Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail
Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail
This location near Rattlesnake Dance Ridge Trailhead is featured in Nick Zentner's geology videos, where he explores Pacific Northwest geological features and their connection to the region's dramatic volcanic and glacial history.
This location near Rattlesnake Dance Ridge Trailhead is featured in Nick Zentner's geology videos, where he explores Pacific Northwest geological features and their connection to the region's dramatic volcanic and glacial history.— Nick Zentner Videos
This is one of more than 1,800 field sites cataloged in the early scabland surveys — the bedrock of the Ice Age Floods scientific record. The Bretz-era researchers walked the ground first; modern cosmogenic dating, LiDAR, and remote sensing have since extended and refined what they mapped.
Active: 1992-present (CWU faculty; public outreach since ~2010) Affiliation: Central Washington University, Department of Geological Sciences Notable work: Nick on the Rocks (PBS), Nick from Home (livestream lecture series), Ice Age Floods A to Z (2023-2024 video series)
Zentner joined the CWU geology department in 1992 and has built a parallel career as the most visible public communicator of Pacific Northwest geology working today. He is not primarily a flood-chronology researcher; his contribution is translating the work of Bretz, Pardee, Baker, Bjornstad, and Balbas into accessible long-form lectures, field videos, and roadside-geology episodes. His 26-episode Ice Age Floods A to Z series (2023-2024) walks through the flood evidence catchment by catchment, drawing on interviews with practicing scabland researchers. He won the National Association of Geoscience Teachers' James H. Shea Award (2015) for science outreach and the Geological Society of America's Public Service Award (2023). His YouTube channel passed the Silver Creator threshold in 2025.
Source: Nick Zentner - Wikipedia; Ice Age Floods Institute; hugefloods.com
Every site along the trail will receive the full Terrain360 capture treatment: ground-level 360° panoramas, drone aerial imagery, and photogrammetry-based 3D models that visitors can spin in their browser. This page reserves the slots; the imagery flows in as field capture completes.
Ground-level 360° panorama, every step along the feature, captured by Terrain360 field crews.
Drone flyovers reveal the geometry of catastrophe — ripple marks, gravel bars, and scour patterns invisible from the ground.
Photogrammetry and Gaussian-splat models let visitors rotate, measure, and inspect features in detail-page WebGL viewers.
Nick Zentner's video lectures from locations like this have brought Pacific Northwest geology to millions of viewers online, making the science accessible and building public support for geological heritage preservation.