Sharing the Fascinating Ice Age Floods Story Since 1995
Presenters and Booths will share their knowledge and their appreciation of Ice Age Floods Geology, the Channeled Scablands, Shrub Steppe Ecosystems, Wildlife, Anthropology, Archeology, History, and Photography.
Where: Dry Falls Visitor Center – Sun Lakes Dry Falls State Park, 35661 HWY 17 North, Coulee City, WA
When: Saturday July 20th 10 AM – 3 PM on the campus of Dry Falls Visitor Center.
Bill Burgel, retired railroad geologist, will present a talk on "When Yellowstone was in Oregon", on Tuesday evening, July 30, beginning at 5:30 at the White Salmon Valley Community Library. Approximately 50 million years ago, an island the size of Iceland docked onto the west coast of North American. That island was formed similar to the formation of modern-day Iceland, which is being created by a relatively rare combination of mid-ocean ridge volcanism coinciding with a mantle plume. After colliding with the continent in the area of present-day Oregon, this Iceland-like land mass, now known as Siletzia (southern half) and Yakutat (northern half now in Alaska), was scraped off the subducting oceanic crust and imbedded on the west coast of the continent. As the North American continent continued moving westward the motion of now-attached Siletzia was reversed. But the motion of the mantle plume continued its relative motion in the eastward direction, creating volcanoes and calderas on the as the North American plate moved west over it. Bill will explain the circuitous path the plume took through Oregon, creating the Crooked River Caldera (including Smith Rock State Park), then into SE Oregon creating the voluminous Columbia River Flood Basalts before exiting Oregon around 16-million-years ago to form the McDermitt Volcanic area in Nevada, the home of one of the world’s largest lithium deposits. Afterward, the plume's relative path motion was directly through Idaho, forming the Snake River Plain, arriving at its current temporary location in Yellowstone. This saga, though geologically complex, is a fascinating one that will help you make sense of the new research into the 50 million year-long journey of the Yellowstone Hot Spot! Bill Burgel About Bill Burgel - Bill retired in 2010 after a successful 40-year career working for several railroads in both the engineering and operating departments. His work for Union Pacific encompassed the design of the first computer-aided dispatching office in the nation. This office was located in Portland and Bill was the Regional Chief Dispatcher for several years before the office was moved to Omaha. 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. After retiring from the railroad in 1989, he assisted the Surface Transportation Board as their rail operations manager for two major mergers, once in Washington DC and the second time in Chicago. Bill has managed many rail studies for both Oregon and Washington DOTs as well as for TriMet and Sound Transit in Seattle.
Cascades24 is a National Science Foundation sponsored meeting focused on magmatic, volcanic, and tectonic processes in the Cascades. It will be a small meeting environment, Monday August 5th through Friday August 9th at Oregon State University Cascades Campus in Bend. There are limited spots available, so you must register to attend.
Glaciers have shaped much of the Pacific Northwest’s landscape over the past 15,000 years. Geologists and cartographers have been mapping and interpreting glacial landforms since the late 19th century. And now LIDAR helps create incredibly accurate, detailed, and stunning maps.
Thes relatively recent understanding of Ancient Mars was partly achieved because of geological studies of the ice age floods that created the Channeled Scablands landscape of eastern Washington. This talk will focus on some of Dr. Baker's personal experiences with the relevant geological investigations and discoveries of the past 55 years.
Lloyd Stoess will present a free lecture with information showing how the Columbia, Palouse, and Yakima Rivers all had course changes during the last glacial period of the Ice Age. All three were changed by different forces. One was temporary and the other two were permanent. This lecture is in partnership with the Mid-Columbia Libraries Connell branch.
The Ellensburg Chapter of the Ice Age Floods Institute (IAFI) will host a field trip that covers the western portion of the Swauk Watershed including Teanaway Ridge north of Ellensburg in the Wenatchee Range on Saturday 21 September. We will meet near the cabin on USFS road 9738 just off US 97 at 11:00am on the 21st. The trip will include stops at: along Blue Creek to examine Teanaway Formation dikes; the east side of Teanaway Ridge to explore recent landslides; Red Top Mountain atop Teanaway Ridge to examine Teanaway Formation flows, forests, fire, landscape change, and the Red Top fire lookout. The trip should conclude at about 4pm. Ellensburg IAFI field trips are free and open to the public. There’s no need to pre-register—just show up! We typically car pool on these trips. We will drive USFS roads 9738 and 9702 from US 97. USFS road 9702 is potholed and rough in places but very passable for passenger cars (as of July 2024). Several of the stops will include short (<0.5 mile hikes) over sometimes steep and uneven terrain. Pets are OK if leashed and well-behaved. If you have questions, feel free to contact Karl Lillquist at lillquis@cwu.edu. Click here for a pdf of the field trip guide. I will also provide a limited number of hard copies of the field guide at Stop 1. Lets hope for good weather and smoke-free skies for the trip! Hope you can join us!
