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The Soil Sequence of Late Pleistocene Glacial Outwash Terraces from Spokane Floods in the Idaho Panhandle¹

ABSTRACT

Glacial Lake Missoula was the source of the catastrophic Spokane Floods through northern Idaho, eastern Washington, and the main stem of the Columbia River. About 2,000 km³ of water was impounded behind ice dams that were repeatedly breached. Giant current ripples, huge gravel bars, coulees, and dry cataracts attest to the enormity of the floods.

The sequence of five late Pleistocene outwash terraces and a Holocene terrace were studied in the Hoodoo Valley of Bonner County, Idaho. The geomorphic surfaces document that there were at least five Spokane Floods. Kootenai taxadjunct, Bonner, and Rathdrum soils occur on each of the outwash terraces, have different topographic positions within the giant current ripple microrelief, and have contrasting thicknesses of reworked volcanic ash over the flood deposits. Similar soils on the five terraces indicate that the time factor of soil genesis is negligible and that the flood events occurred in rapid succession.

¹ Contribution from USDA-SCS. Presented before Div. S-5, Soil Science Society of America at Detroit, Mich. 1 Dec. 1980.

² Research Soil Scientist, West Technical Service Center, Portland, Oreg.; Soil Survey Party Leader, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho; Soil Correlator, Boise, Idaho; Research Soil Scientist, National Soil Survey Laboratory, Lincoln, Nebr., respectively.

Received for publication December 5, 1980. Accepted for publication April 28, 1981.

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