The Unbelievable Story of Earth’s Most Epic Flood

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One day around 15,000 years ago, a wall of ice 2,000 feet tall and 30 miles wide suddenly broke wide open, and it unleashed the largest flood that we know of in the history of Earth. Come and hit the road with me as we search for the geologic fingerprints of the Missoula Ice Age Floods, and learn the story of one of the worst natural disasters that’s ever happened!
High fives to Nick Zentner for educating me on the geology of Eastern Washington. He makes incredible geology videos on YouTUbe:
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• Scraping together Mt. ...
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00:00 Introduction
00:54 A geologic mystery
01:53 A very large lake
03:32 A mountain made of ice
05:15 The dam breaks
06:25 Biggest. Waterfall. Ever.
07:57 How the damage was done
10:10 Witnesses to destruction
10:49 A brave new idea
12:00 Stay curious.

[@besmart]

This ancient flood was so bad, it caused an emergent sea Thanks for watching! See if you can post a better flood or geology dad joke below 🤓

[@eg_manifest510]

you're not the best comedian, but I guess all geologists have their faults

[@ronsamborski6230]

I think that those floods were guilty of basalt and battery! 😊

[@LuisSierra42]

I read about this in the manga, The Bible

[@rubiks6]

How is it that geologists don't see this same sort of event as creating the Grand Canyon?? (Sorry. Not a joke.)

[@nerd_alert927]

What did Gold say to Pyrite? You're a fool and a fake.

[@peanutbutterjellyfish2665]

I live in Yakima, Washington. I’ve done the geologic journey through Washington, Idaho and Montana. It’s still hard to believe. When you’re standing in front of dry falls, you get a scope of the magnitude and it’s mind boggling.

[@besmart]

It truly is. No camera can do it justice.

[@nerd_alert927]

Nice, my husband is from Yakima. It was at YVCC that he started his Geology degree and completed it in Spokane. We went on many Geology field trips. Field camp was in Dillon, MT.

[@davidscott5903]

I’ve been to dry falls several times, and recently went to Niagara Falls. I used to think that sure, these falls would have been pretty big, but now I have a better perspective on what that really would have been like, and it would have been epic!

[@Flipflop437]

Hopefully you’re not around for the next cycle of these floods😅

[@peanutbutterjellyfish2665]

@@nerd_alert927 That’s really awesome! I’m just an old rock hound, and amateur geologist. The geologic history of the earth fascinates me.

[@johnchedsey1306]

That portion of Washington genuinely has some of the weirdest geology anywhere and it's awesome. Like a lot of other folks, Nick Zenter's great videos informed me on how all this happened. I visited Palouse Falls and Dry Falls/Sun Lakes quite a few times to admire the crazy landscape. Highly recommend those places to people visiting Washington.

[@jimk8520]

+1 for Nick Zentner!

[@WWZenaDo]

I love his videos! I'm subbed to his channel.

[@dukecity7688]

About two years ago i found Nick on the Rocks and never looked back. i live in Boston and more than anything want to visit this wild place. I need to see this. German Chocolate Cake

[@jimk8520]

@@dukecity7688 yes, Nw local here - no camera does the cake justice.

[@jimc.goodfellas226]

That guy is great! Might I recommend Shawn Willsey channel

[@diatribe114]

Someone who did great videos on this and goes real in depth is Nick Zetner . He’s a professor with his own PBS videos. He also has a three hour lecture online of this subject alone .

[@dadskrej5226]

This winter, 2023/24 Nick Zentner (Central Washington University) is doing a 13 week series on this subject. check it out. Best to watch it from episode A (A-Z). Right now, December 1st, he is on episode F. Very heavy in details from this flood.

[@laughingoutloud5742]

Professor Nick Zentner even uploaded his entire Geology 101 lectures he gives at Central Washington University as well 😊

[@laughingoutloud5742]

​@@dadskrej5226Agreed! Another armchair student from Alberta Canada here! 🇨🇦 🌋🗻🗺⏳️

[@kennethlong5395]

Nick is fantastic! 🫶

[@arthurballs9632]

I was addicted to his channel after discovering it during lockdown

[@matthewjoseph4508]

The Zanclean flood (flood that filled the Mediterranean Sea 5 million years ago) had an estimated maximum discharge rate of 100 million cubic meters per second. The Missoula flood (The one in this video) had an estimated maximum discharge rate of 2.7 million cubic meters per second. The Missoula flood was definitely epic, but I don't know if it was the most epic flood in Earth's history.

[@mystuffseventyone5930]

The bible records a worldwide flood! Why not believe that?

[@stevehoffmann543]

And then the one after that, when the land dam at the Bosporus finally failed and a huge inhabited valley became the Black Sea.

[@pepegacrazy7905]

Americans being egocentric , what else is new?

[@andrew300169]

How cool would it have been to sit on the rock at Gibraltar and watch that happening in front of you.😮

[@norbertjendruschj9121]

@@stevehoffmann543 What makes you think, the area was inhabited?

[@douglasboyle6544]

The first time I read about the events surrounding Glacial Lake Missoula I was astounded, years later I took a trip out that way and saw all the witness marks for myself, the strandlines on the hillsides, the ripples on the prairie and the Channeled Scablands to really take in the scale and it is just awe-inspiring.

[@gointothedogs4634]

I drove through that area myself after acquiring a USGS pamphlet on the Scablands, and was very impressed with the magnitude and unseal terrain.

[@richardoutlaw7550]

Didn't GOD flood earth to rid the world of evil?

[@sonyboybluespower]

@@richardoutlaw7550 no cause there is no god. U are watching science video dude

[@trimerybroymar5618]

Is Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge part of this?

[@kyriacosstavrinides893]

@@richardoutlaw7550 If he did it didn't work.

[@inelegantartist8342]

My dad recently told me about these floods! We live in SW Washington and in my yard he's pretty sure we have a big huge rock in our garden that came from Idaho when the floods happened, bc of the type of rock it is are usually found over there. Neat stuff :)

[@Ngwaaaron]

Noah from the Bible: I told you so.

