Channeled scablands: Soap Lake to Chelan
Steven Dutch, Professor Emeritus, Natural and Applied Sciences, Universityof Wisconsin - Green BayAcknowledgement
I need to make it crystal clear that none of this is my own research. The pictures on this and associated pages were taken on a GSA field trip in 1994 ledby Richard B. Waitt of the U.S. Geological Survey, and the interpretations presented here are largely those of Dr. Waitt as presented on the field trip and its guidebook. I thank Dr. Waitt and his colleagues for a stupendous field experience.
2.1 Soap Lake and Lower Grand Coulee
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2.3 Park Lake
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2.4 Dry Falls
Because every geologist needs to see this before he dies.
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Upper Grand Coulee
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It looks drab, but there is something powerful about this monochromatic landscape. |
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Upper Grand Coulee at Steamboat Rock
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Looking south. Since this valley is open at both ends but carries
no through-going stream, it probably formed by retreat of a huge series
of cataracts. At maximum flood the water was over the cliff tops.
There is something incredibly powerful about this stark, monochromatic landscape. |
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Steamboat Rock
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2.8 Steamboat Rock Rhythmites
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2.9a Granite-Basalt Contact
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2.9b Northrup Canyon Flood Gravels
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Aerial Views of Upper Grand Coulee
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Looking northwest. Steamboat Rock is just below and left of center, Grand Coulee Dam at extreme upper right. Note several dry cataracts just right of the head of the lake (Banks Lake) |
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Steamboat Rock is at lower left, Grand Coulee Dam just out of the picture at upper right. Note several dry cataracts just right of the head of the lake (Banks Lake) |
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Looking west. Grand Coulee Dam is at lower center where the Columbia River abruptly narrows. |
2.10 Grand Coulee Dam
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2.11 Crown Point Overlook
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2.12 Eskers Near Sims Corner
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Several eskers wind across the glaciated area west of Grand Coulee Dam. |
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It's not evident from this placid-looking photo but the wind was screaming at this stop. |
2.13 Pot hillsMegablock
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2.14 Yeager Rock
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Left: the boulder is resting on till |
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Looking west. Other large boulders are visible in the distance. |
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Looking northwest toward the Cascades. |
2.15 Lone Butte
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Large glacial erratic block |
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2.16 Okanagan Lobe Margin
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Do glacial margins get any clearer than this? Rumpled till dotted with huge boulders ends abruptly against smooth unglaciated loess. Looking north. |
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Looking northeast. |
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Looking southwest. Till in the foreground, loess in the valley and beyond. |
2.17 Glacial Limits Near Chelan
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Looking northwest to Lake Chelan. |
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Overview
Spokane
to Soap Lake
Chelan to Othello
Othello to The Dalles
The Dalles to Seattle
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Created 7 April 2003, Last Update 08 June 2020