Posted on 01/08/2004 7:21:37 AM PST by Scenic Sounds
Edited on 04/13/2004 2:45:24 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
How old is the Grand Canyon? Most scientists agree with the version that rangers at Grand Canyon National Park tell visitors: that the 217-mile-long chasm in northern Arizona was carved by the Colorado River 5 million to 6 million years ago.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Exactly. Anything else would be undemocratic, and therefore unfair.
Normally, scientists are so unbiased, agenda-free, and open-minded to alternative constructions.
Here's an experiment: Take home a chunk of rock from the area around the grand canyon. Pour running water over the rock for the next 1 year. See how fast the rock washes away.
Has anyone actually conducted this experiment? How much of the water was eroded in one year?
Can someone provide the specifics of how this experiment was conducted and the factual rock erosion measurements?
1) 1 mm per day?
2) 1 mm per year?
3) 1 mm per century?
4) 1 mm per millennium?
5) 1 mm per million years?
Anyone?
Dangus, you have implied that a rock obtained from the Grand Canyon, with water pouring upon it for one year, will have a measurable errosion.
What was the actual errosion amount?
I was also taught that the Grand Canyon was formed by gazillions of gallons of water cutting thru the canyon over billions of years.
But, as a silly little kid I saw a problem with this. The Grand Canyon was not smooth-sided, it was jagged all over. The Grand Canyon looked JUST LIKE the gullies that were formed OVERNIGHT sometimes when rain would wash thru eroded stream banks, or even newer dirt piles left over from construction sites. I would tell myself that these gullies looked just like mini Grand Canyons. Because they did look just like that.
I still believed in Evolution but it didn't make logical sense to me.
Much later in life I saw that the jagged edges of the Grand Canyon are much more logically explained as evidence of a quick wash-thru than a slow process.
If the Grand Canyon were formed over billions of years it would be as smooth edged as half-melted ice cream.
FALSE!
Evolution theory is about the slow change of existing living organisms over time.
Creationist theory demands that new organisms be spontaneously generated.
When a Creationist can demonstrate the spontaneous generation of a new organism, then I will be most impressed.
Don't forget to add a lot of abrasives and high-energy flow -- the mechanism by which the Grand Canyon was formed.
Look at the formation of canyons on post-eruption Mt. St. Helens to get a good example of how quickly erosion features can form. (I make no claims for the linked site -- I was merely looking for something that gave some examples of rapid erosion processes. Here is a link to the USGS Volcano/Hydrology site. Similar information is probably buried in there someplace.)
As for me -- I'm a "creationist" in the sense that I believe God created the heavens and the Earth. That said, I have no problem with a 5 million year-old canyon or a multi-billion year-old Earth. Nor, truth be told, would I have a problem if it really was 6,000 years old. Whatever way God did/does things is fine with me.
Which is undoubtedly why the theory of Punctuated Equilibrium had to be invented.
Creationist theory demands that new organisms be spontaneously generated.
Which is precisely what the fossil record shows.
When a Creationist can demonstrate the spontaneous generation of a new organism, then I will be most impressed.
Lest we get to far afield here -- where did those original, evolveable creatures come from, if not from spontaneous generation? When you take things back to the beginning, one minute it was a collection of organic blorf, and the next minute it was alive. Spontaneous generation.
It's not all soft. And sandstone isn't really all that hard, either.
The point is -- with enough water energy (volume and speed), and enough abrasives, you can dig a pretty deep hole pretty fast. As an example, the Coulee area in Washington State was formed in hard basalt over a fairly short interval. (See, for example, this article on Dry Falls, which was formed over the space of 2,000 years when a huge ice dam ruptured.)
If you want an impressive feat of hydrological digging, go to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison river. Wow!
You are absolutely correct!
If the Grand Canyon was over a billion years old, I would have no problem with your example.
As the Arizona plateau was elevated because of tectonic movements of the Earth, the Colorado river continued to flow. As the ground elevated, the river cut a new channel into the newly exposed rocks.
If the tectonic uplifting movement has been more rapid than the erosion capabilities of the river, it would have formed a dam.
Next time you look at the Grand Canyon, pay attention to how wide it is. I can see erosion evidence for miles on each side of the central canyon, which is consistent with water erosion.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.