Meteor shock triggers huge Grand Canyon slopes

The shooting of Arizona meteors 56,000 years ago not only created the famous meteor crater—it could shake a huge landslide, temporarily blocking the Colorado River and creating a vast lake in the Grand Canyon.

Research published in geology reveals a “stunning coincidence” between the timing of meteor effects and geological evidence, which hinders one of the most iconic waterways in the United States.

This discovery connects the most famous geological landmarks in the Southwest through a series of catastrophic events that have allowed the universe to influence how the entire landscape can be reshape for centuries.

Geological detective story decades

The story began in the 1960s when Thor Karlstrom, a researcher at the University of New Mexico, discovered ancient driftwood sediments in a high cave above the Colorado River, which was too high for any known flood to store it there. His son, Karl Karlstrom, is now an outstanding professor emeritus and has spent decades solving this puzzle.

“This will require ten times higher than any flood that has occurred in the last few thousand years,” explains Karl Karlstrom. Another explanation seems equally impossible: either these are impossible ancient sediments or surfaced by the paleogenesis caused by some huge downstream obstacles.

Breakthrough is through advances in dating technology and an international collaboration that happened by chance. When Jonathan Palmer, a researcher from Australia, visited the Meteor Crater and the University of Arizona Tree Ring Laboratory on the same road trip, he noticed the stunning similarities between the crater and the mysterious driftwood.

Cross-time fusion evidence

The team determined using cutting-edge dating methods from New Zealand and Australian labs that driftwood was deposited 55,250 years ago – easily approaching the updated age estimate of the 53,000-63,000-year-old Meteor Crater. The 56,000-year-old timing was confirmed using sediment samples using luminescence methods at Utah State University.

Geological evidence depicts dramatic images of ancient disasters:

• Impact amplitude: The meteor creates an earthquake event, equivalent to a 5.4 earthquake at the crater site
• Shockwave propagation: Seismic energy travels 100 miles to the Grand Canyon in seconds, still registered 3.5
• Huge falls: Nankoweap landslide lowers the giant limestone boulders of the canyon cliffs
• Temporary Lake: The dam created a great old creature that reached an altitude of 940 meters

Researchers found evidence that the ancient dam was eventually surpassed and eroded, possibly within 1,000 years (geological moment).

Clues hidden in caves

The most compelling evidence lies in the caves scattered throughout the Grand Canyon, some containing sediments that tell great stories. In Vasey’s paradise cave, researchers found that beavers will be completely inaccessible today, a water level that once reached extraordinary heights.

Co-author Laurie Crossey notes how multiple research trips reveal the scope of the phenomenon: “From the numerous research trips, Carl and I know other Qualcomm caves with driftwood and sediments that can be obsolete.”

The cave’s deposits also contain archaeological treasures, including ancestors of tribes that still live around the Grand Canyon, statues robbed by splits made three,000 years ago, and fossils of extinct species such as the Coagulant Tube in California and the Mountain Goat in Harrington.

The physics of disaster

Can the meteor strike 100 miles away really trigger such a huge landslide? Physics shows that this is completely reasonable. David Kring, co-author of the Science Coordinator of Meteor Crater, calculated that this effect would produce a squake wave that would be enough to destroy the already unstable cliff face of the Grand Canyon.

The steep walls of the Grand Canyon kept falling rocks on smaller rocks, indicating that when the shock wave arrived, the geology was “waiting and ready to set out.” The impact of time is almost exactly consistent with the evidence of multiple dating methods, which led the researchers to call it “a narrow window of time, 55,600±1,300 years ago.”

Generations of scientific cooperation

The study highlights how scientific discoveries often span decades and involve multiple generations. From Thor Karlstrom’s initial cave exploration in the 1960s to his son Karl’s ongoing investigation, the project demonstrates the long-term nature of geological research.

International collaboration proves crucial, and dating expertise from laboratories in New Zealand and Australia provides the precision needed to build time connections. The convergence of radiocarbon ages, luminescence dates and impacts of crater studies have brought compelling cases to this ancient disaster.

Although researchers acknowledge that they have not provided final evidence yet – a theoretical explanation of Rand Rock or local earthquakes could be theoretically explained, the fusion of rare events in such a narrow time frame would strongly support its hypothesis.

The study also highlights the ongoing harms of meteorite impacts in extreme topographic areas, providing insights related to understanding the risks of earthquakes and landslides in similar landscapes around the world.

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