Lake Missoula Research Articles

Cataclysmic Late pleistocene flooding from glacial Lake Missoula: A review

Late Wisconsin floods from glacial Lake Missoula occurred between approximately 16 and 12 ka BP. Many floods occurred; some were demonstrably cataclysmic. Early studies of Missoula flooding centered on the anomalous physiography of the Channeled Scabland, which J. Harlen Bretz hypothesized in 1923 to have developed during a debacle that he named ‘The Spokane Flood’. Among the ironies in the controversy over this hypothesis was a mistaken view of uniformitarianism held by Bretz's adversaries. After resolution of the scabland's origin by cataclysmic outburst flooding from glacial Lake Missoula, research since 1960 emphasized details of flood magnitudes, frequency, routing and number. Studies of flood hydraulics and other physical parameters need to utilize modern computerized procedures for flow modeling, lake-burst simulation, and sediment-transport analysis. Preliminary simulation models indicate the probability of multiple Late Wisconsin jökulhlaups from Lake Missoula, although these models predict a wide range of flood magnitudes. Major advances have been made in the study of low-energy, rhythmically bedded sediments that accumulated in flood slack-water areas. The ‘forty floods’ hypothesis postulates that each rhythmite represents the deposition in such slack-water areas of separate, distinct cataclysmic floods that can be traced from Lake Missoula to the vicinity of Portland, Oregon. However, the hypothesis has numerous unsubstantiated implications concerning flood magnitudes, sources, routing and sedimentation dynamics. There were multiple great Late Wisconsin floods in the Columbia River system of the northwestern United States. Studies of high-energy, high altitude flood deposits are necessary to evaluate the magnitudes of these floods. Improved geochronologic studies throughout the immense region impacted by the flooding will be required to properly evaluate flood frequency. The cataclysmic flood concept championed by J. Harlen Bretz continues to stimulate exciting and controversial research.

Outburst floods from glacial Lake Missoula

The Pleistocene outburst floods from glacial Lake Missoula, known as the “Spokane Floods”, released as much as 2184 km 3 of water and produced the greatest known floods of the geologic past. A computer simulation model for these floods that is based on physical equations governing the enlargement by water flow of the tunnel penetrating the ice dam is described. The predicted maximum flood discharge lies in the range 2.74 × 10 6−13.7 × 10 6 m 3 sec −1, lending independent glaciological support to paleohydrologic estimates of maximum discharge.

Periodic jökulhlaups from Pleistocene glacial Lake Missoula—New evidence from varved sediment in northern Idaho and Washington

Newly examined exposures in northern Idaho and Washington show that catastrophic floods from glacial Lake Missoula during late Wisconsin time were repeated, brief jökulhlaups separated by decades of quiet glaciolacustrine and subaerial conditions. Glacial Priest Lake, dammed in the Priest River valley by a tongue of the Purcell trench lobe of the Cordilleran ice sheet, generally accumulated varved mud; the varved mud is sharply interrupted by 14 sand beds deposited by upvalley-running currents. The sand beds are texturally and structurally similar to slackwater sediment in valleys in southern Washington that were backflooded by outbursts from glacial Lake Missoula. Beds of varved mud also accumulated in glacial Lake Spokane (or Columbia?) in Latah Creek valley and elsewhere in northeastern Washington; the mud beds were disrupted, in places violently, during emplacement of each of 16 or more thick flood-gravel beds. This history corroborates evidence from southern Washington that only one graded bed is deposited per flood, refuting a conventional idea that many beds accumulated per flood. The total number of such floodlaid beds in stratigraphic succession near Spokane is at least 28. The mud beds between most of the floodlaid beds in these valleys each consist of between 20 and 55 silt-to-clay varves. Lacustrine environments in northern Idaho and Washington therefore persisted for two to six decades between regularly recurring, colossal floods from glacial Lake Missoula.

