The majestic river canyon meanders across the central Washington desert — apparently blasting directly through three large ridges. What came first? The river or the rock?
The Stuart Range near Leavenworth is one of the most beautiful mountains in all of the American West — and yet its granite contains clues that continue to puzzle geologists. Did the granite really form in Mexico and move a thousand miles north to central Washington?
Washington’s gold rush isn’t over. Find out how gold came to Washington and where active mines still produce gold — if you know how to find it.
5,600 years ago, a Mt. Rainier eruption sent a wall of mud careening down the White River Valley to Tacoma. The Osceola Mudflow created the Enumclaw Plain by burying a formerly rugged Puget Lowland with hundreds of feet of volcanic mud — a plain now home to over 500,000 people.
Some of the largest lava flows in the world can be found in the deserts of Eastern Washington. The massive lavas erupted from giant cracks that can still be found today, if you know where to look.
One of the largest waterfalls in the history of Earth happened in Washington state. Three-times the width of Niagara, the volume of the Ige Age falls was 10-times the combined flow of all the rivers on Earth.
The Seattle Fault, discovered in the 1990s, runs right beneath downtown and out to Bainbridge Island. When did the fault last produce a large earthquake? What is Seattle doing to prepare for the next one?
Spectacular rock columns are on display throughout the deserts of eastern Washington. How do these crazy stone pillars form? How old are they?
Is it true that the Columbia River has had many different paths throughout its long history? Yes. What does the evidence look like? Did the Yakima and Salmon Rivers shift around too?
Scenic Lake Chelan is a vacation paradise that was created during the Ice Age. But how can geologists prove that an ice sheet from Canada did the digging?
When did a mountain in Washington split and slide to Oregon in the Columbia River Gorge? Why did it happen — and will it happen again?
Geologists have found places in the Cascades where Mount Rainier-like volcanoes once stood, but the ancient volcanoes are now gone. What are the clues to find the ghost volcanoes?
Follow the trail that led geologists to find an ancient lake that submerged much of eastern Washington under 1200 feet of water in the Ice Age. Where did the lake come from and where did it go?
How did giant Steamboat Rock survive the powerful Ice Age forces that formed the Grand Coulee? Find out how ancient ice sheets and catastrophic floods carved one of the Northwest’s most iconic monuments.
Discover the Ice Age secret locked in the rich depths of the Palouse. Long thought to be “volcanic” soil, the real story begins instead with the rupture of Ice Age dams.
From the Deception Pass bridge you can see all the way to Mexico— but only if you look down. Learn how the exotic rock from the age of the dinosaurs made its way up the West Coast to the Salish Sea.
The record of the Northwest’s last cataclysmic earthquake is buried in the mud with only ancient trees to tell the story above ground. Follow the trail of the quake that dropped the coastline six feet and pushed a mega-wave all the way to Japan.
The fingerprints of rushing water rise from the desert as huge ripples of rocks. The patterns tell a story of the speed, depth, and breadth of the last major Ice Age Flood that surged down the Columbia River and carved the gorge at the famous Gorge Amphitheatre.
This Oregon landmark is now traced back to super-volcanic explosions related to the Yellowstone Hot Spot.
Thirty feet of volcanic ash in Washington’s Saddle Mountains fell out of the sky from a Super Volcano explosion south of Boise, Idaho.
Palm trees in the center of Washington state? Yes, if you’re willing to go back 55 million years, when the Northwest was hot and humid.
This gorgeous mountain is not volcanic, but the accumulation of millions of years of ocean sediment pushed into a dazzling mountain range.
We’ll explore the third longest lava tube in the nation. Red hot lava built this cave during a massive explosion on Mt St Helens 2000 years ago.
Fly into the 1980 crater of Mt. St. Helens and learn how volcanic forces are building a new lava dome as geologists train for the next volcanic eruption around the Pacific Rim.