Glacial Lake Missoula and Its Humongous Floods

by David Alt

Overview

As geologist J. Harlen Bretz walked the dry scabland channels of eastern Washington in the 1920s, it dawned on him that he was viewing a landscape sculpted by water. Lots of water. A flood of catastrophic proportions. Glacial Lake Missoula and Its Humongous Floods tells the gripping tale of a huge Ice Age lake that drained suddenly--not just once but repeatedly--and reshaped the landscape of the Northwest. The narrative follows the path of the floodwaters as they raged from western Montana across the Idaho Panhandle, then scoured through eastern Washington and down the Columbia Gorge to the Pacific Ocean. This is also the story of geologists grappling with scientific controversy--"of how personalities, pride, and prejudice sometimes superseded scientific evidence."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780878424153
Publisher:	Mountain Press
Publication date:	06/28/2003
Edition description:	REV
Pages:	176
Sales rank:	668,126
Product dimensions:	6.03(w) x 8.99(h) x 0.49(d)

About the Author

David Alt was a geology professor at the University of Montana in Missoula. Dedicated to bringing geology to the general public, he cofounded the popular Roadside Geology series. He wrote a number of books in the series with coauthor Donald Hyndman, and helps edit others. Dave Alt passed away in 2015, but his love of geology and wry humor lives on in the many books he authored.