"Paleontology Panel" - The Willamette Valley Pleistocene Project - The river & landlocked search for Ice Age Fossils with Mike Full & Dave Ellingson, Moderator: Yvonne Saarinen Addington Thursday, September 26, 2024, Presentation 6:30-7:30PM Simultaneous/ZOOM presentation from the Tualatin Public Library, 18878 SW Martinazzi Avenue, Tualatin, OR 97062 Note: We must Depart Tualatin Public Library by 8PM Sharp!!! If you cannot attend in person, join us online. Click here to join zoom meeting Meeting ID: 869 4651 3479 Passcode: 322382 The Willamette Valley, at the time of the Ice Age Floods 18K-15K years ago, was backwater many times for massive floodwaters raging through the Columbia River Gorge to the Pacific Ocean. It became known as Temporary Lake Allison for the Geologist who first studied the Willamette Valley as a lake. The Willamette Valley Pleistocene Project explores the late Pleistocene and early Holocene of the Willamette Valley in Northwest Oregon. Comprised of local volunteers and resources, avocational paleontologists, land owners, and local government working alongside trained professionals and museum staff, the goal is to discover, study and preserve our prehistoric past. Mike, Dave and Yvonne are all members of this project. 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. Mike Full David Ellingson Mike Full is a retired Police Officer and native Oregonian with a life long fascination of fossils and prehistoric life. Each summer finds him searching rivers in the Willamette Valley for fossils. He is accompanied by friends, students. volunteers and researchers. His fossil collection includes mammoth, mastodon, giant ground sloth, bison, horse, elk, camel, deer, giant beaver & wolf. David Ellingson, a biologist and paleontologist, teaches Paleontology at Woodburn High School. Here he has a dig going many years (25) for megafauna and fauna fossil bones which involves his students in summer months. Yvonne Addington Yvonne Addington is a native Oregonian. She has lived in Tualatin most of her life. In her public service career, she has worked for five Oregon Governors. She is Tualatin's first City Manager and had a role in the formation of the City. She also served for years as Municipal Judge. Her main interest has been preserving the history of the area, particularly fossil bones and erratic rocks of the Ice Age Floods. She's a member of the Tualatin/Willamette Ice Age Foundation. Yvonne is a Board Member of Willamette Falls Heritage Area Coalition representing LCC/ IAFI where she's on the Lower Columbia Chapter Board of Directors. Tualatin Mastodon She rediscovered the bones of the Tualatin Mastodon at Portland State University, which she then gave to the City of Tualatin where they are now on display on the Library's glass wall (see photo). The Mastodon bones were found and originally dug by PSU student John George near the creek South of Tualatin's Fred Meyer store.
Join us for a weekend of lectures and sight seeing in Ritzville, Washington! There is a small block of rooms set aside at an event rate through the Best Western Bronco Inn (509) 659-5000, ask for the Ice Age Floods Tour rate when you reserve your rooms. $170* field trip fee– Registering as a non-Ice Age Floods Institute Member $150* 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. $145* 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, 4) comfortable deluxe chartered bus with microphone system for lectures while in route, and 5) delicious Mexican banquet! -Friday evening: Dinner is on-your-own-adventure. Check-in located in the lobby of the Bronco Inn between 7 and 8 p.m., as well as after the FREE pre-trip lecture at 8:00p by Lloyd Stoess on the topic "Following the Course of the Columbia River" in the Bronco Inn meeting room. -Saturday: Check-in located in the lobby of the Bronco Inn between 7:15 and 7:45 a.m. FIELD TRIP LEADERS: Lloyd Stoess, Palouse Falls Chapter President and Dr. Eugene Kiver, Professor Emeritus Eastern Washington University. DESCRIPTION OF FIELD TRIP: This bus tour will revolve around Saddle Mountain with stops including Lind Coulee, Drumheller Channels, Corfu Landslide Complex, Corfu ghost town, Smyrna Bench, Vantage interbed exposure, Beverly Bar, Sentinel Gap, McCoy Canyon Landslide, Priest Rapids Bar, Saddle Mountain summit, Othello Channels, multiple exposures of the Ringold Formation, Collier Coulee, and the Staircase Rapids. ITEMS TO BRING WITH YOU: Binoculars, camera, sunglasses, and clothing for variable weather conditions. Snacks, drinks, and lunch provided. -Saturday evening: FREE post-trip lecture at by Gene Kiver on the topic "Bonneville Flood and the Snake River" in the Bronco Inn meeting room. Cancellation refunds will be made only if field trip registrar, Jacqui Hair, receives notice no later than September 22 and vacancies can be filled from a stand-by list. Registration and liability form are both available for download at this link.
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. Member meeting: 2:00-3:00 PM Dr. Kiver's lecture will begin around 3 PM, after the member meeting. It is open to the public (see title and blurb below). 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 Dr. Eugene Kiver Lecture: GLACIERS AND MISSOULA FLOODS IN NORTHEASTERN WASHINGTON Immense quantities of Glacial Lake Missoula floodwater roared through not only the Rathdrum/Spokane floodway but also through the rugged mountain topography of the Northern Rockies in northeastern Washington. Here floods ripped across non-basaltic glaciated rocks and through the Little Spokane River drainage into the Channeled Scabland south of the present course of the Spokane River. This alternate route is often overlooked. The Pend Oreille River course north of Newport has been reversed and now flows north into Canada. Glacial suppression of the crust is the suspected culprit. Over a mile of ice buried the Pend Oreille River valley near Canada during the late Wisconsin ice advance allowing water to flow north and cut deep canyons along the river course.