Latest news with #Geology
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
A meteor may have led to the formation of the Grand Canyon, new study says
A meteor may have led to the formation of the Grand Canyon, a new study has found. While many Americans are familiar with the Grand Canyon's beauty and uniqueness, they may not be aware of the story behind its formation. The Colorado River may have etched the canyon one mile deep, as rocky debris transported in floods did most of the carving, according to the Grand Canyon Conservancy. But what caused the flooding? A study published in Geology on Tuesday tied another Arizona landmark, the Meteor Crater, to the formation of the Grand Canyon. A meteor may have led to the formation of the Grand Canyon, a new study has found (Daniel Slim/AFP via Getty Images) The study hypothesized the Meteor Crater, which was formed 56,000 years ago, triggered landslides in the Grand Canyon that blocked the Colorado River and formed a paleolake — a lake that has existed in the past— in the canyon. Geologists have long wondered how and when driftwood found in Stanton's Cave in the Grand Canyon got there, as the mouth of the cave is 150 feet above the river. There are also lake sediments found in the cave. "It would have required a 10-times bigger flood level than any flood that has happened in the past several thousand years,' one of the study's authors, University of New Mexico Distinguished Professor Emeritus Karl Karlstrom, said in a press release Tuesday. He continued: 'Or maybe they are very old deposits left as the river carved down, or maybe they floated in from a paleolake caused by a downstream lava dam or landslide dam? We needed to know the age of the cave deposits.' A study published Tuesday tied the Meteor Crater to the formation of the Grand Canyon (Daniel Slim/AFP via Getty Images) The study hypothesized the Meteor Crater, which was formed 56,000 years ago, triggered landslides in the Grand Canyon that blocked the Colorado River and formed a paleolake, in other words, a former lake, in the canyon () The study found the driftwood to be 56,000 years old, the same geologic age as the asteroid impact and the landslide dam. Researchers suggested because the landslide appears to have the same age as Meteor Crater, the asteroid impact blast caused the landslide. The paleolake formed from the landslide, which dammed the Colorado River. Caves, such as Stanton's Cave, were flooded by the paleolake.
CBC
3 days ago
- Science
- CBC
How climate change in the last Ice Age created the Bay of Fundy tides
Climate change feels like a contemporary issue, but the Bay of Fundy tides have roots in changes that happened at the end of the last Ice Age nearly 12,000 years ago, says a New Brunswick geoscientist. "Climate change is something that happens over and over again," said Catrina Russell, the education co-ordinator for Stonehammer Geopark. "The climate was always changing based on plate tectonics, the orientation of our continents. So at the end of the last Ice Age, a huge amount of water entered the ocean from that melting ice, raising sea levels and creating our tides." Russell is a researcher and educator for the 2,500-square-kilometre geopark in the Saint John area of southern New Brunswick. She recently conducted a tour called Rockin Uptown Tour with Jack Quirion, a biologist and climate change projects co-ordinator for ACAP Saint John. They both try to place geological and climate science in their historic and contemporary contexts, so that people understand the impacts on their lives. Russell said the region is still feeling the effects of the end of the last Ice Age, with rising temperatures resulting both from both human-made climate change and the natural changes in the environment. "What's happening now is that we are still at the end of this last Ice Age, so temperatures are still rising because of that," she said. "But what's happening here is we have a much higher rate." Russell said the geology of the area informed decisions made by earlier generations that continue to shape the lives of the people who live here now. "Geology is the foundation to everything we do, everything we are, it shapes our experience," she said. "Those first Loyalists landing right here on this site, they may not have stopped here if it hadn't been for the geology, for the tides." Over the decades, people who settled in Saint John altered the landscape themselves, doing infill projects on the waterfront to expand the footprint for residents and industry. "Looking at how much the landscape has changed over the last 200 years, and thinking about the hundreds of millions of years of history that have shaped that, it's really interesting," she said. Quirion is particularly interested in rising sea levels and how they will affect the natural shorelines and the ones created by infill projects. Saint John is still doing new developments and there are many existing ones affected by erosion and rising levels. "I've heard some voices in the community concerned where we're spending so much effort developing the waterfront," Quirion said. "We do have to be careful that we're not building things that might eventually end up underwater." ACAP is currently doing research into climate change impacts within the Stonehammer region, collecting information and coming up with mitigation strategies to share with the community. "We'll be looking at preventing erosion or slowing the rate of erosion," he said. "We'll be looking at maybe some ways that we can address this increasing flooding that we're gonna have to deal with." Find natural solutions to erosion and flooding He said they want people to take action that's good for the environment and area residents. "A lot of times people will want to put up a big rock wall on the coastline to prevent erosion and flooding," Quirion said.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Meteor impact may have triggered massive Grand Canyon landslide 56,000 years ago
