Drumheller Channels

Drumheller Channels are the most spectacular example in the Columbia Plateau biophysiographic province of "butte-and-basin" scabland; an erosional landscape characterized by hundreds of isolated, steep-sided hills surrounded by a braided network of underfit channels. It illustrates the dramatic modification of the Columbia Plateau volcanic terrain by late Pleistocene catastrophic glacial outburst floods. These floods occurred at a scale remaining unparalleled on earth, either in the geologic record or in historical account.

Location: Adams County, WA ; Grant County, WA

Year designated: 1986

Acres: 32,420

Ownership: Federal, State, Private

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