Join us Thursday, June 13, 6-8pm for

HIDDEN HISTORY: DYNAMIC GEOLOGY OF THE COLUMBIA GORGE with Scott Burns and Miranda Mendoza

The Columbia Gorge is one of the most beautiful natural features of the United States.  Dr. Burns will talk about the “Tale of Two Floods” that formed the Gorge.  First, you had many flows of magma from eastern Oregon that formed the Columbia River Basalts which are stacked flows on top of one another.  Then a second set of floods called the Ice Age Floods and the Missoula Floods came through the Gorge and carved it to what it is today,  Thirdly, we have had many landslides form on the sides of the Gorge, with the most famous and most studied one, the  Bridge of the Gods Landslide (officially called the Bonneville Landslide) which dammed the river 400 years ago.  It was most likely triggered by a 7.0 earthquake on a fault across the river.

Dr. Scott Burns is a Professor Emeritus of Geology at Portland State University.  He has been teaching for 54 years in places like Switzerland, New Zealand, Colorado, and  Louisiana before coming back to where he was raised, Oregon, in 1990.  He loves talking about the geology of Oregon.  He has three degrees from Stanford University and the University of Colorado.

Miranda Mendoza is a Park Ranger 3 with Oregon State Parks serving the Columbia River Gorge Management unit. They began working for State Parks in 2000 serving out of six management units across the state. Currently, they are the lead cultural and natural resource interpreter coordinating and providing guided experiences, events, outreach, while connecting with visitors and community members to improve access and engagement with the outdoors. On their off time, Miranda enjoys hiking, camping, gardening, photography, and writing ghost stories.

FREE – $10 Donation appreciated