Sharing the Fascinating Ice Age Floods Story Since 1995
A large number of important articles get buried over time as new articles are added to our website. So here’s a chance to review and relive some of our most important articles. We think you might enjoy reviewing these timeless features.
Monument Valley, the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls: these ancient wonders show how nature’s forces have shaped the face of our planet on a vast timescale, how great landmarks are the
This 1/2-hour video begins with the Ice Age Floods impact on the Palouse area, then goes on with a fascinating oral and pictorial history of the area. The video was
As a city kid in the ‘60s my family occasionally visited my grandparents in the farm country of Washington State’s Waterville plateau. My grandfather and two uncles were wheat farmers
A recent Smithsonian Magazine article gives some interesting insights to present-day Jökulhlaups (glacial outburst floods) that are but minuscule relatives of the cataclysmic Ice Age Floods. Iceberg Lake was on
Have you ever thought about the how the weight of the ice-age Cordilleran ice sheet might affect the underlying Earth’s crust. There is strong evidence that the crust was depressed
Articles in Science Alert and the New York Times report on a well documented age for many sets of human footprints as old as 23,000 years in the ancient lake
On Friday,July 8 around 2:45 p.m., British tourist Harry Shimmin reached the highest point in his trek along the Jukku pass in the Tian Shan mountains in Kyrgyzstan. He
There’s a Columbian Mammoth hiding out in Coyote Canyon down Kennewick way, and MCBONES Research Center Foundation is working to uncover his/her hiding place. For a small contribution you can
This feature-filled video by Tom Foster and Nick Zentner explores the evidence for Glacial Lake Missoula, and provides a treasure trove of places to visit and sights to see when you
In August, Scott David, a postdoctoral researcher and Karin Lehnigk, a 2nd year PhD candidate from the University of Massachusetts visited the scablands for a week to do field studies.
Bruce Bjornstad is at it again with his awesome Ice Age Floodscapes drone videos, this one from Frenchman Coulee. Watch it below and visit his Ice Age Floodscapes YouTube channel.for
Millions of people who visit and pass through the Gorge each year don’t realize the scope of the cataclysmic stories behind the stunning and tranquil beauty they are surrounded by.
“…there were a few double falls each member of which receded at approximately the same rate, so that the island in mid-channel became very much elongated, like a great blade,
By reconstructing the sea level history of the Bering Strait, scientists found that the strait remained flooded and the Bering Land Bridge connecting Asia to North America did not emerge
Scenic Rowena Crest and the Tom McCall Preserve area provide an incredibly scenic place to let your feet, and your imagination wander as you look out on a major chokepoint
Check out this 2-Minute Geology expedition with Nick Zentner and Tom Foster exploring the Giant Current Ripples at West Bar and Camas Prairie. Ice age floodwater 650 feet deep –
An interesting, 4 minute captioned video from UC Santa Cruz (ingomar200) of a satellite-view computer simulation illustrating flood paths and transient lakes of an Ice Age Flood. The video shows a physics-based
Ice Age Floods Smithsonian Article Devastating Ice Age Floods That Occurred in the Pacific Northwest Fascinate ScientistsThe Scablands were formed by tremendous and rapid change, and may have something to
This video by Tom Foster and Nick Zentner about the Columbia River Gorge features an incredible variety of geology and human history as it slices through the Cascade Range of
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
Check out Bruce Bjornstad’s Ice Age Floodscapes YouTube channel. A growing library of surreal aerial video and pics of other-worldly megaflood features.These drone videos and images that can only be achieved
This episode of Grant’s Getaways features Lower Columbia President Rick Thompson and the Floods-borne erratics of the Willamette Valley
In what may be the most dramatic mass extinction in Earth’s history, an asteroid impacted our planet 66 million years ago near what is now Chicxulub on the Yucatan Peninsula.
In March, while visiting San Diego, I went to the San Diego Museum of Natural History in Balboa Park and toured the remarkable Cerutti Mastodon Site exhibit. This controversial exhibit
Big feet. Little feet. A heel here. A toe there. A digitally enhanced photo of a footprint found at Calvert Island, British Columbia that researchers dated to 13,000 years old. Credit
The Glacial Lake Missoula chapter has worked with Inspired Classroom LLC to produce a series of 9 short (3-7 minute) videos exploring different aspects of the Ice Age Floods in
Kennewick Man is the name generally given to the skeletal remains of a prehistoric Paleoamerican man found on a bank of the Columbia River near Kennewick, Washington, on July 28,
National Geographic has published an outstanding article, “Formed by Megafloods, This Place Fooled Scientists for Decades”, about J Harlan Bretz and his outrageous, fantastical theories of a landscape shaped by
When and how did the first people come to the Americas? The conventional story says that the earliest settlers came via Siberia, crossing the now-defunct Bering land bridge on foot
There is considerable controversy regarding when humans first migrated into the Americas and whether they might have been in the local area during any of the Ice Age Floods. This
On October 7th at Chief Timothy Park near Clarkston, WA at the latest Confluence Story Gathering, Thomas Morning Owl (Umatilla tribe) noted there are indigenous people’s stories of massive floods
The Washington Geological Survery (WGS) has produced a story map highlighting the ice-age floods that shaped the landscape of Montana, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. It tells the story of cataclysmic outburst
Williams Lake Cataract is an ancient, dry waterfall left behind along the Cheney-Palouse Scabland Tract in eastern Washington after Ice Age flooding recessionally ripped out underlying basalt to produce this
New research reveals the ancient animals survived some 8,000 years later than previously thought Frozen soil samples collected around a decade ago are rewriting our understanding of iconic Ice Age
ICYMI (in case you missed it) — Floodwaters rise more than 1,000 feet as they slam into the Columbia River Gorge from the east. The torrent blasts through the narrows
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
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
Balbas et. al. use cosmogenic beryllium-10 dating methods to further constrain the timing of ice sheet retreat, as well as the potential pathways for megafloods from both Lake Missoula and
With all deference to the book and movie “The Martian”, wouldn’t you, as part of an interplanetary expedition, prefer to be protected from the radiation, micro-meteorites and extreme temperature fluctuations
Lake Missoula filled many times and emptied catastrophically in many Missoula Floods. Rhythmite sequences [a series of repeated beds of similar origin] at numerous localities provide this evidence: slack-water rhythmites
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
“Beneath Our Feet: Mapping the World Below” plumbs the depths of the question, “What’s beneath our feet?” through maps, images and archaeological artifacts. The exhibition explores nearly 400 years of
Frenchman Coulee Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail Frenchman Coulee is a short drive north and west from the Silica Road exit 123 off US-90, along the Old Vantage Road.