Periodic floods from glacial Lake Missoula into the Sanpoil arm of glacial Lake Columbia, northeastern Washington

Research Article| August 01, 1984 Periodic floods from glacial Lake Missoula into the Sanpoil arm of glacial Lake Columbia, northeastern Washington Brian F. Atwater Brian F. Atwater 1U.S. Geological Survey, 345 Middlefield Road, Menlo Park, California 94025 Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Geology (1984) 12 (8): 464–467. https://doi.org/10.1130/0091-7613(1984)12<464:PFFGLM>2.0.CO;2 Article history first online: 01 Jun 2017 Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Search Site Citation Brian F. Atwater; Periodic floods from glacial Lake Missoula into the Sanpoil arm of glacial Lake Columbia, northeastern Washington. Geology 1984;; 12 (8): 464–467. doi: https://doi.org/10.1130/0091-7613(1984)12<464:PFFGLM>2.0.CO;2 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Refmanager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentBy SocietyGeology Search Advanced Search Abstract At least 15 floods ascended the Sanpoil arm of glacial Lake Columbia during a single glaciation. Varves between 14 of the flood beds indicate one backflooding every 35 to 55 yr. This regularity suggests that the floods came from an ice-dammed lake that was self-dumping. Probably the self-dumping lake was glacial Lake Missoula, Montana, because the floods accord with inferred emptyings of that lake in frequency and number, apparently entered Lake Columbia from the east, and produced beds resembling backflood deposits of Lake Missoula floods in southern Washington. This content is PDF only. Please click on the PDF icon to access. First Page Preview Close Modal You do not have access to this content, please speak to your institutional administrator if you feel you should have access.

Distribution of the species of the genus Oxyloma (Mollusca, Succineidae) in southern Canada and the adjacent portions of the United States

Extensive collecting and dissecting of live material shows that eight species of Oxyloma occur in southern and western Canada. Oxyloma haydeni is the common species across the Prairies from northern Ontario to southern Alberta. Oxyloma kanabensis occurs west of Edmonton, east of the Continental Divide and north of Sundre, while O. nuttalliana occurs west of the Continental Divide in southern British Columbia. Oxyloma groenlandica is found in the Yukon Territory and in the intermontane valleys in interior British Columbia. Oxyloma hawkinsi occurs sparsely, centred in the Okanagan area, but also persists as a probable remnant of the Hypsithermal interval at Exshaw, Alberta. Oxyloma retusa and O. gouldi are confined to the southern portions of Ontario and Quebec.A new species, Oxyloma missoula, occurs in and adjacent to the areas occupied by the former Pluvial Lake Bonneville and Glacial Lake Missoula. All the species could have survived from before the last Wisconsinan ice advance since their distributions straddle the boundary of the glaciated area.

Evidence of Multiple Late-Wisconsin Floods from Glacial Lake Missoula in Badger Coulee, Washington

AbstractCatastrophic floods from glacial Lake Missoula entered the Pasco Basin in south-central Washington and backflooded its marginal valleys. Badger Coulee, one such valley, contains beds of fine-grained slackwater sediment deposited by these floods. The slackwater sediment contains two ash layers of the Mount St. Helens set S tephra, about 13,000 yr old. The ash was deposited on a ground surface developed atop slackwater sediment deposited during preash flooding. Evidence of the former ground surface includes the reworked ash, inferred trace fossils, stream and debris-flow deposits, slopewash and/or eolian sediment, and colluvium at the ash horizon. These features and the ash were buried by slackwater sediment deposited during postash flooding. Nonflood, subaerial deposits are not present atop other beds. Instead, beds commonly are reversely graded across “contacts,” suggesting that multiple beds were continuously deposited. The exposed beds thus record at least two late-Wisconsin floods, one preash, the other postash. The pre- and postash floods may be correlative with earlier-reported floods thought to have occurred 17,500-14,000 and 14,000–13,000 yr B.P., respectively.

The Soil Sequence of Late Pleistocene Glacial Outwash Terraces from Spokane Floods in the Idaho Panhandle

AbstractGlacial Lake Missoula was the source of the catastrophic Spokane Floods through northern Idaho, eastern Washington, and the main stem of the Columbia River. About 2,000 km3 of water was impounded behind ice dams that were repeatedly breached. Giant current ripples, huge gravel bars, coulees, and dry cataracts attest to the enormity of the floods.The sequence of five late Pleistocene outwash terraces and a Holocene terrace were studied in the Hoodoo Valley of Bonner County, Idaho. The geomorphic surfaces document that there were at least five Spokane Floods. Kootenai taxadjunct, Bonner, and Rathdrum soils occur on each of the outwash terraces, have different topographic positions within the giant current ripple microrelief, and have contrasting thicknesses of reworked volcanic ash over the flood deposits. Similar soils on the five terraces indicate that the time factor of soil genesis is negligible and that the flood events occurred in rapid succession.

