William sent in a link to a video and tour of the Scablands in NW USA. It is worth watching if only for the scenary and the odd geological columns left behind by flowing water – at extraordinary volumes and intensity as noted by the narrator. He claims that satellite views of the region have shown quite clearly that something really dramatic happened at the end of the Ice Age. It involved a megaflood – or as toned down by mainstream, megafloods. A series of them rather than a single melt episode with different channels. As William notes, there are massive channels cut out of the rocks, cliffs and odd columns balanced on hill tops between the channels, and ripple marks still visible in rock faces. Entire landscapes appear to have been carved out rapidly rather than in a slow uniformitarian manner. The resistance to this idea as outlined by Harlen Bretz was resisted for a large part of the 20th century – and only grudgingly given credence shortly before Bretz died, in a diluted format. Multiple floods over many years of time. Nothing one might visualise as a megaflood. However, the evidence on the ground is now supported by evidence from space. There really was an extraordinary flood of water. This might be best described as Ice Age melt waters as the ice sheet re-established itself in the post Late Glacial Maximum period. Whatever that might involve.
The Channeled Scablands
18 April 2026Catastrophism, Geology