Earth's Biggest Floods - Investigating Megafloods and Their Impact on Landscapes
Australian Water School via YouTube
Overview
Explore Earth's most catastrophic floods in this 59-minute webinar from the Australian Water School. Delve into the detective work of geologists and geomorphologists as they uncover evidence of massive historical floods that reshaped our planet. Examine case studies including the Missoula floods, ice dam failures, lake basin overflows, and landslide dam collapses that carved immense canyons. Learn how studying these ancient megafloods can inform modern flood modeling and risk assessment. Gain insights on interpreting high water marks and other field evidence for engineers and flood modelers. The webinar covers topics like the Tsangpo River megafloods, the San Rafael Waterfall collapse in Ecuador, and modeling of ice age Missoula floods. Also includes information on the RAS 2025 software alpha release and an interview on paleoflood hydrology.
Syllabus
- Presenter intro | Resource outline
- Megafloods - Tsangpo River + more
- Lava arch failure | San Rafael Waterfall, Rio Coca Ecuador
- RAS 2025 ALPHA release
- Cataclysms | Columbia Missoula Floods
- Modeling the ice age Missoula Floods
- Interview: Paleo flood hydrology
- Q&A with wrap-up
Taught by
Australian Water School