About Forty Last-Glacial Lake Missoula Jökulhlaups through Southern Washington

The rhythmic Touchet Beds in the Walla Walla and lower Yakima valleys resulted from many separate backfloodings by hydraulically ponded glacial Lake Missoula water. At least once this episodic lake briefly contained half the of water that catastrophically drained the largest glacial Lakes Missoula. Evidence that the Touchet Beds rhythmites originated from brief backfloodings includes up-valley thinning and fining of locally derived bedload, upvalley paleocurrents, and upvalley transport of erratics derived from Cordilleran ice. Evidence that a lengthy nonflood environment followed the emplacement of each of about 40 Touchet Beds rhythmite includes inferred eolian and slopewash sediment overlying many rhythmites, uncontaminated Mount St. Helens "set S" tephra couplet atop one rhythmite as much as 220 m below the maximum level of backflooding, filled semiconsolidated rodent burrows throughout the 30 m of the thickest section, and dispersed skeletons of mammals. The lack of weathering or soil within the Touchet Beds suggests that all rhythmites are late Wisconsin. Bottom sediment of glacial Lake Missoula in Montana consists of rhythmites each interpreted as the record of a gradually deepening lake. Forty superposed rhythmites record about 40 late-Wisconsin fillings and emptyings of glacial Lake Missoula. The complementary records of about 40 separate glacial Lakes Missoula and about 40 great floods in southern Washington and in the Willamette Valley, Oregon indicate that the Missoula floods were great jokulhlaups. The last several floods were smaller than earlier ones because the controlling dam of Cordilleran ice thinned during deglaciation.

Comparisons of the hydraulics of water flows in Martian outflow channels with flows of similar scale on earth

Comparisons are undertaken between the hydraulics of channelized water flows on Mars, large terrestrial rivers, deep-sea turbidity currents, and the catastrophic flow of Lake Missoula floods. Expected bottom shear stresses, velocities and discharges, flow powers, and other parameters are computed for each. Sand transport rates and the times required for channel erosion are estimated for Mangala Channel. These calculations indicate that the turbidity currents and Lake Missoula floods were similar to channelized water flow on Mars in their flow characteristics and in their abilities to erode and transport sediments. Like the Lake Missoula floods, deep-sea turbidity currents are catastrophic in character, being formed by the slumping of large masses of sediment trapped in submarine canyons or deposited on the continental slope. The repeated flows originating from submarine canyons have formed deep-sea channels similar in scale and overall morphology to the Martian outflow channels. The submarine canyon can be viewed as the counterpart of the chaotic terrain or crater which serves as sources for many Martian channels. Like most Martian outflow channels, the deep-sea channels generally lack tributaries or have only minor tributaries, instead consisting of a single pronounced channel extending for several hundred kilometers from its origin at the submarine canyon to deep abyssal depths. The channels vary considerably in dimensions, but most commonly have widths in the range 2 to 15 km with reliefs of 50 to 450 meters, again similar in scale to the Martian channels. Other similarities include sections of anastomosing channels, a general lack of pronounced meandering, and a lack of an apparent “delta” where the transported sediments are deposited. The similarities of channel morphology and flow hydraulics indicate the deep-sea channels and turbidity currents can be useful in furthering our understanding of the Martian outflow channels. Physical processes in the deep-sea occur under a reduced effective gravity because of the overlying water with its buoyancy. The deep-sea channels provide another set of Earth-based channels which can be studied to determine the effects of gravity on such factors as channel meandering and anastomosing characteristics.

