As we enter Washington from the east, we immediately run into the gentle rolling hills of the Palouse country. If we continue to travel westward, we suddenly enter a heavily scarred land of barren rock, channels and canyons. Rugged cliffs, basalt rock basins, concave cliffs and even giant ripple marks line the landscape. We have just reached the edges of the Channeled Scablands of Eastern Washington. The bleak but intensely unique landscape causes us to ponder the origin of the land formations. "What could have happened here?" The answer is the largest, most violent floods that man has ever known.

Geologist J. Harlen Bretz of the University of Chicago first named the Channeled Scablands in 1920. He was conducting a survey and a study of the land when he first thought up the great flood theory. He was ridiculed and laughed at when he first proposed the idea, but he stuck to his guns. He finally received support, and his theory still stands strong today.

During the Tertiary period - between 30 million and 10 million years ago- volcanic rock terrained eastern Washington. This rock floor was 10,000 feet thick in places and covered more then 100,000 square miles. The lave fi

Eventually the lake's level surpassed that of the ice dam encasing it and began to flow over it. This overflow probably cut deep in the ice. As the outlet of the lake dropped in elevation the water roared throw widening the channel and undercutting the sides until the dam breached completely. Draining the lake within a very short amount of time, as little as 2 days. The ice dam was now nonexistent and the contents of Lake Missoula were released with all of its power and rage.

The unique combination of geological events, beginning with lava flows, then the titling of the land, followed by huge deposits of silt and ending with a glacial lake and its sudden release, involved such a large area that only parts of the scabland picture can be seen at one time. Now as a result of more than fifty years worth of research, the many fragments of evidence have been pieced together to support Bretz's theory of the great flood.

As the Purcell lobe moved southward, glacial ice plugged the Clark Fork Valley like a cork with a 2,000-foot ice dam. The water that was trapped behind the dam filled the valleys and tributaries for many miles to the east. This enormous amount of water formed the largest lake during the ice age, Lake Missoula. Lake Missoula stood 4,150 feet above sea level with depths reaching 2,000 feet. At the lake's peak, Lake Missoula was estimated to have a surface area of 3,000 square miles and a total volume of 500 cubic miles of water (two times that of present day Lake Michigan). The melting waters and ice-burgs contributed to the growing size of this gigantic lake.

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Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)