New Evidence: Canyons and Geologic Time

Scott · #1 (**permalink**) 10-06-2007, 10:02 AM

Quote:

CANYON LAKE, Texas - Geologic time has a different meaning when it comes to Canyon Lake Gorge. You could say it dates to around the end of the Enron era.

A torrent of water from an overflowing lake sliced open the earth in 2002, exposing rock formations, fossils and even dinosaur footprints in just three days. Since then, the canyon has been accessible only to researchers to protect it from vandals, but on Saturday it opens to its first public tour.
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Davidius · #2 (**permalink**) 10-06-2007, 10:52 AM

If this canyon is 80 feet deep and 1.5 miles wide, why do they feel like they can assert with such certainty that the Grand Canyon took 5-6 million years to form? The forming of this new canyon in three days is something that they can actually observe and it seems like an extrapolation from that observation would give a time much shorter than 5-6 million years for the Grand Canyon.

SRoper · #3 (**permalink**) 10-06-2007, 11:35 AM

Did this event actually remove much rock, or did it just expose a rock formation that already existed?

I have to admit that I have more difficulty understanding how the delicate features of areas such as Bryce Canyon could have been formed by a catastrophic event than the Grand Canyon.