Erosion by catastrophic floods on Mars and Earth

The large Martian channels, especially Kasei, Ares, Tiu, Simud, and Mangala Valles, show morphologic features strikingly similar to those of the Channeled Scabland of eastern Washington, produced by the catastrophic breakout floods of Pleistocene Lake Missoula. Features in the overall pattern include the great size, regional anastomosis, and low sinuosity of the channels. Erosional features are streamlined hills, longitudinal grooves, inner channel cataracts, scour upstream of flow obstacles, and perhaps marginal cataracts and butte and basin topography. Depositional features are bar complexes in expanding reaches and perhaps pendant bars and alcove bars. Scabland erosion takes place in exceedingly deep, swift floodwater acting on closely jointed bedrock as a hydrodynamic consequence of secondary flow phenomena, including various forms of macroturbulent votices and flow separations. If the analogy to the Channeled Scabland is correct, floods involving water discharges of millions of cubic meters per second and peak flow velocities of tens of meters per second, but perhaps lasting no more than a few days, have occurred on Mars.

NSF Grant to the University of Colorado

The University of Colorado has received a $4,600 grant from the National Science Foundation to study the Lake Missoula floods, which in prehistoric times covered what is now the northwestern United States.Known geological evidence of floods and some standard hydraulic techniques will be used to reconstruct the floods, including how much water was released in the flood flow and how fast it was moving, and how these flows were related to the transportation of sediments.

The Lake Missoula Floods and the Channeled Scabland

This paper reviews the outstanding evidence for (1) repeated catastrophic outbursts of Montana's glacially dammed Lake Missoula, (2) consequent overwhelming in many places of the preglacial divide along the northern margin of the Columbia Plateau in Washington, (3) remaking of the plateau's preglacial drainage pattern into an anastomosing complex of floodwater channels (Channeled Scabland) locally eroded hundreds of feet into underlying basalt, (4) convergence of these flood-born rivers into the Columbia Valley at least as far as Portland, Oregon, and (5) deposition of a huge delta at Portland. Evidence that the major scabland rivers and the flooded Columbia were hundreds of feet deep exists in (1) gravel and boulder bars more than 100 feet high in mid-channels, (2) subfluvial cataract cliffs, alcoves, and plunge pools hundreds of feet in vertical dimension, (3) back-flooded silts high on slopes of preglacial valleys tributary to the scabland complex, and (4) the delta at Portland. Climatic oscillations of the Cordilleran ice sheet produced a succession of Lake Missoulas. Following studies by the writer, later investigators have correlated the Montana glacial record with recurrent scabland floods by soil profiles and a glacial and loessial stratigraphy, and have approximately dated some events by volcanic ash layers, peat deposits, and an archaeological site. Several unsolved problems are outlined in this paper.

Introduction to J Harlen Bretz's Paper on "The Lake Missoula Floods and the Channeled Scabland"

Introduction to J Harlen Bretz's Paper on "The Lake Missoula Floods and the Channeled Scabland"

Silt Mounds of Missoula Flood Surfaces

Small silt mounds occur in channels of the Lake Missoula flood. Formed of wind-borne dust by alternation of general deposition and selective removal, they constitute an early stage of restoration of the loess mantle.

Unusual currents in Glacial Lake Missoula, Montana

The area submerged by Glacial Lake Missoula includes several intermontane basins and constricted interconnecting valleys or “narrows” that drain to a single outlet, the Clark Fork River. A sudden failure of the ice dam that blocked this valley, near the Idaho-Montana State line, caused unusually large and rapid currents through the narrows and wind gaps in the partly submerged rim of Camas Prairie basin. Evidences of such currents include commensurate, but otherwise ordinary, effects of streams confined to rocky channels and the unique giant ripple marks. At its high stage the lake is roughly estimated to have held more than 500 cubic miles of water of which nearly three-fourths was stored above a constricted part of the Clark Fork Valley called the Eddy Narrows. Calculations based on available incomplete data indicate a flow through the Eddy Narrows that reached a maximum of 9.46 cubic miles per hour. Whether the lake was completely drained at that time has not been determined, but a later set of beaches testifies that the basin held a lake soon after the rapid outflow. Apparently the final draining was gradual.

