Why the Willamette Valley is Filled with these Remnants of our last Ice Age.

Heritage Center live at 6:45 or via Zoom. click for Zoom meeting

Meeting ID: 869 4651 3479 Passcode: 322382.

A glacial erratic is a rock transported far from the location of its origin. Glaciers and their cousin, the Ice Sheet, have the ability and strength to carve rocks out of their substrate and move them for miles.Once entrained in the ice, these now-orphaned rocks can be transported hundreds of miles from the origin. This was the dilemma facing Ira Allison (pictured) as he set about to try to determine how the many erratics that rim the entire Willamette Valley came to their present-day location. As near as he could determine, no, there wasn't a glacier or ice sheet flowing down from the Cascades during the recent Ice Age to deliver these erratics. So, how did they get here?  

Thanks to the work of J Harlen Bretz and JT Pardee, we now know the answer. Bill Burgel, professional geologist will discuss where these Willamette Valley erratics originated.

Bill Burgel retired from the railroad industry after a successful forty year career. He worked for several railroads in the engineering and operating departments. His work for Union Pacific encompassed the design of the first computer-aided dispatching office in the nation. This office was located in Portland and Bill was the Regional Chief Dispatcher for several years before the office was moved to Omaha. After retiring from the railroad in 1989, he assisted the Surface Transportation Board as their rail operations manager for two major mergers, once in Washington DC and the second time in Chicago. Bill has managed many rail studies for both Oregon and Washington DOTs as well as for TriMet and Sound Transit in Seattle.