What comes to mind when you think of the Seven Wonders of Washington State? Mt. Rainier and the Columbia Gorge, surely… but the Channeled Scablands are a slightly lesser known attraction on the list.
If you weren’t aware of this unique geographical wonder right here in Washington, you’re not alone.
The Channeled Scablands are located in Eastern Washington, extending from the Spokane area to the Columbia River near Vantage and southwest to the Snake River near Pasco.
Robert Ashworth / Flickr
These rocks have a pretty fascinating story of how they were created.
Sean O’Neill / Flickr The early settlers in eastern Washington referred to these areas as scablands because they were not suitable for farming. Their origin was a mystery.
During the last ice age around 20,000 years ago, part of a glacier blocked the Clark Fork River in North Idaho that normally flowed into Washington near what is now Spokane.
Steve Voght / Flickr This created an ice dam that caused the river to form a lake in western Montana, which soon grew to cover 3,000 square miles.
The dam of water eventually collapsed, and water from the lake was released and created one of the largest mega floods in the history of the world.
Bureau of Land Management / Flickr Over 500 cubic miles of water swept across the landscape in a wall of water hundreds of feet deep and washed away everything in its path in a matter of days. This led to a series of OTHER mega floods (it’s a good thing this was 20,000 years ago), and each flood compounded the erosion of the previous one and culminated in the bizarre landforms we now call the Channeled Scablands.
Once you know the backstory, the land starts to look a lot more interesting.
Jon. D. Anderson / Flickr A geologist named J. Harlen Bretz started researching the mega flood theory in 1923, but it wasn’t confirmed until the 1970s.
And that’s how the Channeled Scablands came to be.
junaidrao / Flickr
Washington’s natural wonders are truly incredible. We even have our own Seven Wonders of the World.
Robert Ashworth / Flickr
Sean O’Neill / Flickr
The early settlers in eastern Washington referred to these areas as scablands because they were not suitable for farming. Their origin was a mystery.
Steve Voght / Flickr
This created an ice dam that caused the river to form a lake in western Montana, which soon grew to cover 3,000 square miles.
Bureau of Land Management / Flickr
Over 500 cubic miles of water swept across the landscape in a wall of water hundreds of feet deep and washed away everything in its path in a matter of days. This led to a series of OTHER mega floods (it’s a good thing this was 20,000 years ago), and each flood compounded the erosion of the previous one and culminated in the bizarre landforms we now call the Channeled Scablands.
Jon. D. Anderson / Flickr
A geologist named J. Harlen Bretz started researching the mega flood theory in 1923, but it wasn’t confirmed until the 1970s.
junaidrao / Flickr
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