Thursday, March 6, 2008

Is the Grand Canyon actually a teenager?

A team of researchers published an article in the journal Science today that claims the Grand Canyon is actually 17 million years old, as opposed to 5 – 6 million years old. Victor Polyak and his team used new lab techniques to test the level of uranium-lead in the rock structures, often climbing dangerously up the side of the canyon. Other scientists are skeptical. What do you think?

Read the Washington Post article and the Science report.

Interested in more information about the Grand Canyon? Check out these books:

Down the Great Unknown: John Wesley Powell’s 1869 journey of discovery and tragedy through the Grand Canyon / Edward Dolnick
F788 .D65 2001

Grand Canyon: Time below the rim / text by Craig Childs; photographs by Gary Ladd
F788 .C55x 1999

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