A longstanding geological fight over the age of one of the most iconic landscapes in the United States — Arizona\’s Grand Canyon — may finally be over. The massive chasm does not date back 70 million years, as earlier work had suggested, but was born in its entirety 5‒6 million years ago when older, shorter canyons linked together to form the complete structure.
This explanation aims to reconcile a flurry of seemingly contradictory findings that enlivened discussion about when the canyon was carved.
“I think we’ve resolved the 140-year-long debate about the age of the Grand Canyon,” says Karl Karlstrom, a geologist at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.
via Grand Canyon is not so ancient : Nature News & Comment.
