CWU's Nick Zentner wonders what Moses Coulee looked like before the Ice Age Floods in central Washington. Rock Island Creek: goo.gl/maps/o2fnKZBN7pwwhjPP8
You will never work a day in your life if you enjoy the career you have chosen. When you love what you do its easy to excel at it. Your a great teacher Nick. Thanks
Love LOVE that J. H. Bretz is getting this well-deserved recognition and respect from not just a wonderful professor, but from all of us as his avid fans and students. 👍
I hope you know just how much your intellectual curiosity is appreciated by us here! Your virtual "field trips" bring the science of geology to life as does your sense of humor about it all.Thanks for also exploring the work of J.Harlan Bretz in depth with us and giving a geological scientific pioneer his due. I think most of us could expect that maybe some of his original ideas (of 100 years ago!!!) turned out to be erroneous, but he worked in a time without GPS, LIDAR, ground penetrating radar, earth satellites, drones, SUV's ,or most of the technology we take for granted today. It seems that he was much more correct with his observations and ideas than many of his more modern colleagues.
I remember some years back when I first explored Moses Coulee, after having visited The Grand Coulee, and I immediately sensed that something was much different about Moses. I recall coming by your office the following week and asking you what was up with Moses and you essentially replied, "Don't know!" You asked me what I noticed, and what popped out to me is that Moses is farmable where other nearby Coulee's don't seem to have a lot of soil, and certainly not enough to grow much of anything. A few years back, after graduating, I spent half a day at the very top of Moses pondering how it came to be and I could never truly connect it in my mind to the Missoula Floods; nothing about that potential connection made any sense to me. It truly makes my heart so happy to find out that I was on to something, even if I didn't have the knowledge at the time to put my finger on it. Moses is, by far, my favorite Coulee out there; if you want a walking partner for any of your summer missions, please give me a shout, sir!
As a inhabitant of the Moses coulee I do so enjoy your talks sir!! Thankfully for the floods means the Moses coulee grows some great produce!!! Cherries apricots apples hay and garden veggies!
Chief Moses and his father Sulkstathscosum had their own gardens here in Moses Coulee in the early to late 1800's. Once the fur trade came to the Columbia Plateau, growing crops became more prevalent amongst The People. .
I live in Wenatchee and drive by there often. Moses Coulee has always confused me. Where the inflow occurs is not entirely clear to me and the stranded bar at the mouth is baffling. Grand Coulee is dramatic but Moses Coulee is intriguing!
This UCD physiologist is enjoying your excitement in this aha moment. It all fits! Loved the term anastomosing ; that’s from my field. And the map shows that. Certainly you get the J Harlen Bretz award for revelation of the scabland genealogy. You rock and I’m happy to have found you.
It feels like the exploratory enthusiasm Bretz must have had watching this continuing series of videos! Have a feeling Nick could do a professional OPB like documentary on Bretz that would capture a casual audiences imagination with his story, and what we have learned over the time since then. Really enjoying the videos in this series!
I love that you are doing this. Taking articles from the past and giving them a new look is super. This summer adventure, where you are learning for yourself what you believe is true, is an outstanding way to spend your summer "break." I had a colleague in the SS department that liked to say that he enjoyed acquiring knowledge just for the sake of the knowledge. That is answer enough for the people who ask why you are doing this. I am a retired teacher and geologist in central Ohio's pancake geology and thoroughly enjoy following you on this adventure.
I’m watching this with google earth open, realizing the Bretz had this figured out while down in Moses Coulee. I drove through the Moses Coulee on Thursday, and I’m in complete awe at how he put all this together one hundred years ago without the tools we have available today.
How often over the years have we "known" something to be true, that we find later was not so true, and those that were laughed at along the way were more right than was believed at the time. Maybe a long list there... So as to why are you doing this, when we "know" it's wrong, I would answer, "because I'm not so sure he was wrong." Thanks for these videos, Nick. Great stuff.
This is great stuff, Nick. I spent 30 years doing similar summer work - not geological, as I know little to nothing about formal geology - but going back through the exercises of the just-ended academic year, revising lessons, exams, looking for additional / different reading for me and my students, etc. I bristled, too, at the suggestion that I was "doing nothing" every summer. Twice, I retraced the Oregon Trail in detail, at my own expense, during summers of "doing nothing," to gather materials and data for the next year's unit on "the frontier." As for the treatment of Bretz, heresy is never welcomed by zealots and true believers in whatever the orthodox theology / science is at the time - human history is filled with examples of thoughtful people who were "ambushed" by some of their peers for thinking unconventional thoughts. I look forward to my next trip to Washington to experience more of the landscape.
Reading academic papers on their own is informative (which is why people publish papers and we learn) but reading a paper and seeing what the author wrote about is a whole different world. I appreciate what you are doing. I'm not a geologist, I have no horses in this race, I just love hearing and learning about my state and how the landscapes I love to see came about. Thanks, Nick, for bringing us along, for sharing your learning with us all. And shame on those other geologists. You should never stop learning, for one, and you never know what new information, such as Rock Island Valley, you will glean from old work.
The quality of most of the comments that accompany this video reflects the quality of the content you are providing. The energy of your engagement with this exploration of Bretz' work is inspiring and there should be many well-informed and interesting questions the viewers come up with when you get to the Ice Age Floods A to Z series. Very much enjoying this series of "In the Field" videos!
Setting the record straight is never time wasted Nick. You have a very pleasant way of being able to tie the human story together with the pages of the book of geology as we find them and the fragments of the pages. One day the Book of Earth will be more complete - but never finished - and the stories of the people involved in finding the missing pages and fragments is just as fascinating as the Book of Earth itself.
This geologist appreciates your study and interest in the topic. I confess, having gone to school in NW Ohio and NE Indiana, home of "pancake stratigraphy" and glaciation meant the billiard table flat bottom of what once Lake Erie, the very word "Pleistocene" gave me chills. Any kind of geomorphology just seemed boring. But that was then. Now, in retirement, I find it all more interesting as the overwhelming sense of time is oddly becoming clearer to me. The beauty of aging, I guess.
Curiosity, diligence, and tenacity are sometimes underappreciated. Bretz's work, at the very least, is a testament to the importance of those qualities. Tracing his footsteps and sharing his work is giving a greater understanding of the J. Harlen Bretz, the person which in turn gives more insight to J. Harlen Bretz, the explorer. Thank you for taking us on this journey Nick. I believe Bretz would be flattered.
Keeping an open mind is such a blessing and gift and yet such a difficult thing to maintain. Approaching controversial subjects with total humility while assiduously keeping defensive walls away can lead to wonderful vistas previously hidden by prejudice and assumption. I salute your journey and thank you for sharing it, wherever it leads. I have spent much time on the Douglas Plateau and the scablands and find Bretz's analysis compelling and believable. Please continue. I am with you. Jess
Thanks Nick, very insightful view of the terrain by you thru Bretz. Glad also to hear that you get overwhelmed by the scientific papers as do I. Read, take a break, read, process what I read, take a break. Getting through the 87 papers on Baja-BC took me months! Because of you I "see" landscapes. Maybe not the correct way, but they are not just hills and valleys anymore.
