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The Seasonal Waterfall In Frenchman Coulee, Channeled Scablands, Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail

A shaded morning view of the seasonal waterfall in Frenchman Coulee, a part of the Channeled Scablands of the Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail
Rebecca Latson
Thursday, July 28, 2022

When the colossal Ice Age floodwaters of Glacial Lake Missoula swept through Eastern Washington, the water gouged and eroded the land, pushing out soils and rocks and carving huge, wide channels known as coulees. Frenchman Coulee is one such channel measuring about 0.5 miles wide from wall to wall. This coulee is bounded on either side by almost vertical cliffs of mostly columnar basalts created from the Columbia River Basalt lava flows.

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