Grand Canyon - A Wonder to Behold

July 15, 2015

A Wonder to Behold

At 277 miles long, 3,000 to 6,000 feet deep and four to eighteen miles wide, the Grand Canyon is one of the only natural features on the earth’s surface that can be seen from space! Not to mention, it’s one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World and the only one in North America! This is surely an incredible display of our awesome God’s power, grandeur and creativity.

Fun Facts

1. Did you know marine creatures including sponges, trilobites and other sea animals are found in the canyon walls over 8,000 feet above sea level?
2. Geologists have traced limestone sediment from up to 600 miles away from the Grand Canyon. A catastrophic flood event is the only explanation for this incredible distance of travel.
3. The Grand Canyon is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World!
4. You can see it from space!

How and When Did the Grand Canyon Form? Evolutionists and creationists agree on a couple of key observations concerning the formation of the Grand Canyon. The first observation is that the Kaibab Plateau, through which the canyon is cut, existed before the Colorado River. Of course, this observation presents a problem for evolutionists because the source of the Colorado River is at a lower elevation than the Kaibab Plateau. This understanding begs the question, how could the water go uphill to carve out the Grand Canyon? The second observation in which evolutionists and creationists agree is the volume of erosion - 1,000 cubic miles of the canyon and 100,000 cubic miles of rock layers from the rim. This fact then presents another challenge for evolutionists – where did the eroded sediment go? We should see a massive landform (i.e. delta) at the mouth of Colorado from the thousands of miles of sentiment that was removed from the canyon and rim over 10’s of millions of years. The fact is that the debris from the Grand Canyon is not in the Delta of the Colorado River. Evolutionary Geologists still disagree on how and when the Grand Canyon was formed. Wayne Ranney, in his book, Carving Grand Canyon: Evidence, Theories, and Mystery summed up the confusing and contradictory theories on the formation of the Grand Canyon when he wrote,

“Grand Canyon is a puzzle, a mystery, an enigma. It appears to have been carved through an uplifted plateau, ignores fault lines, may have been born by a river that once flowed the other way, is possibly quite old or quite young - or both - and is set within a more mature landscape.”

Creation Scientists don’t need to dream up ways to account for millions of years of eroded sentiment, or water flowing uphill, because our understanding of the past, according to God’s Word, is what informs us of the present. God said in Genesis 6:17, “Behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth,” so we take Him at His word and find clear evidence to support what He said. We know from Genesis that when the flood water receded that the mountains rose and the valleys sank (Psalm 104: 5-9). Therefore we can reasonably assume that the flood waters would have flowed off of the rising Kaibab Plateau which would account for the 100,000 cubic miles of rock layer that eroded from the canyon rim. As the flood water flow slowed down and naturally narrowed it would have carved an initial channel. As the plateau rose the receding floodwaters to the east would have been held back, thus creating massive natural dams. When we consider the addition of post flood-rainfall and its effect on the dams, we can conclude that the natural channels would have overflowed and an unimaginable amount of water over a limited period of time would have carved out the Grand Canyon.[1]

Do we have any observable evidence for rapid canyon formation in nature?

 

A canyon was carved in a matter of hours after Mount St. Helens eruption[/caption] Yes! The most recent and related evidence for rapid canyon formation occurred on May 18th 1980. On that day Mount St. Helens erupted and the mighty mudflow created from the massive explosion formed a 100 foot deep by 100 foot wide “Little Grand Canyon” in less than a matter of hours. If it wasn’t for the fact that this canyon’s creation was actually observed, it is likely that evolutionists would have claimed it to be millions of years old.

What Does the Evidence Show?

The evidence here shows that not only is a catastrophic event a logical conclusion for the formation of the Grand Canyon, but it is also aligned with, and a reasonable outcome of the aftereffects of what the Bible describes as Noah’s flood. Even recently, some secular geologists have come to the same conclusion that the Grand Canyon was formed by an enormous amount of water over a small period of time. A parting thought to consider… we’ve seen through scientific observation a canyon forming quickly with a lot of water and a little time, but never a little water over a long period of time.  

[1] When and How Did the Grand Canyon Form – Answers in Genesis, 2014

[2] "USA 09847 Grand Canyon Luca Galuzzi 2007" by I, Luca Galuzzi. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons

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