[@yoboiiisean3666]

LMAO NOHA

[@WWZenaDo]

Yeah, the fact that the floods happened around 39 times really blows that silly primitive Sumerian flood story out of the water.

[@poloska9471]

@@WWZenaDo and the fact that these floods not only submerge everything but also utterly PWN everything in their direction.

[@dennyroblescook7364]

They’re called glacial erratic’s

[@thomassnaza7903]

Being from Eastern Washington, and having been to all the places in the video, it's really cool to see my local history on such a large channel.

[@SgtDreamz]

Was thinking the same, I grew up going camping in the potholes (as my dad referred to them) and going to the Coulee gorge for concerts. I always wondered why the landscape was so flat, with random jutting cliffs going up and very deep and scattered round holes pock marked throughout. Never saw the rippling in the valleys cause it's mostly farmland and never had a birds eye view to see the areas not covered in farms.

[@That-one-Italian-guy1]

@@SgtDreamzyou can see some rippling between othello and royal city

[@logandihel]

Thanks for covering the geology of eastern Washington so well! I've been to Palouse falls countless times to appreciate the beauty and utter chaos that occurred merely thousands of years ago to create our special landscape

[@keiderestevao5761]

These floods were absolutely epic, but the one that formed the Mediterranean sea was even more massive and spectacular. It is believed that at its peak it caused the level of the entire Mediterranean to rise by more than 10 meters a day

[@peternyikos8020]

The oveall amount of the water into the Mediterranean was perhaps thousands of times as great, but it might not have happened at as great a RATE. If the scablands flood took place over a few days, as the video claims, while the Mediterranean took hundreds of years to fill, then the record rate would belong to the scablands.

[@bryanrhodes369]

This was my initial reaction as well

[@johnroetzer9990]

I also want more content on the Messinian Salinity Crisis

[@flori5296]

@@peternyikos8020 it is estimated that it took a maximum of two years to flood the Mediterranean, with a maximum discharge rate of 100 million cubic metres per second.

[@alexmason5521]

@@flori5296while the Mediterranean flood is insane these events are pretty different

[@glacier68]

One of the most phenomenal things about Bretz's observational skills, is that he formulated the original hypothesis without the benefit of aerial photographs, and had to conceptualize the scale of events from ground observations and maps.

[@m.dewylde5287]

Why would he refuse to use aerial photos or direct observation?!

[@glacier68]

@@m.dewylde5287 aerial photos were not available at that time.

[@m.dewylde5287]

​@@glacier68Is this a joke? Bretz studied the grounds in the 1920s. This is a simple Google search that took 5 seconds: "The first known aerial photograph was taken in 1858 by French photographer and balloonist, Gaspar Felix Tournachon, known as "Nadar". Wilbur Wright was the first pilot in remote sensing history that took photographs from an aeroplane. Wilbur's passenger, L. P. Bonvillain, on a demonstration flight in France in 1908, took the first photograph from an aircraft."

[@glacier68]

@@m.dewylde5287 5 seconds of Google search can show you a lot of things... However, the difference between experimental use of aerial photos and systematic aerial surveys was several decades. For instance, the oldest aerial survey photos for Washington State are typically mid 1930s to early 1940s, and those weren't necessarily comprehensive, being flown by govt agencies like the Army Corps of Engineers or the Department of War for their needs. As such, these photos wouldn't be publicly available. www.archives.gov/research/cartographic/aerial-photography (Practicing Washington environmental geologist with 25+ years experience. Uses historic aerial photos for due diligence projects)

[@SD_Alias]

​@@m.dewylde5287 I think it was just not that common and widespread back then. The costs were also perhaps a reason. The most aerial observations were done after WWII

[@debbiesimmons4593]

I read about the work of J. Harlen Bretz many years ago. He was so smart! He walked all over eastern Washington and took to the skies to prove his theories. He was finally vindicated but what a fight he started in main stream science. We need more people like J. Harlen Bretz.

[@davidpowell6098]

Many cultures have flood stories from thousand of years ago in their story telling. Excellent vid, guys.

[@rosscourtney9913]

So epic they lived to tell the story?

[@tonyh7267]

@@rosscourtney9913 Yes. Noah, his three sons and their wives all survived on the Ark.

[@malahammer]

@@tonyh7267 Incest reboot 🙄

[@rexxx777]

Funny how Noah and the flood is disregarded yet it explains all the mass erosion events around the world.

[@101rotarypower]

Anyone that is entranced by this topic, look up Nick Zentner, he covers this in broad scale to fine detail really allowing the viewer to rationalize and internalize the scale and immensity of each successive event, as well as many others that are directly connected to him covering this topic.

[@zitools]

i'm 2 minutes into the video and immediately thought of prof nick zentner. yes for anyone who is nuts about plate tectonics, glaciers/megafloods, or geology...yall need to check him out. i believe its central washinton university. he also does hour long lectures for what appears to be amateurs or continuing education students. very accessible stuff.

[@seanthorntonmd3908]

Nick is responsible for the creation of the animation of the floods going over Dry Falls seen in this show.

[@RandallSlick]

I've been semi-obsessed with this subject for 25 years and I've yet to see a better constructed, more succinct and accessible summary of it. Congratulations to all involved.

[@MostlyPennyCat]

Do you know about the Zanclean flood? That's a good one. Featured in Randall Munroe's "Time"

[@Doc.Holiday]

GOOD JOB!!! I’m well traveled from the east slopes and Continental West US and Canada. I’ve been to numerous MT, ID OR and WA museums that highlight the impact of the Missoula Flood(s). This video is among the very best of tools to educate the public. Keep up the good work.

[@DadsRUs]

So many myths and legends about ancient floods its pretty fascinating. Athabascan indian tribes tell tales of ancient floods and can even point to the excact mountain their ancestors climbed to escape it.

[@evilbred974]

That's because floods happen all the time, and they're a frequent and often cataclysmic disaster.

