I think the Grand Canyon is primarily a uplifted tectonic rift valley through which a river now flows...
This is longish, I hope people are interested...
"The ubiquitous low-angle tilt and patchwork distribution of the Supergroup raises questions about its history since all sediments are considered to have originally been deposited as a blanketing of material on a generally flat surface. "
Sedimentation originally on flat surface...
(Now a bit of fairy story stuff from Gulliver's travels: Lilliput, Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib, Laurentia...)
"During Unkar Group deposition, Laurentia collided with fragments of continental material (now fixed to South America and Africa) along its southeastern margin (Blakey and Ranney, 2008 and Timmons et al., 2012). Collisional uplift induced erosion that shed
copious amounts of detrital sediment westward.
Back-arc extension thought to be associated with the culminating Grenville Orogeny, an extensive collisional mountain building event <....> along the North American continent’s northeastern margin likely thinned continental crust regionally,
forming large rift basinsthat would ultimately fail to split the continent.
However,
thinning of the continental plate probably caused the Grand Canyon region to sink and aided flooding by a shallow seaway.
The Cardenas Basalt and related diabase dikes and sills intruding older, underlying Unkar Group rock units formed at the close of Dox Formation deposition, mark outpourings of flood basalt lavas and their subterranean feeder system commonly produced
during such rifting.
"....the remaining blocks of Supergroup rocks now found in the Grand Canyon
are closely related to adjacent normal faults (Figure 2).
The faults are suggestive of rifting, and indicate extension of the earth’s crust by tectonic forces that are credited to the breakup of the supercontinent Rodinia during Late Proterozoic time. In brief, the sedimentary rocks of the Supergroup are believed to have accumulated in a NE-SW elongated basin within Rodinia created by back-arc Grenvillian extension, then became faulted and tilted in the Neoproterozoic as the western landmass of Rodinia (a combined Australia, Antarctica, and China) fragmented from the North American landmass. Although the Grand Canyon region lay to the east of the rift zone, continental crust in the area was stretched generally east-west and
fractured along extensive NW-SE oriented normal faults (Figure 2)."
"The eastern transgression of the sea is inferred from the western accumulation of the carbonates and deep-water mudstones, and the eastern formation of stromatolites and accumulation of the shallow-water mudstones. Mudcracks, ripple marks, and oxidized shales suggest subaerial exposure associated with periodic marine regression (Hendricks and Stevenson, 2003). Timmons et al. (2012) describes a relatively low-energy, tidal-dominated environment during the later time of the Bass Formation that resulted in an influx of mudstone and sandstone that transitioned into Hakatai Shale. "
"The Hakatai Shale is informally divided into three members. The lithology of the lower two are fractured clay-rich mudstones and shales of gentle-to-moderate, granular slopes, indicating a low-energy, mud flat environment. The upper member is composed of medium-grained quartz sandstone of ledgy, cliff-forming beds, suggestive of a higher energy, shallow-marine environment (Hendricks and Stevenson, 2003)."
Some violent stuff has gone on...
"...suggesting that the sediments were not fully lithified but still soft and pliable
when disturbed by tectonic activity associated with a series of northwest-trending, high-angle, reverse faults during the deposition of the Hakatai Shale (Hendricks and Stevenson, 2003; Timmons et al., 2012). The sandstone columns formed when
fluidized sands were partially injected upward into overlying muds."
"...The abundance of
thick beds contorted by fluid evulsion in the upper part of its final member, representative of the
mobilization of water in saturated sandstone by earthquake tremors, is suggestive of tectonic activity, but the specific faults relating to these features remain unidentified. However, this speculation is supported by
similar contorted beds occurring in the Apache Group of Central Arizona, and even led to the credence of more widespread seismic activity (Timmons et al., 2012)."
Some layers were deposited in the midst of volcanic events....
