Field Trips

Channeled Scabland Field Trip – Tuesday, June 6th

The Tuesday trip, following the Monday sessions focused on the Missoula floods and Channeled Scabland, will be a full-day tour of the Channeled Scabland and late Pleistocene outburst flood features, including inspection of several flow paths, evidence of ice dams and ice-dammed lake deposits, and a variety of erosional and depositional landforms.

Flood Mechanics Field Trip – Thursday, June 8th

The Thursday field trip will follow the morning session on Mechanics of Outburst Flood Processes and will focus on outburst flood erosional and depositional features in the adjacent terrain of Grand Coulee, the largest singular pathway of Missoula floods. Here, large bars, spectacular cataract complexes, and eroded canyons or “coulees” attest to the intensity of outburst flood processes. Grand Coulee has a rich and long history of studies examining the processes forming these features now known to be common to many other outburst flood settings.

See the Information for Attendees page for a field guide (including a list of planned stops for both trips), and relevant past publications.