[@omranhashim1028]

Interesting! Which mountain do they say it was on?

[@OgdenM]

Yeap and Europeans (And therefor colonialists when they spread out to rest of the world) thought they were liars for hundreds of years. I blame it on two things: 1) The "Dark Ages". I think it destroyed a lot of historic knowledge in Europe. If you go to any other civilization that's been around for(ever) they have history tracing back for thousands of years that is verifiable. Europe, not so much. 2) It's also great tactic for conquerors to claim local knowledge is a myth. It gives you validity with the people in the area you're coming from because you can say "You're making things right" so they support you and give you money, fight the wars etc etc. It also causes cognitive dissonance in the people you're conquering. They see that you're "more powerful" and start to think that your story of history must be right. (And Colonizing an already populated area is a form of conquering). ------------It' Gas Lighting at it's finest! Like seriously, there is now archeological proof that humans(oids) have been here for at least 50,000 years. Potentially even LONGER but the current dating techniques don't go back that far. For decades we've been like "Nope, no one was here more then 12k years ago." And anyone that wanted to do deeper digging was thought to be a crack pot. Then someone finally said screw it and kept digging and kept finding more and more stuff. Now several other people are doing the same and finding the same stuff dating back as far. And the Native Americans are like, "Uh, we've been here for 80,000+ years." Which, they probably have been. I wouldn't be surprised if humanoids have been in the Western Hemisphere for as long as they have existed. What I've always found weird is, why are there no major North American city ruins? We see evidence of such in Central and South but.. not so much here. And even the ones we find there are not as old as the ones we find in the Eastern Hemisphere... so, why did Western civilization take such a different direction and NOT gather into cities for so long? Civilization in the Eastern did... it's rather odd. ... all though, there are people that claim that European colonialists DID find ruins in North America and they were all torn apart and covered with modern cities. (Back in the time of wooden buildings etc etc.) That there is a major conspiracy to hide the fact there were major civilizations in the US etc. Idk though, that seems more far fetched then just civilization taking a different route for some strange reason.

[@Me-da-Ghost]

@@OgdenM ?

[@ss-fp1di]

@@omranhashim1028 himalya .king manu went there

[@briangarrow448]

As a resident of Washington state, I have visited the Channeled Scablands and the Potholes Areas of Central Washington multiple times. Dry Falls is truly impressive. I’ve also fly fished in the small lakes that are the remnants of that humongous river of ice age waters. If you ever travel through this area, it is definitely worth your time to stop and explore the natural beauty of these unique geological wonders.

[@GladysAlicea]

You lucky guy. Geology was one of my favorite subjects in college. A professor encouraged me to be a geologist, but I ignored him. Today, it's still absolutely fascinating to me, and I'm truly regretful of the fact that I didn't listen to my professor. I especially love those basalt columns. Wow!

[@sunrisetacticalgear2676]

@@GladysAlicea you should really try to make a visit. I live a few hours south of it and am always amazed of the landscape it created. I would suggest starting in Portland and driving Eastbound on I 84 through the Columbia river gorge to Hermiston, then head North to Dry falls. Seeing the landscape along the way tells a great story.

[@GladysAlicea]

@@sunrisetacticalgear2676 Funny thing...I drove through Portland years ago, headed from airport to a conference at a country resort I can't remember the name of, but didn't know about this place. The drive was long and so beautiful and green.

[@AJ67901]

Nicely presented. I saw a video on this about 30 years ago and found it fascinating.

[@dlbstl]

I loved the graphic maps showing the course of the floods. Well done with everything, photos, script, maps, and you two kids made it fun!😄

[@StuffandThings_]

Well, the Zanclean flood which may have occurred when the Straits of Gibraltar opened up would have been much larger. For similar outburst floods, the Bonneville flood and potential Altai flood are strong competitors. Still, very few have created such a stark landscape with such obvious flood features still around. Eastern Washington truly is a geologic wonderland

[@letsgo8659]

Was thinking this as well. Also, the flood when the bosporus opened up and the Black Sea level started quickly rising.

[@jacqueschouette7474]

I was expecting that this was going to talk about the Lake Bonneville flood. I would say that the Lake Bonneville flood was bigger.

[@joshweiland1256]

Indeed. The Missoula flood was awesome, too bad he had to say it was the most epic. Kind of a fail for a science channel.

[@tequilacollins]

The lake Missoula flood was about 4 times bigger than Bonneville flood. The Zanclean flood was about 200 times bigger, but took about 2 years to fill up the Mediterranean Sea.

[@markbarta2369]

Bonneville Flood is estimated to have lasted for years as it was also an erosion event rather than an Ice Dam burst. So while it may have drained more by volume, the extent of the flooding would be less extreme.

[@user-zi3ub2vo4h]

I watched this video with my 6th grade students and they LOVED IT!!! The kids enjoy your videos, keep up the great work!!

[@SantiagoTM1]

A couple of years ago, I ran away from home on my motorcycle. All I took with me was a sleeping bag, 2 pairs of pants, & 3 underwear, & of course, my telescope. Ppl, the night sky was spectacular to say the least. I rode through there, & it was the most beautiful places my eyes have ever seen. I knew about what had happened in that part of the North American Continent due to our last Ice Age. This fantastic video doesn't do reality well. Seeing it live is something no one will ever forget.

[@coliny7497]

Nick Zentner (geology prof at the university in Ellensberg) has several videos on this as well. It is actually a series of floods and not just a single one. if you're interested in geology, look him up. He's a very fascinating guy.

[@mrfriz4091]

Nick is not only fascinating, he is a great teacher/lecturer!

[@CoCoSWISS1]

@@mrfriz4091 In this video he does say, later on, that the ice wall reformed and melted multiple times. So this is all the work of multiple, days-long floods separated by.. ice ages.

[@mrfriz4091]

Yes he does. I’ve heard up to 40 or more. I live in WA state and driven through the scablands. Dry Falls formation is astounding.