"...the overlying Cardenas Basalt is conformable and even interfingering in some locations. Evidence proves that the sediments of the Dox Formation were still depositing when the first eruption occurred. In places, Dox
sediments are mildly baked at contact with Cardenas lava flows; and there are thin, discontinuous deposits of basaltic lavas in the upper Dox Formation, including small folds and convolutions suggestive of soft sediment deformation. And quite uniquely, there is even a rounded mass of
igneous rock (less than 3.3 feet in diameter)
entirely covered in a thin layer of siltstone of Dox lithology and set in the lowest basaltic flow (Hendricks and Stevenson, 2003)."
"Thin, discontinuous flows, sandstone interbeds, and broken basalt weathered to nodules are preserved within this unit despite its extensive weathering. Roughly two-hundred and thirty feet above the base of the Cardenas Lava, the basalt becomes more massive and less altered. A high sodium and magnesium content combined with depletion of potassium, all i
ndicate a spilitic alteration which could have occurred with rapid quenching in the sea or brackish water. The sandstone interbeds likely
occurred during periods of volcanic inactivity involving flowing or ponded
water on the surface of the lava ..."
"...the volcanic pile accumulated more quickly than the basin could subside to accommodate it. The evidence begins with an
autoclastic breccia directly above the continuous layer of sandstone and is followed by a fan-jointed unit, ropy lava, and finally a lapillite unit at the 754-foot level. On top of the lapillite lava, a continuous sandstone layer sits upon a planar surface. This was interpreted as the result of volcanic activity ceasing temporarily following generation of the lapillite event, smoothing of the surface by erosion, and subsequent subsidence of the igneous rocks."
"This process prompted by the
temporary cessation of volcanic activity is believed to have been
repeated at least two more times within the upper member. Overall, the Cardenas Basalt was erupted in phases, allowing time for the deposition of interbedded sandstones. Eventually, volcanic activity concluded,
the Unkar Group was tilted gently to the northeast (
possibly due to tectonic movement...."
"The sills have been measured at thicknesses ranging from 75 feet in Hance Rapids to 985 feet in Hakatai Canyon. The fine-grained, chilled margins of the sills
indicate that the magma was highly fluid and very hot (upwards of 2200 °C) when it intruded into the sedimentary rocks...."
"Hendricks and Stevenson (2003) believe that the relationships between the sills, dikes, and Cardenas lava flows
reflect a single, albeit prolonged, volcanic event."
"...
The ocean, which was located to the west in Unkar time,
transgressed eastward across a gently undulating terrain as far as the eastern Grand Canyon, but likely much further..."
"...
Tectonic activity along northeast-trending, high-angle reverse faults mark the end of Hakatai Shale deposition and
ensuing uplift and/or marine regression resulted in a period of erosion prior to the deposition of the next formation ..."
"..The remainder of its deposition altered between marine and nonmarine environments with the
sporadic accumulation of the lava and continued subsidence of the land, though the lava flows eventually accumulated more rapidly. Following the extrusion of more than 985 feet of lava, the area experienced tectonic uplift..."
This stuff is always assumed to happen over very long periods of time, but recently there has been evidence of major uplifting or faulting that happens very quickly, like the Indian Ocean fault induced tsunami...
"...and rapid transportation, information used by Timmons et al. (2012) to suggest that
these sediments likely travelled westward from mountainous highlands in the southeast via a large river system. Timmons et al. (2012) believe that
the Hazel Formation in west Texas, a coarse apron of sediments that records an impressive mountain building event, was likely transported from the Grenville Mountains, and thus correlates to the Dox Formation. The Hazel Formation records
an impressive mountain building event referred to as the Grenville Orogeny. Evidence stretches from the southwest to the northeast of the United States, as well as on every current continent. This impressive continental plate collision...."
"...A high percentage of
sediments were transported from the continental scale Grenville Mountains and deposited in this basin as
the sea experienced an overall eastern transgression punctuated by minor variations in sea level due to subsidence and basin filling.
