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Overview
Cataclysms on the Columbia tells two stories. One follows geological research that challenged the scientific paradigm of the early 20th century, and the other chronicles the results of that research: the discovery of powerful prehistoric floods that shaped the Pacific Northwest. The cataclysms at the end of the last Ice Age left a scab land of buttes, dry falls, and rocky gorges, but it took the detective work of geologist J. Harlan Bretz to prove it to the world. He did not live to see his theories vindicated, but his lifetime of research and unshakeable belief changed geology forever.
Synopsis
Cataclysms on the Columbia tells two stories. One follows geological research that challenged the scientific paradigm of the early 20th century, and the other chronicles the results of that research: the discovery of powerful prehistoric floods that shaped the Pacific Northwest. The cataclysms at the end of the last Ice Age left a scab land of buttes, dry falls, and rocky gorges, but it took the detective work of geologist J. Harlan Bretz to prove it to the world. He did not live to see his theories vindicated, but his lifetime of research and unshakeable belief changed geology forever.