[@BlGGESTBROTHER]

Hello fellow Zentnerds!

[@Cowboy_moonman396]

It’s cool that this topic is getting more attention, funny that they used nick zentner’s animation of the flood!

[@nerd_alert927]

Nice! We learned about this in one of my Geology classes at uni. Most people in Central and Eastern WA learn about it, mainly because it's such a huge part of our history and Geology.

[@arv_01]

Hey how did you commented before uploading??

[@SignsBehindScience]

@@arv_01 she probably has ch*nnel membership

[@besmart]

Patreon 😉

[@SignsBehindScience]

@@besmart oh sir! You commented there! Big fan of yours from Pakistan 🇵🇰 (Probably you haven't heard of my country)

[@micahbirdlover8152]

@@arv_01 how do you upload videos Before you put on video 🤔

[@thangri-la]

Omg. The extreme beauty of the landscape took my breath away! America is one lucky, blessed country.

[@lindseyhendrix2405]

Why thank you!

[@jorgec98]

I don't think the people who lived there when the flood happened shared that opinion

[@graysweathercam985]

I live at the crest of the Tualatin Mountains, which form the western edge of the city of Portland, Oregon. Thirty years ago I managed a project to construct a 625 foot, externally reinforced ferro-concrete radio tower (a unique structure), next door to what is now my house. As part of that project we excavated three, 40-foot square foundation holes 20 feet down to the fractured basalt that forms the bedrock of the Tualatin Mountains. Once we had scraped away the top 5 feet of soil, the part that had been shaped by vegetation and man's activity, the remaining soil was flour-fine and contained no rocks - I mean zero rocks. When I asked our soils/geology consultant about this, he told me that this was all wind deposited silt from the Missoula Floods. This soil is so dense, that the roots of the Douglas Fir trees that we planted as part of the landscaping and which are now over 35 feet tall, run along the surface of the ground, unable to penetrate the soil. -Gray Haertig

[@tonylikesphysics2534]

Can we take a moment to thank Randall Carlson for his work?

[@BlGGESTBROTHER]

Randall Carlson hasn't done anything to progress our understanding of these floods. Why would we thank him?

[@maxhunter3574]

Yes, without RC, this YTer wouldn't even have bothered making this video.

[@iainengland8058]

@@BlGGESTBROTHER yeah bringing it to the attention of hundreds of thousands of people really isn’t anything now is it.

[@pud4272]

@@BlGGESTBROTHER So upset lmao

[@BuckNaked2k]

YDIT

[@luemas3219]

Thank you Randall Carlson for seeding this video with his years of research and terms used throughout.

[@neloglass]

Randal Carlson who is supposed to be the initiator on the great Flood, has stolen everything he presented from the book WHY AND HOW THE ICE AGE ENDED which was published in 2012. If you check the date above you will see that Randall Carlson had nothing about the Great Flood before it anywhere. And if you read the book you will realize immediately that Randal Carlson has everything from that book. If you go to you tube to "ice age from asteroid impact", you will see a video made by the writer of the book WHY AND HOW THE ICE AGE ENDED explaining how it may have happen based on logic and physics. Everything about the Ice Age and the Great Flood was started by Raven Alb J , and everybody is copying him. The video on you tube "ice age from asteroid impact" was published 7 years ago yet it has only 25,000 views. That is because it makes too much sense, and it will change the view of the world on how climate change happens. Therefore the people who control you tube has made the algorithm in such a way that hardly anyone sees this video. You should see it and judge for yourself.

[@jesse6845]

Except the ice wall just didn't snap. It was caused by a meteor. Hence the alignment with younger dryas era.

[@swirvinbirds1971]

Randall Carlson has provided nothing to our understanding of the Scablands other than make up a fantasy and shoehorn it in. FYI the LAST of the floods, which were the smallest pre-dates his impact hypothesis. The Clovis occupied Panghorn bar and it's one of the largest Clovis sites in North America. Even the Clovis come AFTER the floods.

[@swirvinbirds1971]

​@@jesse6845nope

[@melfreitas1290]

@@swirvinbirds1971 yup

[@bootsmcclanahan1669]

How could you not mention Randall Carlson in this video? He has been researching this and talking about it for decades. In fact, he's probably the only reason anyone is now talking about this. His recent appearances on Joe Rogan's show have drawn a lot of public attention to this idea.

[@patrickwilson7378]

That's easy to answer. Randy isn't a deep state puppet like PBS and these people are. They will give partial truths to hide the big lies. Fact is, there are many theories of earth's history geologically, it's civilizations, Biblically, and so on. It's pretty obvious our history that we've been fed has been altered or a flat out lie. The truth? It's out there probably buried or hidden in or under some ancient site.

[@Love-you-too]

Because while he is passionate, he has theories without evidence, evidence that are not evidence, and thinks all scientist never update what they think and that they never would admit to such a flood. This one is real, Randal’s is not. And I’ve seen enough of him, and enough prehistoric archeology and geology in 4 years in university to separate those too. I just want the same proof we needed here, and I am almost certain to have already seen enough proof that that’s not the history of the places he mentions, not in this way, but maybe I missed one somewhere and it exists, nonetheless, the facts he needs for his idea are still absent, he doesn’t have them and still points at facts that aren’t at the moment.

[@JoeLinux2000]

Earth's climate change has been going on literally for billions of years.

[@JoeLinux2000]

@@Love-you-too It's amazing you are so critical of Randall Carlson when he has an episode that is almost an exact parallel of this program aside from advertising bogus claims about the need to reduce C02 which happens to be plant food and has been at much higher levels in the past than it is now. Randall Carlson - Episode No. 28. Destruction by Floods and Fire He uses the same evidence in his program that is presented in this video. This PBS video just corroborates Randall's science.

[@liamcol09]

If anyone deserves credit, it's professor of geology at central Washington university Nick Zentner. He's been making videos and doing the actual research on the scabland floods his whole career. He does actual, real, quantifiable science.