What a life you have, Nick! Thanks for taking us on another visit to the magestic landscapes all around you. Who could want for anything more? Your walks rather remind me of the UK TV series on landscapes that we were treated to by Aubrey Manning, which I'm sure you would enjoy in breaks from your reading: 'Earth Story', 'Landscape Mysteries', and 'Talking Landscapes'. Sadly, he died in 2018, but he left behind a legacy of beautiful little bite sized field trips with a message, like yours. If only he'd had all the modern tech wonders to take on his 'day's off too'. He'd have needed an umbrella most days, here though! (I always had one sticking out of my rucksack: much better than any outdoor waterproofs of the time, and essential for getting behind while trying to eat sandwiches and check the map in a force 10! :) Your Bretz stories, also remind me of our William Smith's struggles to both make a living, and develop a UK geology map at the same time, while not being a 'gentleman of means' like most of the members of the UK's learned societies of the time. Wikipedia tells us he wasn't actually treated as badly as made out in the 'The Map that Changed the World' biography, by Simon Winchester, but he still had to spend time in debtor's prison, despite all his survey work for the landed gentry, and their mining and canal projects! He did eventually get the recognition he deserved, and a pension from the king. Well woth reading about if you are not familliar with the story. One thing I was wondering about, when you talk of the landscape 'before the Ice Age' is where all the water came from in the interglacials, to make such a deeply cut landscape of river and stream valleys, when there might have been a 'rain shadow' from the mountains to the west, just as there is now? Keep them coming. (You must have really strong ankles walking along steep talus slopes all the time!).
I'm really glad to have come across your brilliant geological work while viewing my interest in Rattlesnakes here on youtube. As a retired equipment operator I have always been in awe of the structure of our geologic past and formations. Furthermore, I can conceptualize what you are speaking to as you have a very understandable teaching ability. You are truly in your element. Love your "Summer School" dedication with a slight rebel approach.. Thanxx 😎
You are literally in my backyard with this one Nick! Fun to see this through your eyes today, and the eyes of Bretz 100 years ago. You had some great shots in this one! The uplift factor is something I have been trying to visualize and incorporate into my thinking for a while now, and it would be helpful learn that timeline more solidly and to cement it in my mind going forward. Thinking of all the factors at play in geological processes seems to require a bit of a 4-D chess mind, LOL. Thanks for taking us along on your field trips Nick!
Nick you up early for a Saturday Morning. Love the topic. I just found a paper that J.H. Bretz released in 1943 this week. Keewatin End Moraines In Alberta ,Canada. Geog.Soc. America Bull. v 54. Something Local for me.I hope to make some time this week to start reading this paper. Cheers from Red Deer Alberta.
> You do not have access to this content, please speak to your institutional administrator if you feel you should have access. Bummer. Is there anywhere else to access the paper other the GSA? Did find a paper that cites this one: Surficial Geologyof the Wainwright Area (EastHalf) by L. A. Bayrock (Luboslaw Antin), Research Council of Alberta, 1967 His obituary is published in the Alberta Archaeological Review, Spring 1991
@@RoyPierce-fb8mt I had the same experience. No access. I can find lots of interesting geology papers online but am blocked from reading beyond the first page. Love that Nock shares so many with us on his website.
Keep it going Nick, I know many of us are really enjoying keeping up with this story. You have motivated me to go out in my area and discover and learn more about the local Geology.
Your earlier video prompted me to go look at the other end of Moses Coulee. I took US2 to road L and turned north. About at road 3 I went through the terminal moraine, (non basalts appeared on the side of the road) and the landscape turns more glacial. At road 11 turn left and drive between the wheat fields until you come to the edge of the upper Coulee. There you can see striations on the other side of the coulee. Glacial, or did someone try to farm that long ago? Also there is a wide flat-bottomed valley leading into the coulee, and that valley had rounded corners, it wasn't cut by fast moving water. Then down into the coulee, it's not very deep here, and turn north again and there are two spectacular scours. They look like dimples on the map. The don't really look like a waterfall made them, but maybe a whirlpool could have drilled them out. The northern one overflowed into the southern one at some point. But where did the water come from? Above them there are wheat fields, no flood water washed the soil away. The top of the scours are above the valley floor, the water had to come from above. Off the top of the glacier? Out of the face of the glacier? That's my thinking at the moment. Heading north on Road I again the coulee rapidly gets shallower and becomes a flat-bottomed valley with low ridges running down it. No sharp edges, so slow moving water, or was a tongue of the glacier down here? The coulee ends, fades into to plateau landscape just south of highway 172, AKA road 14. There is no trace of Moses coulee visible from 172, no sign what must have been exciting times only three miles south. Further east there is a drainage way across 172, but from the overheads I really don't see a path from there to Moses coulee. Nor is it that deep. One other note, Douglas county has road corner signs in some of the oddest places. In the middle of absolutely nowhere a cheerful green sign announces you are at the corner of roads # and letter. 😊
When teaching my teenage son to drive about six months ago, he is required by the state of Washington to have 50 hours of instructed driving. That's a long time! In trying to knock this out, I had him driving up and down Moses Coulee many times. Being in the passenger seat afforded me ample time to star in awe and amazement at the vertical walls there. I need to see and study more of it. Tom in Wenatchee
Really appreciate you taking your time to guide us through the interpretation of the land both from your perspective and Bretz's. Thank you, for all you do, especially exposing us to these old, and yet meaningful papers..
At last! We're now hearing discussion of what must have happened during 14 million tears of uplift, folding, and erosion following the cooling of the final basalt flow and the arrival of Pleistocene ice sheets around 2 million years ago. (Probably pretty boring.) Then that original drainage pattern was reworked by repeated ice flows Those obvious hanging valleys associated with adjoining triangular facets as seen in Moses Coulee are evidence the work of glaciers/ice sheets, combined with lots of water, to profoundly alter the ancient landscape. J Harlen Bretz provides wonderful discussions of all of that history based on his careful field work ; I look forward to reading every word. Thanks for posting the Bretz papers!
One of the things I've always wondered since I started looking at this region was how much of this terrain was altered during the, I think it was 4-5+ ice ages in the last 2.5 million years. Spokane was much larger than Wisconsin, but how big were the other 2 or 3. Nice to see Bretz saying a lot of it was Spokane era, not Wisconsin, but it would be practically impossible to know if even that was right since Spokane and Wisconsin events would erase most of the evidence of the previous events. However, the previous events should be considered.
Keep up the good work. Enjoy your summer. We appreciate your geology presentations. Also thanks to taking us to the country side showing us these locations.
Truly amazing how he figured that out on foot so long ago and wrote it all down with drawings and all. It will bend your mind trying to picture these things thru out time. Just as amazing is how those in charge, hold society back with their inadequate brains. Truly a Greek tragedy. I would say enjoy your summer Nick, but I'm sure you will. 🤠
I love your coverage. I spent years and countless gallons of fuel exploring central Washington from Lake Wenatchee to soap Lake. 😊 . There is nothing that gives me the peaceful feeling of timelessness like Moses Coulee
I started looking for some info on the floods as soon as I moved to Spokane in '86 and first heard the story. I thought I knew it all and then the internet came along and I wanted to know more, and you and your videos came along and a couple of years ago I found one on the Missoula Floods. I was immediately hooked on your style of teaching and have watched nearly everything you have out there. Now I'm buying books on geology and branching out to other areas that I travel in, Oregon, California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado and I appreciate your "travel" lessons, as well. You have been an inspiration to me and I want to thank you. Carry on...