No one can ever say for sure what the future will bring, but this new video has summed up all the science-backed predictions that we can reasonably make about how
Check out this video about the Washington 100, a cool new geotourism website by the Washington Geological Survey featuring 100 places to experience amazing geology in Washington State. Then explore
Steamboat Rock lies at the very northern end of the Grand Coulee. At over 1 mile long, ⅔ mile wide, and 800 feet high. The basalt-topped butte standing alone in
This 3:50 minute animation, presented by the Crown Point Country Historical Society, illustrates the growth of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, the damming and back-up of Glacial Lake Missoula, and the
Oregon State University archaeologists have uncovered projectile points in Idaho that are thousands of years older than any previously found in the Americas, helping to fill in the history of
An ancient flood seems to have stalled the circulation of the oceans, plunging the Northern Hemisphere into a millennium of near-glacial conditions. Thirteen thousand years ago, an ice age was
The Washington Geological Survey (formerly the Division of Geology and Earth Resources) has just released an ESRI story map about the Ice Age Floods in Washington. The story map: “tells
Castle Lake fills a plunge-pool at the base of a 300-ft tall cataract at the opposite (east) end of the Great Cataract Group from Dry Falls, above the east end
Chris Goodell’s 1-hour video presentation of his Ice Age Flood hydraulic modeling is both enlightening and thought provoking. Chris is a hydraulic modeling professional for Kleinschmidt Group, whose personal interest
I have always loved the ocean. I spent my growing-up years in, on or at least somewhere near the Atlantic Ocean and its various bays. The feel of ocean water, its
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
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
1918 story in the Wenatchee World that Bill Dietrich (former Columbian reporter and later with The Seattle Times) says in his wonderful 1995 book Northwest Passage — The Great Columbia
THE GRAND COULEE – A Floods Poem THE GRAND COULEE Older than legends,Younger than mountains,The earth remembersThe Great Inland Sea. And that Sea emptiedIn torrential furyNever imaginedEven in dreams. Down
Using detailed fossil comparison techniques, scientists have been able to identify a giant new saber-toothed cat species, Machairodus lahayishupup, which would have prowled around the open spaces of North America
In this video Tom Davis flies you back some 13,000 years ago to see and hear what the landscape of Glacial Lake Missoula might have looked and sounded like. A
Richard Waitt kindly shared his recent paper published June 2016 in Quaternary Research, titled “Megafloods and Clovis cache at Wenatchee, WA.” “It covers the reach mainly from Chelan Falls to
This is an amazing compilation of extra ordinary photographs that have been expertly labeled to assist the viewer’s understanding of the evidence supporting the creation of the Channelled Scablands in
Pillow basalt and palagonite are the result of lava flowing into water. We have a striking example in the Columbia River Gorge at the intersection of Hwy 30 and US 197
The Washington Geological Survey (WGS) has released 50 high-resolution lidar-derived images of the State’s geology and geomorphology through the Washington State DNR’s Flickr page. The images are available in 16:9
I’ve found there is huge public interest and concern about the catastrophic effects of the Eagle Creek Fire on the Columbia River Gorge. Pictures of ridgeline after ridgeline enveloped in
Floods of lava (Columbia River Basalts) and Ice Age Floods of water (Lake Missoula floods and the Bonneville Flood) are world-famous topics among geologists. To have both sets of floods
Hiking Drumheller Channels Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail There are scads of hiking trails all through Drumheller Channels National Natural Landmark. On a cloudy day in early June we
Washington State Geological Survey is collecting, analyzing, and publicly distributing detailed information about our state’s geology using the best available technology – LIDAR – an acronym for Light Detection And Ranging.
Spring may have been when a roughly seven-mile-wide asteroid struck the Earth, immediately triggering the mass extinction that would wipe out 76 percent of known species. That key piece of
Lake Missoula filled many times and emptied catastrophically in many Missoula Floods. Rhythmite sequences [a series of repeated beds of similar origin] at numerous localities provide this evidence: slack-water rhythmites
Dry Falls Kayaking Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail Most Pacific Northwesterners know how awesomely majestic and stunningly beautiful Dry Falls is, if only from the pictures that seem to
During the last ice age, which route was taken by the first humans to reach the Americas, and did they travel by foot, boat or both? Humans first arrived in
Palagonite Maar Just west of Hood River is a distinctive, short (<500 m) section of stratified orangeish oxidized volcanic tephra and highly fractured lava bombs. This mixture of oxidized volcanic particles ranging down to sub-micrometer
Do you ever hear the Led Zepplin song “Kashmir” in your head when contemplating the Ice Age Floods? “I am a traveler of both time and space. To be where
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