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The worlds largest canyon may lie deep beneath the ice sheets on Antarctica, according to a new discovery by UK scientists. While the depth of the discovery is comparative to the Grand Canyon it dwarfs the US landmark by 555km in length. Satellite data recovered by a team of scientists led by Durham University revealed the previously unknown canyon system which is thought to be more than 1000km long and 1km deep buried under several kilometres of ice. While the discovery is yet to be confirmed by direct measurements, researchers believe the canyon beneath the ice sheet may be so...

Slot Canyons, a Stunning Flood Formation by John D. Morris, Ph.D. * We’ve all seen photos of those exquisitely beautiful and mysterious canyons with swirling, multicolored sandstone layers that look almost like marble cake. Known as “slot canyons” (their depth is much greater than their narrow width), most usually have a “sometimes dry” streambed flowing through them. What formed these remarkably sculptured beauties? These inspiring canyons are exotic and often remote. The state of Utah sports a concentration of them. Over the years, Native Americans have attached spiritual significance to these treasures. Many of the stirring photos we’ve seen were...

Today's inspiration was easy: Colorado National Monument Click the small ones for much larger images.

Inca Leapt Canyons With Fiber BridgesMIT Students Plan to Stretch 60-Foot-Long Fiber Bridge Between Campus Buildings By John Noble Wilford May 8, 2007 CAMBRIDGE, Mass. Conquistadors from Spain came, they saw, and they were astonished. They had never seen anything in Europe like the bridges of Peru. Chroniclers wrote that the Spanish soldiers stood in awe and fear before the spans of braided fiber cables suspended across deep gorges in the Andes, narrow walkways sagging and swaying and looking so frail. Yet the suspension bridges were familiar and vital links in the vast empire of the Inca, as they had...

Canyons, rivers and shifting sand - plus a multibillion-dollar price tag, more violence and less business - make sealing the border all but impossible It stretches between two seas and slithers across four states. It climbs mountains, traverses canyons and slices through cities. Most of it, including long stretches in Arizona, California and New Mexico, is vast and open, marked by wooden posts linked with sagging barbed wire, cement obelisks or nothing at all. In some cities, 10- to 15-foot-tall fences protect it. For 1,254 miles in Texas, it becomes a plodding, chocolate-colored river called the Rio Grande. The line...

HEREFORD, Texas (April 21, 2006) -- Two columns of camouflaged bodies trudged up a rocky trail through dry creek beds. A thin dusty haze rose from the ground. The Afternoon sun beat down on the weary hikers, but they pushed themselves and motivate each other as they file towards the finish line of their six-mile hike. No, these aren’t the newest students at Marine Combat Training fresh off their brief boot camp leave periods. The 80-member unit known as “1st Herd Battalion,” is made up of students from Hereford High School’s Marine Corps Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps unit. The...

Link post: please post any commentaries on the thread below. The purpose of this post is to alert interested FReepers to the post in the General/Chat section. (Ping list membership available on request.) Geology Pictures of the Week, June 19-25: Spider Rock and Bicentennial Column

Variations on a theme (I like themes): Spider Rock, Canyon de Chelly, Arizona Bicentennial Column, Ogle Cave, New Mexico

Link post, to alert interested Free Republic readers to the post in the "Chat" section. Please post any comments there. Geology Pictures of the Week, August 1-7, 2004: Grab Bag

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory Kilauea Eruption Update Click to see the larger version Click to see the larger version Graham Lyth Photography Grand Canyon GalleryMount Hayden The scenic landmark below no longer exists. Do you know where it is and what it was named?

Link post to direct interested readers to the post in the "chat" section of FR, where all discussion should take place: Geology Picture of the Week, October 5-11, 2003: The World's Deepest Chasms

Even though this image isn't "new", I found it while on a quick quest to determine the world's second-deepest canyon (I'm making a list of the world's geological seconds, with the basic presumption that they are are lot less well known that the world's firsts). It all started with that Victoria Falls picture last week. Anyway, the image below is nice, but what you really need to do is get a pair of red-blue 3-D glasses and go to the Web site below the image, and look at the 3-D anaglyph image with the 3-D glasses. Wow. Both the world's...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 June 27 Carving Ma'adim Vallis Credit: R. Irwin III (CEPS/NASM,UVa), T. Maxwell, A. Howard, R. Craddock, D. Leverington Explanation: Just as erosion from the Colorado River carved the Grand Canyon on Earth, a river of flood water may have carved Ma'adim Vallis, one of the largest canyons on Mars. Researchers have presented strong evidence for such a scenario based on elevation data recorded by the MOLA (Mars...