




IAFI Events
Explore and Discover How Our Amazing Region was Formed!
Field Trips, Presentations and Other Events are designed to educate, entertain and leave you with a sense of “wow” along with providing fascinating information about the Ice Age Floods.







Ice Age Floods Institute Events Inspire, Encourage Exploration, Offer Friendship and Involvement
The Bonneville Flood was one of the largest floods on Earth. First discovered by G.K. Gilbert in the 1870s during his inspection of the outlet at Red Rock Pass, Idaho, it was rediscovered in the 1950s by Harold Malde and coworkers, leading to mapping and assessment of spectacular flood features along Marsh Creek, Portneuf River, and Snake River for over 1100 kilometers between the outlet and Lewiston, Idaho. The cataclysmic flood - from the rapid 115-meter drop of pluvial Lake Bonneville from the Bonneville level to the Provo level - was nearly 200 meters deep in places and flowed at a maximum rate of about 1 million cubic meters per second — about 100 times greater than any historical Snake River flood. Along its route the Bonneville Flood carved canyons and cataract complexes and built massive boulder bars. These flood features have been a rich source for understanding megaflood processes. Yet it still offers much more with new and developing techniques for hydrodynamic modeling and landscape analysis.

Field Trips and Hikes are led by amateur and professional Geologists with new and amazing information to share. They are fun, exciting and informative outdoor adventures for the entire Family to enjoy!
Visit our Activities Event Calendar below for IAFI Field Trips, Hikes and other activities in your area, and go have a great time!
We offer indoor Presentations, especially popular when heat or cold make outdoor Field Trips too uncertain or uncomfortable. Many Presentations are available via Zoom.
We also offer programs for schools, senior centers and similar organizations to educate and stimulate minds about the Ice Age Floods.

Other Events such as meetings, festivals, conventions and gatherings, with various public and private organizations, help us tell the story of the Ice Age Floods, Geology, Wildlife and History.
We often have our ‘Store in a Box‘ at these types of events where people can view and purchase IAFI merchandise.

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 the story of cataclysmic outburst floods that shaped the landscape of the Pacific Northwest during the last ice age. With

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 below West Bar, tries to tell the story of sequential megafloods coming to Wenatchee area by different routes at different

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 going back to 14,000 years ago. While he didn’t elaborate, it would be very interesting to have these stories shared as first-hand

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 massive cataract. Video produced by Bruce Bjornstad, Ice Age Floodscapes

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 at 60 mph, carrying truck-size boulders and house-size icebergs. Reaching Portland, water loaded with gravel and dirt roils to a

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 along the Ice Age Floods path. The wildflower displays are amazing during the Spring, but several compelling flood-related features are

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 near the small town of Withrow, the future site of which had been partly hedged in by the Okanagan lobe

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 years show a catastrophic 27.5 million year pulse in eight clusters of world-changing geologic events over geologically small timespans. This