Uploaded March 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Several photos in this video are from hugefloods.com, an amazing resource for all things Missoula Floods!
Likewise, Lake Missoula map from the paper "Erratics and Other Evidence of Late Wisconsin Missoula Outburst Floods in Lower Wenatchee and Adjacent Columbia Valleys, Washington" by Waitts, Long, and Stanton (2019).
Support me on Ko-fi: ko-fi.com/bettergeology
~ Follow me on Twitter @BetterGeology and Instagram @DunningGeology ~
The Missoula Floods have long been known as one of the most important events in recent geologic history of the Northwest. Their story begins in Idaho, where a lobe of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet advanced and dammed the Clark Fork River, filling up a lake 600 meters deep, 320 km long, and containing 2100 cubic km of water. Between 40 and 90 times over 2,000 years, this ice dam collapsed sending a cataclysmic torrent of water across the Columbia Plateau of Washington and Oregon. These floods scoured the land to bare basalt bedrock, deposited huge bars of gravel, and carved out landmarks including the Columbia Gorge and Palouse Falls.
Palouse Falls is a scenic stop in eastern Washington that also tells the tale of these enormous floods. Learn more here on BetterGeology!
Several photos in this video are from hugefloods.com, an amazing resource for all things Missoula Floods!
Likewise, Lake Missoula map from the paper "Erratics and Other Evidence of Late Wisconsin Missoula Outburst Floods in Lower Wenatchee and Adjacent Columbia Valleys, Washington" by Waitts, Long, and Stanton (2019).
Support me on Ko-fi: ko-fi.com/bettergeology
~ Follow me on Twitter @BetterGeology and Instagram @DunningGeology ~
The Missoula Floods have long been known as one of the most important events in recent geologic history of the Northwest. Their story begins in Idaho, where a lobe of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet advanced and dammed the Clark Fork River, filling up a lake 600 meters deep, 320 km long, and containing 2100 cubic km of water. Between 40 and 90 times over 2,000 years, this ice dam collapsed sending a cataclysmic torrent of water across the Columbia Plateau of Washington and Oregon. These floods scoured the land to bare basalt bedrock, deposited huge bars of gravel, and carved out landmarks including the Columbia Gorge and Palouse Falls.
Palouse Falls is a scenic stop in eastern Washington that also tells the tale of these enormous floods. Learn more here on BetterGeology!
![Geology of the Alvord Desert | Oregon Geology - 4K [CC]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xYUxSZgL1p8/mqdefault.jpg "Geology of the Alvord Desert | Oregon Geology - 4K [CC]
–––These videos take a lot of work. Consider supporting me on Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/bettergeology –––
The Alvord Desert is Oregons largest dry lake bed, and it is at the center of a fascinating geologic story. It sits in the shadow of Steens Mountain, one of Oregons highest mountains which towers more than 5,000 feet above the lake bed and creates the rain shadow needed to maintain Alvords desert-like conditions. Steens Mountain was uplifted over the past 10 million years along the Steens Fault, and more than 3,000 meters of total offset has occurred in that time. Alvord Desert filled the graben that that fault system created. Above Alvord Desert in Pike Creek, older volcanic rocks can be seen which reflect an interesting volcanic environment which produced highly-evolved rhyolite lava shortly before the massive outpouring of the Steens Basalts (part of the Columbia River Basalt Group) blanketed Oregon. These older volcanic rocks of the Pike Creek Volcanics also contain some of Oregons few uranium mines. Uranium was concentrated in old fault zones, and the presence of heavy metals shows that the Steens Fault extends very deep into the Earth. This deep structure is also what allows the numerous hot springs (Alvord Hot Springs, Mickey Hot Springs, and Borax Lake) to reach the surface.
This video was filmed by and with camera gear provided by Riley Hooper, who can be found over at Wogos Media.
The data for the Columbia River Basalt dikes is from Morriss et al, 2020 paper The Chief Joseph dike swarm of the Columbia River flood basalts, and the legacy data set of William H. Taubeneck published in Geosphere. https://doi.org/10.1130/GES02173.1")