Glacial Work in the Western Mountains in 1901

Previous articleNext article FreeGlacial Work in the Western Mountains in 1901Rollin D. SalisburyRollin D. Salisbury Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Geology Volume 9, Number 8Nov. - Dec., 1901 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/620970 Views: 41Total views on this site Citations: 16Citations are reported from Crossref PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Richard B. Waitt Roads less travelled by—Pleistocene piracy in Washington’s northwestern Channeled Scabland, (Apr 2021): 351–384.https://doi.org/10.1130/2021.2548(18)Iestyn D. Barr, Matteo Spagnolo Glacial cirques as palaeoenvironmental indicators: Their potential and limitations, Earth-Science Reviews 151 (Dec 2015): 48–78.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2015.10.004Victor R. Baker The Spokane Flood debates: historical background and philosophical perspective, Geological Society, London, Special Publications 301, no.11 (Jun 2022): 33–50.https://doi.org/10.1144/SP301.3Paul E. Carrara, Eugene P. Kiver, Dale F. Stradling The southern limit of Cordilleran ice in the Colville and Pend Oreille valleys of northeastern Washington during the Late Wisconsin glaciation, Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 33, no.55 (May 1996): 769–778.https://doi.org/10.1139/e96-059Gerald Osborn, Charl du Toit Lateral planation of rivers as a geomorphic agent, Geomorphology 4, no.3-43-4 (Oct 1991): 249–260.https://doi.org/10.1016/0169-555X(91)90008-XGerald M. Richmond Tentative correlation of deposits of the Cordilleran ICE-sheet in the Northern Rocky Mountains, Quaternary Science Reviews 5 (Jan 1986): 129–144.https://doi.org/10.1016/0277-3791(86)90179-4Victor R. Baker, Russell C. Bunker Cataclysmic Late pleistocene flooding from glacial Lake Missoula: A review, Quaternary Science Reviews 4, no.11 (Jan 1985): 1–41.https://doi.org/10.1016/0277-3791(85)90027-7R. L. Mahler, D. F. Bezdicek Diversity of Rhizobium leguminosarum in the Palouse of Eastern Washington, Applied and Environmental Microbiology 36, no.55 (Nov 1978): 780–782.https://doi.org/10.1128/aem.36.5.780-782.1978Ian S. Evans World-Wide Variations in the Direction and Concentration of Cirque and Glacier Aspects, Geografiska Annaler: Series A, Physical Geography 59, no.3-43-4 (Aug 2017): 151–175.https://doi.org/10.1080/04353676.1977.11879949Victor R. Baker, Bruce N. Bjornstad, David R. Gaylord, Gary A. Smith, Scott E. Meyer, Petteri Alho, Roy M. Breckenridge, Mark R. Sweeney, Marek Zreda Pleistocene megaflood landscapes of the Channeled Scabland, (): 1–73.https://doi.org/10.1130/2016.0041(01)Victor R. Baker, Bruce N. Bjornstad, Alan J. Busacca, Karl R. Fecht, E. P. Kiver, Ula L. Moody, James G. Rigby, D. F. Stradling, Ann M. Tallman Quaternary Geology of the Columbia Plateau, (): 215–250.https://doi.org/10.1130/DNAG-GNA-K2.215Paul A. Carling, Jürgen Herget, Julia K. Lanz, Keith Richardson, Andrea Pacifici, Devon M. Burr, Paul A. Carling, Victor R. Baker Channel-scale erosional bedforms in bedrock and in loose granular material: character, processes and implications, (): 13–32.https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511635632.002D. W. Johnson The Southernmost Glaciation in the United States, Science 31, no.789789 (Feb 1910): 218–220.https://doi.org/10.1126/science.31.789.218-bD. W. Johnson The Southernmost Glaciation in the United States, Science 31, no.789789 (Feb 1910): 218–220.https://doi.org/10.1126/science.31.789.218.bRollin D. Salisbury Recent Progress in Glaciology, Science 15, no.374374 (Feb 1902): 353–355.https://doi.org/10.1126/science.15.374.353-bRollin D. Salisbury Recent Progress in Glaciology, Science 15, no.374374 (Feb 1902): 353–355.https://doi.org/10.1126/science.15.374.353.b