Anacortes Senior College

During the last Ice Age (2.6 million to 12000 years ago) Eastern Washington was Ground Zero for some of the world’s largest catastrophic floods! The Glacial Lake Missoula Floods dwarf any normal river flood recorded in modern times.  First proposed in 1923 by J Harlen Bretz and after decades of debate, the Missoula Floods in the Pacific Northwest were finally recognized as the first scientifically proven Ice Age megaflood in the world.  Scientific opinion in the early Twentieth Century assumed that only slow changes over long periods of time (uniformitarianism) could explain all geologic features. Catastrophic events, unless they were documented, were not part of the scientific dogma at that time.

In sessions 2 and 3 illustrated lectures will follow the Ice Age floodpath from its source at the huge ice-dammed lake in Montana through Eastern  Washington where it created the Channeled Scabland, Grand Coulee, Palouse Falls, and many other geographic features before sending over 1000 feet of floodwater through the Columbia Gorge and over the future townsites of Spokane, Portland and Astoria and into the Pacific Ocean. 

In session 4 we will review other megafloods and their origins. In addition to ice-dammed lakes; tectonic, glacier, and sea level changes have played major roles. Numerous huge floods elsewhere in the world have been identified in Utah, the Mediterranean, Black Sea, English Channel, and on the planet Mars.

Instructor: Dr. Gene Kiver

Gene Kiver graduated from Case-Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio and later from the University of Wyoming in Laramie where he received his Doctorate in Geology.  He taught Geology for 34 years at Eastern Washington University in Cheney and conducted an active research career that emphasized landforms and surface processes.  Glacial geology of the western United States, geothermal ice caves on Mts. Rainier and Baker, national park geology, speleology, and the Missoula Floods are his main professional interests.  Research and volunteer activity with the Ice Age Floods Institute continues today.  He has co-authored two recent books, “On the Trail of The Ice Age Floods” and “Washington Rocks!”.  “Washington Rocks!” is written for the non-geologist interested in learning about amazing geologic sites in the State of Washington.