I read, have owned his book "Caves of Missouri" when I was a budding spunker. 12 years old, living in St. Louis. My first experience with his research. One reason I studied Geology. You have brought me such insight into his research. Truly one of the pioneers in Geology/Geomorphology. Castigated in his day for his theories about the Missoula Floods. Thanks for your insight about the vast fieldwork and research he did. 👍
The size and scale in person is just jaw dropping and no video or google map layer will ever truly give that. Congratz on putting something like this together.
Summers off...I'm grinning 😊 This is fun! You have the whole year off! Doing what you love and are interested in! There's a old saying that your usually good at what you like to do and if you can make a living at it you'll likely be quite satisfied. I can't imagine a more meaningful subject than what was before and how the change happened. It's the ultimate who done it! With double the intrigue. As always!!! THANK NICK!!!!!
You have found what all should hope for, a job that you love doing to the point it doesn't feel like a job. Enjoy your continued explorations as we enjoy tagging along to learn all we can.
I’m thoroughly sucked into this info. As a western side of the state kid in the 80s, I never heard a peep about the amazing story of these areas. I feel like a school kid again!! I’m learning so much, and can’t get enough!! Thank you for making learning fun again!!!!
Love this... Perhaps for context, and in relation to the "ambush meeting," just what was the "thesis" prevailing theory that provided the context of the "ambush." It is obvious they feared him or they wouldn't have gone to all the trouble...
Nick, Exploring the mysteries of ancient earth is a full time job. You have a joyful and energetic life. You share your happiness with a hungry public. We love science.
Thank you for showing us a visual. It makes another connection. I hope you continue to share with us. And remember the saying, "If you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life."
It shows your job is never gonna be done you're gonna still discovered and give information. What Eastern Washington was even before millions of years he left a good work
I’m sitting at Grand Coulee Dam waiting for the laser light show after scouting around Moses Coulee today to see all you have been talking about, great stuff and fun to follow, thanks!
Many thanks Nick for this one. I have a better understanding of what you are doing now and the journey you are on. It is pretty amazing to me to think about Bretz detailing what he saw a hundred years ago, and seeing things with new eyes. The detail that he was able to glean in that short period of time is amazing. - cheers
Nick- I love your 4 demensional thinking on this (x, y, z, and time). It is like your are looking at Michaleanglo's David (completed statue) and looking at a big block of marble and trying to backtrack on how the statue was carved. Figuring our all of the forces that were used sequenceually over time (backwards in time) to deconstruct how the statue was carved. Amazing work!
Thank you for clarifying this as it was troubling me (Comment; previous video). The numerous ice melts (Dansgaard-Oeschger events?) must have resulted in significant valleys being formed long before the major flood events ripped out the Coulees we now know. By the way your dedication is extraordinary. Thank you.
I would think (as an interested layman) that a lot depends on the melting processes. If it is a gradual meltback with no mega floods involved then the errosional processes would be similiar to what we see today. But if the melt water gets confined in a catchment basin. Whether by terrain features, high terminal moraine features or ice damming of mountain valleys. That melt water is going to do one of several things. 1) Form a "permanent" lake. The Great Lakes are a good example. And no lake is permanent. 2) Breach its confining terrain feature and drain either completely or leave behind a small remnant lake. Lake Winnipeg is a good example. 3) Breach its confining ice dam and drain completely. One thing that does bother me about ice dams is the pressure exerted at the base of the dam and just how well does it resist penetration by water under great pressure. Lake Missoula at its greatest depth exerted considerable pressure on the ice at its area of contact with the bed rock. And what was filling Missoula. Melt water from mountain glaciers? Melt water of winter snows and run off from summer percipatation? And were the mountains surrounding Missoula shrouded in ice? There is one possible source for a mega flood today. The catastrophic failure of a very large and high hydroelectric dam. Let's hope Three Gorges or Aswan do not fail.
Fascinating review. In 1946 in the family car we drove from Vancouver to Calgary through WA State. I was ten then and it was a hundred degrees when going through Moses Coulee and someone wondered why it wasn't called "Moses Hotee". 1957 was "International Geophysical Year" and I completed a BSc. in geology and geophysics in 1962 at UBC. Enjoy your clearly presented reviews. And yes--Bretz had a struggle to get his work reviewed and accepted.
This is an interesting path, and I've joined you in reading more about Bretz and his work. And driving out to see where you're putting thoughts together, as well. Thank you, Nick.
An ice sheet of that immense size, 1000-2000 metres thick must have had long glaciers that extended well south of the edge of the ice sheet. Perhaps 10’s of km that flowed down the valleys.
Thank you! I'm enjoying this journey with you. I'm not a geologist. Just someone who is curious and fell down a rabbit hole. I spent time in the Pacific Northwest in the 80's after Mt. St. Helens working on Mt. Ranier with the NPS and fell in love with the area. Thanks for being on vacation, lol.
When you posted this I was headed to PNW-NAGT in Vancouver. Missed having you there. I took Hwy 17 home on Saturday. Really brings home the flood story when you can see it in person.
More than just a website, A secure website. Thanks Nick, Love this journey through the Bretz mind castle. Reading the story lets me see the land through his eyes. Was it warmer and wetter then, prior to the time of the big ice? Has anyone drawn pre ice age maps of the area? It seems it could be guessed? What can the loess tell us? Is it uniform? The surface is "bioturbated", right? But there was an earlier surface, with evidence of pre flood botany? What animals lived there?
I can see the fun in noting what Bretz got wrong, while simultaneously, acknowledging the thorough vastness of his research and how his findings have changed traditional thoughts on how multiple and various ice age events carved the earth into what we see today.
Thank you very much Nick. I have seen most of your videos. But now I can imagine the floods. Before I still had doubts about all that basalt taken away just at the end of the last glacial period. Greetings from Germany
Thank you. Thank you for finding and willingly exploring the work of Bretz from 100 years ago.... Thank you for taking summers off. My nephew lives in Washington State, I live on the flat ocean planes of the east coast, Delaware to be exact... Nothing nearly as exciting in a geographical sense as the landscape in Washington State, Mid and Southern Idaho and some of Northern Oregon. Hope you enjoy your summer off :-)
I have seen similar features along the Columbia River near Priest Rapids Dam. Mega Floods were like bulldozers, cutting, moving, depositing material. Older drainage valleys entered side of Columbia River. Anticline building event raised existing side creeks higher. Ice Age Floods change main channel. Today we scratch our heads in wonder.
It looks like a lot of the topography was created by the glacier itself and not the floods. Yes the accumulation of sediment seems to be meltwater caused but the valley shapes are more indicative of glacial carving.
Your interview with crime pays but botany doesn't is awesome. Would be the bees knees if you two could ever take a hike through the gorge or to one of our PNW volcanoes together! The knowledge and scenery would make a great documentary.
Thanks for explaining the hanging valleys the way you do. It makes sense now. Keep telling this part of the story. It really does make so more sense now hearing this part of the story.
Fun! Thanks again, Nick, for taking us along on another geohike! It really helps to point out this before and after. So lucky you have areas like this to illustrate the possible events still intact. In my area it is more likely all this would be carved up and covered with houses.....
There’s always questioning and resistance and sometimes resentment towards people that go against the grain or conventional theories or fact. Thank you Nick for sharing Bertz work!
