Nature is the most skillful craftsman. It is impossible to unravel the secrets of all her creations. An inquisitive person can only slightly open the veil of mystery and put forward a certain theory. However, the longer scientists are engaged in the study of certain objects, the more questions arise. New conjectures, discoveries, sensations appear. This is what happened with the Grand Canyon. Officially there are two versions of its origin.
Version one: destructive
Many scientists believe that the Grand Canyon was created by river waters. 65 million years ago, the Colorado Plateau began to gradually rise. As a result of the movement of the Earth’s crust, the quiet, flat river changed the character and angle of flow. So the body of water rushed toward its channel, destroying the rock with violent streams.
When the river eroded the upper layers and reached the ancient sandstones and shales, the Grand Canyon was formed. This happened approximately 5-6 million years ago.
Interestingly, the deepening continues to this day. Perhaps in a few thousand years the unique geological object will look quite different. In any case, the Grand Canyon can be called the book of our planet, describing its entire history in the “ink” of sedimentary rocks.
Version two: catastrophic
There is another opinion, refuting the erosive nature of the formation of the Grand Canyon. As a result of recent research by scientists, another version of this large-scale formation has emerged.
Some scientists argue that the washing away of rocks occurred not from the impact of river water, but as a result of megatsunami, which fell on this area after a cycle of collisions of asteroid debris with the Earth. This is how not only the Grand Canyon, but also Niagara Falls and Mammoth Cave were formed. And it happened relatively recently – only 13 thousand years ago.
Adherents of the catastrophic version refute the erosive nature of the formation of the Grand Canyon. They argue that the prolonged impact of river water would have led to the smoothing of rocks, leveling of relief and uniform distribution of sedimentary rocks. In this case, caves would have been out of the question. After all, the erosive process uniformly and uniformly transforms space.
Look at the structure of the Grand Canyon! At the first glance, it seems as if some artist ran his brush across its walls from right to left diagonally. Only a powerful flow of water could do such a thing. In an instant, the megatsunami destroyed the hydro-network and created a hilly and heterogeneous terrain.