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57-465: The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation was created in 1902 to aid development of dry western states. Central Washington's Columbia Plateau was a prime candidate—a desert with fertile loess soil and the Columbia River passing through. Competing groups lobbied for different irrigation projects; a Spokane group wanted a 134 miles (216 km) gravity flow canal from Lake Pend Oreille while

114-538: A Wenatchee group (further south) wanted a large dam on the Columbia River, which would pump water up to fill the nearby Grand Coulee , a formerly-dry canyon-like coulee . After thirteen years of debate, President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the dam project with National Industrial Recovery Act money. (It was later specifically authorized by the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1935, and then reauthorized by

171-593: A catastrophic explanation of the geology, ran against the prevailing view of uniformitarianism , and Bretz's views were initially disregarded. The Geological Society of Washington, D.C , invited the young Bretz to present his previously published research at a January 12, 1927, meeting where several other geologists presented competing theories. Another geologist at the meeting, J.T. Pardee , had worked with Bretz and had evidence of an ancient glacial lake that lent credence to Bretz's theories. Bretz defended his theories, which kicked off an acrimonious 40-year debate over

228-515: A comment on the Komatsu analysis, Brian Atwater and colleagues observed substantial evidence for multiple large floods, including mud cracks and animal burrows in lower layers, which were filled by sediment from later floods. Further, evidence for multiple flood flows up sidearms of Glacial Lake Columbia spread over many centuries has been found. They also pointed out that the discharge point from Lake Columbia varied with time, originally flowing across

285-463: A large, slightly depressed lava plateau. The ancient Columbia River was forced into its present course by the northwesterly advancing lava. The lava, as it flowed over the area, first filled the stream valleys, forming dams that in turn caused impoundments or lakes. Entities found in these lake beds include fossil leaf impressions, petrified wood , fossil insects, and bones of vertebrate animals. Evidence suggests that some concentrated heat source

342-674: A newly published topographic map of the Potholes Cataract . Bretz coined the term Channeled Scablands in 1923 to refer to the area near the Grand Coulee , where massive erosion had cut through basalt deposits. Bretz published a paper in 1923 arguing that the Channeled Scablands in Eastern Washington were caused by massive flooding in the distant past. Bretz's view, which was seen as arguing for

399-620: A relatively small group of farmers in the American West in places where it would never be economically viable under other circumstances. Columbia Plateau The Columbia Plateau is an important geologic and geographic region that lies across parts of the U.S. states of Washington , Oregon , and Idaho . It is a wide flood basalt plateau between the Cascade Range and the Rocky Mountains , cut through by

456-573: Is diverted into the CBP at Grand Coulee varies a little from year to year, and is currently about 3.0 million acre-feet. This is about 3.8 percent of the Columbia's average flow as measured at the Grand Coulee dam. This amount is larger than the combined annual flows of the nearby Yakima, Wenatchee, and Okanogan rivers. There were plans to double the area of irrigated land, according to tour guides at

513-498: Is melting rock beneath the Columbia Plateau Province at the base of the lithosphere (the layer of crust and upper mantle that forms Earth's moving tectonic plates). In an effort to figure out why this area, far from a plate boundary, had such an enormous outpouring of lava, scientists established hardening dates for many of the individual lava flows. They found that the youngest volcanic rocks were clustered near

570-429: Is that post-construction modifications would likely have to be significant. Tour guides at the Grand Coulee dam site, for example, indicate that a "fish ladder might have to be 5 miles (8.0 km) long to get the fish up the 550 feet (170 m) needed, and many fish would die before reaching the upper end" thus no fish ladders were built. Advocates of remedial measures point out that such steps would still be better than

627-523: Is the substantial depletion of the Odessa aquifer . Agricultural operations within the CBP's boundaries but outside the developed portion have for decades used groundwater pumped from the Odessa aquifer to irrigate crops. Hydroelectricity was not the primary goal of the project, but during World War II the demand for electricity in the region boomed. The Hanford nuclear reservation was built just south of

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684-597: The Columbia Basin Project Act of 1943 which put it under the Reclamation Project Act of 1939.) Construction of Grand Coulee Dam began in 1933 and was completed in 1942. Its main purpose of pumping water for irrigation was postponed during World War II in favor of electrical power generation that was used for the war effort. Additional hydroelectric generating capacity was added into the 1970s. The Columbia River reservoir behind