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. A meteorite impact thousands of years ago may have triggered a landslide in the Grand Canyon and reshaped the Colorado River that runs through the national park. Geologists studying driftwood and lake sediments found in Stanton's Cave — in Marble Canyon, which lies in the eastern part of the Grand Canyon — revealed a possible connection between the area and the famous impact site known as Meteor Crater (also called Barringer Crater) in northern Arizona. Through excavation and multiple rounds of radiocarbon dating, researchers determined the driftwood is about 56,000 years old. Yet today, the mouth of Stanton's Cave sits 150 feet (46 meters) above the Colorado River. A new study suggests the wood was carried there by an ancient paleolake, formed when a massive landslide dammed the river. "It would have required a 10-times-bigger flood level than any flood that has happened in the past several thousand years," Karl Karlstrom, co-lead author of the study and an Earth and planetary science professor at the University of New Mexico, said in a statement from the university. The study claims that the strike that created Meteor Crater could be linked to a paleolake — an ancient lake that existed in the past but has since dried up — in the Grand Canyon that formed at the same time. The impact would have generated an earthquake around magnitude 5.4 to 6, which could have sent a shock wave powerful enough to shake loose unstable cliffs in the Grand Canyon 100 miles (161 kilometers) away and trigger a massive landslide. That event, in turn, could have deposited enough debris to dam the river and form a lake. Other caves high above the river have also been explored for clues about the canyon's geological past. In addition to the driftwood, ancient beaver tracks have been found in areas that would be inaccessible to the water-dwelling animals today, further supporting the idea that a paleolake once existed in the area. RELATED STORIES — Meteor crater: The hole from space that keeps on giving — Satellite images track Grand Canyon wildfires burning across thousands of acres — A dangerous asteroid will hit Earth at some point. What can we do about it? With driftwood and sediment samples found in many caves as high up as 3,084 feet (940 m), the researchers estimate the paleolake would have been about 50 miles (80 km) long and nearly 300 feet (91 m) deep. Over time, the dam that blocked the Colorado River could have been overtopped and deeply eroded, eventually filling up with sediment. While there is evidence linking the paleolake, the meteorite impact and resulting landslide, the researchers noted that further study is required to eliminate any other possible explanations for the river damming, such as random rockfall or a more local earthquake around the same time. Their findings were published July 15 in the journal Geology. Solve the daily Crossword
Gizmodo
6 days ago
- Science
- Gizmodo
A Meteor Impact May Have Caused a Giant Landslide in the Grand Canyon
Researchers have long puzzled over the presence of driftwood and lake sediments in Stanton's Cave in the eastern Grand Canyon, whose mouth sits 150 feet (45.7 meters) above the river. How could the material possibly have reached that height? According to Karl Karlstrom, a geologist from the University of New Mexico, it would have had to be carried by flood levels ten times bigger than any seen in the past several thousand years. An international team of researchers proposes a surprising chain of events as the culprit behind this mystery. They suggest that around 56,000 years ago, the meteorite impact that created Arizona's Meteor Crater triggered a landslide large enough to dam the Colorado River and create a (now bygone) lake almost 300 feet (91.4 m) deep, which would have allowed the driftwood and lake sediments to float into the cave. 'Two iconic features of southwestern USA geology are linked by our hypothesis that the Barringer Meteorite Crater (Meteor Crater) impact in northern Arizona triggered cliff collapse in Grand Canyon 56,000 years ago that dammed the Colorado River,' the researchers, co-led by Karlstrom, wrote in a study published Tuesday in the journal Geology. Scientists first came upon the mysterious driftwood in Stanton's Cave in 1970, when yet unrefined radiocarbon dating techniques indicated it was over 35,000 years old. In the 1980s, one of the recent paper's co-authors suggested the landslide theory—minus the meteorite impact—when he shared evidence of an ancient rockslide 22 river miles (35 km) downstream of the cave. In 2019, Jonathan Palmer, another co-author of the study and a tree-ring specialist from the University of New South Wales, dated the driftwood to around 55,000 years old. When Palmer later visited Meteor Crater, he realized that the age of the formation—around 50,000 years—was oddly similar to that of the wood. 