Glacial Lake Missoula and Its Humongous Floods | 
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Product Description
Glacial Lake Missoula and Its Humongous Floods tells the tale of a huge Ice Age lake that, when it suddenly drained, unleashed more then ten times the combined flow of all the modern rivers of the world. The book follows the path of the floodwaters as they raged from western Montana across the Idaho Panhandle, then scoured eastern Washington and rushed down the Columbia Gorge to the Pacific Ocean.
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Customer Reviews:
• A Good View Of Glacial Floods Past. 19 August, 2003
This book is an extremely interesting study of the gigantic cataclysms caused when the ice dam holding back impounded glacier-melt waters in western Montana's Lake Missoula would periodically burst. The consequent outrushes repeatedly resculpted lands in northern Idaho, and eastern and central Washington, resulting in the curious, almost eerie, landforms covering much of that area today. Excellent photography amply demonstrates these effects. Dr. Alt is a good writer, whose text carves a continuous, easily-followed thread that brings to life the events surrounding these floods, and their effects. His enthusiasm is contagious.This book should not be read alone, but in conjuction with the book, "Cataclysms on the Columbia", written earlier. Any tourist going to the Northwest, and certainly natives of that wonderful region, will enjoy both books, and gain a valuable, lasting impression of this most peculiar part of the Earth. Each book will give directions to the most spectacular phenomena as well. I highly recommend each, but again suggest both should be read in conjunction.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A11SBLG65E39RR
• Glacial Lake Missoula And The Humongous Floods 02 October, 2006
My knowledge of geology is so incomplete that I don't even qualify as an amateur. However, I live in Missoula, Montana, and from my window can see beach lines left by the several fillings of Lake Missoula. I have listened to David Alt, the author of this book, describe the geologic events of ten to fifteen thousand years ago. In geologic time, that is very recent. Possibly the lake and floods were seen by humans. What a sight that would have been!
My wife and I have carried this book, and the roadside geology books written or coauthored by David Alt, as we drove through Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. These are the four states involved in the lake and floods. We have compared the many photos and sketches of the book with the actual physical features. Until recently, these books were the only sources of information written in layman's language.
In a nutshell, a huge lake formed behind a dam of glacial ice at the border of Idaho and Montana. It was 2000 feet deep at the dam, 900 feet deep at Missoula, and stretched more than a hundred miles up several valleys. The dam washed out and in less than a week, there were huge floods across Washington and out the Columbia River Gorge to the Pacific. Flood waters backed far up river valleys such as the Yakima and the Willamette. The dam reformed and the event was repeated forty times or more. The floods left behind physical features that match the scope of the event. There are huge silt deposits, giant ripple marks, enormous erratic boulders moved hundreds of miles, and immense rock surfaces scoured by the flooding waters. The great valleys and waterfalls left behind now stand dry. This book tells all; or at least as much as geologists understood in 2001 when the book was published.
A fascinating side story found in the book is about J. Harlen Bretz, the redoubtable geologist who correctly interpreted the evidence of the flood and fought the geologic world to a standstill. He was booed when presenting his theories in national geologic meetings. However, he lived to see most of his detractors either change their viewpoints or go to their graves unconvinced. Today, there is an organization that has gotten Congressional approval to establish an informative "trail" through the four states. It would inform travelers about the geology. There are already signs along the roads and displays in museums. Much of the success is attributable to David Alt and his book "Glacial Lake Missoula and Its Humongous Floods."
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2EDP6FT5PJGQL
• Glacial Lake Missoula And Its Humongous Floods 17 November, 2008
This was the most readable/believable presentation yet. It was easy to follow all the way to the Pacific Ocean. A suggestion: have detailed area maps handy. You will use them...
- Reviewed by customer ID: A14Q5RKIRE6FQF
• From A Time Of Myth: The Great Deluge 23 May, 2008
A flow of water greater than that of all the rivers of the world- combined, measured in cubic *miles* of water/hour. A waterfall three miles wide, five times the width of Niagara. Water 1,000 feet high, coming down to a measly 500 feet by the time the roaring torrent reached Portland. These are but a few of the stories of earth and water you'll be entertained with in this book.
While this book will only be of interest to those fascinated by alluvial geology or geology of the Northwest, for that select few, the book is a much have. Thus it is helpful to have a minimal background in geology in order to fully appreciate the book. David Alt provides more than you'd ever want to know about Lake Missoula and it's aftereffects, scouring the lands of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. As a result the flood left it's mark on Eastern Washington, creating the endemic Channeled Scablands, a geology found nowhere else on Earth (though there is a good possibility for similarities on Mars). I read this in preparation for my trip to the Scablands and Dry Falls, and I now feel adequately prepared to fully appreciate the enormity of the geology before me. Nowhere else is the entire story in one place.
Beneath the primary characters of Lake, Flood, Glacier, and Basalt, there is an interesting subplot involving those short-lived humans, principly J Bretz, who first proposed the existence of gigantic catastrophic floods in the Northwest, much to the dismay of his colleagues. At a time when catastrophism was denied, and only gradualism allowed, Bretz's proposals were, as Alt states, pure heresy. And in the midst of this is a cautionary tale for those on both sides of scientific controversies today.
Many of Bretz's colleagues didn't like the idea of a giant catastrophic flood because it smacked a little too much of The Flood- the one with Noah and Genesis. This was a form of thinking that scientists have worked too long to demonstrate there was no evidence for. Scientists had worked too long to insist that we believe events only when there's evidence for their existence. Then lesson from the Missoula Flood controversy is the temptation to reject scientific evidence, just because it may support ideas that are held by a particularly religious persuasion. On the other side, Bretz had all of the evidence, and the geologists of his day refused to see it. They were too engrained in their ways and beliefs. And thus there is a reminder to Literal Creationists and followers of Intelligent Design, that beliefs don't make the argument: science dictates the trashing of those beliefs- no matter how sacrosanct- when the evidence becomes overwhelming. And clearly this evidence was a proverbial torrent.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2OP1HD9RGX5OW
• Start Your Research Here And Come Back To It Often... 01 May, 2006
If the idea of catastrophic glacial floods and their still-visible effects on vast reaches of Eastern Washington's geology and topography fascinates you, I haven't found a better book for building a perspective of the whole process.
This is particularly true if you are not a trained geologist: Mr. Alt lays a foundation that illustrates the conditions that led to the mega-floods, then follows the evidence that the floodwaters left upon various watercourses on their way to the ocean.
Mr. Alt presents it all in terms a layperson can understand and use in exploring a series of disasters writ large upon the land.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A17TV0AAUHKXUX
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