741-469: The Columbia River . During late Miocene and early Pliocene times, a flood basalt engulfed about 63,000 square miles (160,000 km ) of the Pacific Northwest, forming a large igneous province . Over a period of perhaps 10 to 15 million years, lava flow after lava flow poured out, ultimately accumulating to a thickness of more than 6,000 feet (1.8  km). As the molten rock came to

798-676: The Columbia River Gorge at the end of the last ice age . These floods were the result of periodic sudden ruptures of the ice dam on the Clark Fork River that created Glacial Lake Missoula . After each ice dam rupture, the waters of the lake would rush down the Clark Fork and the Columbia River , flooding much of eastern Washington and the Willamette Valley in western Oregon . After the lake drained,

855-665: The Hanford formation , has documented the presence of Middle and Early Pleistocene Missoula flood deposits within the Othello Channels, Columbia River Gorge, Channeled Scabland , Quincy Basin, Pasco Basin, and the Walla Walla Valley . Based on the presence of multiple interglacial calcretes interbedded with flood deposits, magnetostratigraphy , optically stimulated luminescence dating, and unconformity truncated clastic dikes , it has been estimated that

912-472: The Spokane Valley – Rathdrum Prairie immediately downstream of Glacial Lake Missoula, for which several previous estimates had placed the maximum discharge of 17 × 10 m /s and the total amount of water discharged equal to the maximum estimated volume of Lake Missoula (2184 km ). Neglecting erosion effects, their simulated water flow was based on modern-day topography. Their major findings were that

969-468: The boundary between the core and mantle . The concentrated heat triggers a plume hundreds of kilometers in diameter that ascends directly through to the surface of the Earth. The track of this hot spot starts in the west and sweeps up to Yellowstone National Park . The steaming fumaroles and explosive geysers are ample evidence of a concentration of heat beneath the surface. The hotspot is stationary, but

1026-467: The Bureau of Reclamation, it is not possible to compare the total cost paid by the Bureau to the payments received. Nevertheless, the farm payments account for only a small fraction of the total cost to the government, resulting in the project's agricultural corporations receiving a large water subsidy from the government. Critics describe the CBP as a classical example of federal money being used to subsidize

1083-589: The Channeled Scabland landforms were formed mainly by multiple periodic floods or by a single grand-scale cataclysmic flood from late Pleistocene Glacial Lake Missoula or an unidentified Canadian source continued through 1999. Shaw's team of geologists reviewed the sedimentary sequences of the Touchet beds and concluded that the sequences do not automatically imply multiple floods separated by decades or centuries. Rather, they proposed that sedimentation in

1140-483: The Columbia Gorge would be expected to produce higher flow resistance and correspondingly higher floods. The dating for Waitt's proposed separation of layers into sequential floods has been supported by subsequent paleomagnetism studies, which support a 30–40 year interval between depositions of Mount St. Helens' ash, and hence flood events, but do not preclude an up to 60-year interval. Offshore deposits on

1197-602: The Columbia Plateau include: Idaho cities in the Columbia Plateau include: 45°59′58″N 119°00′05″W  /  45.99944°N 119.00139°W  / 45.99944; -119.00139 Missoula Floods The Missoula floods (also known as the Spokane floods , the Bretz floods , or Bretz's floods ) were cataclysmic glacial lake outburst floods that swept periodically across eastern Washington and down

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1254-477: The Columbia River gorge, it backed up again at the 1 mile (1.6 km) wide narrows near Kalama, Washington . Some temporary lakes rose to an elevation of more than 400 ft (120 m), flooding the Willamette Valley to Eugene, Oregon and beyond. Iceberg-rafted glacial erratics and erosion features are evidence of these events. Lake-bottom sediments deposited by the floods have contributed to

1311-406: The Columbia River. The resulting reservoir, called Banks Lake , is about 30 miles (48 km) long. Banks Lake serves as the CBP's initial storage reservoir. Additional canals, siphons , and reservoirs were built south of Bank Lake, reaching over 100 miles (160 km). Water is lifted 280 feet (85 m) from Lake Roosevelt to feed the massive network. The total amount of the Columbia flow that

