Roadside Geology of Oregon

Description

Authors: Alt, David D. and Hyndman, Donald W.

Publisher: Mountaineers Press

Pub Date: 1978

Binding: Paperback

Condition: Fair.  Binding tight.  No tears.  Small bends (approx. 1/16″) at upper and lower front cover corners.  Scuffing to front and rear covers.   Edge and corner wear.

Notes: “One of the problems in writing about geology as seen from the road is that half our readers will be going one way and the other half the other other.  There is no good way to write a description so it reads both ways at once…but all our descriptions are written from north to south or from east to west.”  (From the Preface).  Neither a comprehensive road atlas, nor a comprehensive geological atlas of Oregon.  File under “Interesting Places and Interesting Facts about How Oregon Came to Look Like It Does.”  “The greatest dam failures of which we have any certain records sent incredible floods down the Columbia River at the end of the last ice age.  An enormous glacier damned the Clark Fork River in northern Idaho backing Glacial Lake Missoula into a large area of western Montana.  A dam made of ice is bound to fail eventually and when this one did the whole lake suddenly rushed across eastern Washington and down the Columbia River.  This happened at least 35 times (n.b. !!!)…The largest of them released a wall of water that was 2000 feet high at the dam and several others were almost that big….remember that on the days the ice dam burst the Columbia River carried more water for a few hours than all the other rivers of the world combined.”  (Interstate 80: The Dalles to Pendleton, Page 180)  Damn! (pun intended)