Cataclysms on the Columbia

By: John Eliot Allen, Marjorie Burns and Sam C. Sargent
Copyright 1986, paperback, 224 pages
Book dimensions: 6" x 9"

Imagine Portland 400 feet under water. That's how it was between 15,000 and 12,800 years ago when the great cataclysms swept across eastern Washington, down the Columbia Gorge, and up the Willamette and Tualatin valleys. (For those of us who aren't geologists, Webster defines "cataclysms" as "1) a flood of water, a deluge; 2) any violent change involving alterations of the earth's surface.") Cataclysms on the Columbia describes in layperson's terms the cataclysmic floods that swept along the Columbia River. Author John Eliot Allen ponders "We know about winds building over time into hurrican strength, but how can we imagine a torrent of air exploding into existence, driven by a wall of water hundreds of feet high and moving at 50 miles per hour?" The book divides into four parts. The first two sections are written by Marjorie Burns a professor of English Literature at Portland State University. Burns describes J. Harlan Bretz's theory about the floods and how other geologists ridiculed his ideas. It was not until 1971 when Bretz was 80 years old that his ideas were finally accepted. That was more than 50 years after he proposed the idea. The second half of the book is more scientific and is written by geologist John Eliot Allen with some help from Sam C. Sargent, chief geologist of the building of The Dalles Dam. This section discusses the landscape from Lake Missoula, Montana through the Columbia River Valley and all the way down to the Pacific Ocean. If you are remotely curious about the geology of our area, then this book is a must have.