Grand Canyon much older than previously thought

[DogPoundPup]

Source: Reuters

The Grand Canyon, carved out over the eons by rushing river water, began to form 17 million years ago, making it nearly three times older than previously thought, scientists said on Thursday.

The scientists found that there is a kind of dual history to the canyon, with the western portion starting to form about 17 million years ago when water from a predecessor to the Colorado River began the slow, inexorable process of eroding the rock, they said.

The eastern portion began forming closer to the 6 million-year-old date that had been the estimate for the whole canyon, they said.

"Essentially, it formed in two parts," said Carol Hill, a University of New Mexico geologist. "The older Grand Canyon formed and then hooked up once the Colorado River became through-flowing (all the way to the Gulf of California), then it hooked up with the eastern Grand Canyon."


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN0623480020080306?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0

[MuseRider]

1. Uh oh

what are they going to do with all the Creationist literature they are passing out there? Oh my. I hope they did not print too many (snicker).

[mac2]

7. MuseRider what is that symbol on the bottom of your post?

[MuseRider]

10. It is a clarinet.

I play the clarinet and I found this graphic to be cool so I use it. I still like it after all these years.

[snooper2]

22. It's still valid, the Grand Canyon is 5780 years old

give or take a decade :rofl:

[tachyon]

2. Impossible! the earth is only about 6,000 years old!

Read your bible!!

[jhrobbins]

8. Thank you for setting these BLASPHEMERS right...

And not just the Bible, but the Flintstones too - they had pet dinos.

(Did I sound appropriately Calvinistic?)

[BrotherBuzz]

9. Here's all the proof I need

[lonestarnot]

12. How do you know? Maybe God's days are longer than yours?

:shrug:

[donheld]

20. Doesn't God have a Timex too?

:D

[IndianaGreen]

15. Jesus is all the proof we need!

T-Rex was aboard Noah's Ark, and he didn't eat Mrs Noah.

:-)

[wildcat78]

19. Jubilees

Study the Jubilee Years and you will come to a different conclusion. That's all I have to say!

[zanne]

21. WTH is that?

[mac2]

3. Depends on what the Bible says....

or how King James determined it should be interpreted.

[UrbScotty]

4. Meanwhile, John McCain began forming 36 million years ago (nt)

[TransitJohn]

5. DUzy!!!!

:hi:

[TheCowsCameHome]

6. You couldn't resist, could you?

Beat me to it........:banghead:

[lonestarnot]

14. And his lumps formed 23 million years ago.

[daleo]

11. Fundamentalists say:

So it's not 7000 years old, it's 7001 years old.

[burrowowl]

25. 7000 plus or minus

a couple of years.

My DOG! if they calculated the time for erosion to take place, it would take longer than that.

[MilesColtrane]

13. Somebody reassess and get a fresh carbon dating of McCain. n/t

[no_hypocrisy]

16. Older than Adam and Eve?

[tanyev]

17. Not according to a book sold in the official bookstore.

"Faith-based" Grand Canyon Violations Increase

The Grand Canyon Park's official bookstore recently began selling a creationist book, The Grand Canyon: A Different View, edited by Tom Vail, a river guide who offers Christian float trips through the Grand Canyon:

"For years, as a Colorado River guide I told people how the Grand Canyon was formed over the evolutionary time scale of millions of years," Vail writes in his introduction. "Then I met the Lord. Now I have a 'different view' of the Canyon, which, according to a biblical time scale, can't possibly be more than about a few thousand years old."

http://ffrf.org/fttoday/2004/janfeb/?ft=grandcanyon

[connecticut yankee]

18. The creationists claim

that the Grand Canyon was formed in the Flood.

There was an article about it in the Nw York Times Magazine a couple of monhs ago.

[Judi Lynn]

23. Alarming! As if a person will see his book in the bookstore, saying the Grand Canyon can't be more

than a few thousand years old, and will want to go outside, and take a float trip down the river with him! Oh, YEAH! That's the ticket!

http://www.thetrickery.com.nyud.net:8090/ama/med/straitjacket_new1.jpg

[Xithras]

24. Send this gif to your fundie friends.

Greatest animated GIF ever. The geologic history of North America:



The gif is compiled from the awesome research of Dr. Ron Blakely, and the full site (with enough images to keep Geology geeks dreaming happy thoughts for at least a week) can be viewed here: http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~rcb7/nam.html

The thing is, this Grand Canyon news is incredible if it's correct. 17 million years ago the coastline was somewhere near the Sierra Nevada and you actually COULD buy beachfront property in Arizona. Southern California didn't exist, Baja California didn't exist, and much of that region was a series of now-eroded mountain ranges. It's interesting to think that the Grand Canyon we see today may have at one time emptied near the coast.

North America, 15 million years ago: