Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail
Home·Field notes·salmon glacier 56°11'19.6"N 130°03'16.5"W
FIELD NOTEBOOK · PNW ICE SHEET MARGINS

film set location of john carpenter's the thing (1982)

Field record

salmon glacier 56°11'19.6"N 130°03'16.5"W

A terse line from a survey notebook, and the flood evidence it set down.

SurveyorPNW Ice Sheet Margins
RegionBritish Columbia
RecordOther

Mapping ice sheet margins is critical for understanding the timing and extent of glacial lake formation. Modern cosmogenic dating and LiDAR surveys continue to refine the ice sheet chronology in the Pacific Northwest.

About the researcher

Researchers studying Pacific Northwest ice sheet margins mapped the extent of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, whose advance and retreat controlled the damming of Glacial Lake Missoula and the release of the catastrophic floods.

Loading map…

Flood-extent overlay shows the maximum reach of the Missoula Floods.

Where it was recorded

One of more than 1,800 surveyed sites. Plotted together, the field record is the map that proved the flood.

View on the interactive map Cinematic timeline · 3D flood · every captured site
What the field trip adds

Stand where the survey stood.

360° · THE SITE
Their exact view

A panorama from the spot the entry describes, looking out the way the surveyor saw it.

DRONE · THE GROUND ★
The pattern from above

From the air, the feature in the note reads as part of the larger flood landscape it belongs to.

3D · THE EVIDENCE
The rock in hand

A photogrammetry model of a key specimen at the site, the evidence the line of notes rests on.