THE FORMING OF THE GRAND CANYON
GRAND CANYON: ONE OF THE GREAT WONDERS OF THE WORLD!
The Grand Canyon in northern Arizona is one of the largest tourist attractions in the world with over 4 million visitors annually. When tourists approach the rim and get their first view of the massive canyon, their first question is — “How did this ever happen?” What could have caused such a huge canyon?
For years, we have been led to believe that the Grand Canyon was formed by the water of the
Colorado River. Supposedly, a little water over a long period of time, created one of the greatest wonders of the world.
But that answer has at least one serious problem. The water of the Colorado River enters the Grand Canyon at 2,800 feet above sea level and the top of the canyon is over a mile high. The river courses it’s way through over 200 miles of the most beautiful and amazing canyons in the world. But for the Colorado River to form the Grand Canyon, water would have had to flow up hill!
KAIBAB PLATEAU
If the Colorado River formed the Grand Canyon as some people say, water would have had to flow uphill over 5,000 feet in elevation to begin eroding the river channel!
Recently, evidence has emerged that the Grand Canyon was formed very quickly like the breaching of a mighty dam. The fact is, there is an 8,000 foot high ridge that goes north and south on each side of the Grand Canyon that is called the Kaibab Uplift. The Kaibab is composed of over 5,000 feet of sedimentary limestone, shale, and sandstone, most of which was undoubtedly deposited during the great flood. Sedimentary layers means that all the materials we now see exposed in the towering walls of the Grand Canyon were placed there by a gigantic flood.
Before the Grand Canyon was formed, the Kaibab Plateau was like a huge earthen dam and backed water up over a vast area of approximately 33,000 square miles reaching all the way up to the foot of the Rocky Mountains near Grand Junction, Colorado. That massive lake would have covered much of Utah, western Colorado and New Mexico!
The Bible says there was a world-wide flood about 4,000 years ago.
The formation of the Grand Canyon with it’s steep canyon walls instead of smooth, rounded sides, indicates that the geological catastrophe happened not too long ago. The Bible indicates that the flood occurred in Noah’s day, approximately 4,300 years ago.
According to Psalm 104:6 — “God covered the earth with the deep as with a garment. The waters were standing above the mountains.”
Many scholars believe that the high mountains that we see today, were not thrust upward until after the flood. This upward thrust along with the sinking of the ocean canyons would have caused the water to recede causing many of the steep walled canyons we see throughout the American west. Evidence of this world-wide flood are found all over the world.
Imagine the breaching of a dam with water over a mile deep!
Evidence also points to the fact that the waters of the huge lake, held back by the Kaibab Uplift, overflowed the natural dam and erosion of water from 33,000 square miles tore into the silt and layers of sandstone and mud formed by the world-wide flood. Within a very short period of time, the raging waters would have cut an unbelievable canyon such as the one we see today. Researchers tell us, that the amount of water from that huge lake, could have cut through the Kaibab Uplift even if it were hardened rock!
Only the power of a massive, raging flood could have cut a canyon a mile deep and over four miles wide! Today, very little erosion is occurring at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
Imagine the roar of the gigantic flood rushing through the ever enlarging canyon! The widest point from the South Rim to the North Rim is 18 miles!
With the flood waters rapidly receding because of the uplift of the Rocky Mountains, and the dropping of the ocean canyons, an incredible amount of water would have been draining through this breached dam. As the waters lowered to the top of the Kaibab Uplift, like the breaking of a huge dam, the wide and massive canyon would be formed very quickly. Several thousand feet of water that covered a vast area of 33,000 square miles, all converged in one spot. The very thought is beyond our wildest imagination!
It is interesting that the Bible suggests this very phenomena in Psalm 104:6-9 — “You covered the earth with the deep as with a garment; The waters were standing above the mountains. At Your rebuke they fled, At the sound of Your thunder they hurried away. The mountains rose; the valleys sank down to the place which You established for them. You set a boundary that they may not pass over, so that they will not return to cover the earth.” God has promised in His Word that there will never be another incredible and destructive global flood as there was in Noah’s day!
The question is often asked — “Where did all that water go?” Geologists have discovered that for every mountain chain, there is a corresponding and equal valley in the depths of the oceans.
Of the surface of the earth were flat, without any mountains or deep ocean canyons, there would be over 8,700 feet of water. That is a mile and a half deep! Plenty of water to create a world-wide flood!
MOUNT SAINT HELENS formed a miniature Grand Canyon!
On a much smaller scale, the same phenomena occurred in 1984 when Mount Saint Helens erupted and formed a miniature Grand Canyon from the overflow of water at Spirit Lake. What happened at Mount Saint Helens is ample proof of the power of raging water and the fact that layers of mud can turn to solid rock in a relatively short period of time . . . not millions of years as evolutionary philosophers try to tell us.
