Controversial Birth of the Grand Canyon
posted in Amazing Facts |
Scientists have been grappling with the controversies that surround the birth of the Grand Canyon. Today, yet another group of scientists are here to state that the Grand Canyon is 9 times older than people have perceived it to be.
New evidences suggest that the a part of the Grand Canyon, also known as the Upper Granite Gorge was formed more than 55 million years ago. Rebecca Flowers, a professor from the University of Colorado remarks by saying that history is complicated and that the Grand Canyon did not appear just 6 million years ago but has an ancestral history of canyons which are integrating over the years to become what it is today.
An earlier study revealed that the Colorado River was responsible for carving out the Grand Canyon about 6 million years ago. The latest study refutes the established birth of the Grand Canyon by a method where scientists have measured the uranium and helium contained in the rocks from the Upper Granite Gorge, which clearly signifies when they cooled and when they were unearthed by erosion.
The study revealed that the rocks experienced cool temperatures about 55 million years ago. The top and bottom of the gorge also suggested cooling at a similar time which signified that the Upper Granite Gorge had formed out of already existing canyons than a plateau as was assumed earlier.
Though there were related evidences which suggested the existence of prior canyons nothing was really confirmed till date. A study conducted by a team of geologists at the University of Mexico confirmed that the Grand Canyon was born out of the sweeping Colorado River. The study also emphasized that parts of the Canyon were probably formed about 17 million years ago. This assertion confirms the latest study that claims that some parts of the Grand Canyon like the Upper Granite Gorge was born in a different time.
Scientists still find it hard to arrive at conclusions relating to the route that the Colorado River took before depositing the sediments along Lake Mead and as to how the precursor canyons combined over the ages to stand as it does today.