Age of the Grand Canyon? Even older than they thought....

[j d worthington]

According to a new report:

It took eons to make Grand Canyon grand - Yahoo! News

Title: "It took eons to make Grand Canyon grand", from AP, by Lauran Neergaard, datelined Fri., Mar. 7, 2008.

 

[MG1962]

Mind you the difference between 6 and 17 million years in geologic terms is not that great. As a formation it's still not eating solids yet or learned to walk

Great article by the way

 

[j d worthington]

HA! I like that. A very nifty analogy....

 

[SpaceShip]

Amazing! Not been there but have been through the Rockies which was impressive enough and lately the Blue Mountains in Oz, then flew over the width of Oz which was awesome and very pink! We have a fantastic world (hope we can leave it in one piece!)

 

[HoopyFrood]

Heh, I rather like this sentence:

Then the action really started, with the eastern side of the canyon being cut at a rate of about 8 inches to almost a foot every thousand years, they report.

Whoa, that certainly is action! A foot every thousand years!

Sorry, I'm being facetious. It certainly would be a lot of action for something that is 17 million years old, I'm sure. Interesting stuff, indeed.

 

[MG1962]

Amazing! Not been there but have been through the Rockies which was impressive enough and lately the Blue Mountains in Oz, then flew over the width of Oz which was awesome and very pink! We have a fantastic world (hope we can leave it in one piece!)

I didn't think the Blue Mountains would rate that highly. Compared to some of the great mountain ranges they are mere speed humps. On the other hand I agree with you on what a fantastic planet we live on - We just need to stop and smell the roses occasionally

 

[MG1962]

HA! I like that. A very nifty analogy....

Thanks lol - I aim to please

 

[Drachir]

I didn't think the Blue Mountains would rate that highly. Compared to some of the great mountain ranges they are mere speed humps. On the other hand I agree with you on what a fantastic planet we live on - We just need to stop and smell the roses occasionally

Don't sell the Blue Mountains short - the early European (British) explorers found them impassible until they figured out that they had to use the ridges to cross them and not force their way through the thickly vegetated canyons. Picture the Grand Canyon if it was choked with vegetation instead of having a nice big river flowing through it. Recently a species of tree thought extinct was discovered in the canyons of the Blue Mountains and it was not a small tree, standing over two hundred feet tall if I remeber correctly.

 

[MG1962]

LOL I was not selling them short, but the highest hill in Australia is just over 7000 feet high. You raise a good point about following the ridges. It is more an accident of geology, seems European mountains usually have passable saddles between them. Our mountains dont lol

A friend of mine was in Austria at a lodge with some other Aussies. They all remarked how closed in and crowded they felt by the mountains surrounding them. For us it seems we have to climb the peaks, as we do back home. For the locals they knew how to cross at the saddles

 

[Sephiroth]

Interesting stuff, although I'm not too surprised by this one.



As for mountains, well, one era's Andes are another era's speed bumps. Our own mountains here in Scotland barely qualify as such. 400 million years ago, though, they'd have been an awe-inspiring sight....

(Well, they still are, thanks to their beauty, but they're only stumps now.)