My Opera
Grand Canyon
- Age: 25
- Sex: Male
-
Country:
United States
- Member since: Jan 2011
- Web site: http://www.grandcanyon-nationalpark.org
- Login status: Offline
About me
New research suggests the Grand Canyon is 70 million years old, challenging the previous age estimate of 5 to 6 million years old.Rebecca Flowers, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, and Kenneth Farley, a professor at the California Institute of Technology, published their findings online Nov. 29 in Science magazine.
Finding a definitive answer is difficult because of the nature of the Grand Canyon.
"Because the Grand Canyon is this huge erosional feature in the landscape, it has removed most of the evidence of its earliest history," Ranney said. "As it gets older and older, the evidence for its earliest history gets less and less. There's really not enough evidence left to really say for sure how or when it formed."
Despite this challenge, Ranney believes the new findings will increase interest among geologists and the general public regarding the age of the canyon.
"It's too big of a place for one person to hold the entire answer to the Canyon," he said. "If we never figure out how it formed, it will never stop us from trying."
My work
On Dec. 8, rangers recovered a body that was spotted by Grand Canyon National Park's helicopter pilot on a routine flying mission. Rangers located the body below the Abyss Overlook on Hermit Road (also known as the West Rim Drive.)After the pilot discovered the body, emergency personnel flew two park rangers into the canyon to begin investigations and to prepare the body for transport. At that time, the rangers determined the body belonged to a male of undetermined age. After officials completed initial investigations, they flew the body to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon and transported to the Station One Ambulance Bays where it was met by the Coconino County Medical Examiner.
The identity of the deceased is not currently known. The National Park Service in collaboration with the Coconino County Medical Examiner is conducting an investigation into the incident.
Why I choose the Opera browser
In 1934, Eliot Blackwelder proposed that the Colorado River was fairly young, and therefore the Canyon must be as well.
Then in the 1940s, Chester Longwell found evidence suggesting the Canyon could be no older than 6 million years.
Evidence supporting an older Canyon is found in deep side canyons on the Canyon's western edge. Geologists date gravel from these side canyons at 50 million to 60 million years old. Some geologists think the side canyons are part of the Grand Canyon and thus believe the Canyon must be similarly old.
Evidence supporting the idea of a younger Canyon comes from a gravel deposit on the western end of the Canyon called the Muddy Creek Formation. Geologists have estimated the gravel there to be as young as 6 million years old. Since the Colorado River runs through the deposit and it has no sediment from the Grand Canyon, geologists believe the formation predates the river and Canyon.
