Illustration of an "all at once" scenario of one Ice Age Missoula Flood that flowed from Montana through North Idaho, Washington, and Oregon to the Pacific Ocean. It illustrates what might have been had it happened all at once. However "all at once" is improbable according to many earth science experts (which I am not). It's more likely that the "one event" illustrated here happened over many thousands of years as a series of multiple small and large events.
Thank you J. Harlen Bretz for revealing this fascinating story.
Thank you Nick Zentner at nickzentner.com for revealing the many geologists that devote much time to researching the details of this story.
This map, animation, and video was created by a non-scientist, North Idahoan, GIS enthusiast using Open Source tools, Ubuntu Linux, GRASS-GIS, USGS digital elevation models, and USGS Missoula Floods maximum height data. Thank you all that spend much of your own time creating open-source tools. Thank you all that make government data available to the public and amateur science lovers like me.
Me: I imagine thick layers of ice and snow melting on earth to be like me using a blow dryer to defrost my solid, frozen mini fridge. It's a fascinating bit of sculpturing. If I do it a thousand times it melts a thousand different ways.
