Glacial Lake Missoula

Common card · No. 253707

Lake Missoula was a prehistoric proglacial lake in western Montana that existed periodically at the end of the last ice age between 15,000 and 13,000 years ago. The lake measured about 3,000 square miles (7,770 km2) and contained about 500 cubic miles (2,100 km3) of water, half the volume of Lake Michigan. The Glacial Lake Missoula National Natural Landmark is located about 68 miles (110 km) northwest of Missoula, Montana, at the north end of the Camas Prairie Valley, just east of Montana Highway 382 and Macfarlane Ranch. It was designated as a National Natural Landmark in 1966 because it contains the great ripples (often measuring 25 to 50 feet (8 to 15 m) high and 300 feet (90 m) long) that served as a strong supporting element for J Harlen Bretz's contention that Washington State's Channeled Scablands were formed by repeated cataclysmic floods over only about 2,000 years, rather than through the millions of years of erosion that had been previously assumed. The lake was the result of...

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