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John Eliot Allen
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Cataclysms on the Columbia: A Layman's Guide to the Features Produced by the Catastrophic Bretz Flood in the Pacific Northwest Hardcover – January 1, 1986

by John Eliot Allen (Author), Marjorie Burns (Author), Sam C. Sargent (Author)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 14 ratings
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  1. Part of series
    Scenic Trips to the
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Timber Press
  4. Publication date
    January 1, 1986
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B003XPEPX2
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Timber Press; First Edition (January 1, 1986)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.95 pounds
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 14 ratings

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John Eliot Allen

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4.3 out of 5 stars
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  • By CJs Pirate
    5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Job of Explaining the Flood and Subsequent Creation of the Scablands
    Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    When it comes to the Channeled Scablands of Eastern Washington, I'm a bit of a fanatic. My family belongs to the Ice Age Floods Institute as well as Washington Trails Association and Rails to Trails. I am truly fortunate to live in this area. These coulees are my stomping grounds. The blades are my scrambling hills. I'm spoiled by an abundant beauty that is found in only a few places on this planet.

    Cataclysms on the Columbia is one of many books I own pertaining to "Bretz' Flood". This book, like many others, describe the cataclysmic destruction of the flood and the carving of the many coulees and creation of Dry Falls, which, at the time it was "active" was nearly 10 times larger than Niagara Falls. For those who have marveled at Niagara imagine nine more, side by side.

    This book does a great job of explaining the flood and subsequent creation of the Scablands. It tells both a story and allows the reader knowledge of places to see and go to. The pictures are a tad lacking, but if you go, you can take your own. The writing, owing to the several authors is a bit choppy. The book moves but it doesn't "flow". No problem, I'll deal with that. It also helps me to understand what is said when several have relayed that bit of information.

    All in all, even though there's nothing really new in the book, this is a great book to have as a first and introduction to the area or an additional to augment a collection (such as I have).
    8 people found this helpful
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  • Duwayne Anderson
    4.0 out of 5 stars One of earth's more interesting chapters
    Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2006
    This is the story of the largest floods ever described by modern science (they happened about 40 times, between 15,000 and 12,800 years ago) originating from an ice-impounded lake in Montana that formed when a glacial lobe blocked the west end of the Clark Fork River. The lake covered thousands of square miles and impounded about 500 cubic miles of water. As the water in the lake rose, it eventually got high enough to float the ice dam, breaking it and unleashing hundreds of cubic miles of water that rushed out through eastern Washington creating what we call the channeled scablands.

    The flow was enormous. It left giant ripple marks that are clearly visible from the air, but hard to discern from the ground. It left gravel beds sloping upstream in tributary rivers on the Columbia. It tore out chucks of rock and stripped away loess. It carved interlinking channels, waterfalls, and deep canyons - all of which can be seen today, and which are particularly striking when viewed from the air, or space.

    The book is filled with photographs and maps showing the evidence for the flood, but older folk (like me) may need a magnifying glass to make them out.

    The book's written in several parts. Parts 1 and II, written by Marjorie Burns, consist of introductory material with historical background about Bretz, his early field work, and his effort to construct a complete and coherent theory of the Ice Age floods. Part III was written mostly by John Allen, who presents some of the scientific detail that describes and supports the Bretz Flood theory. Part IV, also by Allen, follows a typical flood from the point of failure in the ice dam until it emptied into the Pacific Ocean.

    Allen's sections are my favorites. I also enjoyed much of what Burns wrote, except for her frequent personal attacks against early skeptics who rejected Bretz's initial hypothesis. Burns leaves the reader with the impression that skepticism is bad, and that early scientists should have rushed to embrace Bretz's hypothesis before all the evidence, especially the source of the flood, had been discovered

    For example, on page 52 Burns quotes Meinzer, who said (in 1927)

    "Before a theory that requires a seemingly impossible quantity of water is fully accepted, every effort should be made to account for the existing features without employing so violent an assumption."

    This seems like a perfectly reasonable thing to say, particularly since Bretz, in spite of the evidence for a massive flood, had been unable to identify the source of the water. Burns, though, calls Meinzer's comment a "splendidly revealing passage," and "remarkably close to overt hostility."

    When Bretz presented his hypothesis in 1927 he didn't know the source of the flood, and without being able to point to a clear source, he knew his hypothesis was lacking. W.C. Alden responded to Bretz' hypothesis by suggesting the need for more research; again, this seems like a perfectly reasonable response. But Burns taunts Alden's position by mentioning other geologists who said "Cautious" was Alden's middle name. And, with dripping sarcasm, she quotes Alden as having used phrases like "it would seem," "perhaps," and "not yet well enough understood."

