Episode #074: Misplaced Montana Megafloods Valley Trains

Summary

In this episode of the Randall Carlson Podcast, the discussion revolves around the geological history of the Flathead Basin in northwestern Montana. Hosts explore evidence indicating that the area experienced significant water flow into the Clark Fork River Valley during the Younger Dryas period. The episode connects ancient water pathways to larger climatic events, providing insights into past environments.

Key takeaways

• 1Evidence of water flowing into the Clark Fork River Valley rather than out during the meltwater period.
• 2Discussion about the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis and its implications for geological and climatic shifts.
• 3Introduction of valley trains on the south side of the Flathead Basin as key geological features.
• 4Contributions and insights from guest hosts like Normal Guy Mike and GeocosmicREX admin Bradley.
• 5Reference to scientific papers available on the Cosmic Tusk website related to the Younger Dryas.

Glossary terms

Source

Transcript excerpt

Taxes and fees apply. This is Cosmographia, the Randall Carlson Podcast. And we are back, ladies and gentlemen, to Cosmographia, the Randall Carlson Podcast. And we're continuing on looking at glacial outbursts and yokelaps, whether or not ice can hold in large amounts of water, like the ice dam theory says about the end of the Younger Dryas. So we're going to continue with that, Randall. Where were we last week? Well, we've been, yeah, we've been talking about the stability of ice dams. And we kind of covered the little bit of the background, which is that the Little Ice Age glaciers between the, say, the 1300s and the 1800s swelled to their largest size in over 10,000 years. And then with the shrinkage back, the melting back of the Little Ice Age glaciers, there were a series of lakes that were formed, sometimes impounded by other glacier ice and sometimes impounded by moraine. And then as the glaciers continued to shrink, the lakes grew until finally whatever the enclosing medium was, whether it was ground moraine or ice, could no longer retain those pressures. And these impounded bodies of water were suddenly released in the form of outburst floods, which in the Icelandic is referred to as yokelaps, yokelaps. And I may not be pronouncing it exactly correctly, but it's pretty close, close enough for an American, I figure. So anyhow, yeah, so that's what we've been looking at and talking about floods, particularly in reference to the Great Terminal Ice Age floods, which have been an ongoing theme of our explorations on this particular podcast. The whole issue that we've been kind of circling about is the idea of the very rapid and catastrophic melting of the Great Ice Sheets. ...

Excerpt from Kosmographia, Nov 24, 2021. Rights remain with the original creators. Hear the full episode at the source.