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Northwest Author Focuses New Book On The Northern Reaches Of Missoula Floods

RICHLAND, Wash. – A new book details how a dramatic series of Ice Age Floods transformed the landscape of the inland Northwest.

“On the Trail of the Ice Age Floods: The Northern Reaches” is a geological field guide to northern Idaho and the Northwest’s channeled scabland.
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“On the Trail of the Ice Age Floods: The Northern Reaches” is a geological field guide to northern Idaho and the Northwest’s channeled scabland.

The new book called, “On the Trail of the Ice Age Floods: The Northern Reaches,” details what happened when floods whooshed into the Northwest and created the channeled scablands.

Bruce Bjornstad, of Richland, near the Potholes Coulee near Quincy, Wash. Photo by Bruce Bjornstad
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Bruce Bjornstad, of Richland, near the Potholes Coulee near Quincy, Wash. Photo by Bruce Bjornstad

Bruce Bjornstad spent five years researching and writing his geologic guidebook. One fact in the book: It might have been as many as 1,000 floods that shaped the region, not just two or three big events.

Bjornstad says he mostly loves unearthing the clues of the Ice Age Floods, but also “I love the arid lands because they are easy to move around in. There aren’t trees to get in the way, you can pretty much wander anywhere around this area. And I love being outside in the solitude.”

Bjornstad says most people know about the Missoula Floods that came from Montana, but he says other floods came from ice sheets in Canada and from a huge glacial lake in Utah.

On the Web:

A new book “On the Trail of the Ice Age Floods: The Northern Reaches” is out, it details how geologic features in the Northwest were formed, like the Dry Falls in Washington, shown here. Photo by Bruce Bjornstad
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A new book “On the Trail of the Ice Age Floods: The Northern Reaches” is out, it details how geologic features in the Northwest were formed, like the Dry Falls in Washington, shown here. Photo by Bruce Bjornstad

“On the Trail of the Ice Age Floods: The Northern Reaches”:

http://www.keokeebooks.com/northernreaches.html

Copyright 2012 Northwest Public Radio

Copyright 2012 Northwest News Network

Anna King calls Richland, Washington home and loves unearthing great stories about people in the Northwest. She reports for the Northwest News Network from a studio at Washington State University, Tri-Cities. She covers the Mid-Columbia region, from nuclear reactors to Mexican rodeos.