[7] Exposures of the Ringold Formation can be found from Hanford Reach National Monument north to the Moses Lake area.

[8] In recent years, irrigation water entering the groundwater system has destabilized some Ringold Formation slopes and cliffs, causing landslides.

[4][10] During the flood basalt eruptions before the sediments were laid down, the Columbia River followed a different route than it does today, taking it near the present-day sites of Yakima and Goldendale.

North-to-south compression of the Columbia Plateau caused anticline folds like Rattlesnake Mountain and the Horse Heaven Hills to rise.

These ridges provided geographic barriers, rerouting the river eastward toward the Tri-Cities with it eventually flowing through Wallula Gap.

Some of the sediments found as part of the formation may have been sourced from ancestral versions of other Pacific Northwest rivers like the Clearwater and Pend Oreille.

Irrigation water enters and flows through the groundwater system toward the river easily through deposits left by the Missoula Floods.

[2] Analysis of late Miocene to early Pliocene fossils of ringtails suggests the area was once a much milder, but seasonal climate.