Title: The%20Great%20Floods%20of%20Glacial%20Lakes
1The Great Floods of Glacial Lakes
2Colonnades of Columbia Plateau basalt.
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4Rocks cascading into a lake left by a glacierin
the Canadian Rockies
5CORDILLERAN ICE SHEET - GLACIAL MISSOULA
COLUMBIA LAKES
- Cordilleran Ice Sheet -- 4000 feet thick
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7How Glaciers Move
8- Large rocks (till) at the base of a glacier that
have been plucked from the terrain as the ice
moved over it.
9The Cordilleran Ice Sheet south into northern
Washington, Idaho, and Montana MISSOULA
COLUMBIA LAKES
10- Ice Age 15,000 and 12,800 y.a.
- Near end of the Pleistocene Epoch
11CORDILLERAN ICE SHEET LOBES
- Purcell Lobe blocked the Clark Fork River forming
Lake Missoula Channeled Scabland - Okanogan Lobe blocked the Columbia River (at
Grand Coulee Dam) forming Glacial Lake Columbia
(Grand Coulee, Banks Lake, Steamboat Rock, Dry
Falls, Moses Coulee) - The Puget Lobe scoured the Puget Sound
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13PURCELL LOBE ICE DAM
- Blocked Clark Fork River
- (Idaho-Montana border)
14- Created Glacial Lake Missoula
- Covering 7,800 square kilometers
- (western Montana)
- PURCELL LOBE
15- PURCELL LOBE ICE DAM
- Contained more water than Lakes Erie Ontario
combined - Held 2,000 square km. of water
- Approximately 600 meters deep
16- 1st Lake Missoula floated the Ice Dam
- Ice dam, merely a small section of the lobe
- three miles long
- ten miles across
- 2,000 feet tall
PURCELL LOBE
171st Lake Missoula floated the Ice Dam
- When the water behind the dam became deep enough
- southern finger of the vast ice sheet
- popped up like ice cubes in a glass of lemonade
18- 2nd Burst through the Clark Fork Canyon
- Ten times combined flow of all the rivers of the
world
PURCELL LOBE
19THE FIRST FRONT OF THE FLOOD
- Mass of water, debris, and ice 2,000 feet high
- Raced toward the ocean at 65 miles per hour
PURCELL LOBE
20THE FIRST FRONT OF THE FLOOD
- Inundating 16,000 sq. miles hundreds of feet
deep - Quickly stripped 200 feet of soil
- PURCELL LOBE
21- Such catastrophic floods etched coulees now known
as the Channeled Scablands in eastern Washington
where water velocities were highest
PURCELL LOBE
22STOPPED AT WALLULA GAP
Left scabs or erosion remnants of
Basalt PURCELL LOBE
23STOPPED AT WALLULA GAP
- Several weeks 200 cubic miles of water per day to
a gap that could discharge less than 40 cubic
miles per day. - PURCELL LOBE
24STOPPED AT WALLULA GAP
- Water filled the Pasco basin, Yakima and Touchet
Valleys forming temporary Lake Lewis - PURCELL LOBE
25 FINAL STAGES OF THE FLOOD
The torrent widened and deepened the Columbia
River Gorge, baring the majestic cliffs seen
today PURCELL LOBE
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27- Pushed back and reversed the flow of the Snake
River all the way past Lewiston, Idaho.
PURCELL LOBE
28- Temporary lakes formed in the Scablands and silt,
sand, and gravel settled out of the water.
PURCELL LOBE
29- Channeled Scablands
- The very dark areas
- lakes and rivers
30Missoula Floods
Picked apart the bedrock, and carved an immense
channel system into the land PURCELL LOBE
31Where did all the loess, dirt, sand, gravel and
silt end up? Some of the material were
deposited in the Willamette Valley in Oregon
32Flood Debris
Iceberg deposit (glacial erratic)
The flood ripped away huge boulders from the
underlying lava rock and carried or floated them
Photo compliments of the National Park Service
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34FINAL STAGES OF THE FLOOD
Each time Lake Missoula emptied the Purcell lobe
continued its southerly progression
- Formed a new dam
- Causing the lake to refill
- Resulting in a new flood
- Average of every 55 years or so for 2,000 years!