    Burns lambastes skeptical and/or cautious scientists who disagreed with Bretz. She describes them as closed minded, unwilling to accept new ideas, and stuck in their ways. She describes Bretz's hypothesis as an "unthinkable heresy," while twisting legitimate scientific caution into claims of "overt hostility." Yet, when Bretz exhibited similar caution she lauds it as a high "standard." Consider this quote from page 58:

    "By 1932 Bretz was again saying `the cause of the flood is not yet known.' He had, at this point, virtually finished his field research on the Channeled Scablands, and in his final studies he mostly ignored the Lake Missoula possibility. It was an intriguing hypothesis but too questionable to meet Bretz's standards."

    Burns seems to have a genuine grudge against skeptics in the scientific community. For example, on page 72 she complains that Wegener's "theory" leading to "plate tectonics" was "maligned." The problem is that Wegner didn't have a theory; he had a hypothesis based on incomplete data, with an incorrectly proposed mechanism for how the continents moved. In retrospect, his larger hypothesis (like Bretz's) proved correct, but it wasn't a scientific theory until it was completed with a verifiable mechanism for continental drift - something that's part of the theory of plate tectonics. The fact that hypotheses such as Wegner's are/were debated is a necessary and healthy part of the way science works, and yet Burns castigates those critics who later turned out to be wrong - as if they should have been "believers' without all the evidence.

    Bretz should be highly regarded for correctly hypothesizing (on the basis of a huge amount of original field work, I might add) that the scablands were created by a great flood. But in spite of the many evidences he presented, he couldn't explain where the water came from, and how it was unleashed. Without that key bit of evidence he didn't have a scientific theory; he had a scientific hypothesis that was still under intense investigation. The scientific community did pretty much what it should have done; they went out and found the source of the flood.

    It was Pardee, who did it with his description of humungous ripple marks in Lake Missoula in 1942. With the source of the flood identified, Bretz's hypothesis was quickly accepted. While Burns sees the episode as a sham, I see it as one of the best examples of why and how science works so well.

    Once you get through Burns' personal attacks on Bretz's critics, the book becomes a pleasure to read. It is one of the best scientific descriptions of the Bretz floods and has some very helpful references. In spite of Parts 1 and II, the rest of the book makes it definitely worth reading.
    9 people found this helpful
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  • Martin Unwin
    3.0 out of 5 stars Great story, flawed book
    Reviewed in the United States on June 22, 2000
    I'd like to give this book a higher rating, but I can't. Great subject, should be brought to the attention of everyone even vaguely interested in the forces that shape our landscapes, and a fascinating account of the Bretz "saga". Like Wegener, Bretz was ridiculed in his time for his outlandish theories; unlike Wegener, he lived long enough to see his theories dramatically confirmed. On a recent trip to the US I had the opportunity to drive across WA, ID, and MT, and was entranced by the coulees, Dry Falls, the scablands, and the stranded lake shores above Missoula.
    So what's my gripe? Simply that, while the authors have done a commendable job of making the whole story accessible to lay readers, they haven't really done their subject the treatment it so richly deserves. The writing (shared by three authors) is uneven, tends to be repetitious, and would have benefited from tighter editing. The chapters describing Bretz and his battles with the geological establishment are the best and most readable; those describing the details of the post-flood geomorphology (sensibly ordered from Lake Missoula to the sea) are more ponderous. The photos are also a big disappointment - I would happily have paid extra for a book with up to date and well-produced colour photos, rather than the grainy monochromes which have been used throughout. Buy the book, marvel at the story, and imagine what it would have been like to watch the floods from a secure piece of high ground, but keep your eyes open for the day when the authors (or someone else) produce a livelier and more readable update.
    36 people found this helpful
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  • William Dunbar
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book
    Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2014
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    Anyone from Montana, Idaho Washington or Oregon should read this book. Tells about huge glacial Lake Missoula and how all the water from that Lake washed across eastern Washington and formed the scablands and roared down the Columbia River scouring out the Columbia Gorge and filled the Willamette Valley with eastern Washington topsoil and lots more.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Melanie Louise Mellick
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book
    Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    Love the geologic history. A must for anyone interested in the Pacific NW, fossils and geology. I really want to see the video of the same name.
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  • April Engle
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United States on June 28, 2014
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    Very interesting!!!
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