Putting Nepal’s flood in perspective: ancient Missoula outburst floods reached estimated peaks of about 350 million cubic feet per second at Grand Coulee and 750–800 million cubic feet per second in the Spokane Valley. Victor Baker’s 1973 paleoflood research reconstructed these discharges; they were not directly measured. The Spokane peak—about 21–23 million cubic meters per second—was roughly 1,400–1,500 times Nepal’s estimated 15,000 cubic meters per second. The roughly 600-times comparison fits the smaller Grand Coulee estimate. O’Connor and Costa document dozens of separate Missoula flood flows.
Missoula floods reached about 800 million cubic ft/sec—up to 1,500 times Nepal’s peak
Key facts
- Baker’s 1973 paleoflood research estimated peaks of about 350 million cubic feet per second at Grand Coulee and 750–800 million cubic feet per second in the Spokane Valley; these were reconstructions, not direct measurements.
- The Spokane estimate of roughly 21–23 million cubic meters per second is about 1,400–1,500 times Nepal’s estimated 15,000 cubic meters per second peak.
- The roughly 600-times comparison applies to the lower Grand Coulee estimate of about 9.9 million cubic meters per second, not the 750–800 million cubic feet per second estimate.
- O’Connor and Costa’s “The World’s Largest Floods, Past and Present” documents evidence for multiple Missoula outburst floods.
Sources
The Missoula and Bonneville floods-A review of ice-age megafloods in the ...ui.adsabs.harvard.edu
Its total volume was about twice that of a maximum Lake Missoula flood yet its peak discharge was ~1 million m3/s, less than a tenth of the largest Missoula ...
Pleistocene Megaflood Discharge in Grand Coulee, Channeled ...agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
The largest possible flood through upper Grand Coulee, a Missoula flood which raised glacial Lake Columbia to a stage of 750 m, produced a ...
Missoula floods - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
Missoula discharge rate ・ the maximum discharge of 17 × 10 6m 3/s ・ estimated volume of Lake Missoula (2184 km 3). "Pleistocene megaflood discharge in Grand ...
[PDF] THE MISSOULA FLOODpeople.wou.edu
Grand Coulee, Washington, was the largest waterfall in the world during the Missoula Flood. The flood through Grand Coulee was about 260 ft [80 m] deep, and it ...
The timing of Missoula floods: Implications for the age of Grand ...pubs.geoscienceworld.org
Ages from boulders on the floor of Grand Coulee indicate later flooding at ca. 14. Grand Coulee was blocked by rock. The short duration of ...
The Scientific and Societal Value of Paleoflood Hydrologyagupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction. Flood Damages in the United States. A Brief History of Paleoflood Hydrology.
Paleoflood Hydrologysciencemoab.org
Vic Baker who studies what he calls Paleoflood Hydrology. We talk about the ways he and his team determine how big floods were and how we ...
Paleoflood hydrology and extraordinary flood eventssciencedirect.com
by VR Baker · 1987 · Cited by 560 — Paleoflood hydrology is the study of past or ancient flood events. slackwater deposits and paleostage indicators. Baker, 1973 V.R. Baker Paleohydrology and ...
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