The result of these extraordinary gaps has led scientists to speculate about what happened. Kamiak Butte is located on the North American Plate and does not appear to be located near plate boundaries, except for the Juan de Fuca Plate, which is located near the west coast. This is why the Palouse does not have dominant mountain forms, like the Cascades, which are the result of converging oceanic-continental boundaries. Kamiak Butte is located on the Columbia River Basalts, one of the oldest and largest flood basalt deposits in the entire world (2). This very large igneous batholith covers nearly all of eastern Washington State, parts of Oregon, and western Idaho. These basalts were the main creators of the butte. About three billion years ago there was once an ocean where Kamiak Butte now sits. The ocean floor was made of sand. Over time the oceans retreated and the exposed sand underwent a process that transformed it into sandstone, also known as lithification. Years later, the sandstone transformed it into the quartzite that surrounds the hill (4). Rocks that undergo this process are called metamorphic rocks, which are the same rocks seen years ago by dinosaurs and other extinct creatures. Quartzite rocks were once seabed sediments that were pushed upwards and then surrounded by basalt lava flows. Once erupted through fissures and floods across much of the area, the lava flow eventually created enough basalt to form a thickness of about 1.8 kilometers (1). All this flow of basalt eventually led to the covering of most of the mountains, leaving the hills exposed. Igneous lava flows and loess are the reasons the Palouse has such extensive hills and fertile soil for agriculture (2). Following the lava flows, the Precambrian quartzite rock was formed. And finally covered by glacial loess, which was