Geologists have solved the mystery of the disappearance from the geological record, millions of years ago, of one of North America's most important waterways: the Colorado River. A paper published in Science shows that the river flowed into an upstream lake over the course of a few million years, then likely flowed for the first time into the Grand Canyon. The moment marked the Colorado River's transition to a continental-scale river as it made its way down to the Gulf of California.
Geologists have solved the mystery of the disappearance from the geological record, millions of years ago, of one of North America's most important waterways: the Colorado River. A paper published in Science shows that the river flowed into an upstream lake over the course of a few million years, then likely flowed for the first time into the Grand Canyon. The moment marked the Colorado River's transition to a continental-scale river as it made its way down to the Gulf of California.
The Colorado River may have started out as a giant lake before carving out the Grand Canyon in northern Arizona. Scientists found that tiny sediment grains upstream of the canyon were carried from the upper Colorado River watershed by 6.6 million years ago. This finding fills in a 5-million-year gap of understanding where the Colorado was during this period. However, not all scientists are on board. @LiveScience explains:
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