Collaborative Research: Linking landscape evolution and paleoflood hydrology in a megaflood dominated landscape, Channeled Scablands, eastern Washington, USA

冰川湖的灾难性排水产生了地球上已知最大的洪水，这些洪水反过来又雕刻了戏剧性的峡谷景观。 华盛顿东部的沼泽地是这种景观的一个特殊例子，在最后一个冰河时代结束时，米苏拉洪水冲刷了太平洋西北部的大片地区。 已知该地区发生了多个较早的冰川前进，这可能与其自身的大洪水阶段有关。这个项目将调查这些早期的洪水在雕刻被淹没的疤地中所起的作用。理解特大洪水很重要，因为除了局部的灾难，它们还可能改变了全球气候。 类似的洪水也发生在火星上，了解它们的侵蚀力是重建该星球洪水规模的关键。 该研究区是美国地质学的主要特色之一，长期以来一直吸引着来自各种背景的人。 它是提议的冰河时代洪水国家地质步道的所在地，因此将有机会广泛传播科学成果。 该项目包括一个教育部分，将培训研究生，并与一个国家认可的计划合作，该计划旨在让12-18岁的女孩参与科学，技术，工程和数学的探索。更新世晚期冰川爆发洪水造成了巨大的景观变化，在沼泽地和许多其他景观。 然而，很少有人知道的地形地貌遭受特大洪水演变随着时间的推移，因为它是在多次冰川前进反复洪水。 为了解决这一知识差距，跨学科的研究将被用来重建更新世的历史，scablands景观演变。 宇宙成因核素表面暴露测年和水力建模在几个网站内的Scablands将被用来测试多个假设的时间峡谷形成和景观演变。 这项工作的预期成果是新的洞察地形演变的景观反复发生的灾难性洪水。

Cataclysmic draining of glacial lakes has generated the largest known floods on Earth, and these floods in turn have carved dramatic canyon landscapes. The Channeled Scablands in eastern Washington are an exceptional example of such a landscape, where the Missoula Floods scoured vast tracts of the Pacific Northwest at the end of the last Ice Age. Multiple, earlier glacial advances are known to have occurred in the region, which potentially were associated with their own phases of mega-flooding. This project will investigate the role these earlier floods played in carving the Channeled Scablands. Megafloods are important to understand because, in addition to the local cataclysm, they may have altered global climate. Similar floods also occurred on Mars, and understanding their erosive power is key to reconstructing the size of floods on that planet. The study area is one of the major features of American Geology and has long captivated people from all backgrounds. It is the site of the proposed Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail, hence there will be opportunities to broadly disseminate the scientific results. The project includes an educational component that will train graduate students and partner with a nationally recognized program designed to engage girls 12-18 years of age in the exploration of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.Late-Pleistocene glacial outburst floods caused dramatic landscape change in the Channeled Scablands and many other landscapes. However, little is known about how the topography of landscapes subjected to mega-floods evolved over time as it was subjected to repeated floods during multiple glacial advances. To address this knowledge gap, an interdisciplinary study will be used to reconstruct the Pleistocene history of Channeled Scablands landscape evolution. Cosmogenic nuclide surface exposure dating and hydraulic modeling at several sites within the Channeled Scablands will be used to test multiple hypotheses concerning the timing of canyon formation and landscape evolution. The expected outcome of this work is new insight into the topographic evolution of landscapes subject to repeated cataclysmic floods.