Glacial Lake Missoula and Its Humongous Floods
by David D. Alt
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Book Summary Information
Author: David D. AltEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2001-05-01
ISBN: 0878424156
Number of pages: 208
Publisher: Mountain Press Publishing Company
Book Reviews of Glacial Lake Missoula and Its Humongous Floods
Book Review: Glacial Lake Missoula and the Humongous Floods
Summary: 5 Stars
My knowledge of geology is so incomplete that I don't even qualify as an amateur. However, I live in Missoula, Montana, and from my window can see beach lines left by the several fillings of Lake Missoula. I have listened to David Alt, the author of this book, describe the geologic events of ten to fifteen thousand years ago. In geologic time, that is very recent. Possibly the lake and floods were seen by humans. What a sight that would have been!
My wife and I have carried this book, and the roadside geology books written or coauthored by David Alt, as we drove through Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. These are the four states involved in the lake and floods. We have compared the many photos and sketches of the book with the actual physical features. Until recently, these books were the only sources of information written in layman's language.
In a nutshell, a huge lake formed behind a dam of glacial ice at the border of Idaho and Montana. It was 2000 feet deep at the dam, 900 feet deep at Missoula, and stretched more than a hundred miles up several valleys. The dam washed out and in less than a week, there were huge floods across Washington and out the Columbia River Gorge to the Pacific. Flood waters backed far up river valleys such as the Yakima and the Willamette. The dam reformed and the event was repeated forty times or more. The floods left behind physical features that match the scope of the event. There are huge silt deposits, giant ripple marks, enormous erratic boulders moved hundreds of miles, and immense rock surfaces scoured by the flooding waters. The great valleys and waterfalls left behind now stand dry. This book tells all; or at least as much as geologists understood in 2001 when the book was published.
A fascinating side story found in the book is about J. Harlen Bretz, the redoubtable geologist who correctly interpreted the evidence of the flood and fought the geologic world to a standstill. He was booed when presenting his theories in national geologic meetings. However, he lived to see most of his detractors either change their viewpoints or go to their graves unconvinced. Today, there is an organization that has gotten Congressional approval to establish an informative "trail" through the four states. It would inform travelers about the geology. There are already signs along the roads and displays in museums. Much of the success is attributable to David Alt and his book "Glacial Lake Missoula and Its Humongous Floods."
Summary of Glacial Lake Missoula and Its Humongous Floods
Glacial Lake Missoula and Its Humongous Floods tells the tale of a huge Ice Age lake that, when it suddenly drained, unleashed more then ten times the combined flow of all the modern rivers of the world. The book follows the path of the floodwaters as they raged from western Montana across the Idaho Panhandle, then scoured eastern Washington and rushed down the Columbia Gorge to the Pacific Ocean.Geology Books
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