35FINAL STAGES OF THE FLOOD
- Piles of rocks left behind near Eugene were
brought by icebergs broken off the original ice
dam formed by the Purcell lobe of the Cordilleran
Ice Sheet
36Flood Debris
Up to 40 times
Many layers of glacial lake sediments are found
situated on top of one another each layer
represents a separate filling of the lake
37FINAL STAGES OF THE FLOOD
- Not far from the present day site of Portland,
the river makes two 90 degree turns. - Ice and debris formed a temporary dam causing the
floodwaters to spill into the Willamette Valley
as far south as present day Eugene
38Looking at the evidence
Ancient shorelines on Mt. Jumbo Missoula, MT
39Ancient shorelines on Mt. JumboMissoula, MT
- The highest known shorelines are found at an
elevation of 4,200 feet.
40Camas Prairie ripple marks
13-30 feet these ripple marks would dwarf any
ordinary ripple mark
41OKANOGAN LOBE
- Lake Columbia --
- across Spokane
- Cut deep canyons, or coulees in bedrock
42- Coulee south of Coulee City.
- Unlike the Grand Canyon, which was eroded by a
river, the coulees of Washington were carved out
by Ice Age floods.
Okanogan Lobe
43DRY FALLSby John Knapp
http//www.bmi.net/knapp/whitman.html
44Dry FallsEastern Washington
Three one-half miles wide, Dry Falls is five
times the width of Niagara Falls
Photo compliments of the National Park Service
Okanogan Lobe
45OKANOGAN LOBE
-
- Soap Lake today is known as Dry Falls
- Skeleton of one of the greatest waterfalls
Okanogan Lobe
46OKANOGAN LOBE
Dry Falls is 3.5 miles wide with a drop of over
400 ft.
47OKANOGAN LOBE
- Two Major North South Grand Coulees
- Larger Upper Coulee -a river over an 800 ft.
waterfall 4 miles Wide 20 miles Long - Lower Coulee is 7 m long and about 1 mile
wide - Eroding power took pieces of Basalt rock causing
the falls to retreat 20 miles and self-destruct - (where Grand Coulee Dam is today)
Okanogan Lobe
48Grand Coulee
49Okanogan Lobe
- This is a view below and down the channel at
- Palouse Falls.
- Can you imagine the amount of water it took to
carve out this canyon?
50PUGET LOBE
51- The Puget Lobe from the Glacier -
- Seattle under a mile of ice
- Glacier left marks on both the
- Cascade and Olympic mountain ranges.
52PUGET LOBE
- 15,000 y.a.
- 1 mile thick
- Gouged/Scarred Puget Sound lowlands
- Cascades on east
- Olympics and Vancouver Island west
53Puget Lobe
- 13, 500 y.a. receded
- Melting snow/ice water runoff
- Caused
- Pacific Ocean to rise
- Flooded Puget Sound Trough
- irregular coastline
- Numerous islands
54Bibliography
- Alt, David. Glacial Lake Missoula and Its
Humongous Floods. Mountain Press Publishing
Company, 2003. - Alt, David and Donald W. Hyndman. Northwest
Exposures A Geologic Story of the Northwest.
Mountain Press Publishing Company, 1995.
55Bibliography
- Durr, Gerald. Evidence of the Flood in Franklin
County. July 17, 2003 lthttp//www.nwcreation.net/a
rticles/evidenceoftheflood.htmlgt - Knapp, John. John Knapps Art Gallery . Dry
Falls, Washington. July 5, 2003.
lthttp//www.bmi.net/knapp/whitman.htmlgt