Fifty eight-hundred feet of sediment accumulated before the Cardenas lavas erupted onto the wet surface of the Dox Formation,
adding more than 985 feet of igneous rock.
After the eruptions ceased, the Unkar rocks were tilted slightly northeast, eroded, and the deposition of the overlying Nankoweap Formation commenced ..."
Imagine all this being laid down as part of a huge series of catastrophes, rather than the usual uniformitarian slow deposition that is always assumed....
"...and truncated at the top by
the Great Unconformity and overlying Tapeats Sandstone.
The sequence displays Martian-like colors and
the entirety of the group is approximately 6800 feet thick; although thickness varies east-west across the north-trending Chuar Syncline which parallels the Butte Fault since the sediments were deposited as the syncline developed (Dehler et al., 2012; Ford and Dehler, 2003). Dehler et al. (2012) reports this group to be
nearly 85 percent mudrock, with interruptions of meter-thick sandstone and dolomite beds. The strata are fossiliferous, unmetamorphosed, and the contacts between formations are gradational and determined by the presence or absence of the carbonate beds ..."
"...The unit differs from the lower two members in that it is characterized by a significant component of sandstone beds in addition to the presence of the carbonate and shale beds of the lower members. Sandstone layers are typically not more than a few feet thick, but
form a grand total thickness of 1546 feet within the unit. The carbonate beds are 3 to 6 feet thick ..."
"...suggest that
this rifting could be the second recorded attempt to breakup Rodinia, their first “record” having been deleted by the erosion surrounding the Nankoweap Formation. Evidence of the
rifting of Rodinia and similar syntensional deposits to the Chuar Group
are found in British Colombia, Utah, and California. A possible scenario is an intracratonic rift, where the basin would trap the sediment."
"...
cyclical changes of low-energy, coastal marine environments resulting in the
deposition of shales, carbonates, and sandstones in a tectonically active basin during a Neoproterozoic rifting event..."
“horizontal laminations, small- to large-scale planar tabular and trough cross-stratification, and wavy and lenticular bedding.” They also identified coarsening- and fining-upward sequences in the central Grand Canyon.
Trace fossils and body fossils are abundant in the Bright Angel Shale, and Blakey and Middleton (2012) report that
the fossils record a “major proliferation of invertebrate fauna.”
"In the western section of the Grand Canyon,
dolostones overlie the Muav Limestone to a thickness of over 400 feet..."
"The upper, coarser sections exhibit thick, planar tabular
cross-stratification, often
with abrupt changes in the dip of foresets that likely formed by migration of sand waves, dunes, and ripples associated with stronger tidal and storm-wave generated currents. Fining-upward sequences typically overlie an erosive base. They begin with pebble conglomerate or sandstone and grade into interbedded fine-grained sandstone and mudstone. The coarse basal layer is representative of
high-energy deposition during storm-induced currents capable of transporting coarse material. Symmetric ripples and a high amount of laminated mudstone occur at the top of these sequences. They are marked by a
diverse array of trace fossils representative of post-storm resettling of muds and sands..."
"...of course, these rocks wouldn’t have been preserved if not for the self-generating nature of passive continental marginal tectonic settings, creating accommodation space for the sediments to accumulate through subsidence (a mere
rise in sea level could not account for the thickness of material preserved). Finally,
these Middle Cambrian rock units also portray the amazing proliferation of life on planet earth at this time, located in the middle of a
very short (geologically speaking), 150 million year time stream in which life went from nothing more advanced than single-celled organisms in the late Proterozoic, to evolve
the most complex phyla found on earth today...."
And then there are the 'unconformities' where the layers are ignorantly out of place in the 'proper' sequence...
"...the
strata are truncated eastward by the Temple Butte. These unnamed layers do appear to conform with deposition of the Muav Limestone, and Korolev and Rowland (1993) have correlated the undifferentiated dolomite layer in the Grand Canyon to the Banded Mountain Member of the Bonanza King Formation of Nevada, which is thought to be of late Middle Cambrian age. Where the Temple Butte is in direct contact with the Muav Limestone,
the unconformable surface is identified by the considerable relief
created by channels and depressions up to 100 feet deep. However, there are areas where the channels are absent. The result is a planar contact of gray dolomite from the Temple Butte and the Muav Limestone, making the
unconformity difficult to locate..."
