An analysis of mineral grains from the bottom of the western Grand Canyon¹ indicates it was largely carved out by about 70 million years ago -- a time when dinosaurs² were around and may have even peeked³ over the rim⁴, says a study led by the University of Colorado Boulder⁵. The new research pushes back the conventionally accepted date for the formation of the Grand Canyon in Arizona by more than 60 million years, said CU-Boulder Assistant Professor Rebecca Flowers. The team used a dating method that exploits the radioactive decay of uranium and thorium atoms to helium atoms in a phosphate mineral known as apatite（磷灰石）, said Flowers, a faculty⁶ member in CU-Boulder's geological sciences department.

 

The helium atoms were locked in the mineral grains as they cooled and moved closer to the surface during the carving⁷ of the Grand Canyon, she said. Temperature variations at shallow levels beneath Earth's surface are influenced by topography（地势）, and the thermal⁸ history recorded by the apatite grains allowed the team to infer how much time had passed since there was significant natural excavation⁹ of the Grand Canyon, Flowers said.

 

"Our research implies that the Grand Canyon was directly carved to within a few hundred meters of its modern depth by about 70 million years ago," said Flowers. A paper on the subject by Flowers and Professor Kenneth Farley of the California Institute of Technology was published online Nov. 29 in Science magazine.

 

Flowers said there is significant controversy¹⁰ among scientists over the age and evolution of the Grand Canyon. A variety of data suggest that the Grand Canyon had a complicated history, and the entire modern canyon may not have been carved all at the same time. Different canyon segments may have evolved separately before coalescing¹¹（合并，联合） into what visitors see today.

 

In a 2008 study, Flowers and colleagues showed that parts of the eastern section of the Grand Canyon likely developed some 55 million years ago, although the bottom of that ancient canyon was above the height of the current canyon rim at that time before it subsequently eroded¹² to its current depth.

 

Over a mile deep in places, Arizona's steeply sided Grand Canyon is about 280 miles long and up to 18 miles wide in places. Visited by more than 5 million people annually¹³, the iconic canyon was likely carved in large part by an ancestral waterway of the Colorado River that was flowing in the opposite direction millions of years ago, said Flowers.

 

"An ancient Grand Canyon has important implications for understanding the evolution of landscapes, topography, hydrology and tectonics in the western U.S. and in mountain belts more generally," said Flowers. The study was funded in part by the National Science Foundation.

 

Whether helium is retained or lost from the individual apatite crystals is a function of temperatures in the rocks of Earth's crust, she said. When temperatures of the apatite grains are greater than 158 degrees Fahrenheit¹⁴, no helium is retained in the apatite, while at temperatures below 86 degrees F, all of the helium is retained.

 

"The main thing this technique allows us to do is detect variations in the thermal structure at shallow levels of the Earth's crust," she said. "Since these variations are in part induced by the topography of the region, we obtained dates that allowed us to constrain¹⁵ the timeframe when the Grand Canyon was incised."

点击收听单词发音