summer finds him along a river in the Willamette Valley searching for fossils accompanied by friends, volunteers, students and researchers. He has collected megafauna fossils from the Willamette Valley including mammoth, mastodon, giant ground sloth, bison, horse, camel, elk, deer, giant beaver and wolf.

Deep Lake Potholes Field Trip
2023-09-16 10:00 | Sun Lakes State Park, Deep Lake Parking Lot (47.58848153536495, -119.34090712166719), WA, United States
Join Sun Lakes-Dry Falls State Park Rangers for an eye opening field trip to the Deep Lake Potholes in Sun Lakes State Park on Saturday, Sept 16. We will meet in the Deep Lake parking lot at 10:00 AM. Discover Pass is Required.
Years ago, Tom Foster blogged about his visits to these incredible potholes:
I must have stood at this spot for 15 minutes Saturday – Amazing Ice Age Flood features surrounded me. In this shot the pothole, massive butte and hanging coulee all help one visualize the awesome power of the Ice Age Floods. I’m impressed with the large basalt overhang near the skyline. In Bruce Bjornstad’s book “On the Trail of the Ice Age Floods” he describes this undercutting process that was key to the formation of vertical faces in recessional cataracts.
The Interpretive Master Plan for the Ice Age Floods in Washington State Parks describes this group of kolk carved depressions – “Another spectacular feature is a tight cluster of the deep potholes beyond Sun Lake just west of Deep Lake. These potholes lie along the valley bottom and require only a 5-10 minute walk from the road.”

I’d also like to mention that a fall into one of these potholes could be fatal!

TLS: Connell - The Five Great Lakes of the Missoula Floods
2023-09-13 08:00 - 17:00 | Connell Library, 118 N. Columbia, Connell, Washington
The return of the traveling lecture series! Chapter President Lloyd Stoess will review both Glacial Lake Missoula and Glacial Lake Columbia. Although both of these lakes formed for the same reason their history is very different. When the waters in Glacial Lake Missoula were catastrophically released, they entered the Columbia River drainage system. On their way to the Pacific Ocean, the floodwaters were restricted at three different locations forming three temporary lakes. This presentation will give an overview of all of these five great lakes and is a pre-cursor to our fall bus tour that will be coming up on October 7th. Attend one or both, the choice is yours!
Lloyd grew up on a wheat farm eight miles from Palouse Falls but didn’t learn about the Ice Age Floods until he attended EWSC (now EWU) where he graduated in 1974 with a BA in Geography. After college, Lloyd returned to Washtucna to work with his father in their family agricultural equipment manufacturing business where Lloyd still works today.
Lloyd was introduced to the Ice Age Floods Institute (IAFI) in 2001 and became a charter member of the Cheney-Palouse Chapter and later helped found the Palouse Falls Chapter in 2015 where he currently serves as President. In addition to the IAFI, Lloyd stays busy with involvement in the local church, Lions Club, Adams County Economic Development Council, and the Washtucna Heritage Museum/Community Center/Food Bank.
A flyer is available for download. Can’t make this event?
See it in Ritzville on 9/6 at the Adams County Public Works Department @ 7p or in Colfax on 9/13 at the Whitman County Library @ 3:00p!