1368-624: The Glacial Lake Missoula basin resulted from jökulhlaups draining into Lake Missoula from British Columbia to the north. Further, Shaw's team proposed the scabland flooding might have partially originated from an enormous subglacial reservoir that extended over much of central British Columbia, particularly including the Rocky Mountain Trench , which may have discharged by several paths, including one through Lake Missoula. This discharge, if occurring concurrently with

1425-561: The North American plate is moving over it, creating a superb record of the rate and direction of plate motion. Part of the Columbia Plateau is associated with the Columbia Plateau ecoregion , part of the "Nearctic temperate and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands" ecoregion of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome . Washington cities in the Columbia Plateau include: Oregon cities in

1482-638: The Waterville Plateau into Moses Coulee, but later, when the Okanagan lobe blocked that route, eroding the Grand Coulee to discharge there as a substantially lower outlet. The Komatsu analysis does not evaluate the impact of the considerable erosion observed in this basin during the flood or floods. However, the assumption that flood hydraulics can be modeled using modern-day topography is an area that warrants further consideration. Earlier narrower constrictions at places such as Wallula Gap and through

1539-472: The Yellowstone Plateau and that the farther west they went, the older the lavas. Although scientists are still gathering evidence, a probable explanation is that a hot spot , an extremely hot plume of deep mantle material, is rising to the surface beneath the Columbia Plateau Province. Beneath Hawaii and Iceland , a temperature instability develops (for reasons not yet well understood) at

1596-526: The agricultural richness of the Willamette and Columbia Valleys. Glacial deposits overlaid with centuries of windblown sediments ( loess ) have scattered steep, southerly sloping dunes throughout the Columbia Valley, ideal conditions for orchard and vineyard development at higher latitudes. After analysis and controversy, geologists now believe that there were 40 or more separate floods, although

1653-474: The breach of the Lake Missoula ice dam, would have provided significantly larger volumes of water. Further, Shaw and the team proposed that the rhythmic Touchet beds result from multiple pulses or surges within a larger flood. In 2000, a team led by Komatsu simulated the floods numerically with a 3-dimensional hydraulic model. They based the Glacial Lake Missoula discharge rate on the rate predicted for

1710-567: The calculated water depth in each flooded location except for the Spokane Valley–Rathdrum Prairie was shallower than the field evidence showed. For example, their calculated water depth at the Pasco Basin–Wallula Gap transition zone is about 190 m, significantly less than the 280–300 m flood depth indicated by high-water marks. They concluded that a flood of ~10 m /s could not have made the observed high-water marks. In

1767-623: The catastrophic floods, which he called the Spokane floods , in the 1920s. He was researching the Channeled Scablands in Eastern Washington , the Columbia Gorge , and the Willamette Valley of Oregon . Beginning In the summer of 1922, Bretz conducted field research on the Columbia River Plateau for the next seven years. He had been interested in unusual erosion features in the area since 1910 after seeing

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1824-406: The cracks, generating more heat, allowing even more water to flow through the cracks. This feedback cycle eventually weakened the ice dam so much that it could no longer support the pressure of the water behind it. It failed catastrophically. This process is known as a glacial lake outburst flood , and there is evidence that many such events occurred in the distant past. As the water emerged from

1881-475: The dam was named Franklin Delano Roosevelt Lake in honor of the president. The irrigation holding reservoir in Grand Coulee was named Banks Lake . After World War II the project suffered a number of setbacks. Irrigation water began to arrive between 1948 and 1952, but the costs escalated, resulting in the original plan, in which the people receiving irrigation water would pay back the costs of

1938-489: The dam, over the next several decades. However, the Bureau of Reclamation website states that no further development is anticipated, with 671,000 acres (2,720 km) irrigated out of the original 1,100,000 acres (4,500 km) planned. Interest in completing the Columbia Basin Project's 1,100,000 acres (4,500 km) has grown in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. One reason for the renewed interest

1995-506: The dams. The majority of fish in the Columbia basin are migratory fish like salmon, sturgeon and steelhead. These migratory fish are often harmed or unable to pass through the narrow passages and turbines at dams. In addition to the physical barriers the dams pose, the slowing speed and altered course of the river raises temperatures, alters oxygen content, and changes river bed conditions. These altered conditions can stress and potentially kill both migratory and local non-migratory organisms in

