Posted on 10/30/2015 8:21:11 AM PDT by Red Badger
The crack appears like a miniature Grand Canyon up close. (Photo: Randy Becker/Facebook)
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A dramatic crack has suddenly formed in the foothills of Wyoming's Bighorn Mountains that measures an impressive 750 yards long and 50 yards wide. It was discovered recently by surprised backcountry hunters who travel frequently to the area in search of game.
First reported by SNS Outfitter & Guides, a hunting company, on their Facebook page, the mammoth chasm appeared over the course of just a couple of weeks. It's an impressive example of just how quickly very large geological events can occur under the right conditions.
"Everyone here is calling it ‘the gash.’ It’s a really incredible sight,†wrote SNS on their Facebook page.
"An awesome example of how our earth is not as stable as you might think. Awesome forces at work here to move this much dirt!!†added Randy Becker, one of the hunters to stumble upon "the gash." Becker shared a number of stunning photographs of the crack to his own Facebook page.
A shot taken from a distance and posted at SNS gives some perspective about just how wide and how deep the crack is:
"The Gash" seen from a distance. (Photo: SNS Outfitter & Guides/Facebook) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contrary to some sensational claims swirling about on social media, the crack is not an opening to the underworld or a sign that Yellowstone is about to erupt. The processes that created the crack are not even all that mysterious.
SNS is reporting that an engineer gave a more rational explanation for how the crack formed: "Apparently, a wet spring lubricated across a cap rock. Then, a small spring on either side caused the bottom to slide out. He estimated 15 to 20 million yards of movement."
Though the speed with which the large crack formed might seem earth-shattering, these kinds of landslides are not that uncommon in the area on a smaller scale. This one just happened to be especially voluminous.
Great fossil beds up in those parts. I don’t know exactly where this is, but it’s more likely to be Eocene sediments. If someone is really lucky and it’s in a Cretaceous layer and it’s on private land it should be great hunting.
More likely it is still there.
It is possible that a block of earth slumped.
The second image, everything in center from the crack left possibly slumped left.
I’d love to see more images of the foot of the hill.
Funny, on another thread I mentioned that I had seen something like that: When my inground sprinkler system broke. The water ran for several days, I guess...and the root system simply detached from the ground underneath.
It looked like the belly of a road kill after a few days.
Thermal activity. More to come. Wyoming is a hotbed. Pun intended.
No, that happened in a couple of days.
The edges are too sharp to be erosion.
-PJ
It is a matter of perspective and experience.
If this is the first time you’ve seen a crack in the earth, I guess its massive.
If your experience is the Grand Canyon, its pretty small.
The problem is that to get anyone’s attention these writers think you need to modify the noun so it “grabs” you.
When my daughters would say something is “amazing” I would ask if people really stood around in wonderment at just stared at it. Or was it “good.”
I looked, too. Sure no signs of the material being washed out of the sides of the gash. Sure looks like a tensile failure to me. What forces pulled that hill apart?
Gotta be a wild Saturday night party in the underworld.
you forgot fracking..
Karst?
From what the engineer said, you’ve pretty much got it. There are apparently springs where the soil meets the bedrock so the landslide is triggered on the surface of the bedrock. So your implication that there is a crack in the ground moving downhill rather than erosion from the suface seems correct from what the photo shows.
Kracken................
Graboids
Or, as Fearless Fosdick would say, “It’s merely a flesh wound.” And he’d have a cannonball sized hole through his middle, with a fly buzzing in the middle of it. I used to love that comic strip! The Python boys must’ve too!
That’ll buff right out.
So, the Grand Canyon could have been made in a day. Interesting
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059065/
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