Bathed in the warm colors of dusk, this view of the Palouse River shows dramatic evidence of the massive glacial-lake floods that raged across the scablands of eastern Washington during the Pleistocene period. The waters carved deep “coulees” into the thick basalt flows that were laid down 17 and 6 million years ago. Aerial and satellite photography helped solve the puzzle, revealing large areas of ripple marks similar to sand in a stream’s bed but with wavelengths of hundreds of feet. This corroborated early theories as to the evolution of the strange and fantastic scablands. - Rick Ferens, 2005. Negative 181_2