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tern Washington As we enter Washington from the east, we immediately run into the gentle rolling hills of the Palouse country. If we continue to travel westward, we suddenly enter a heavily scarred land of barren rock, channels and canyons. Rugged cliffs, basalt ....

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.... rock terrained eastern Washington. This rock floor was 10,000 feet thick in places and covered more then 100,000 square miles. The lave fields were almost completely surrounded by mountains and encircled by three rivers. As the molten rock cooled it began to crack and form hexagonal patterns through out it. These joints broke up the lava in vertical columns of basalt rock. After eruptions as a whole stopped, the lava field was tilted as a unit to the southwest. Today the northeast rim is 2,300 feet taller then the southwest, creating a natural flood plan to the Columbia River. Beginning a while after the lava cooled, windblown silt, or lo ....