where did the name scablands come from

Full Answer

Could the rivers and lakes that exist in the Scablands have formed mysterious rock formations Why or why not?

How could a river have deposited those features and yet carved out such a wide and deep and long and sheer canyon? NARRATOR: The rivers and lakes in the Scablands today could not have sculpted this landscape. This water is part of a modern irrigation system and was not here when the Scablands were created.

Did the Columbia River carve the Scablands?

Downstream from glacial Lake Missoula, the Columbia River was dammed by another ice lobe, forming glacial Lake Columbia. When Lake Missoula's outburst floods poured into Lake Columbia, the water spilled over to the south onto the eastern Washington plateau, eroding the landscape and creating the Channeled Scablands.

What was the source of the water that carved out the Scablands?

great glacial lakesThe Scablands are essentially wounds, still unhealed by time and erosion. They cut through the land and down into the rock after a series of unfathomably large floods unleashed by the catastrophic draining of great glacial lakes—half the volume of Lake Michigan splashed onto the land in less than a week.

Are the Scablands in Montana?

When Glacial Lake Missoula's ice dam shattered, a northern arm of the lake drained in a matter of hours through a narrow gap in Montana's Blackfoot River valley.

What caused the potholes in the Scablands?

Large potholes were formed by swirling vortexes of water called kolks scouring and plucking out the bedrock. The Scablands are littered with large boulders called glacial erratics that rafted on glaciers and were deposited by the glacial outburst flooding.

Why did the early settlers name the area the Channeled Scablands?

These rocks have a pretty fascinating story of how they were created. The early settlers in eastern Washington referred to these areas as scablands because they were not suitable for farming.

Why was the Great flood called a Megaflood?

A megaflood is a flood which suddenly releases a huge amount of water. In geomorphology it is sometimes called an outburst flood. At the end of the last ice age, many large floods were caused by the collapse of ice sheets or glaciers which formed the dams of glacial lakes.

What did J Harlen Bretz think caused the strange features in the scablands?

J Harlen Bretz was a geologist who launched one of the great controversies of modern science by arguing, in the 1920s, that the deep canyons and pockmarked buttes of the arid "scablands" of Eastern Washington had been created by a sudden, catastrophic flood -- not, as most of his peers believed, by eons of gradual ...

What river flooded in 1966 and destroyed artwork?

the Arno RiverNovember 1966, days of rain swelled the Arno River, sending water, oil and sediment into Florence, in the city's worst flood in nearly 400 years. It was captured in this documentary by filmmaker Franco Zeffirelli, narrated by actor Richard Burton and broadcast on Italian state television.

What states have Scablands?

WASHINGTON SCABLANDS ICE AGE FLOODS. The Ice Age Floods of western Montana, north Idaho, and east & south Washington states, were one of the greatest geological events ever to occur on our planet.

How long ago were ice sheets over the Scablands?

USGS: The Channeled Scablands of Eastern Washington (The Great Ice Age) Although glaciation began throughout the northern hemisphere at least two million years ago, the important chapter in the glacial history of the Scablands began about 100,000 years ago.

How long did it take Lake Missoula to empty?

It is estimated that the maximum rate of flow was equal to 386 million cubic feet per second. At that rate, the lake probably drained in a few days.

What carved out the Columbia River?

Geological history Between 6 to 17 million years ago, ancient volcanoes erupted, streaming more than 20 massive basalt flows into the area that's now the Gorge. They formed rock layers up to 2,000 feet thick, cutting the canyon and becoming most of the rocks in the Gorge today.

How did volcanoes shape the Columbia Plateau?

As the molten rock came to the surface, the earths crust gradually sank into the space left by the rising lava. The subsidence of the crust produced a large, slightly depressed lava plain now known as the Columbia Basin (Plateau).

What is the name of the floods that carved out the Columbia River Gorge?

These gently sloping hills beside the lake show the marks of a tumultuous process at work. This region of the Columbia Basin was carved over eons by the meander of the river, by slow erosion, and by explosive ice-age floods.

What is the Columbia Basin best known for?

HydropowerIn short, the Columbia River Basin is an essential reason for the Northwest being a dynamic and highly prosperous region within the nation and the world. Hydropower, flood control, irrigation, navigation and recreation are specific benefits that the uniqueness of the Basin and its river system provide.

How were the Scablands carved?

Although Bretz' concept sparked a lively controversy, most geologists today agree that the Scablands were carved by a flood of unprecedented proportions that took place 18,000 to 20,000 years ago during the Great Ice Age. The Spokane Flood left its mark along a course of more than 550 miles, extending from western Montana to the Pacific Ocean, ...