"...Temple Butte strata
truncate older rocks from west to east across the Grand Canyon region. The
disconformity at the base of this formation marks a
significant stratigraphic break in the Grand Canyon’s Paleozoic
sedimentary sequence..."
"However, the convergence of an oceanic plate with the North American plate in latest Devonian-Mississippian time resulted in the Antler Orogeny to the west in central Nevada (Beus, 2003). The colliding Antler arc
shoved strata deposited in deep water over the continental shelf to form the Antler highlands (Blakely, 2014).
The weight of the thickened crust caused eastern Nevada and western Utah to subside in a forearc basin and thick Upper Devonian and Lower Mississippian strata formed there. Farther east, thinner deposits accumulated on a broad carbonate shelf over much of the Western Interior (Figure 16a). The Grand Canyon sat on the periphery of orogenic activities, and was affected by them only indirectly (Beus, 2003). A broad, but gentle forearc bulge probably enhanced subaerial exposure in the Late Mississippian and helped induce channel incision on the karstified landscape (Figure 16b).
Localized uplift also occurred as faults shifted the crust due to the contractions associated with the Antler Orogeny. For example, following the deposition of the Redwall Limestone and prior to the Surprise Canyon Formation, an anticline caused by east-west compression and reactivation of a buried fault was responsible for the
truncation of the Horseshoe Mesa member of the Redwall Limestone in the Tanner Trail area of the eastern Grand Canyon."
"Composed almost entirely of
pure carbonates, often “pelleted and locally skeletal or oolitic wackestones and packstones,” it is also
accompanied by iron oxides and less than 2 percent of
gypsum. It is deposited in
thick beds, ranging 2 to 4 feet thick, and is
dominated by fine-grained limestone in the west and dolomite in central and eastern Grand Canyon. The Whitmore Wash unit spans an area from about five miles beyond the western edge of the Grand Canyon at a
thickness of approximately 200 feet to Iceberg Ridge in the east,
thinning to around 100 feet. Due to extensive dolomization, fossils are rare in the Whitmore Wash member. Its upper contact is conformable and easily distinguished from the
alternating dark chert and light
carbonate beds of the Thunder Springs member. The initial deposition of the Whitmore Wash began as a major transgression resulted in oolitic shoals
created by high energy currents..."
"...the third and thickest member, Mooney Falls, also thickens from east to west, ranging from around 200 to 400 feet. This member forms the sheer wall plastered in oxidized muds that inspired its name. It is characterized by pure limestone with thin beds or lenses of chert towards the top, but is locally
dolomitized.
The limestone is thickly bedded, micritic, and accompanied by carbonate grains including oolites, pellets, and skeletal fragments. Invertebrate marine fossils are also abundant in the Mooney Falls member and include solitary and colonial corals, spiriferid brachiopods, and crinoids. The top third of the member in the central and eastern Grand Canyon is also characterized by large-scale, tabular-planar cross-bedding...."
http://www.geo.mtu.edu/KeweenawGeoherit ... dding.html
"....The presence of imbricated cobbles provides evidence for a
unidirectional, westward flowing, fluvial current. Conglomerates grade upward into quartz sand or siltstone or
carbonaceous shale. The sandstone facies is “yellow to dark reddish brown or purple,” flat-lying, characterized by trough cross-strata or ripple lamination, and contain Lepidodentron log impressions (Beus, 2003).
The shale facies is dark and plant fossils have been found in the unit. Beus (2003) reports that this lower unit preserves “a record of continental and
fluvial conditions changing to i
ntertidal conditions as the sea transgressed eastward into the estuary and began to trap and rework clastic sediments..."