The Rock Island Grade road has called to me as i drive past it since 1978. But I don't explore dirt roads alone. I am short with little car knowledge. That was well before cell phones to call for help. I've always wanted to see what was up that road. Roads call to me in many places to go see what is there. Even when I had outdoor people in my life they would refuse to just go see. Now you have shown me and given me the knowledge I would have needed to understand what I was seeing. When my daughter gets free time and is home from college I will beg her to take me in her FJ. Now I live just a few miles from that road. Thank you for taking us there. Without me asking you are answering all my wonderings about our coulees and the floods. About the hanging valleys. About my doubts that the Missoula floods couldn't take all the basalt away. And that dry falls flood waters couldn't have filled the grand coulee to the top levels. So I have a new question! Did the uplift of the anticlines cause the shear basalt cliffs along with normal valley water erosion. The erosion would have started as the basalt started cooling. So has the process of creating the coulees been going on for 15 ma ? With me an answer at times leads to more questions, lol. Thanks for this video! And for continuing to ponder the floods.
If your daughter has an FJ that is decently/reasonably equipped for off-roading and the time, you should try to explore Douglas Creek Canyon! Beautiful valley, with an old railway grade in it and several creek crossings that aren't very deep (normally only a couple of inches) during the summer months. Base on what I'm hearing Nick say, the middle/upper Douglas Creek valley should be a decent (albeit smaller) example of what Moses Coulee looked like pre-iceage flooding.
@@janacke11 I took my 85 Subaru up Douglas creek a lot in the 80s. A friend of my children was murdered up there in the early 90s, we haven't gone since. But I agree it is much like what nick showed of rock island creek today. My daughter's FJ has the full deluxe of road package. She made sure of that when she bought it in 21. Her first FJ didn't have that. And I mentioned the road to hubby this morning, he knows where it is. He sounds like he would take me, so maybe this week.
Hello nick, i`m a 62 year old geology enthusiast that has gotten swept up in this ice age floods, I live in Elk Wa and by looking at google maps terrain mode which is kinda like Lidar and i have discovered a flood route from the pend Oreille river at Newport Wa that flowed west/southwest through Scotia Wa, making what is known now as Scotia gap, plunged down into (and possibly creating a small lake called chain lake) which i believe shows 2 to 3 plunge pools then Carving, and or widening the little Spokane river valley with over land flooding north and east of the little Spokane river valley into the little Spokane river in the Elk Wa area then on south following the little Spokane river to the Spokane river then into the Columbia river, (a side note: I forgot to add at that at the same point and possibly in the same event in Newport Wa a flood event also flowed south through todays highway 41 through Rathdrum prairie/Spokane valley to the Spokane river) I believe this evidence is a results of the Missoula floods but now i`m not sure, Thanks nick i love learning Washington Geology with you.
Another thing to consider with the dynamics of water flowing through the pre-carved valley, is that the water would not only have moved straight through it, but it would have probably also spread out laterally into each one of those carved creek arroyos - at least initially. I wonder how far. Love the content Nick!
Great video! What a detective story this is. I have tried reading Bretz papers on your website but to have the print in the field like you do is unmatched.
Nick, Thank you for taking us along on you adventure of enlightenment. I'm so much enjoying the process of discovery you are experiencing. Love the field work.
Nick, You should get a job with the American Cruise Line. They do 8 day cruises between Clarkston and Astoria. So much to geology to teach. I did my best but wished you were there with us.
An hour after video posted, was able to read comments... as usual some interesting impacts from the video... the effort to follow the development of what was observed before the impact from the opinions of those who were not along on his walks with him makes for a less polluted way to examine the work done. Thanks for doing this in an orderly way... the coming ambush mentioned with an explanation of details of responses will probably be educational.
Once upon a time England and France were connected between Dover and Calais. Then an ice age came and went and during the warming some kind of flood occurred which opened the English Channel. Is there a connection? A warming which happened too quickly and had global repercussions? Perhaps not. But perhaps this winter there could be an A-Z series answering some question while raising multiple new questions.
Nick Zentner loves an unsolved mystery! What if I told you a story that begins in the 1860's. This story is about my Great Great Grandmother, a Native American woman, who along with a a small group of white men and another two Native women found gold. Only one of this group made it out to tell the story, my ancestor. Current maps don't show any mining activity, although there was a significant mine approximately 60 miles away in the closest mountain range. The only activity there now is cattle grazing the surrounding prarie, fisherman and big game hunters, and the occasional paleontologist looking for dinasour fossils. The History of Pipe Woman, as told by her daughter, is out there. It reads like a Historical mini series of Montana. Maybe someday you would like to come to Montana, do a little Walleye fishing and go on a geological adventure! I appreciate the wonderful videos.
Nick, I've enjoyed watching your other videos on different geology topics and have been very interested in the ancient WA floods, since seeing it discussed on the Joe Rogan show. Couple years ago I flew into Pasco and drove to Coeur D'Alene and noticed the landscape but didn't think much about it at the time. A lot of your info goes over my head but a get a little more each time and really like the visual when you colored in the map with the green, blue and red. Thanks
1. Nick, you are the teacher who first sparked my obsession with flood basalt formations after I watched your presentation of "Flood basalts of the Pacific Northwest."" I thank you for that. 2. I am very enthusiastic about mantle plume theory. I wish you could discuss this subject more often. But your field of expertise is geology, not GEO science or volcanology. 3. QUESTION; Although I concur with current theory and your explanation about ice age floods carving out valleys in the Columbia river basalt formation, this formation has been on eastern Washington for 6 to 17 million years. The Pleistocene glaciation has been ongoing for 2.58 million years. There have been theorized glacial advances an average of every 125,000 yrs to 130,000 yrs. Each one has more than likely resulted in post glaciation floods. Some of which could very likely be way more severe than evidence suggests. Is it possible that this formation was much more extensive than current theory suggests? How would we investigate such a hypothesis? 4. ANOTHER QUESTION; Would you ever be able to conduct a long-term field trip to the Siberian traps formation? I can not find very much data on that formation. Thank you, Nick!
You will never work a day in your life if you enjoy the career you have chosen. When you love what you do its easy to excel at it. Your a great teacher Nick. Thanks
I am really enjoying your summer vacation with you and Mr. Bretz!.
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Love LOVE that J. H. Bretz is getting this well-deserved recognition and respect from not just a wonderful professor, but from all of us as his avid fans and students. 👍
Bretz was an amazingly insightful man in his ability to “ see “ how things were before the floods. Thanks Nick for sharing this with us. 🐻
I hope you know just how much your intellectual curiosity is appreciated by us here! Your virtual "field trips" bring the science of geology to life as does your sense of humor about it all.Thanks for also exploring the work of J.Harlan Bretz in depth with us and giving a geological scientific pioneer his due. I think most of us could expect that maybe some of his original ideas (of 100 years ago!!!) turned out to be erroneous, but he worked in a time without GPS, LIDAR, ground penetrating radar, earth satellites, drones, SUV's ,or most of the technology we take for granted today. It seems that he was much more correct with his observations and ideas than many of his more modern colleagues.
