The giant meteor impact may have triggered a massive Grand Canyon slippery 56,000 years ago

The old meteor effects, which formed Arizona's Barringer crater, sent shock waves through the Grand Canyon -a new study probably triggered a landslide that was right the Colorado River.

Barringer Crater, also called a meteor crater, formed 53,000 and 63,000 years ago when A Ries cosmic “curve ball” hit a hole On the surface of the earth. The strength of the impact was more than 100 miles (160 kilometers) to the Grand Canyon, which may have led to a whole cliff face collapsing into the river.

The discovery that will be described in the magazine on July 15th geologyHas associated two important events that were assumed that they have nothing to do with each other.

“There are other ways, such as a random rock or a local earthquake within a thousand years based on the effects of the meteor crater, which could have happened independently.” Karl KarlstromProfessor of earth and planetary science at the University of New Mexico and the leading author of the study said in A opinion.

But the events described are extraordinary, said Karlstrom – and they have happened in a suspiciously small time frame, which indicates that they were related.

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The researchers already knew that the Colorado River flooded the Grand Canyon in recent times Pleistocene (129,000 to 11,700 years). They noticed this by analyzing carved animal figures from Driftwood who alienated Karlstom's father and colleague in a cave called Stanton's cave in the 1960s. With the techniques available at this time, the researchers dated Driftwood and found that it was more than 35,000 years old. (The figures themselves were carved 3,000 and 4,000 years ago.)

Drab pieces in several caves in the Grand Canyon pointed out to a flood event. (Photo credit: University of New Mexico)

The cave of Stanton is 150 feet above the river level, so that the water has risen there to take off driftwood – but the reason was unknown. “It would have needed ten times larger flood level than any flood that has taken place in the past thousand years,” said Karlstrom.

“Rare and unusual events”

Subsequent analyzes with more advanced techniques indicated that the Driftwood was 43,500 years old, and the new study continued to return the date 56,000 years ago. The driftwood was a crucial step to find out how primarily Stanton's cave came about, said Karlstrom.

However, the researchers needed more evidence to complete the puzzle, and were therefore looking for similar caves in the region. “Karl and I knew from numerous research trips from other highly judicial caves that had both Driftwood and sediment, which could be dated”, Study co-author Laura CrosseyProfessor of earth and planetary science at the University of New Mexico also said in the explanation.

Several laboratories examined the additional driftwood samples and everyone came back with data that agreed with a flood event 56,000 years ago. The places of the caves pointed out that this event was a landslide near Nankoweap Canyon, which is located downstream from Stanton's cave. The landslide may have been so large that he created a dam on the Colorado River and formed a lake that stretched upstream for miles. As a result, the water level can have risen high enough to put Driftwood in the caves.

Conceptualization of a landslide and floods in Grand Canyon. We see where the landslide probably took place and how the resulting increase in the water level is.

A conceptualization of the landslide near the Nankoweap Canyon (Photo credit: University of New Mexico)

Around the same time when these results appeared, study co-author David KringThe main scientist at the lunar and planet institute in Houston re -reported the age of the Barringer crater. Kring's work showed that the meteor effect occurred around 56,000 years ago.

Kring had previously calculated He found that the Barringer Meteor Impact has triggered an earthquake of size 5.4 and when the researchers came together to work on the new study, he found that the residual effect on the Grand Canyon would have been the same as an earthquake of the size of 3.5 size. This could have been enough to dissolve a cliff face after the explanation.

“The team has put together these arguments without saying that we have a final proof,” said Karlstrom. “Nevertheless, the meteorite impact, the massive landslide, the Lake deposits and the driftwood are rare and unusual events high above the river level.”

With data that comes together about 56,000 years ago, it seems credible that the events are associated, he said.

topicnews · July 18, 2025

The giant meteor impact may have triggered a massive Grand Canyon slippery 56,000 years ago

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