"...Paired with the abundance of
marine invertebrate fossils, the bimodal current is suggestive of an estuary environment dominated by flood tides..." mmm floods...
"...although the Antler Orogeny to the west likely caused
sporadic upwarping of the crust, aiding the occasional exposure event and
production of unconformable surfaces within the Redwall-Surprise Canyon sedimentary rock sequence..."
More 'unconformities':
"...Deposited prior to the Supai Group during the Mississippian Period is the Redwall Limestone, with the Surprise Canyon Formation sandwiched in
discontinuous patches between the two. Following the deposition of the Supai Group is the Hermit Formation, also of the Permian period, and often associated with the Supai Group because of similarities in sediment type and inferred origin
even though an unconformity separates the two rock units..."
I wonder what evidence a megatsunami would leave, especially if tides were global and 2 or 3 km high...?
"...It consists of three types of sandstone containing “very fine- to medium-grained quartz grains to ooids,
abraded fossils, and peloids” (Blakey, 2003). Units are typically
held together with calcite, and the “more limey” sections are accompanied by Jasper (red chert). According to Blakey (2003), the first sandstone is
cross-stratified and comprised of
trough, planar, and compound bed sets, in thicknesses ranging from 1 to 30 feet. Within these strata are found climbing translatent strata. Supporting an interpretation of eolian deposition for the unit are thin laminae that show reverse grading while each lamina records the migration of a single wind ripple. The geometry of the strata leads geologists to suspect deposition at the forward base and between dunes, on eolian sheets of sand (supported by the horizontal to very low angles of sediments), and due to migration of the eolian dunes (supported by the climbing strata). The second sandstone is described as having “horizontally laminated to very low-angle,
cross-stratified, fine-grained, calcareous, and silty units up to 20 feet thick”
"...its lithologic components are exceedingly similar to that of the Manakacha. This
sheet-like body of sand expands across the Grand Canyon and the western Mogollon Rim region while maintaining thicknesses from 100 to 200 feet. In the central Grand Canyon and western Chino Valley, sandstone is the dominant facies, while mudstone increases in the east and limestone to the west of Chino Valley. The Wescogame Formation is informally divided into an upper slope unit and a lower cliff unit. In addition, three north-east-trending facies belts have become associated with this formation. The easternmost belt is the redbed facies, located near the Hermit Basin and spanning to the western Verde Valley. The middle belt is the sandstone facies, extending west from the eastern belt through the Shivwits Plateau region. Finally,
cross-stratified limestone and limey sandstone composes the limestone facies of the westernmost belt..."
http://www.indiana.edu/~geol105/images/ ... ctures.htm
"...and
compression generated by plate collisions along the southern and southwestern edge of the North American plate penetrated far inland to form the Ancestral Rocky Mountains (Blakey and Ranney, 2008). Erosion of the Uncompaghre Uplift, a western extension of the Ancestral Rockies in western Colorado and eastern Utah, generated
copious amounts of sediment that accumulated to vast thicknesses on the eastern Colorado Plateau..."
"Interruptions were again caused by
fluctuations in sea level coupled with fluvial activity, eventually transitioning to fluvial conditions as the eolian supply diminished...
"...the Kaibab Limestone is composed primarily of
limestone (Wuerthner, 1998),
which can reach a thickness of anywhere from 300 feet and, in northwestern Arizona where it is thickest, an excess of 500 feet thick (Hopkins and Thompson, 2003). The Kaibab overall was likely deposited in a subtidal, shallow-marine environment where minor fluctuations in sea level could
abruptly change the water depth and corresponding depositional environment ..."
Abrupt changes in water depth...
"...it consists of “
sandstone and dolomite with a rich [marine] fossil assemblage” (Fillmore, 2000). As Fillmore explains, “The gamma member was laid down as
the sea advanced eastward across Utah and Arizona….”, and just as with the Toroweap, as
marine waters advanced eastward, deeper water conditions would help to deposit the overlying beta member."
