The power of water.

Dry Falls, part of the Grand Coulee, Washington.

Water is a remarkable substance.  Alternating between the three states of matter within the narrow span of only 100°, this property facilitates the hydrologic cycle responsible for much of our weather.  Water embathes cellular contents and the cells themselves allowing life to exist.  It has been called the universal solvent because, with time and volume, nothing withstands its furry.  Then there is what large quantities of it can do.

Erosion and weathering work together to move enormous masses of the Earth's crust, water being the primary agent of change.  Although the process is usually slow, taking thousands or millions of years to wear down (weathering) and move (erosion) the material, sometimes it all happens in a matter of hours.  Such was the formation of the Dry Falls vista and the great gouge across Washington state called Grand Coulee. 

As glaciers formed and moved across much of North America several millennia ago meltwaters would empty along ice channels eventually forming eskers.  Sometimes though the ice would block its escape and produce large lakes.  We have seen the effects of ice dams first hand with the flooding that occurred in Fort McMurray this spring.  That was a thimble compared to the massive volumes of waters which backed up behind the freezing blockade during the last ice age.  A crack, a trickle, then a torrent of water broke through the dam face.  What happened next was astonishing.

The water cut through the ice and found frozen ground underneath.  With the height (estimated to be 400 feet) and volume (a three mile breach) of water pouring through the great wound, the terrain fell before the onslaught.  Huge chunks of earth were ripped from the Earth and moved downstream where they lay today.  The flowing torrents chewed through the land opening a cavernous gouge that became Dry Falls; the barren cliffs and rendered earth a testament to the power of moving water.  It has been called the largest waterfall in the world, that is without any water.

It did not end there, as the flow carved a channel through the land producing what we now call the Grand Coulee.  The sediment from the evisceration was deposited in the Willamette Valley in Oregon, now home to world-class wineries.  The scar, the resulting fertile valley, and the legacy of Dry Falls speaks to the power of water.  It is truly a remarkable substance.

Thanks for reading.   www.ericspix.com   Eric Svendsen.