Palouse River

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Palouse River
Several miles downstream from the mouth of its South Fork at Colfax; Looking West (2007)

Several miles downstream from the mouth of its South Fork at Colfax ; Looking West (2007)

Data
location Franklin County , Whitman County , Adams , Washington ; Latah County , Idaho ; United States
River system Columbia River
Drain over Snake River  → Columbia River  → Pacific
source Rocky Mountains
46 ° 58 ′ 7 ″  N , 116 ° 27 ′ 31 ″  W.
muzzle Snake River Coordinates: 46 ° 35 '24 "  N , 118 ° 12' 55"  W 46 ° 35 '24 "  N , 118 ° 12' 55"  W.
Mouth height 165  m

length 269 ​​km
Catchment area 8555 km²
Drain on level USGS 13351000 NNQ
MNQ
MHQ
 0 l / s
17 m³ / s
948.6 m³ / s

The Palouse River is a tributary of the Snake River in the US states of Washington and Idaho . It flows for 167 mi (269 km) southwest primarily through the Palouse region of southeast Washington. It is part of the Columbia River Basin, the drainage basin of the Columbia River , as the Snake River into which it flows is itself a tributary of the Columbia.

The canyon it flows through was created by a branch of the catastrophic Missoula Floods during the last Ice Age . The Missoula floods spilled over the northern Columbia Plateau and flowed into the Snake River; there they dug the current course of the river in a few millennia.

course

The Palouse Falls on the Palouse River (2006)
The Palouse River at its confluence with the Snake River at Lyon's Ferry near Starbuck , looking north (2006)

The Palouse River flows from north-central Idaho to southeast Washington through the Palouse region, which is named after the river.

The river has its source in Idaho in northeast Latah County in the Hoodoo Mountains in St. Joe National Forest . It flows west near Idaho State Highway 6 as it nears the state border. In Washington, the river flows in Whitman County to Palouse and then to Colfax , where it joins its South Fork, which rises on the southern slopes of Moscow Mountain in the Palouse Range and flows south to Moscow and west to Pullman . (Paradise Creek runs parallel to South Fork, flows through Moscow to Pullman, and is accompanied by the Bill Chipman Palouse Trail and Washington State Route 270. )

From Colfax, the river meanders westward and flows into the lower Snake River southwest of Hooper, Washington, but before it falls over the Palouse Falls . The Palouse River flows into the Snake River below the Little Goose Dam and above the Lower Monumental Dam .

Catchment area and runoff

The catchment area of ​​the Palouse River covers approximately 8550 km². Its average annual discharge at gauge 13351000 of the USGS near Hooper at river kilometer 31.5 is 17 m³ / s and the maximum is 948.6 m³ / s. At a minimum, no water at all flows through the river.

geology

The Missoula floods periodically inundated what is now east Washington and dug the Palouse River Canyon during the Pleistocene , which is up to 1,000 ft (300 m) deep in some places.

The prehistoric Palouse River flowed directly into the Columbia River through the now dry Washtucna Coulee. Today's canyon was created when the Missoula Floods crossed the northern watershed of the prehistoric Palouse River and turned it into the Snake River in its current course by digging a new, deeper river bed.

The area is characterized by interconnected and hanging river terraces, cataracts, pools , pools , rock banks, pointed peaks and rock needles that are typical of wasteland.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Palouse River ( English ) In: Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey . Retrieved June 30, 2010.
  2. ↑ a b Palouse Subbasin Plan ( Memento of the original dated February 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Northwest Power and Conservation Council @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nwcouncil.org
  3. ^ A b Water Resources Data, Water Year 2005; Snake River Basin including the Grande Ronde River, Asotin Creek, Tucannon River, and Palouse River Basins; 13351000 Palouse River at Hooper, WA . United States Geological Survey. Retrieved June 2, 2009.
  4. ↑ USGS 13351000 Palouse River at Hooper, WA . USGS . Retrieved May 16, 2018.
  5. ^ US Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map , accessed May 3, 2011
  6. ^ A b Robert J. Carson, Kevin R. Pogue: Flood Basalts and Glacier Floods: Roadside Geology of Parts of Walla Walla, Franklin, and Columbia Counties, Washington . Washington State Department of Natural Resources (Washington Division of Geology and Earth Resources Information Circular 90), 1996 (Retrieved May 25, 2018).
  7. ↑ David Alt: Glacial Lake Missoula & its Humongous Floods . Mountain Press Publishing Company ,, ISBN 0-87842-415-6 .
  8. ↑ a b Bjornstad, Bruce: On the Trail of the Ice Age Floods: A Geological Guide to the Mid-Columbia Basin . Keokee Books; Sandpoint, Idaho, 2006, ISBN 978-1-879628-27-4 .
  9. ^ David Alt, Donald Hyndman: Roadside Geology of Washington . Mountain Press Publishing Company, 1984, ISBN 0-87842-160-2 .

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