Claim CD210:
There is nowhere near enough sediment deposited at the mouth of the
Colorado River to account for ten million years worth of erosion.
Response:
- The Colorado River delta itself is quite extensive. It covers 3,325
square miles (Sykes 1937) and is up to 3.5 miles deep (Jennings and
Thompson 1986), containing over 10,000 cubic miles of the Colorado
River's sediments from the last two to three million years. The
sediments that were deposited by the river more than two to three
million years ago have been shifted northwestward by movement along the
San Andreas and related faults (Winker and Kidwell 1986). Sediments
have also accumulated elsewhere. Some were deposited in flood plains
between the delta and the Grand Canyon.
- Wind is a major erosional force in parts of the Colorado River basin.
Some sediments from Colorado and Wyoming were blown as far as the
Atlantic Ocean.
- Much of the strata exposed in the Grand Canyon are limestone and
dolomite. These rocks eventually simply would have dissolved.
Links:
Littleton, Keith, 1998 (11 May). Re: Colorado Delta Missing?
Message ID <6j865m$5q0$1@ralph.vnet.net>,
http://www.google.com/groups?as_umsgid=6j865m%245q0%241%40ralph.vnet.net
References:
- Jennings, S. and G. R. Thompson, 1986. Diagensis of Plio-Pleistocene
sediments of the Colorado River Delta, southern California. Journal
of Sedimentary Petrology 56(1): 89-98.
- Sykes, G., 1937. The Colorado River Delta. American Geographical
Society Special Publication 19, New York: American Geographical
Society.
- Winker, C. D. and S. M. Kidwell, 1986. Paleocurrent evidence for
lateral displacement of the Pliocene Colorado River Delta by the San
Andreas fault system, southeastern California. Geology 14(9):
788-791.
created 2003-6-1, modified 2004-4-16