"...The Fossil Mountain Member is described by Fillmore (2000) as being a “massive, cliff-forming cherty limestone” that was
deposited when sea level was at its highest.
This member typically contains abundant and diverse marine-fauna such as brachiopods, bryozoans, crinoids, sponges, and solitary corals. However, as your location within the member moves eastward, the fauna changes to suggest more restricted conditions and the member becomes more siliciclastic-dominated, indicating yet again that
the water source lay to the west (Hopkins and Thompson, 2003)."
"As the member thickens westward
it can become up to 300 feet thick; and though the Kaibab Formation as a whole is largely known for its limestone composition, the Fossil Mountain Member is “75 percent sandstone or sandy dolostone” with scattered chert, dolomite, and limestone throughout (Hopkins and Thompson, 2003). The Fossil Mountain was likely deposited on a shallow “Kaibab Sea” that regularly experienced
sea level rises and falls, extending
eastward into the Grand Canyon area during transgression and receding westward toward the continental margin during regression (Fillmore, 2000). The difference between the beta member of the Kaibab Formation and the beta member of the Toroweap Formation is that, during the time of Fossil Mountain deposition,
water covered nearly all of Utah, Arizona, and most of southern New Mexico..."
"...These
repeated “shifts” in depositional environments due to sea level change can be observed throughout the Grand Canyon region with the regular alterations between carbonate, siliciclastic, and evaporite deposits. The Harrisburg Member in particular consists of an array of gypsum, dolostone, sandstone, redbeds, chert, and minor limestone ..."
A region wide unconformity...
"The Moenkopi Formation is believed to have been formed during the Early (and possibly early Middle) Triassic Period, while it is inferred that Chinle deposition occurred during the Late Triassic (Reppening and Cooley, 1969), the two rock units being separated by a
significant region-wide unconformity."
"...The initial
shifting of tectonic plates during the Triassic affected “western North America only indirectly because the region was far removed from the rifting margins of the breakup” (Fillmore, 2011). Yet
the shifts still had some impact on the Colorado Plateau region as continental masses split apart to form constricted seaways that ultimately grew to form ocean basins, and marine transgressions and regressions came and went across the landscape, leaving their mark as the sedimentary rocks of the Mesozoic..."
"...while the volcanic arc surrounding the westernmost side of the Chinle basin would
“episodically” erupt to leave evidence of its activity in the form of copious volcanic ash within some of the rock unit’s members..."
Mix of terrestrial and marine fossils:
..Fossils within the Moenkopi formation represent “
a mix of terrestrial and marine taxa,” such as plants, brachiopods, fish, reptiles, amphibians, and reptile footprints (Sprinkel, et al., 2003). This
mix of terrestrial and marine fossils within the members of the rock unit..."
"...The Chinle Formation overlies the Moenkopi Formation, however, “the contact between the Lower Triassic Moenkopi and the Upper Triassic Chinle Formation is an
unconformity marked by the absence of Middle Triassic strata”, an erosional surface which “represents an omission of up to 10 million years” (Fillmore, 2011). The top of the Moenkopi contains
distinctive northwesterly oriented furrows, presumably cut by stream erosion and into which the initial deposition of Chinle material occurred. This
missing information in the rock record is the reason why it is difficult for scientists to determine if Moenkopi deposition continued into Middle Triassic time, because the geologic history needed to determine this
simply isn’t there."
"Fossils within the Chinle Formation include
petrified wood (which is the most abundant), as well as fossils of fish, bivalves, amphibians, dinosaurs, and dinosaur tracks” (Sprinkel, et al., 2003); all indicative of a terrestrial setting. The rock unit’s sediments are inferred to be composed of
“varying amounts of fluvial and lacustrine interbedded sandstone, mudstone, claystone, siltstone, limestone, gritstone, and conglomerate”
Pretty much like what would be left after a tsunami, or continental tidal type flooding event,
and associated vulcanism:
"...The Shinarump Member primarily consists of relatively
high energy stream-channel deposits.."
