A geological field guide to the Mid-Columbia Basin

Bruce Bjornstad
Nonfiction
320 pages with index
262 black-and-white illustrations, maps and photos; 20 color plates
6"x9" softbound
Second printing February 2008

During the last great Ice Age some 15,000 years ago, the Pacific Northwest was repeatedly decimated by cataclysmic floods unlike anything in modern times. Giant walls of ice-laden water - miles wide and hundreds of feet deep - raced over the land at speeds up to 80 mph, scouring the landscape and leaving a fascinating geologic record. On the Trail of the Ice Age Floods explores those legendary floods, explains the features they created, and guides readers to trails and tours in the Mid-Columbia Basin to witness the floods' awesome power for themselves.

This comprehensive guide book includes:

Explanations of landforms created by the floods, from hanging coulees and giant gravel bars to "ice-rafted erratics" such as boulders carried on huge icebergs and deposited hundreds of miles from their places of origin.
Detailed descriptions of 70 distinct flood-formed features scattered throughout the basin, with driving directions to observation points.
30 off-road hiking and biking trails where adventurers can walk and ride amid the floods geology.
5 driving tours and 2 aerial tours for day trips to view the scope of the landscape carved by the great floods.