[@Madchef8u]

As a kid and young adult I visited the region bi-yearly. It’s just amazing how the canyon cliffs can be so high yet the water still as deep in places. Kinda eerie to swim across.. makes you feel very small.

[@andriypredmyrskyy7791]

Yo that flood animation is sick. Tell the animator I respect their work.

[@RossOneEyed]

Grew up in Eastern Washington. Been to Dry Falls so many times. So much geology in the entire eastern part of the state.

[@victoriawilliams6156]

So well done! I love how well this was explained. Great maps great animation I really enjoyed this.

[@tuxedojunction9422]

I grew up in the Channeled Scablands (near Connell), and have probably visited Dry Falls and Palouse Falls at least 5 times each on various family outings and school field trips. I still find it fascinating. It's nice to see our columnar basalts, rugged geography, and fascinating geologic history get some KZbin love!

[@TheyCallMeNewb]

That flooding animation was a visual delight. physics enabled indeed.

[@DunnickFayuro]

In Mauritania, a similar set of geological features are found. Except they are way bigger than the ones you describe in the video. There is even salt deposits in the middle of the desert there. But the ripples are *huge* and must have been created by a wall of water at least 1 kilometer tall. There's even several cubic km of sediments off the coast of Mauritania. Geologists might want to get there some time.

[@dannmarks]

Thank you and please provide many more videos.

[@miqsh70]

Don't you think people got more curious about geology these days? I'm a huge fan of Nick Zentner, he started streaming his geology classes during covid. Changed me forever! I will never look at the mountain same way ever again!

[@BlGGESTBROTHER]

Zentner is the best! I especially enjoy his "In the Field" series of videos where he goes and explores geologic sites with other practicing geologists.

[@atwoodn33]

Well done! This is one of the better things I’ve ever seen on these floods. I became fascinated with this region after learning about these floods and what happened in one of my Geoscience classes at Oregon State. During spring break after that class ended, I took a trip up to the scab lands, and had a local friend take me around to some of the sites. I’m hoping to get back up there this spring to explore some more.

[@samlair3342]

Another KZbin video that goes well with yours is entitled,”Ice Age Floods, Lake Missoula, Bonneville Flood and the Columbia River Basalts”.

[@elizabethroberts6215]

……from when I first heard of this Missoula flood, I was hooked! I live on another continent. It is mind-boggling in what it did to the landscape. I’m a lover of Geology, so its’ occurrence ties nicely into that earth science. Even in floods today, humans’ always UNDERESTIMATE the humungous power of water. It’s certainly one of Nature’s forces………truly fascinating!

[@maan7715]

Oh I love Washington state's geology! Learnt a lot from Nick Zentner's videos!

[@sehuffman]

I'm an avid fan too. Glad to see his teachings reinforced with this video with a large audience! Really neat.

[@zitools]

amen

[@ajgunter8932]

Im a geologist, i went to Humboldt State where 1 of my professors had a little known fact. It took decades for J Harlan Bretz to figure out where all that water came from. But he would have learned about it much sooner if he hadn't been a colossal jerk to work with. Another Geologist knew about Lake Missoula and didnt tell Bretz about it for a very long time, supposedly because Bretz would belittle and treat other geologists badly.

[@paulfelix5849]

Randall Carlson has been talking about this exact subject for decades. He's been an advocate for Bretz at least since the mid-1990s. Anyone interested in a more detailed exam of the subject should check out his channel.

[@philosophicaltool5469]

just as I started to lose hope of someone even just namedropping Randall, I scrolled far enough down to find your 'shots fired' comment. thank you!

[@josephgranger5261]

Randalls chapter format with spicier video than his topographical maps. Great job if not for some level of likely plagerism.

[@paulfelix5849]

@@josephgranger5261 Yeah, the big flood video near the beginning is directly from something Randall showed a year or two ago on one of his podcasts (if I remember correctly). Someone would have to track down the original vid to see if credits are cited.

[@codymadison9993]

Bible has been talking about it for millennia.

[@paulfelix5849]

@@codymadison9993 Sure, but the timeline Carlson points to is far older than anything biblical scripture mentions. The commonality of the story worldwide doesn't disprove the scriptural concept. But all of the others claim that flood is much older than the guesswork timeline of supposed biblical scholars.

[@davidwhelan1545]

A good geological explanatory film! Well put together.

[@jdallen1955]

It is interesting to see this science becoming mainstream 40 years after I studied about it as a Geology Student. Guess I'll have to dust off and finally publish the paper I wrote.

[@Adam-ui3yn]

Wow Earth's beauty never ceases to amaze me. I like how you used the analogy of "reading" landscapes as if they're shapes, colours, configurations and other properties are like words explaining it's history. I'm probably going to do a lot more research into the geology of the next place I vacation. I travel to witness natures beauty and knowing the history of a place I think would only compound this effect !

[@jayr227]

Randall Carlson has some great information about floods at the end of the last ice age.

[@bkjeong4302]

No, because a lot of that is misinformation. Among other things, these floods were not one-off disasters: similar floods happened at the end of EVERY Pleistocene ice age.

[@jameswrobinson]

Randall Carlson is awesome. Everybody should watch his videos.

[@cherylbaker3319]

He hypothesised about this so many years ago and was simply laughed at. I loved watching his clear evidence through his presentations that made such sense, and now it seems he is finally being proven all he said and studied is finally recognised and also taken seriously as academically accepted! Go Randall!

[@stevenlester2606]

Mr. Carlson understands the floods fully, except in two ways. He doesn’t believe in Lake Missoula and he has the dating all wrong. But his cult are blind to this, hence the writing below or above.

[@TheCoon1975]

Antonio Zamora is another fascinating guy that has done a ton of research into the ice age geology of North America. There are some theories about a comet impact on the ice sheet towards the end of the last glacial maximum. There are thousands of elliptical depressions known as the Carolina bays that could be the result of huge chunks of ice being blasted across the continent due to the comet exploding on the ice sheet.

