The 1.2-Billion-Year Mystery Under The Grand Canyon Has Been Unveiled

The world-famous Grand Canyon has just been confirmed by scientists to be a remnant from the breakup of Earth’s ancient supercontinent Rodinia nearly 700 million years ago.

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In 1869, U.S. geologist John Wesley Powell discovered 1.4 to 1.8-billion-year-old rocks lying underneath rocks with only 520 million years old in the bizarre land of Grand Canyon.
One particular feature was that there was no rock of intermediate age. The gap of up to 1 billion years in the geological record of the region has left a great question across the century for scientists.

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Recently, a team of scientists from the University of Colorado has found a solution to this mystery. Parts of the Grand Canyon in the past were not a single block with the same temperature history.
One part of the Grand Canyon have been displaced in different ways over millennia, resulting in some of the rocks and sediment being washed out into the ocean.

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In particular, other evidence shows that this time of disappearance is associated with the breakup of the supercontinent Rodinia, occurring 633-750 million years ago.
Therefore, scientists believe that the Grand Canyon is the living evidence of the "turbulent tectonic period" of the supercontinent Rodinia. The east side and west side of the Grand Canyon used to belong to two completely separated regions, with vastly different temperature conditions.

Source: My Grand Canyon Park

It seems that some of the "intermediate" pieces of the land have been taken away, while 2 pieces from 2 distant places of Rodinia have been pushed closer and assembled into the fascinating land of today.
The Grand Canyon is a system consisting of many branches with canyons eroded by flowing water, of varying widths and depths.

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The cliffs are composed of colorful rock layers and strata dating back to early times, and there are even forests in some places, creating a very rich ecosystem.
In this ecological system, 1,500 types of herbs, 355 types of birds, 89 types of mammals, 47 types of reptiles, 9 types of amphibians and 17 different types of fish are discovered.

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Researchers believe that the Grand Canyon is nearly 2 million years old. The rocks that make up the world's largest canyon come from the east coast bordering the Atlantic Ocean and the amount of sand that covers 350,000 square kilometers in the western United States.
The first scientific expeditions to the site date back to the late 1860s. The rock layers exposed in this area represent a great geological history book. This is truly a place that attracts many discoveries of its beauty.
H/T: Space