The Carbon County news. [volume] (Red Lodge, Mont.) 1924-1931, 1929-09-19
GRAND CANYON
TO DISAPPEAR
Scientist Says That Erosion
Is Tearing Down Its
Great Walls.

Los Angeles.-People who have
never viewed the wonders of the Grand
Canyon Of the Colorado are urged to
do so without delay. For DR.. William
Morris Davis emeritus professor of
geology of Harvard university, in
lecture at. the University of California
at Los Angeles, declares that the
Grand Canyon is disappearing so rap
idly that il will be only a few more
million years until the deep chasm will
have entirely vanished, together with
the high plateau for a hundred or so
miles on either side of 1t.
The Boulder dam will not be to
blame for this vast effacement of one
of the true wonders of the world DIR.
Davis did not even mention the Boul-
der dam in his lecture. Biologists say,
however, that the Boulder dam might
delay for year or two the destruc-
tion of this wonderful specimen of
natures handiwork. But this cannot
be foretold with any degree of ac-
curacy for another several thousand
years.
Fifth of Great Canyons.
Moreover DR.. Davis stated that the
present Grand Canyon is the fifth
wonder of the kind constructed by the
forces of nature in that general neigh
borhoof. The other four have all
been destroyed by the same forces of
nature, and the fifth, now at about the
zenith of It's glory, Is doomed to go
the way Of Its four predecessors.
The method of destruction of this
canyon. as well as that of It's predeces-
sors, is quite easy to determine, he
stated, but some features of the forma-
ton remain q mystery. In Lis explana-
ton he said in part:
1.-THE Grand Canyon of the Colorado
Is one Of the true great wonders of the
world. Few people who go there have
any idea Of what they will see. A
visitor Immediately wonders, upon his
first view of the canyon, what enor-
nous world disturbance could have
to open this great crack.
But study will reveal that 1t was not
q crack. II is opened into V shape
but the walls and formations on either
side quickly dispute that 1t has been
formed by the stone being cracked
apart.
"The Colorado river has builded the
Grand Canyon. 1t is purely the work
of the river, cutting away continually
thousands of millions Of years,
that has caused it. The Y shape we
now see is largely the work Of erosion.
The action Of the elements on those
sturdy walls is gradually fiattening
them out. The river cannot cut much
deeper for ii will approach sea level,
but the work of erosion will go on
until those plateaus now rearing In
many places to height of 5000 feet,
will disappear for 100 miles on either
side of the river
Plateaus Are Mystery.
ut is an enormous task thus far
accomplished over a period of many
Of years. But really, 1t is
only a beginning.
81 refer to this vast period of time
required to build and destroy the can
yon as a cycle Of erosion There is
evidence to support the theory that
five such cycles have passed during
the life of the world. Judging by the
past, we can allow our imagination
much latitude in guessing the future
duration of The world"
The throwing up of the high plateau
Is the mystery unsoIved by biologists,
stated Doctor Davis. After the plateau
Is once thrown up, the river cuts the
then, joined by the forces of
erosion, 1t eats away the entire pla-
teau. Five such plateaus have been
builded he stated, and four Of them
have disappeared. The fifth is now
becoming The prey OF the elements.