[@Vahlee-A]

I love in Spokane Washington, heard about the Bretz Floods when I was a kid. But there is apparently an even bigger glacial flood that happened farther east - the Lake Agassiz floods.

[@LotsofStuffYT]

One mystery that boggles my mind with Glacial Lake Missoula is those ripples in the Camas Prairie. That was the top end of the lake and one of the more shallower parts, but yet the ripples in the Camas Prairie are the biggest caused by Lake Missoula. There had to of been a lot of water coming from Canada at the same time as the lake was draining from the dam failure. The Rocky Mountain Trench comes from the heart of B.C. and is funneled to the Flathead Valley near the Camas Prairie. In theory there was almost just as much water coming from Canada going into the lake than that was leaving the Glacial Lake and starting the scab lands at Lake Pend Oreille. It is the only conclusion so far that makes sense of the size of the ripples in the Camas Prairie.

[@traildude7538]

I once traveled from western Oregon to visit cousins in tri-cities in Washington, and deliberately took not the fastest route but one that would take me through obvious features from these floods (though at the time I don't recall talk of multiple floods). It's impressive when you know what to look for! BTW, that waterfall is worth a visit!

[@ConnorHay]

This was a *particularly* good video. I’ve learned about this event before and this still blew my mind like it was the first time. I love all the visual aids and amazing video!

[@bonniehoke-scedrov4906]

Great video! Thanks!

[@AnonYmous-be9vw]

Much love from Spokane, Washington. I'm sitting in a valley/ gorge created by the Missoula floods as I type this.

[@rosetownstumpcity]

as a native to sw washington this has fascinated me my whole life, and i think this video is about to send me down another research spiral

[@PeaceIsYeshua]

🕳….. 🐇 Haha!! Down the rabbit hole!!! I’ve been there many times! 🤣

[@jimgsewell]

Check out Nick on the Rocks. You'll find lots of great videos on this and related topics by professor from Central Washington University

[@amandaburnham8626]

I watch a geologist in Washington, seen a documentary about this as a kid and a few random videos about this. It makes me want to do a state by state geologic study!

[@juanmontull8550]

Between this event and the flooding of the Mediterranean, it's scary to think of the floods of the earth's past.

[@mkroon2331]

I live and work in the Willamette Valley which benefited from the flood. While working in the woods, I found many traces of erratics and odd depositions in the woods. Most up to 1,900 feet in elevation.

[@robswystun2766]

Great video, as usual. I live in the area that Glacial Lake Agassiz used to cover and one of my favourite activities is fossil hunting along the shores of the current-day lakes it left behind. There is a lot of limestone in this area and there are spots where you are basically guaranteed to find fossils if you know what to look for. One of the most mind-blowing facts I learned about the ice age (that I think would make a good video subject) is about the isostatic rebound from the ice sheets that is still going on today and will be happening for centuries to come.

[@brians5348]

Glacial lake Agassiz was far larger than the one in Montana. When its collapsed the waters passed out through the St. Lawrence and we're so great as to change the temperature and salinity of the north west Atlantic Ocean. This video is greatly exaggerated.

[@robswystun2766]

@@brians5348 Lake Agassiz never "collapsed" per se. It drained (on several different occasions) over thousands of years and the water went in different directions, not just down the St. Lawrence. As far as the video is concerned, with all due respect to you, I think I'll trust the word of the PBS backed biologist and the scientist who has studied the region over some dude on the internet.

[@justthinking8445]

Just found your channel. Really well presented and very interesting. Thinking of the amount of energy that this FLOOD had just blows my mind!

[@thezood]

I think we have similar features in Vålådalen in the Swedish mountains (but in much smaller scale of course). Have to check this out more closely next time I'm there.

[@ErectkyleDysfunction]

That river delta is impressive oh my gosh 😍

[@xtr3m385]

I visited that place in 2016. I got there late afternoon, early evening but with enough day light to appreciate an amazing view. I was the only soul in the area at that time. Having read about the flood that caused the fall before my visit made the experience rather haunting. I mean, you just feel minuscule against the power of mother nature.

[@javonfair]

I grew up dead center of this part of Eastern WA. May not be “evergreen” like other parts of Washington but it’s thrilling to go into the geology of the area. Awesome video!

[@VidralliaArchives]

I find it interesting that a lot of people who have never been to Washington are completely unaware that this state has deserts and canyons and stuff.

[@justalilbugman]

Now when I drive to Seattle, I can't help but imagine myself traveling the path of this great flood. Really really interesting history, and also thank you for exploring eastern Washington. This for some reason gives me an ego boost coming from the east myself (specifically the rolling hills)

[@JusNoBS420]

Really cool reading comments from all our fellow PNWers !! Pretty awesome to think about what this part of the world might have looked like thousands of years ago. And the giant faunal that roamed the land.

[@mibe1606]

How did Lake Bonneville compare? That, combined with the Missoula flood, really shaped the Columbia River basin. The Palouse is one of the best photographic destinations in the west. (I love the red rock areas in so. Utah and no. Arizona). Last trip, we encountered a Glass Snake on Steptoe Butte. It is really a legless lizard. The geology tells an amazing story. Gotta visit again!

[@Scigatt]

Fron what I've heard, the Bonneville flood had 10x the volume, but took longer to drain and only happened once, iirc.

[@liammerrick6399]

what is your opinion on the younger dryas impact hypothesis? its a very compelling argument and the timing is very very coincidental. quite possible an impact could have caused the release of flood waters in a single deluge. its a fascinating idea that something like that could have happened so close to present time

[@davidbarker7030]

I just returned from Forest Park Nature Center in Peoria Illinois where I learned about a similar flood that carved the landscape down the Illinois river and the surrounding area. Then I see this. Impeccable timing! Great video and thanks.

[@BlaineNay]

Now, do a story about the day Lake Bonneville burst it's walls, emptying the Great Basin. My home lies on land that once was underwater, yet more than 1000' above the bottom of Lake Bonneville.

