Fire, Ice and Flood EarthCache
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Parking is right next to the highway. Visitors can take required photo without having to leave parking area.
About 17 million years ago, lava started spewing from the planet, forming the Columbian Plateau in what is now eastern Washington and Oregon and western Idaho. About 11 million years later, the flows stopped but were already hundreds of feet deep and covered up to 80,000 square miles of that area.
Between 16,000 and 12,000 years ago --- a blink in geologic time --- the last Ice Age was coming to an end. One lobe of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet was blocking the western end of what is now called Lake Missoula. This huge lake, located at Missoula, Montana, held over 500 cubic miles of water (about half the volume of Lake Michigan) and was held back by an ice dam about 2500 feet high. As the leading ice lobe was undercut by the water, a catastrophic flood broke through and surged down the Clark Fork into the Columbia Plateau, scouring out the volcanic deposits and creating what are now called the "channeled scablands." This happened several times with walls of water up to 500 feet high and traveling up to 50 miles an hour.
Some of this water carved out what is now known as the Columbia River Gorge. Close to the gorge's beginning is a distinctive formation --- your goal.
All you need to do to claim this earthcache is post a picture of your team with the feature behind you and answer three questions -- after you've looked around in appreciation of the geologic phenomenon around you. Somehow these peaks survived the gigantic floods, which are estimated to have been 300 feet deep when they came through here.
You can take the picture without having to leave the parking area. Please don't cross the fence.
The questions: 1. Describe the formation and what type of rock you think it is. 2. What happened to the third wife? 3. Who did it?
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
[The formation is located along state highway 730 between Umatilla, OR and Wallula, WA. If coming from Umatilla, parking is JUST AFTER mile marker 4, and comes up very suddenly. Getting back on the highway safely can be tricky because of a curve in each direction. CAUTION: volcanic rock is often brittle and not conducive to rock-climbing.]
Treasures
You'll collect a digital Treasure from one of these collections when you find and log this geocache:
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