The result of these discrepancies over time has led scientists to hypothesize about what happened. Kamiak Butte lies on the North American Plate and does not appear to be located near any plate boundaries, other than 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 world (2). This very large igneous batholith covers almost all of eastern Washington, parts of Oregon, and western Idaho. These basalts were the main creators of the mound. About three billion years ago, there was once an ocean where Kamiak Butte is today. The ocean floor was made up of sand. Over time, the oceans receded and the exposed sand underwent a process that turned it into sandstone, also called lithification. Years later, the sandstone transformed it into the quartzite that we see around the mound (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 seafloor sediments that were pushed upward and then surrounded by lava and basalt flows. After erupting through fissures and flooding throughout most of the area, the lava flow eventually created enough basalt to form a thickness of approximately 1.8 kilometers (1). All this basalt flow eventually led to most of the mountains being covered, leaving the buttes uncovered. Igneous lava flows and loess explain why the Palouse has such sprawling hills and rich soils for agriculture (2). As a result of lava flows, the Precambrian rock Quartzite was formed. And finally covered by glacial loess, which was