[@sophierobinson2738]

Nick Zenter did a video on it.

[@BlaineNay]

@@sophierobinson2738, yes, as have others.

[@philliprobinson7724]

Hi. Read the books of Immanual Velikovsky from the 1950's, another scientist who dared question uniformitarianism. "Worlds in Collision"; "Ages in Chaos". Good work Randall. Cheers, P.R.

[@kiarrasayshi]

I'd love to learn more about those native stories that reference the flood!

[@Volamek]

Great episode! Thanks Joe and team!

[@TheDevler23]

the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis is a really interesting take on what might have actually caused such a catastrophic flood. Regardless of cause, the floods are breathtaking. Standing on that little outpost over the edge, by Dry Falls? you really get a sense of just how immense the flood was. that "waterfall" was nothing more than a rapid in the stream, the water was so deep! and churning back the bedrock like Niagra falls does, but in miles per day rather than inches per year! The power of those floods, the fact that it wasn't just water but a slurry of trees, boulders, and basically cement, is mind blowing. Highly recommend people take a trip out there at least once in their life!

[@stratamember4637]

Does the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis explain the pattern of repeated glacial outburst floods? The layered alluvial deposits indicate multiple outburst floods with years or decades separating the events.

[@pan_cake3006]

@@stratamember4637 I'm not an expert, but maybe. Scientists now think that the impacts occurred over a period of 23 years. In other words, multiple impacts. But I see no reason why glacial outburst floods couldn't also happen. Maybe it doesn't have to be one or the other.

[@coolbeanzbeef]

@@stratamember4637 From how I understand it, there was about 1,000 years or so where the earth went through an asteroid field and would have had multiple impacts as a result. Check out the Hiawatha glacier crater in Greenland that was discovered just a few years ago.

[@tunneloflight]

Except that it in no way fits the data. The rhythmites alone prove it wrong.

[@kyriacosstavrinides893]

@@coolbeanzbeef The Earth still goes through the same meteor streams twice a year.

[@xochj]

It's also interesting to see all the clear signs of Lake Bonneville's existence. Clear as day, all around the valleys in Utah.

[@PlayNowWorkLater]

I’ve watched and Re watched this a bunch of times. I live in Northern Canada in an area where numerous mega floods occurred. One as recent as a couple of hundred years ago. I want to see more about this topic of Ice Age floods in other areas of the world

[@johnlewis9687]

Randall Carlson

[@PlayNowWorkLater]

@@johnlewis9687 Randal Carlson is a charlatan. Pseudoscience and smoke and mirrors. Hard pass on wasting any of my time watching his bullshit

[@Gaston-Melchiori]

I hope creationists don't try to twist this to "prove" Noa's flood...

[@diddsdaddiddsdad6865]

To late. There on here. There my hobby. When I saw flood I thought YEC. I wasn’t disappointed. They help me pass the time. I know I’m sad🤭😂

[@rexxx777]

It's not just this example. There are mass erosion events all over the world and on the continental slopes that could only be explained by a worldwide flood. Be in denial all you want.

[@fuzzyballs44]

My family and I just went to the Palouse Falls. When you look at the terrain with the flood in mind, it changes the entire experience!

[@mibe1606]

I am very much looking forward to visiting Palouse again for that very reason - it will be like having new spectacles.

[@gabrielk3140]

this story is so much cooler than the silly little myth with big daddy in the clouds

[@TheDeadOfNight37]

Fascinating natural science vs uninteresting religion mythos that's somehow still relevant today

[@Randomguy-ep7zl]

@@TheDeadOfNight37 It's only relevant to ignorant and fearful minds.

[@charliesmith4072]

It's one reason there are so many atheists in Seattle. "Forty days and forty nights" of rain might impress people some place, but in Seattle we call it a damn dry winter.😄

[@rexxx777]

It's called denial. The fact is the whole world was under water. Where did all that water come from? It had to be created anew and fall from the sky. There are mass erosion events all over the world and on the continental slopes that can only be explain by a massive worldwide flood that deepened the oceans and caused upheaval on land. Open your eyes!

[@OspreyVision]

Great video 📹 thanks!

[@curiousworld7912]

I have a copy of a PBS Nova episode from 2017, which deals with this mega-flood called, simply, 'Killer Floods'. There's also evidence of a similar situation in Western Europe and in the Near East. The retreating Ice Age led to several of these type sudden and catastrophic flood events; which probably, in turn, leads to all the various flood myths found around the world.

[@ktkat1949]

I saw this when it first came out. It is a totally amazing story.

[@JohnJ469]

Not quite. Flood legends around the world don't talk of rivers flooding, they always say the water came from the sea. Some researchers have suggested the Burckle Crater in the Indian Ocean as a possible source. Australian Aboriginal legends tell of the stars falling to both the East and West of the continent so a comet may have split. The Biblical story is lifted from the "Epic of Gilgamesh" and when reading it, it's hard to think it's a description of anything other than an impact event.

[@ewoksalot]

I live along the Columbia River near Portland, OR and you can still see areas where the river flooded over and washed back into the channel. Another fascinating area of study for our area is the history of earthquakes and subsequent landslides.

[@BlackCeII]

Like the bridge of the gods period professor nicholas zentner covers this on his youtube channel period he's an excellent follow comma highly recommended

[@ewoksalot]

@@BlackCeII Agreed - Zentner is a wealth of information!

[@haroldmorris5901]

Great Video! SUBSCRIBED! Thanks!

[@user-fi6vl6uf5g]

I was expecting a documentary on the Zanclean Flood. Nice diversion!