'Now there was this question, completely out of the blue, that nobody had asked before,' Chris Baisan, co-lead author of the study and senior research specialist at the University of Arizona's Tree-Ring Lab, said in the university statement. The researchers then recovered and dated additional sediment and wood samples from a site downstream from Stanton's Cave, located at a similar height above the river, both of which turned out to be 55,600 years old. 'The mean of radiocarbon dates from driftwood, IRSL dates from cave sediment, and dates on the Meteor Crater impact converge into a narrow window of time at 55.60 ± 1.30 ka [55,600 years ago, +/- 1,300 years], which gives credence to the hypothesis that they were causally related,' the researchers explained in the study. What's more, the team also found two places where river cobbles cover dam material, likely deposited when the river overflowed the dam and began to erode it. As for the meteor impact, David Kring, co-author and Meteor Crater science coordinator, estimated that it would have caused an earthquake 100 miles (160.9 kilometers) away at the Grand Canyon with a magnitude of between 3.5 and 4.1. The event's shock wave, blast wave, and impact could have triggered the landslide, Baisan explained in the statement. 'We put together these arguments without claiming we have final proof,' Karlstrom admitted. 'There are other possibilities, such as a random rockfall or local earthquake within a thousand years of the Meteor Crater impact that could have happened independently. Nevertheless, the meteorite impact, the massive landslide, the lake deposits and the driftwood high above river level are all rare and unusual occurrences.' As if meteorites weren't scary enough, it seems like we might have one more thing to worry about if scientists' projections for asteroid 2024 YR4 turn out to be wrong—giant landslides.
Hans India
6 days ago
- Business
- Hans India
Kollu assures jobs for all educated youth
Machilipatnam: Minister for Mines, Geology, and Excise Kolli Ravindra on Wednesday vowed to create employment opportunities for all educated youth in the Machilipatnam constituency, aiming to eradicate unemployment. He urged job seekers to make the most of the available opportunities. Minister Ravindra inaugurated a mega job fair, organised by the State Skill Development Corporation at Andhra Jatheeya Kalasala. As the chief guest, he, along with District Collector DK Balaji, inspected the stalls set up by various companies. Addressing the students, he stated that the state government is organising mega job fairs across Andhra Pradesh under the Skill Development Corporation, following directives from Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu. 'I am also a member of the sub-committee formed with ministers for this purpose,' Minister Ravindra said. 'After every cabinet meeting, we discuss how to enhance skill development and create employment opportunities,' he said. Minister Ravindra announced that job fairs would now be held every six months in the Machilipatnam constituency, emphasising the continuous need for unemployed youth to upgrade their skills. He cited Harsha, a native of Vuyyuru and the founder of Swiggy, as an inspiration, noting how his platform revolutionised food delivery worldwide. With facilities like the Machilipatnam port, Manginapudi Beach, national highways, and an airport, Minister Ravindra expressed optimism about Machilipatnam's bright future. In the mining sector, Minister Ravindra announced plans to establish a Critical Mineral Park in Machilipatnam, involving a Rs 20,000- 30,000 crore investment for processing minerals for export and importing raw materials, which would create numerous job opportunities. State RTC Chairman Konakalla Narayana Rao urged unemployed youth to utilise the job fair for employment, commending Minister Ravindra for his significant efforts in organising the event. District collector Balaji described the job fair not just as an event providing jobs, but as a 'confluence that gives life.' SP R Gangadhar Rao mentioned that positive development programmes are occurring daily, citing the job fair on Wednesday and the upcoming groundbreaking ceremony for a new police training centre on 46 acres in Karagraharam on Thursday, with the Home Minister, DGP, and public representatives in attendance. CDAP JDM Sumalatha, District Employment Officer Victor Babu, DRDA PD Hariharanath, District Skill Development Officer Naresh Kumar, Endowment Department Assistant Commissioner Lalitha, MEPMA PD Saibaba, Marketing Department AD Nityanandam, former District Library Organisation Chairman Gorrepati Gopichand, Machilipatnam Agricultural Market Committee Chairman Kunche Nani, former Chairman Gopu Satyanarayana, and numerous unemployed youth were also present.
