"The public always wants to know how the Grand Canyon was formed and they
don’t realize we don’t know either," Dr. Richard Young said Friday
during a Grand Canyon-Colorado Plateau Geology Symposium, which was attended by more than
70 geologists. "The debate will go on for many years."One thing the
geologists do agree on is the Canyon’s age.
"I think there’s not much controversy about the youngness of the
Canyon," Stephen Reynolds, a professor of geology at Arizona State University,
"All agree that it’s been around six million years." Reynolds said some
believe the Canyon has become deeper in just the last million years. "I think
there’s a growing consensus that there has been some very recent deepening of the
Canyon, maybe the last 1,580 feet in the last million years," Reynolds said.
Some geologists believe the Grand Canyon’s beginnings were associated with an
ancestral river which flowed in the opposite direction than today’s Colorado River!
"It was fantastic. I learned how young some of the Canyon might be," Reynolds
said. "I think there was more evidence for an older river. And there was more concern
with that than I thought there would be."
George Billingsley, a noted geologists best known for his U.S. Geologicial Survey maps,
thought it was a good experience as well. "It was very good," Billingsley said.
"We all learned a heck of a lot but it also helps create more problems. But overall,
we’re getting a handle on it. There’s much to be done."
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