Meteor Strike May Have Triggered Massive Grand Canyon Landslide 56,000 Years Ago

A meteorite affect in northern Arizona could have induced an enormous landslide within the Grand Canyon about 56,000 years in the past, altering the course of the Colorado River and forming a now-vanished paleolake. Researchers discovered driftwood and lake sediments in Stanton’s Cave, which sits inside Marble Canyon, becoming a member of a physique of proof that the river was as soon as dammed by a rockfall. Radiocarbon courting locations the wooden earlier than all identified flood occasions and hints at a significant geologic disruption doubtless brought on by seismic shockwaves from the Meteor Crater affect over 100 miles away. The outcomes had been reported on July 15 within the journal Geology.

Meteor Impact May Have Formed Ancient Lake by Triggering Grand Canyon Landslide, Study Finds

As per a University of New Mexico report, the analysis crew used radiocarbon courting and geological evaluation to hint the driftwood’s origin to an historical lake that shaped after a robust landslide blocked the Colorado River. The landslide could have been triggered by seismic waves from the Meteor Crater affect, which most likely induced a magnitude 5.4–6 earthquake. Karl Karlstrom, one of many examine’s co-lead authors, mentioned such a flood would have been 10 instances the scale of any beforehand recorded in the previous couple of thousand years.

The paper suggests {that a} dam created a 50-mile-long, 300-foot-deep paleolake with beavers’ tracks in caves above the river, indicating a big geological occasion presumably associated to Barringer Crater. But researchers acknowledge there could also be different explanations, comparable to native earthquakes or rockfalls.

Deposit layers and so-called driftwood in cave programs greater than 3,100 ft above sea degree induced a lake to engulf a dam within the Grand Canyon, they are saying, with dramatic penalties for the area.

The meteor hyperlink to the landslide is “convincing”, specialists talked about, however it will take extra knowledge to rule out all different attainable triggers for the landslide and to determine how a single occasion may reshape the Grand Canyon.