I remember some years back when I first explored Moses Coulee, after having visited The Grand Coulee, and I immediately sensed that something was much different about Moses. I recall coming by your office the following week and asking you what was up with Moses and you essentially replied, "Don't know!" You asked me what I noticed, and what popped out to me is that Moses is farmable where other nearby Coulee's don't seem to have a lot of soil, and certainly not enough to grow much of anything. A few years back, after graduating, I spent half a day at the very top of Moses pondering how it came to be and I could never truly connect it in my mind to the Missoula Floods; nothing about that potential connection made any sense to me. It truly makes my heart so happy to find out that I was on to something, even if I didn't have the knowledge at the time to put my finger on it. Moses is, by far, my favorite Coulee out there; if you want a walking partner for any of your summer missions, please give me a shout, sir!
As a inhabitant of the Moses coulee I do so enjoy your talks sir!! Thankfully for the floods means the Moses coulee grows some great produce!!! Cherries apricots apples hay and garden veggies!
Chief Moses and his father Sulkstathscosum had their own gardens here in Moses Coulee in the early to late 1800's. Once the fur trade came to the Columbia Plateau, growing crops became more prevalent amongst The People.
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I live in Wenatchee and drive by there often. Moses Coulee has always confused me. Where the inflow occurs is not entirely clear to me and the stranded bar at the mouth is baffling. Grand Coulee is dramatic but Moses Coulee is intriguing!
This UCD physiologist is enjoying your excitement in this aha moment. It all fits! Loved the term anastomosing ; that’s from my field. And the map shows that. Certainly you get the
J Harlen Bretz award for revelation of the scabland genealogy. You rock and I’m happy to have found you.
It feels like the exploratory enthusiasm Bretz must have had watching this continuing series of videos!
Have a feeling Nick could do a professional OPB like documentary on Bretz that would capture a casual audiences imagination with his story, and what we have learned over the time since then.
Really enjoying the videos in this series!
I love that you are doing this. Taking articles from the past and giving them a new look is super. This summer adventure, where you are learning for yourself what you believe is true, is an outstanding way to spend your summer "break." I had a colleague in the SS department that liked to say that he enjoyed acquiring knowledge just for the sake of the knowledge. That is answer enough for the people who ask why you are doing this. I am a retired teacher and geologist in central Ohio's pancake geology and thoroughly enjoy following you on this adventure.
I’m watching this with google earth open, realizing the Bretz had this figured out while down in Moses Coulee. I drove through the Moses Coulee on Thursday, and I’m in complete awe at how he put all this together one hundred years ago without the tools we have available today.
It's Amazing What Scientific Passion Can Push You To Accomplish. Especially When You're Driven By Discovery For Humanity's Knowledge And Enrichment.
How often over the years have we "known" something to be true, that we find later was not so true, and those that were laughed at along the way were more right than was believed at the time.
Maybe a long list there...
So as to why are you doing this, when we "know" it's wrong, I would answer, "because I'm not so sure he was wrong."
Thanks for these videos, Nick.
Great stuff.
Exactly. "Just follow The Science," say the"experts," in their hubris.
This is great stuff, Nick. I spent 30 years doing similar summer work - not geological, as I know little to nothing about formal geology - but going back through the exercises of the just-ended academic year, revising lessons, exams, looking for additional / different reading for me and my students, etc. I bristled, too, at the suggestion that I was "doing nothing" every summer. Twice, I retraced the Oregon Trail in detail, at my own expense, during summers of "doing nothing," to gather materials and data for the next year's unit on "the frontier." As for the treatment of Bretz, heresy is never welcomed by zealots and true believers in whatever the orthodox theology / science is at the time - human history is filled with examples of thoughtful people who were "ambushed" by some of their peers for thinking unconventional thoughts. I look forward to my next trip to Washington to experience more of the landscape.
Reading academic papers on their own is informative (which is why people publish papers and we learn) but reading a paper and seeing what the author wrote about is a whole different world. I appreciate what you are doing. I'm not a geologist, I have no horses in this race, I just love hearing and learning about my state and how the landscapes I love to see came about. Thanks, Nick, for bringing us along, for sharing your learning with us all. And shame on those other geologists. You should never stop learning, for one, and you never know what new information, such as Rock Island Valley, you will glean from old work.
The quality of most of the comments that accompany this video reflects the quality of the content you are providing. The energy of your engagement with this exploration of Bretz' work is inspiring and there should be many well-informed and interesting questions the viewers come up with when you get to the Ice Age Floods A to Z series. Very much enjoying this series of "In the Field" videos!
Setting the record straight is never time wasted Nick. You have a very pleasant way of being able to tie the human story together with the pages of the book of geology as we find them and the fragments of the pages. One day the Book of Earth will be more complete - but never finished - and the stories of the people involved in finding the missing pages and fragments is just as fascinating as the Book of Earth itself.
What a great camera! The picture quality is outstanding!
Hi I am enjoying this Spokane flood discussion. Thank you very much for taking your valuable time to provide us with this quality TH-cam content.
This geologist appreciates your study and interest in the topic. I confess, having gone to school in NW Ohio and NE Indiana, home of "pancake stratigraphy" and glaciation meant the billiard table flat bottom of what once Lake Erie, the very word "Pleistocene" gave me chills. Any kind of geomorphology just seemed boring. But that was then. Now, in retirement, I find it all more interesting as the overwhelming sense of time is oddly becoming clearer to me. The beauty of aging, I guess.
Wonderfully explained. Thanks Nick and Mr. Bretz
Curiosity, diligence, and tenacity are sometimes underappreciated. Bretz's work, at the very least, is a testament to the importance of those qualities. Tracing his footsteps and sharing his work is giving a greater understanding of the J. Harlen Bretz, the person which in turn gives more insight to J. Harlen Bretz, the explorer. Thank you for taking us on this journey Nick. I believe Bretz would be flattered.
Keeping an open mind is such a blessing and gift and yet such a difficult thing to maintain. Approaching controversial subjects with total humility while assiduously keeping defensive walls away can lead to wonderful vistas previously hidden by prejudice and assumption. I salute your journey and thank you for sharing it, wherever it leads. I have spent much time on the Douglas Plateau and the scablands and find Bretz's analysis compelling and believable. Please continue. I am with you. Jess
Thanks Nick, very insightful view of the terrain by you thru Bretz. Glad also to hear that you get overwhelmed by the scientific papers as do I. Read, take a break, read, process what I read, take a break. Getting through the 87 papers on Baja-BC took me months! Because of you I "see" landscapes. Maybe not the correct way, but they are not just hills and valleys anymore.
What a life you have, Nick! Thanks for taking us on another visit to the magestic landscapes all around you. Who could want for anything more?
Your walks rather remind me of the UK TV series on landscapes that we were treated to by Aubrey Manning, which I'm sure you would enjoy in breaks from your reading: 'Earth Story', 'Landscape Mysteries', and 'Talking Landscapes'. Sadly, he died in 2018, but he left behind a legacy of beautiful little bite sized field trips with a message, like yours. If only he'd had all the modern tech wonders to take on his 'day's off too'. He'd have needed an umbrella most days, here though! (I always had one sticking out of my rucksack: much better than any outdoor waterproofs of the time, and essential for getting behind while trying to eat sandwiches and check the map in a force 10! :)
Your Bretz stories, also remind me of our William Smith's struggles to both make a living, and develop a UK geology map at the same time, while not being a 'gentleman of means' like most of the members of the UK's learned societies of the time. Wikipedia tells us he wasn't actually treated as badly as made out in the 'The Map that Changed the World' biography, by Simon Winchester, but he still had to spend time in debtor's prison, despite all his survey work for the landed gentry, and their mining and canal projects! He did eventually get the recognition he deserved, and a pension from the king. Well woth reading about if you are not familliar with the story.
