Want to Join Us in Exploring the Bonneville Flood Path? We've got a tour coming us this May! Get your tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/exploring-the-bonneville-flood-path-with-randall-carlson-and-bradley-young-tickets-1033646122377
Listen on audio:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5EqJ8BYGrSlaTx6I3IugSx?si=046625a944364dba
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-big-picture/id1787043655
The Earth’s history is marked by massive floods, catastrophic upheavals, and rapid environmental shifts that reshaped entire continents. In this episode of The Big Picture, Randall Carlson and Becket Fusik break down the evidence for Ice Age megafloods, lost landscapes, and the forces that shaped human civilization. Were these floods triggered by glacial meltwater, cosmic impacts, or something else entirely? The answers lie in the geological record.
Chapters:
00:00 The Greatest Story Untold
06:06 The Missoula and Bonneville Floods
06:33 The Reality of Glacial Ages
42:07 Challenging Mainstream Geological Thinking
49:06 The Medieval Warm Period and Its Significance
53:53 The Formation of Ice-Dammed Lakes
01:00:23 The Missoula Floods: A Geological Phenomenon
01:09:06 The Dynamics of Ice-Dam Failures
01:23:54 The Gathering of Waters
01:29:21 The Impact of Ice Sheets on River Flow
01:45:39 The Controversy Surrounding Bretz's Flood Theory
01:53:45 The Geological Community's Shift in Perspective
02:05:06 Revisiting Bretz's Original Hypothesis
02:11:05 Exploring the Missoula Basin and Strand Lines
02:21:42 The Dayton Ice Lobe and Glacial Lake Ronan
02:29:02 Erosion and the Formation of Chief Cliff
02:43:06 Giant Ripples and the Legacy of Catastrophic Floods
02:49:21 The Impact of Water Levels on Flow
02:55:09 Gravel Deposits and Their Implications
03:02:25 Magnitude of Peak Discharge
03:07:37 Building Civilization on Flood Debris
03:16:14 Unpacking the Story of Mega Floods
Ice Age, Floods, Geology, Catastrophism, Missoula Flood, Cordierian Flood, Climate Change, Glacial Dynamics, Erosion, Deposition, Glacial Lake Missoula, Bretz's Flood Theory, geological history, catastrophic floods, ice dams, hydrology, sediment deposition, geological community, landscape impact, ancient civilizations
Topics Covered:
The Missoula Floods and North America’s glacial past
Evidence of rapid sea level rise and submerged ancient sites
How cosmic impacts may have triggered global catastrophes
The role of meltwater pulses in shaping history