Carving the Grand Canyon

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In the geology book In the Beginning by Walt Brown (8th edition), many of the 448 pages directly involve the Grand Canyon. An average-length blog post can hardly do justice to even one facet of Brown’s ideas about the mechanics that created the incredible formations in and around that area of northern Arizona and nearby areas of other states. I’ll do my best with an overview of the carving of canyons that include the Grand Canyon.

First Consider Removing, not Depositing

The subject here is not how or when the numerous layers were deposited. Brown’s Hydroplate Theory also addresses that, but for now let’s consider only the removal of many cubic miles of material.

Why a “Mystery?”

The book Carving Grand Canyon: Evidence, Theories, and Mystery (by Wayne Ranney) is written from the paradigm of standard geology, with millions of years assumed to have been involved. Yet the brief Amazon “Book Description” (three sentences) ends with “The story’s end, however, remains a mystery yet to be solved.” Walt Brown (author of In the Beginning) quotes Ranney thus: “Grand Canyon is somewhat unique among our national parks because of the lack of a single, scientific theory regarding its origin.”

I suggest that Ranney has only considered theories in harmony with standard geology, for that is how he was educated. Brown, on the other hand, has a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; he has no bias favoring standard models, although when he was a young man he did believe in standard models of evolution (his opinion has greatly changed since his youth). The point is this: the carving of the Grand Canyon has deep mysteries to those who use standard assumptions of traditional geology, but it is well explained by the Hydroplate Theory.

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Looking down at the river at the bottom of the Grand Canyon

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Where is the River Delta?

Quoting from In the Beginning (8th edition), page 104:

Since the late 1800’s, the standard answer [to how the Grand Canyon formed] has been that primarily the Colorado River carved [it out] . . . over millions of years. If that happened, wouldn’t you expect to find a gigantic river delta where the Colorado River enters the Gulf of California? It’s not there. . . . Where did all the dirt, 800 cubic miles of it, go?

Two Lakes, Thousands of Years ago

Some skeptics have dismissed the Hydroplate Theory of Walt Brown because of religious belief or because he is labeled “creationist.” I wonder if any of those critics have considered dismissing all the writings of Isaac Newton because of that Englishman’s religious beliefs.

Regardless of that, Brown does not postulate that the Grand Canyon and surrounding areas were carved directly from the Flood of Noah. He  suggests it was a rapid process a few centuries after the Flood, from the natural breaching of two large lakes.

From page 129 of Brown’s book:

The most famous canyon of all, the Grand Canyon, formed primarily by the dumping of what we will call “Grand Lake.” It occupied much of southeast Utah, parts of northeastern Arizona, and small areas of Colorado and New Mexico. . . . Grand Lake . . . quickly eroded its natural dam 22 miles southwest of what is now Page, Arizona. As a result, the northwestern boundary of former Hopi Lake . . . was eroded, releasing waters that occupied the present valley of the Little Colorado River.

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