One thing I was wondering about, when you talk of the landscape 'before the Ice Age' is where all the water came from in the interglacials, to make such a deeply cut landscape of river and stream valleys, when there might have been a 'rain shadow' from the mountains to the west, just as there is now?
Keep them coming. (You must have really strong ankles walking along steep talus slopes all the time!).
Thank you Nick as always for bringing us along. Especially for all of us who will never get to see the geologic wonderland of Eastern Washington
I'm really glad to have come across your brilliant geological work while viewing my interest in Rattlesnakes here on youtube. As a retired equipment operator I have always been in awe of the structure of our geologic past and formations. Furthermore, I can conceptualize what you are speaking to as you have a very understandable teaching ability. You are truly in your element. Love your "Summer School" dedication with a slight rebel approach.. Thanxx 😎
You are literally in my backyard with this one Nick! Fun to see this through your eyes today, and the eyes of Bretz 100 years ago. You had some great shots in this one! The uplift factor is something I have been trying to visualize and incorporate into my thinking for a while now, and it would be helpful learn that timeline more solidly and to cement it in my mind going forward. Thinking of all the factors at play in geological processes seems to require a bit of a 4-D chess mind, LOL. Thanks for taking us along on your field trips Nick!
Nick you up early for a Saturday Morning. Love the topic. I just found a paper that J.H. Bretz released in 1943 this week. Keewatin End Moraines In Alberta ,Canada. Geog.Soc. America Bull. v 54. Something Local for me.I hope to make some time this week to start reading this paper.
Cheers from Red Deer Alberta.
Would love to see this paper - is it online somewhere to access?
> You do not have access to this content, please speak to your institutional administrator if you feel you should have access.
Bummer. Is there anywhere else to access the paper other the GSA?
Did find a paper that cites this one:
Surficial Geologyof the Wainwright Area (EastHalf)
by L. A. Bayrock (Luboslaw Antin), Research Council of Alberta, 1967
His obituary is published in the Alberta Archaeological Review, Spring 1991
@@RoyPierce-fb8mt I had the same experience. No access. I can find lots of interesting geology papers online but am blocked from reading beyond the first page. Love that Nock shares so many with us on his website.
Terrific compare and contrast to understand the events of the past. Love it Nick keep it coming.
Keep it going Nick, I know many of us are really enjoying keeping up with this story. You have motivated me to go out in my area and discover and learn more about the local Geology.
That is EXACTLY where I'll be on my "vacation" when I retire this year. Following the paths of Nick Zentner's videos.
Your earlier video prompted me to go look at the other end of Moses Coulee. I took US2 to road L and turned north. About at road 3 I went through the terminal moraine, (non basalts appeared on the side of the road) and the landscape turns more glacial.
At road 11 turn left and drive between the wheat fields until you come to the edge of the upper Coulee. There you can see striations on the other side of the coulee. Glacial, or did someone try to farm that long ago? Also there is a wide flat-bottomed valley leading into the coulee, and that valley had rounded corners, it wasn't cut by fast moving water.
Then down into the coulee, it's not very deep here, and turn north again and there are two spectacular scours. They look like dimples on the map. The don't really look like a waterfall made them, but maybe a whirlpool could have drilled them out. The northern one overflowed into the southern one at some point. But where did the water come from? Above them there are wheat fields, no flood water washed the soil away. The top of the scours are above the valley floor, the water had to come from above. Off the top of the glacier? Out of the face of the glacier? That's my thinking at the moment.
Heading north on Road I again the coulee rapidly gets shallower and becomes a flat-bottomed valley with low ridges running down it. No sharp edges, so slow moving water, or was a tongue of the glacier down here?
The coulee ends, fades into to plateau landscape just south of highway 172, AKA road 14. There is no trace of Moses coulee visible from 172, no sign what must have been exciting times only three miles south.
Further east there is a drainage way across 172, but from the overheads I really don't see a path from there to Moses coulee. Nor is it that deep.
One other note, Douglas county has road corner signs in some of the oddest places. In the middle of absolutely nowhere a cheerful green sign announces you are at the corner of roads # and letter. 😊
Thanks for taking us there. What stands out to me is thickness of overburden on "chocolate cake". Can I assume most of that soil was air mailed?
When teaching my teenage son to drive about six months ago, he is required by the state of Washington to have 50 hours of instructed driving. That's a long time! In trying to knock this out, I had him driving up and down Moses Coulee many times. Being in the passenger seat afforded me ample time to star in awe and amazement at the vertical walls there. I need to see and study more of it.
Tom in Wenatchee
Really appreciate you taking your time to guide us through the interpretation of the land both from your perspective and Bretz's. Thank you, for all you do, especially exposing us to these old, and yet meaningful papers..
At last! We're now hearing discussion of what must have happened during 14 million tears of uplift, folding, and erosion following the cooling of the final basalt flow and the arrival of Pleistocene ice sheets around 2 million years ago. (Probably pretty boring.) Then that original drainage pattern was reworked by repeated ice flows Those obvious hanging valleys associated with adjoining triangular facets as seen in Moses Coulee are evidence the work of glaciers/ice sheets, combined with lots of water, to profoundly alter the ancient landscape. J Harlen Bretz provides wonderful discussions of all of that history based on his careful field work ; I look forward to reading every word. Thanks for posting the Bretz papers!
One of the things I've always wondered since I started looking at this region was how much of this terrain was altered during the, I think it was 4-5+ ice ages in the last 2.5 million years. Spokane was much larger than Wisconsin, but how big were the other 2 or 3. Nice to see Bretz saying a lot of it was Spokane era, not Wisconsin, but it would be practically impossible to know if even that was right since Spokane and Wisconsin events would erase most of the evidence of the previous events. However, the previous events should be considered.
Keep up the good work. Enjoy your summer. We appreciate your geology presentations. Also thanks to taking us to the country side showing us these locations.
Truly amazing how he figured that out on foot so long ago and wrote it all down with drawings and all. It will bend your mind trying to picture these things thru out time. Just as amazing is how those in charge, hold society back with their inadequate brains. Truly a Greek tragedy. I would say enjoy your summer Nick, but I'm sure you will. 🤠
I love your coverage. I spent years and countless gallons of fuel exploring central Washington from Lake Wenatchee to soap Lake. 😊 . There is nothing that gives me the peaceful feeling of timelessness like Moses Coulee
I started looking for some info on the floods as soon as I moved to Spokane in '86 and first heard the story. I thought I knew it all and then the internet came along and I wanted to know more, and you and your videos came along and a couple of years ago I found one on the Missoula Floods. I was immediately hooked on your style of teaching and have watched nearly everything you have out there. Now I'm buying books on geology and branching out to other areas that I travel in, Oregon, California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado and I appreciate your "travel" lessons, as well. You have been an inspiration to me and I want to thank you. Carry on...
I read, have owned his book "Caves of Missouri" when I was a budding spunker. 12 years old, living in St. Louis.
My first experience with his research. One reason I studied Geology. You have brought me such insight into his research.
Truly one of the pioneers in Geology/Geomorphology. Castigated in his day for his theories about the Missoula Floods.
Thanks for your insight about the vast fieldwork and research he did. 👍
This channel is the only reason i am going to spend 6 days in july in Washington to see these ice age related events sites.
