In this episode of The Big Picture, Randall Carlson and Becket dive deep into the cataclysmic floods that reshaped the American West. From the collapse of Lake Bonneville to the massive Missoula Floods, these ancient events weren’t just natural disasters — they were earth-sculpting, climate-shifting forces that modern science is only beginning to fully understand.

Carlson walks us through the geologic evidence left behind: carved canyons, scablands, flood basalts, and sediment layers that point to sudden, high-energy hydrologic events — not slow, gradual change.

What triggered these floods? Earthquakes? Glacial dam failures? Something else entirely?

This episode connects geology, climate cycles, and catastrophe theory in a way that challenges traditional models and reveals Earth’s story on a much grander scale.