[@OgdenM]

I'm in my 40's and used to go to Eastern WA a lot as a kid. I always wondered about the old story that the scablands were formed over eons. All of the exposed rocks and dirt in the canyon walls and valleys looked like they were exposed to the surface for the same length of time. You're talking about 100+ foot canyon walls; normal erosion would give the rocks a VERY different look because it would have taken thousands upon thousands of years. I think I was curious about this even as a kid going out there. I eventually ended up chalking it up to just being different layers of material looking different. I'm glad we now know it was from catastrophic floods. I watched a video on here that was about the deep history of Earth's development that claimed that at one point in time that WHOLE planet was totally covered in ice thousands of feet deep. That the only reason it ever melted was because of volcanic activity bringing up heat from deeper in the planet. It claimed that the sun wasn't enough to melt it. ----THAT is some craziness and amazing if true. The atmospheric humidity level at that point would have to be 0%. Heck, I don't even know if there is enough water in the air to cover the planet with that much ice. I'm wondering if Co2 and O2 snowed out of the atmosphere and froze into the ice.

[@observer127]

Suggestion to you Joe, Alameda Ridge in Portland was made by the Missoula Floods and contains relatively high levels of Radon from the granites left behind. Also gives the Willamette Valley the soil for agriculture.

[@luckyduck8375]

Yup, we stole all of Eastern Washington's topsoil

[@pfos]

@@luckyduck8375 makes for some of the best organic peaches I've ever tasted ! =)

[@richardstephens3642]

There's no such thing as a mediocre waterfall, all are wonderfully amazing

[@raulvilela9078]

As noted in other comments, the largest known flood on earth was the Zanclean Flood, which filled the Mediterranean basin. Its peak flow was at least 10 times that of the Misoula flood, with an estimated maximum discharge of about 100 million cubic meters per second (3.5 billion cubic feet per second) compared to the 7.5 million cubic meters per second (27 billion cubic meters per hour) of the Misoula flood.

[@loldog7737]

its good to see Randal carillons work being actually getting recognised

[@badgerboyxd]

I agree

[@Its0kToBeWhite]

*Carlson

[@briangarrow448]

Although Randall has popularized some of this information, he was nearly a hundred years late on recognizing these structures. That discovery belongs to Harlan Bretz, a geologist who fought for decades to have his theories on the floods of Eastern Washington accepted by the geological experts of the time.

[@BlGGESTBROTHER]

@@briangarrow448 These Carlson sycophants are pissing me off. Stop stealing Bretz's accomplishments!

[@hestheMaster]

@@BlGGESTBROTHER Agreed. He's the after show and came to late to the party. Still thinks an asteroid or series of them caused this glacier melting. About the only thing he is right about that humans have been in North America during many ice ages or about 100000 years.

[@JusNoBS420]

Imagining the roar of all that water would sound ALMOST as loud as a Seahawks game when Russell Wilson came back to play with the Denver Broncos 😎🤣 But seriously really cool to see all the comments from people like me that live in the PNW

[@rinistephenson5550]

Prof. Nick Zentner (CWU) paid to have that Dry Falls animation made - give him credit.

[@danherrmann8755]

Thanks. Education I need.

[@MrJimbissle]

My hometown. Good place to be from. Sometimes, when the conditions are just right, frost will settel on just the shorelines going up the mountain. Perfectly showing all the different levels the lake peaked at over time. I saw it almost every year I lived there. Sometimes the air inversion layer would cut off the top of the mountain so all you can see was under water. Ha. I do hope its better these days, but I doubt it.

[@billyrigby4839]

Wow! This was a really great video about something I knew nothing about but want to learn more of. It’s crazy to think this all happened so quickly. I didn’t even know that was possible. 😮 Great video!!

[@melissanichols784]

Check out Nick Zentner's channel. He's an awesome geology teacher at Central Washington University, and he's posted a lot of his lectures, etc., on his channel. He does a lot on the Missoula floods. Check out the links in the description above for this video.

[@daisho509]

I'm right there on the border of Idaho in Spokane WA, and it's awesome to see our local PNW history on a channel that's so big!

[@jamesbee3087]

I lived in Missoula and hiked the M and above many times. It's incredible seeing all the high water marks on the mountain side and knowing the v shape to the Rattlesnake wilderness valley is where the ice dam sat.

[@Jarekthegamingdragon]

Great video, I wish you talked about the columbia gorge and willamette valley though. It really is impossible to describe the scale of a the columbia gorge. Portland might not even exist today if these floods never happened.

[@oh.bessssie]

The Gorge Amphitheater is the most beautiful venue.

[@davidscott5903]

@@oh.bessssie You mean the one in George Washington? 😀

[@oh.bessssie]

@@davidscott5903 yes, it’s one of my favorite places

[@NickyG790]

The Willamette Valley has such great farming soil from the deposits carried by the floods

[@dartdude4084]

If Portland never happened would that be a bad thing?

[@TheOriginalFaxon]

I love these collaborations between you two. You should do more of these with Michelle and Blake sometime as well (not that we don't all love Kallie

[@scubarojo]

About 20 years ago, I was building a deck in my yard in Hillsboro Oregon, and having a heck of a time digging into the "soil" for posts to support the deck. Having come from the easy to dig soil mid-west, I had no idea what I was dealing with. It took some research, but found out the area had clay deposited from the floods mentioned in this video. And even more mind blowing was how high the water had to be to go over the top of the west hills of the Portland area where Hillsboro is.

[@Rockstar97321]

By the time the flood reached Eugene, it was a muddy soup that buried the ancient cities in the Willamette Valley between Portland and Eugene. Portland was buried about 800 feet. Salem was buried about 600 feet. Albany was buried about 550 feet. Eugene was buried about 40 feet. This is based on my own analysis. I'm a land surveyor and engineer in Albany.

[@geargeekpdx3566]

@@Rockstar97321 Yep--the Willamette valley wine industry owes its success to the endless and deep deposits of rich soil scoured from the flood. I'm on the West Slope in SW portland and there are glacial erratics all over the place up here

[@graysweathercam985]

Hey Dennis, The Missoula Floods may have overtopped the West Hills (Tualatin Mountains), or perhaps not, but there was also a "water level" route for the waters to get to Hillsboro by backing up the Tualatin River drainage. -Gray Haertig

[@dougshell2543]

Thanks Randall!