The size and scale in person is just jaw dropping and no video or google map layer will ever truly give that. Congratz on putting something like this together.
Summers off...I'm grinning 😊
This is fun! You have the whole year off! Doing what you love and are interested in!
There's a old saying that your usually good at what you like to do and if you can make a living at it you'll likely be quite satisfied.
I can't imagine a more meaningful subject than what was before and how the change happened.
It's the ultimate who done it! With double the intrigue.
As always!!! THANK NICK!!!!!
You have found what all should hope for, a job that you love doing to the point it doesn't feel like a job. Enjoy your continued explorations as we enjoy tagging along to learn all we can.
You are doing classical humanities style research and it thrills me, old documents are the best.
I’m thoroughly sucked into this info. As a western side of the state kid in the 80s, I never heard a peep about the amazing story of these areas. I feel like a school kid again!! I’m learning so much, and can’t get enough!! Thank you for making learning fun again!!!!
Love this... Perhaps for context, and in relation to the "ambush meeting," just what was the "thesis" prevailing theory that provided the context of the "ambush." It is obvious they feared him or they wouldn't have gone to all the trouble...
Nick, Exploring the mysteries of ancient earth is a full time job. You have a joyful and energetic life. You share your happiness with a hungry public. We love science.
I’ve been waiting for the next chapter in this adventure with Nick … the change created by the last ice age … the geologic before and after
Nick, I love the way you make complex geological processes simple to understand… red hot turkey knife… excellent!!
Thank you for showing us a visual. It makes another connection. I hope you continue to share with us. And remember the saying, "If you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life."
It shows your job is never gonna be done you're gonna still discovered and give information. What Eastern Washington was even before millions of years he left a good work
I’m sitting at Grand Coulee Dam waiting for the laser light show after scouting around Moses Coulee today to see all you have been talking about, great stuff and fun to follow, thanks!
Many thanks Nick for this one. I have a better understanding of what you are doing now and the journey you are on. It is pretty amazing to me to think about Bretz detailing what he saw a hundred years ago, and seeing things with new eyes. The detail that he was able to glean in that short period of time is amazing. - cheers
Nick- I love your 4 demensional thinking on this (x, y, z, and time). It is like your are looking at Michaleanglo's David (completed statue) and looking at a big block of marble and trying to backtrack on how the statue was carved. Figuring our all of the forces that were used sequenceually over time (backwards in time) to deconstruct how the statue was carved. Amazing work!
Thank you for clarifying this as it was troubling me (Comment; previous video). The numerous ice melts (Dansgaard-Oeschger events?) must have resulted in significant valleys being formed long before the major flood events ripped out the Coulees we now know. By the way your dedication is extraordinary. Thank you.
I would think (as an interested layman) that a lot depends on the melting processes. If it is a gradual meltback with no mega floods involved then the errosional processes would be similiar to what we see today. But if the melt water gets confined in a catchment basin. Whether by terrain features, high terminal moraine features or ice damming of mountain valleys. That melt water is going to do one of several things.
1) Form a "permanent" lake. The Great Lakes are a good example. And no lake is permanent.
2) Breach its confining terrain feature and drain either completely or leave behind a small remnant lake. Lake Winnipeg is a good example.
3) Breach its confining ice dam and drain completely. One thing that does bother me about ice dams is the pressure exerted at the base of the dam and just how well does it resist penetration by water under great pressure. Lake Missoula at its greatest depth exerted considerable pressure on the ice at its area of contact with the bed rock. And what was filling Missoula. Melt water from mountain glaciers? Melt water of winter snows and run off from summer percipatation? And were the mountains surrounding Missoula shrouded in ice?
There is one possible source for a mega flood today. The catastrophic failure of a very large and high hydroelectric dam. Let's hope Three Gorges or Aswan do not fail.
Fascinating review. In 1946 in the family car we drove from Vancouver to Calgary through WA State. I was ten then and it was a hundred degrees when going through Moses Coulee and someone wondered why it wasn't called "Moses Hotee". 1957 was "International Geophysical Year" and I completed a BSc. in geology and geophysics in 1962 at UBC. Enjoy your clearly presented reviews. And yes--Bretz had a struggle to get his work reviewed and accepted.
This is an interesting path, and I've joined you in reading more about Bretz and his work. And driving out to see where you're putting thoughts together, as well. Thank you, Nick.
An ice sheet of that immense size, 1000-2000 metres thick must have had long glaciers that extended well south of the edge of the ice sheet. Perhaps 10’s of km that flowed down the valleys.
Mr. Bretz never had an iPhone. But it is very kind of you to loan him yours on this 100th anniversary.
Thank you! I'm enjoying this journey with you. I'm not a geologist. Just someone who is curious and fell down a rabbit hole. I spent time in the Pacific Northwest in the 80's after Mt. St. Helens working on Mt. Ranier with the NPS and fell in love with the area. Thanks for being on vacation, lol.
How _DARE_ you have an original thought!
Keep it up, thank you!
When you posted this I was headed to PNW-NAGT in Vancouver. Missed having you there. I took Hwy 17 home on Saturday. Really brings home the flood story when you can see it in person.
Joy to watch, Nick. Thank you for introducing this to me.❤
More than just a website,
A secure website.
Thanks Nick, Love this journey through the Bretz mind castle. Reading the story lets me see the land through his eyes.
Was it warmer and wetter then, prior to the time of the big ice?
Has anyone drawn pre ice age maps of the area? It seems it could be guessed?
What can the loess tell us? Is it uniform? The surface is "bioturbated", right?
But there was an earlier surface, with evidence of pre flood botany? What animals lived there?
I can see the fun in noting what Bretz got wrong, while simultaneously, acknowledging the thorough vastness of his research and how his findings have changed traditional thoughts on how multiple and various ice age events carved the earth into what we see today.
Thank you very much Nick. I have seen most of your videos. But now I can imagine the floods. Before I still had doubts about all that basalt taken away just at the end of the last glacial period. Greetings from Germany
Another great lecture Nick!!!! Rock Grade is a pretty amazing place.
Can't wait to see where this all leads. Maybe you'll even make some mind blowing discoveries.
Thank you. Thank you for finding and willingly exploring the work of Bretz from 100 years ago.... Thank you for taking summers off. My nephew lives in Washington State, I live on the flat ocean planes of the east coast, Delaware to be exact... Nothing nearly as exciting in a geographical sense as the landscape in Washington State, Mid and Southern Idaho and some of Northern Oregon. Hope you enjoy your summer off :-)
I have seen similar features along the Columbia River near Priest Rapids Dam. Mega Floods were like bulldozers, cutting, moving, depositing material. Older drainage valleys entered side of Columbia River. Anticline building event raised existing side creeks higher. Ice Age Floods change main channel. Today we scratch our heads in wonder.
It looks like a lot of the topography was created by the glacier itself and not the floods. Yes the accumulation of sediment seems to be meltwater caused but the valley shapes are more indicative of glacial carving.
Your interview with crime pays but botany doesn't is awesome. Would be the bees knees if you two could ever take a hike through the gorge or to one of our PNW volcanoes together! The knowledge and scenery would make a great documentary.
Thanks for explaining the hanging valleys the way you do. It makes sense now. Keep telling this part of the story. It really does make so more sense now hearing this part of the story.
Starlink? We are enjoying your 'vacation'. Thanks for the paper, history lesson, and wonderful POV.