2052-458: The entire system. Instead, conflicts between the Bureau of Reclamation and the Department of Agriculture thwarted the goal of both agencies of settling the project area with small family farms; larger corporate farms arose instead. The determination to finish the project's plan to irrigate the full 1,100,000 acres (4,500 km) waned during the 1960s. The estimated total cost for completing

2109-408: The exact source of the water is still being debated. The peak flow of the floods is estimated to be 27 cubic kilometers per hour (6.5 cubic miles per hour). The maximum flow speed approached 36 meters/second (130 km/h or 80 mph). Up to 1.9×10 joules of potential energy were released by each flood (the equivalent of 4,500 megatons of TNT ). For comparison, this is 90 times more powerful than

2166-659: The ice would reform, creating Glacial Lake Missoula again. These floods have been researched since the 1920s. During the last deglaciation that followed the end of the Last Glacial Maximum , geologists estimate that a cycle of flooding and reformation of the lake lasted an average of 55 years and that the floods occurred several times over the 2,000 years between 15,000 and 13,000 years ago. U.S. Geological Survey hydrologist Jim O'Connor and Spain 's Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales scientist Gerardo Benito have found evidence of at least twenty-five massive floods,

2223-446: The inevitable seepage and runoff. In some cases the results are beneficial. For example, numerous new lakes provide recreation opportunities and habitat for fish and game. In other cases agricultural chemicals in the runoff cause pollution. The irrigation water provided by this project greatly benefits the agricultural production of the area. North Central Washington is one of the largest and most productive tree fruit producing areas on

2280-563: The largest discharging about 10 cubic kilometers per hour (2.7 million m³/s, 13 times that of the Amazon River ). Alternate estimates for the peak flow rate of the largest flood range up to 17 cubic kilometers per hour. The maximum flow speed approached 36 meters/second (130 km/h or 80 mph). Within the Columbia River drainage basin , detailed investigation of the Missoula floods' glaciofluvial deposits , informally known as

2337-425: The largest of the boulders moved by the flood. He estimated the water flow was 9 cubic miles per hour (38 km /h), more than the combined flow of every river in the world. More recent estimates place the flow rate at ten times the flow of all current rivers combined. The Missoula floods have also been referred to as the Bretz floods in honor of Bretz. As the depth of the water in Lake Missoula increased,

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2394-492: The last ice age glaciers shaped the landscape of the Columbia River Plateau . Ice blocked the Columbia River near the north end of Grand Coulee, creating glacial lakes Columbia and Spokane. Ice age glaciers also created Glacial Lake Missoula , in what is now Montana . Erosion allowed glacial Lake Columbia to begin to drain into what became Grand Coulee, which was fully created when glacial Lake Missoula along with glacial Lake Columbia catastrophically emptied. This flood event

2451-440: The most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated, the 50-megaton " Tsar Bomba ". The cumulative effect of the floods was to excavate 210 cubic kilometres (50 cu mi) of loess, sediment, and basalt from the Channeled Scablands of eastern Washington and to transport it downstream. The multiple flood hypothesis was first proposed by R.B. Waitt Jr. in 1980. Waitt argued for a sequence of 40 or more floods. Waitt's proposal

2508-664: The oldest of the Pleistocene Missoula floods happened before 1.5 million years ago. Because of the fragmentary nature of older glaciofluvial deposits, which have been largely removed by subsequent Missoula floods, within the Hanford formation, the exact number of older Missoula floods, which are known as ancient cataclysmic floods , that occurred during the Pleistocene cannot be estimated with any confidence. Geologist J Harlen Bretz first recognized evidence of

2565-582: The origin of the Scablands. Both Pardee and Bretz continued their research over the next 30 years, collecting and analyzing evidence that led them to identify Lake Missoula as the source of the Spokane flood and creator of the channeled scablands. After Pardee studied the canyon of the Flathead River , he estimated that flood waters above 45 miles per hour (72 km/h) would be required to roll