What was the setting of the scabland region before the Great Flood?

Thus, before the onset of the Great Flood, the geologic setting of the scabland region consisted of a thick, tilted saucer of basalt, in places warped into ridges and completely overlain by a "frosting" of loess . How did the region look? If one were standing atop Steptoe Butte, the view in any direction would be peaceful rolling grassland speckled with roaming herds of antelope, buffalo, and camel with the distant mountains of the Cascades and Rockies forming hazy blue backdrops to the West and East. This tranquil scene was the setting for a catastrophe!

What is the rock that covers the Scablands?

This rock, the "floor" of the Scablands, is basalt—a dense crystalline lava that covers more than 100,000 square miles in parts of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. The part of the lava field that underlies the Scablands in eastern Washington is a saucer-shaped area of about 15,000 square miles almost completely surrounded by mountains ...

Where did the silt come from?

The source of the silt was the western part of the lava field where temporary lakes had formed during the folding. Also incorporated in the Palouse soils is volcanic ash, derived from some of the western volcanoes scattered along the Cascade Mountains of Washington and Oregon.

Who defined the scablands?

Geologist J Harlen Bretz defined "scablands" in a series of papers written in the 1920s as lowlands diversified by a multiplicity of irregular channels and rock basins eroded into basalt. Flood waters eroded the loess cover, creating large anastomizing channels that exposed bare basalt and creating butte -and- basin topography.

What is a scabland?

The term scabland refers to an area that has experienced fluvial erosion resulting in the loss of loess and other soils, leaving the land barren. River valleys formed by erosional downcutting of rivers create V-shaped valleys, while glaciers carve out U-shaped valleys. The Channeled Scablands have a rectangular cross section, with flat plateaus and steep canyon sides, and are spread over immense areas of eastern Washington. The morphology of the scablands is butte-and-basin. The area that encompasses the Scablands has been estimated between 1,500 and 2,000 square miles (3,900 and 5,200 km 2 ), though those estimates still may be too conservative.

What is channeled scablands?

The Channeled Scablands at one time were a relatively barren and soil-free region of interconnected relict and dry flood channels, coulees and cataracts eroded into Palouse loess and the typically flat-lying basalt flows that remain after cataclysmic floods within the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Washington.

Why are the scablands important?

The Scablands are also important to planetary scientists as perhaps the best terrestrial analog of the Martian outflow channels.

How many square miles are there in the Scablands?

The area that encompasses the Scablands has been estimated between 1,500 and 2,000 square miles (3,900 and 5,200 km 2 ), though those estimates still may be too conservative. They exhibit a unique drainage pattern that appears to have an entrance in the northeast and an exit in the southwest.

How did Bretz explain the Channeled Scablands?

Bretz conducted research and published many papers during the 1920s describing the Channeled Scablands. His theories of how they were formed required short but immense floods – 500 cubic miles (2,100 km 3 ) – for which Bretz had no explanation. His theories of apparent catastrophism met with vehement opposition from geologists of the day, who tried to explain the features with uniformitarian theories – that they were shaped by processes still acting today.

Where are the Scablands?

The so-called "scablands" are a vast region of weird terrain 200 miles east of Seattle, including gorges hundreds of feet deep, enormous pits, huge boulders scattered as if dropped by giants, undulating hills that look like huge ripples, strange layers of silt and ash, and a "waterfall" five times wider than Niagara, but without any water (see Explore the Scablands ). The name "scablands" perfectly suits the scarred and wounded landscape, which baffled most geologists throughout the 19th century and much of the 20th. To them, no plausible explanation fit all the facts.

Who solved the Channeled Scabland?

For decades Washington's strange Channeled Scabland stumped experts as to its origin—until a pair of geologists named Bretz and Pardee came along and solved the riddle.

What river cut through the scablands?

For example, there is no large river cutting through the scablands that could have carved the features over millions of years—as the Colorado River did in the Grand Canyon. Nor is there evidence that the area was buried beneath glaciers that produced extensive erosion—as occurred in large sections of the American and Canadian Rockies.

What did Bretz believe about the scablands?

Many of his colleagues ridiculed the idea, especially because it smacked of "catastrophism," a discredited view that Earth had been shaped by sudden cataclysms rather than by slow evolutionary change.

Overview

The Channeled Scablands are a relatively barren and soil-free region of interconnected relict and dry flood channels, coulees and cataracts eroded into Palouse loess and the typically flat-lying basalt flows that remain after cataclysmic floods within the southeastern part of Washington. The Channeled Scablands were scoured by more than 40 cataclysmic floods during the Last Glacial Maximum and innumerable older cataclysmic floods over the last two million years. These flood…

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