Fun! Thanks again, Nick, for taking us along on another geohike! It really helps to point out this before and after. So lucky you have areas like this to illustrate the possible events still intact. In my area it is more likely all this would be carved up and covered with houses.....
There’s always questioning and resistance and sometimes resentment towards people that go against the grain or conventional theories or fact.
Thank you Nick for sharing Bertz work!
The Rock Island Grade road has called to me as i drive past it since 1978. But I don't explore dirt roads alone. I am short with little car knowledge. That was well before cell phones to call for help. I've always wanted to see what was up that road. Roads call to me in many places to go see what is there. Even when I had outdoor people in my life they would refuse to just go see. Now you have shown me and given me the knowledge I would have needed to understand what I was seeing. When my daughter gets free time and is home from college I will beg her to take me in her FJ. Now I live just a few miles from that road. Thank you for taking us there. Without me asking you are answering all my wonderings about our coulees and the floods. About the hanging valleys. About my doubts that the Missoula floods couldn't take all the basalt away. And that dry falls flood waters couldn't have filled the grand coulee to the top levels. So I have a new question! Did the uplift of the anticlines cause the shear basalt cliffs along with normal valley water erosion. The erosion would have started as the basalt started cooling. So has the process of creating the coulees been going on for 15 ma ? With me an answer at times leads to more questions, lol. Thanks for this video! And for continuing to ponder the floods.
If your daughter has an FJ that is decently/reasonably equipped for off-roading and the time, you should try to explore Douglas Creek Canyon! Beautiful valley, with an old railway grade in it and several creek crossings that aren't very deep (normally only a couple of inches) during the summer months.
Base on what I'm hearing Nick say, the middle/upper Douglas Creek valley should be a decent (albeit smaller) example of what Moses Coulee looked like pre-iceage flooding.
@@janacke11 I took my 85 Subaru up Douglas creek a lot in the 80s. A friend of my children was murdered up there in the early 90s, we haven't gone since. But I agree it is much like what nick showed of rock island creek today. My daughter's FJ has the full deluxe of road package. She made sure of that when she bought it in 21. Her first FJ didn't have that. And I mentioned the road to hubby this morning, he knows where it is. He sounds like he would take me, so maybe this week.
Great. Now I have Rock Island Line playing on a loop on my head.
'Twas a mighty fine line.
I absolutely love this stuff!! Good work, Nick!!!!
Hello nick, i`m a 62 year old geology enthusiast that has gotten swept up in this ice age floods, I live in Elk Wa and by looking at google maps terrain mode which is kinda like Lidar and i have discovered a flood route from the pend Oreille river at Newport Wa that flowed west/southwest through Scotia Wa, making what is known now as Scotia gap, plunged down into (and possibly creating a small lake called chain lake) which i believe shows 2 to 3 plunge pools then Carving, and or widening the little Spokane river valley with over land flooding north and east of the little Spokane river valley into the little Spokane river in the Elk Wa area then on south following the little Spokane river to the Spokane river then into the Columbia river, (a side note: I forgot to add at that at the same point and possibly in the same event in Newport Wa a flood event also flowed south through todays highway 41 through Rathdrum prairie/Spokane valley to the Spokane river) I believe this evidence is a results of the Missoula floods but now i`m not sure, Thanks nick i love learning Washington Geology with you.
@@candui7278 I`m afraid i don`t know Kief, kinda sounds like i wish i did, but thanks for the reply anyway.
West of the crest but fascinated with the geologic history of the east. Thanks for the videos.
Another thing to consider with the dynamics of water flowing through the pre-carved valley, is that the water would not only have moved straight through it, but it would have probably also spread out laterally into each one of those carved creek arroyos - at least initially. I wonder how far. Love the content Nick!
water finds level.
you have brought so much pleasure with your videos and Bretz would be proud.
Great video! What a detective story this is. I have tried reading Bretz papers on your website but to have the print in the field like you do is unmatched.
Nick, Thank you for taking us along on you adventure of enlightenment. I'm so much enjoying the process of discovery you are experiencing. Love the field work.
Nick, You should get a job with the American Cruise Line. They do 8 day cruises between Clarkston and Astoria. So much to geology to teach. I did my best but wished you were there with us.
An hour after video posted, was able to read comments... as usual some interesting impacts from the video... the effort to follow the development of what was observed before the impact from the opinions of those who were not along on his walks with him makes for a less polluted way to examine the work done. Thanks for doing this in an orderly way... the coming ambush mentioned with an explanation of details of responses will probably be educational.
Thank you for your love of geology and willingness to share with us. :D
i work in wenatchee every couple weeks and i always drove by this but never knew that was moses coulee! love these videos
Stunning!
Thank you, Professor Nick!
You've got me hooked again. I haven't watched any of the ice age stuff before.
Those hanging valleys are so cool!!!
Once upon a time England and France were connected between Dover and Calais. Then an ice age came and went and during the warming some kind of flood occurred which opened the English Channel. Is there a connection? A warming which happened too quickly and had global repercussions? Perhaps not. But perhaps this winter there could be an A-Z series answering some question while raising multiple new questions.
Nick Zentner loves an unsolved mystery! What if I told you a story that begins in the 1860's. This story is about my Great Great Grandmother, a Native American woman, who along with a a small group of white men and another two Native women found gold. Only one of this group made it out to tell the story, my ancestor. Current maps don't show any mining activity, although there was a significant mine approximately 60 miles away in the closest mountain range. The only activity there now is cattle grazing the surrounding prarie, fisherman and big game hunters, and the occasional paleontologist looking for dinasour fossils. The History of Pipe Woman, as told by her daughter, is out there. It reads like a Historical mini series of Montana. Maybe someday you would like to come to Montana, do a little Walleye fishing and go on a geological adventure! I appreciate the wonderful videos.
Nick, I've enjoyed watching your other videos on different geology topics and have been very interested in the ancient WA floods, since seeing it discussed on the Joe Rogan show. Couple years ago I flew into Pasco and drove to Coeur D'Alene and noticed the landscape but didn't think much about it at the time. A lot of your info goes over my head but a get a little more each time and really like the visual when you colored in the map with the green, blue and red. Thanks
1. Nick, you are the teacher who first sparked my obsession with flood basalt formations after I watched your presentation of "Flood basalts of the Pacific Northwest.""
I thank you for that.
2. I am very enthusiastic about mantle plume theory.
I wish you could discuss this subject more often.
But your field of expertise is geology, not GEO science or volcanology.
3. QUESTION;
Although I concur with current theory and your explanation about ice age floods carving out valleys in the Columbia river basalt formation, this formation has been on eastern Washington for 6 to 17 million years.
The Pleistocene glaciation has been ongoing for 2.58 million years.
There have been theorized glacial advances an average of every 125,000 yrs to 130,000 yrs.
Each one has more than likely resulted in post glaciation floods.
Some of which could very likely be way more severe than evidence suggests.
Is it possible that this formation was much more extensive than current theory suggests?
How would we investigate such a hypothesis?
4. ANOTHER QUESTION;
Would you ever be able to conduct a long-term field trip to the Siberian traps formation?
I can not find very much data on that formation.
Thank you, Nick!
Nick, this was a particularly well photographed, and especially well edited, video. Good job. You're continuing to improve your video skills!
Thanks for taking us along on your vacation.