grand canyon
Current Event: New Clues Emerge about Grand Canyon's age
MaryCatherine Bolton The Grand Canyon is one of the most visited tourist attractions in the United States. Millions of people each year flock to visit these mysterious natural attractions. General scientific consensus was that these canyons were formed 5-10 million years ago by the Colorado river. This theory was widely accepted in the scientific community, because there is evidence that supports it and it seemed like the most reasonable explanation, until now. Scientist have now concluded that there were indeed two Grand Canyon sections, an east and a west. They have also discovered that the west section of the canyon is as old as seventy million years old! That is sixty million years older than the previous age estimate. What puzzles scientist more is that these new discoveries have revealed that as much as seventy percent of the west section of the canyon was not caused by the Colorado river! Seventy percent of the western segment of the canyon was found to predate the formation of the Colorado river by several years. The east section of the canyon is actually much closer to the previous scientific theory of the Grand Canyon. Scientist have concluded that the eastern section of the canyon is about 15-20 million years old, and was formed mostly by the Colorado river. These new discoveries were possible new to advances in dating technology in the past few years. Although many scientist are enthusiastic about this new forthcoming evidence, there is still a great deal of debate regarding the age of the canyon. Dr. Young, a Geologists who has studied that Grand Canyon for years, stated to AmazingPlanet.com that "We agreed that there were two canyons, one in the west and in the east, we don't disagree on that. The problem is that Dr. Flowers wants to make the western canyon very old". Whoever ends up being correct, no one can deny that this evidence has definitely changed people's view of the Grand
MaryCatherine Bolton The Grand Canyon is one of the most visited tourist attractions in the United States. Millions of people each year flock to visit these mysterious natural attractions. General scientific consensus was that these canyons were formed 5-10 million years ago by the Colorado river. This theory was widely accepted in the scientific community, because there is evidence that supports it and it seemed like the most reasonable explanation, until now. Scientist have now concluded that there were indeed two Grand Canyon sections, an east and a west. They have also discovered that the west section of the canyon is as old as seventy million years old! That is sixty million years older than the previous age estimate. What puzzles scientist more is that these new discoveries have revealed that as much as seventy percent of the west section of the canyon was not caused by the Colorado river! Seventy percent of the western segment of the canyon was found to predate the formation of the Colorado river by several years. The east section of the canyon is actually much closer to the previous scientific theory of the Grand Canyon. Scientist have concluded that the eastern section of the canyon is about 15-20 million years old, and was formed mostly by the Colorado river. These new discoveries were possible new to advances in dating technology in the past few years. Although many scientist are enthusiastic about this new forthcoming evidence, there is still a great deal of debate regarding the age of the canyon. Dr. Young, a Geologists who has studied that Grand Canyon for years, stated to AmazingPlanet.com that "We agreed that there were two canyons, one in the west and in the east, we don't disagree on that. The problem is that Dr. Flowers wants to make the western canyon very old". Whoever ends up being correct, no one can deny that this evidence has definitely changed people's view of the Grand