2622-594: The planet. Without Coulee Dam and the greater Columbia Basin Project, much of North Central Washington State would be too arid for cultivation. According to the federal Bureau of Reclamation the yearly value of the Columbia Basin Project is $ 630 million in irrigated crops, $ 950 million in power production, $ 20 million in flood damage prevention, and $ 50 million in recreation. The project itself involves costs that are difficult to determine. The farms that receive irrigation water must pay for it, but due to insufficient data from

2679-410: The pressure at the bottom of the ice dam increased enough to lower the freezing point of water below the temperature of the ice forming the dam. This allowed liquid water to seep into minuscule cracks present in the ice dam. Over a period of time, the friction from water flowing through these cracks generated enough heat to melt the ice walls and enlarge the cracks. This allowed more water to flow through

2736-654: The project about half finished are not known. The Columbia Basin in Central Washington is fertile due to its loess soils, but large portions are a near desert , receiving less than ten inches (254 mm) of rain per year. The area is characterized by huge deposits of flood basalt , thousands of feet thick in places, laid down over a period of approximately 11 million years, during the Miocene epoch. These flood basalts are exposed in some places, while in others they are covered with thick layers of loess. During

2793-559: The project and aluminum smelting plants flocked to the Columbia Basin. A new power house was built at the Grand Coulee Dam, starting in the late sixties, that tripled the generating capacity. Part of the dam had to be blown up and re-built to make way for the new generators. Electricity is now transmitted to Canada and as far south as San Diego . One environmental impact has been the reduction in native fish stocks above

2850-402: The project had more than doubled between 1940 and 1964, it had become clear that the government's financial investment would not be recovered, and that the benefits of the project were unevenly distributed and increasingly going to larger businesses and corporations. These issues and others dampened enthusiasm for the project, although the exact motives behind the decision to stop construction with

2907-502: The project over time, being repeatedly revised and becoming a permanent water subsidy. In addition, the original vision of a social engineering project intended to help farmers settle on small landholdings failed. Farm plots, at first restricted in size, became larger and soon became corporate agribusiness operations. The original plan was that a federal agency similar to the Tennessee Valley Authority would manage

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2964-401: The river. The decimation of these migratory fish stocks above Grand Coulee Dam would not allow the former fishing lifestyle of Native Americans of the area, who once depended on the salmon for a way of life. The environmental impacts of the Columbia Basin Project have made it a contentious and often politicized issue. A common argument for not implementing environmental safeguards at dam sites

3021-406: The status quo, which has led to marked die-offs and the likely extinction of several types of salmon. There are a number of issues regarding the runoff of irrigation water. The project region receives about 6 to 10 inches (250 mm) of annual rainfall, while the application of irrigation water amounts to an equivalent 40 to 50 inches (1,300 mm). The original plans did not sufficiently address

3078-415: The surface, the Earth's crust gradually sank into the space left by the rising lava. The Columbia River Basalt Group consists of seven formations: The Steens Basalt, Imnaha Basalt , Grande Ronde Basalt, Picture Gorge Basalt, Prineville Basalt, Wanapum Basalt, and Saddle Mountains Basalt. Many of these formations are subdivided into formal and informal members and flows. The subsidence of the crust produced

3135-426: The top of the Touchet beds. The two layers of volcanic ash are separated by 1–10 centimetres (0.4–3.9 in) of airborne nonvolcanic silt. The tephra is Mount St. Helens ash that fell in Eastern Washington. By analogy, since there were 40 layers with comparable characteristics at Burlingame Canyon, Waitt argued they all could be considered to have similar separation in deposition time. The controversy about whether

3192-630: Was based mainly on analysis from glacial lake bottom deposits in Ninemile Creek and the flood deposits in Burlingame Canyon. His most compelling argument for separate floods was that the Touchet bed deposits from two successive floods were found to be separated by two layers of volcanic ash ( tephra ), with the ash separated by a fine layer of windblown dust deposits, located in a thin layer between sediment layers ten rhythmites below

3249-502: Was one of several known as the Missoula Floods . Unique erosion features, called channeled scablands , are attributed to these amazing floods. When it was built, Grand Coulee Dam was the largest dam in the world, but it was only part of the irrigation project. Additional dams were built at the north and south ends of Grand Coulee, the dry canyon south of Grand Coulee Dam, allowing the coulee to be filled with water pumped up from

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