The Grand Canyon has the same life expectancy as dinosaurs

According to research by scientists at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the California Institute of Technology, geological evidence has shown that the Grand Canyon can have been around for a long time when dinosaurs dragged themselves. their heavy picture on the cliff.

The team used radiometric dating techniques to prove the Grand Canyon was formed over 55 million years ago, while people previously thought that its life span was about 40 to 50 million years. The researchers collected soil and rock samples from the canyon and the surrounding plateaus were nearly equal to sea level several hundred million years ago when the area was lifted and eroded. worn to form famous canyons today.

The article about the research is published in the May issue of the Geological Society of America Bulletin . Rebecca Flowers assistant professor of geology at the University of Colorado - Boulder, and the lead author and postdoctoral researcher who worked at Caltech - collaborated with geology professor Caltech Brian Wernicke and professor Localization of Caltech Kenneth Farley in research.

Flowers said: 'When the rock rushed into the surface of the Grand Canyon area, they cooled. The cold history of the rock layer helps us recreate the ancient terrain, so we will know that the Grand Canyon has a longer history than many of us still think. '

According to research by scientists at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the California Institute of Technology, the Grand Canyon is as long as the dinosaurs. (Photo: Steven Pinker)

The team believes that the original form of the Grand Canyon formed in the eastern region about 55 million years ago, then linked to other parts that formed independently of each other . 'This is a very complicated picture because different parts of the canyon form at different times and then merge'.

According to Flowers, ancient sandstone on the cliff contains particles of phosphate called apatite - which includes a number of radioactive elements of uranium and thorium that release helium atoms as they decay. With these three elements, along with data on the temperature of the earth, the team calculated when the apatite particles clung to the rock at a depth of one mile - the relative depth of the canyon today - and the time they cool when near the earth's surface as a result of erosion.

Apatite samples taking the top layer of rock in the Upper Granite Gorge section of the Grand Canyon date back to the equivalent of samples from nearby plateaus. Wernicke said: ' Since the apatite samples taken from the canyon and plateau are all at the same depth in the earth about 55 million years ago, a canyon of the same size as today could have existed very well. long, perhaps from the time when the dinosaurs at the end of the white pollen 65 million years ago . '

According to Flowers, one of the interesting results of the study is evidence of the rapid erosion of nearby plateaus near the Grand Canyon. Like the Grand Canyon, every nearby plateau is eroded to 1 mile or more. Small streams on the plateaus have abraded the rock; and the ancient Colorado River carved into the great canyon today.

Flowers said: 'If you stand on the wall of the Grand Canyon today, the bottom of the ancient canyon is even higher than your head, eating into the layers of eroded rock'. The ancient Colorado River millions of years ago seems to have flowed in the opposite direction.

Zion Canyon Alley (Photo: Mimuw.edu.pl)

When the canyon was formed, it probably looked like an ancient Zion Canyon (much deeper than it is today) through the mid-level stratigraphy from 250 to 65 million years ago. According to Wernicke, 28 to 15 million years ago the process of erosion caused the canyon to become deeper and the nearby plateaus, too, the mid-stratigraphic stratosphere was washed away exposing the paleontological rock layer. that we observe today.

Many believe that the Grand Canyon was carved by an ancient river about 6 million years ago when the neighboring plateau began to rise from sea level to a height of 7,000 feet today. This new discovery was presented by Flowers and her colleagues on the GSA Bulletin, and is perfectly consistent with the recent evidence of other geologists using the radioactivity dating technique. The evidence shows that the Grand Canyon is older than scientists have long thought.

The National Science Foundation and Caltech funded the research.