Bretz's Flood: The Remarkable Story of a Rebel Geologist and the World's Greatest Flood"The land between Idaho and the Cascade Mountains in Eastern Washington is characterized by dramatic coulees, gullies, and deserts--in geologic terms, it is a wholly unique place on Earth. J. Harlen Bretz was the iconoclastic geologist who peered back in time to answer the riddle of how this land came to be ... He hypothesized that a catastrophic flood--likely the largest in Earth's history--has scoured the land in a virtual instant. Using nothing more than the core tools of observation, hypothesis, and theory, Bretz recognized that the region's bizarre formations and geologic oddities didn't conform to the patterns of a landscape shaped gradually over time. Instead, the scablands looked more like a partially formed, braided river channel that had spread out over several hundred miles--a topography that could only be caused by a sudden rush of an unprecedented volume of water ... [By] the mid-seventies Landsat satellite photography confirmed his findings, and in 1979 he was awarded the Penrose Medal, the Geological Society of America's most prestigious award."--Dust jacket flap. |
Contents
Birth of an Obsession | 3 |
Bright Prospects and Early Disappointments | 21 |
Chicago The Early Years | 43 |
Copyright | |
16 other sections not shown
Common terms and phrases
Albion Alden Baraboo bars basalt believed Bloss boulders Boulderstrewn Bretz wrote called carved Cataclysms catastrophic caused Channeled Scabland Columbia Gorge Columbia Plateau Columbia River deep deposits drainage Drumheller Channels dry falls earth Eastern Washington erratic event evidence explored Fanny feet field research field trips Flint flood theory floodwaters flow formed geological features Geological Society geologists Gilluly glacial flooding glacial ice Glacial Lake Missoula glacial streams glaciers gradients Grand Coulee gravel Harlen Bretz hypothesis ibid ice age ice sheet land landscape located Lyell Memories miles Missoula Floods Moses Coulee Nummedal Palouse hills Palouse River Pardee Pardee's professor Quincy Basin quoted in Baker recalls Rhoda Bretz Riley rock scab scabland channels scabland paper scabland region scabland tract seems slopes Snake River Spokane Flood summer terrain tion topography uniformitarianism University of Chicago USGS Vic Baker Washtucna waterfall Wegener wrote Bretz