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Mt. St. Helens is soft ash. We're talking sandstone.

How long does it take for sandsone to form. From personal experience with wells, about 2 years.

Also, the puzzle of the GC is that it cuts across and incredibly large alluvial plain, (ie... the north side is higher than the south.) There is a large amount of evidence that this was formed rapidly. Also, there seems to be a surprising amount of evidence gathered by the USGS that it was formed by a large inland lake bank failure and was created in as little as three months to a year. The "official" USGS story is still the old one though. What hurts the new theory is that it is applied by some to confirm the Noah's flood. Anyway, the GC may not be all that old (geologically speaking.) Or, if old, could have been formed instantaneously on a geological timescale.

>> How long does it take for sandsone to form. From personal experience with wells, about 2 years. >>

Absurd. Whatever gets made around your wells is not sandstone. Probably more like a cement.

Cement is formed when a soluble substance, like, say lime, is mixed with granules and water. The partial dissolution of the lime allows it to fill in between fine spaces of the granules. When the water evaporates, the lime bonds the granules together. Because there is no surface are exposed, the lime cannot redissolve, and a hard, insoluble, stone-like product is left. BUt if you scrub cement against another hard rock, the weak lime gives way easily, and the cement slowly crumbles away.

Sandstone, on the other hand, is caused not quickly by evaporation, but by intense pressure. Although the surcae is still granular, the grains are tightly bonded away, and the rock does not easily crumble.

>>Also, there seems to be a surprising amount of evidence gathered by the USGS that it was formed by a large inland lake bank failure and was created in as little as three months to a year. >>

The land beneath the GC swelled upward WHILE it was being carved. (Unless you believe the water flooded uphill for some reason.) This was certainly a process which took millions of years. Perhaps someone misunderstood something, and then misapplied his understanding: I can see where the initial gorge was created like that, allowing the river to form a canyon, rather than as a meandering riverbed.