"...throughout the Utah area, the Shinarump can largely be characterized as having
trough cross-bedded sandstone, siltstone, and mudstone, as well as having fragments of petrified wood (as most of the members in the Chinle do) (Sprinkel, et al., 2003). However, the Shinarump
also contains “volcanic-derived pebbles,” indicating that the volcanic arc associated with the ongoing Sonoma Orogeny that developed during Moenkopi deposition continued through Shinarump time..."
"An interesting sedimentological feature of this member, along with all of the petrified wood that it contains, is the fact that it also contains bentonite. “Bentonite, or montmorillonite, is
a type of clay produced from the decomposition (devitrification) of volcanic ash. .."
"...This member also
contains abundant fossil wood, and huge logs (some 6 feet in diameter and 90 ft long) have been found (Sprinkel, et al., 2003). These huge logs (as well as coal deposits)..."
Another unconformity:
"Between the Moenkopi and Chinle Formations there is an
erosional unconformity..."
If such long periods of time weren't asserted, all this Grand Canyon formation and sedimentation would seem
pretty violent and catastrophic..
http://intheplaygroundofgiants.com/geol ... on-region/
]. It initiated an immediate collapse of the atmospheric structure, which formerly kept the earth blanketed in warmth from pole to pole; and resulted in torrential downpours for a few weeks. If you've kept up with other posted descriptions of my model, you will remember that for me these downpours were not the main cause of the deluge to follow. In my model, the onslaught of the matar continued for a period of a few months, during which the ruptured supercontinent spread and pieces of the continental crust slid away over the mantle. While the mantle spewed out of the rupture zones, the separating continents collided with the oceanic crust on the opposite side of the globe, compressing their leading edges into the mountainous [and island arc/trench] formations seen around the Pacific Rim [and horizontally in the lower northern latitudes]. The ongoing seismic and volcanic activity associated with these "leading edge" plate conditions has given rise to the plate tectonics model being disputed here. While the continental masses were moving the sea was washing into the newly created basins, and flooding over the topographically low lying land, destroying the doomed creatures that lived there, and leaving their remains either to rot on or be washed off the surface or be buried and fossilized in the sedimentary strata alleged in the standard framework as the geologic "column". That the matar continued during this shifting and flooding of the continents is evidenced by the finding of major astroblemes associated with all the major sequences. Different parts of the continent would naturally show different types of geologic evidence. For example, the Grand Canyon was carved out of the uplifted plateau that formed "behind" the rising boundary mountains, but the outwash of flood water that occurred there need not be in evidence everywhere or anywhere else, the midwest to east coast of the Americas was inundated by the Atlantic waters for part of this time, as were also lowlands of China and surrounding regions. In the polar regions the catastrophic climate change brought about a sudden cooling which turned the torrential downpours into snowfall and the rapid accumulation of glaciers. The few surviving animals spread from an area in the middle east across the globe. Some continental movement was still occurring, but at a greatly slowed rate. Animals were able to cross land bridges and swim or raft across narrow channels that existed before the meltback of the glaciers made these crossovers impassable. During this period, Fischer [and Lloyd] hypothesizes that the continental drift episode occurred, but obviously in my model that event has passed. However, after this main part of the cataclysm was eneded, other "aftershocks' so to speak, continued to shape the landforms, including volcano building, glacial meltbacks [and dam breaks, eg. Lake Missoula and the coulees of Washington], further climatic adjustments, etc. The repopulation of the world by surviving flora and fauna, and people, ensued. Enter the beginnings of civilization as we know it, birthed from the seeds of an antediluvian "golden age" which in my model has no remaining physical evidence. Evidences from archaeology in my model are entirely postdiluvian. So, finally, little "local" floods, such as the Iraqi valley floods that are credited to Noah's time by the OEC group and other secular archaelology groups do not hold a candle to the cataclysm being discussed on this thread, at least as I'm seeing it.
