[__ Science __ ] Africa breaking apart?

[miamited]

HI all,

Don't know how 'christianity' it is, but does anyone have any thoughts about the supposed claim that the African continent is apparently going to break into two continents in a million years? Could this be how the great Grand Canyon came to be?

 

[hawkman]

I would not have believed it in a million years .

 

[miamited]

Healthy new year to you hawkman

But what if this just becomes the next Grand Canyon? Suppose this rift opens up for just so many dozens or hundreds of miles and stops. It merely becomes a huge rip in the earth's surface but never does actually break apart the continent. Could that give us the real answer as to 'how' the Grand Canyon came to be? That the Grand Canyon wasn't actually created by a millennia of water wear.

Honestly, I never was able to swallow that 'scientific' explanation for the Grand Canyon. Why would one single river in the area or in North America as a whole dig down so deeply into the area and there is absolutely no evidence of another river even digging down 50'? And of course, for one who believes the timeline as described in the Scriptures, the idea that there was a time millions of years ago that ice covering the area dug out this trench is hard to understand. But again, there is no such evidence that this ice covering dug up anywhere else in the area or in North America.

As I understand the ice explanation, the entire land mass was covered with ice and as it grew down over the land it dug out this huge trench in one single area. Really? I honestly find that hard to believe. If it's such a natural occurrence and ice was everywhere, why wouldn't there be at least a few other such digs? But this, some single cataclysmic opening of the earth's crust by forces that we don't completely understand, offers a very plausible explanation for how the Grand Canyon came to be and could have happened in a matter of a few dozen or hundreds of years.

And I'm not making any sure claims. I don't know enough about the matter to do so. But I believe it should bring about some serious questions concerning how these huge earth crust cracks can happen without there having to have been millions or billions of years of existence to explain them.

I'm just sayin' this could be the hand of God showing us how we don't really need millions or billions of years to explain some of the features of the earth that we believe took that long to become.

 

[Barbarian]

Don't know how 'christianity' it is, but does anyone have any thoughts about the supposed claim that the African continent is apparently going to break into two continents in a million years? Could this be how the great Grand Canyon came to be?

Yes, there are a series of rift valleys now forming. The large East African lakes have resulted from the process, splitting Africa apart, a few centimeters a year.

Madagascar was once part of the African continent, and it split off.

The Grand Canyon was formed by erosion, not plate divergence. The thing is, ancient rivers normally meander, moving their channels around because of differential erosion on the inside and outside banks of bends in the rivers. But if the land is uplifted, the river becomes trapped in its bed, and can only cut deeper and deeper into the rock. These "entrenched meanders" are what we see in the uplifted river bed. Lots of details on this, which we can discuss if anyone is interested.

 

[Hopeful 2]

HI all,

Don't know how 'christianity' it is, but does anyone have any thoughts about the supposed claim that the African continent is apparently going to break into two continents in a million years? Could this be how the great Grand Canyon came to be?

The way God made Africa, shows that it broke away from other continental bodies, (Europe, S. America): and that other continental bodies broke away from it. (Australia, India, Madagascar, and even Antarctica)
Those breakages would indicate that more breaks could occur.

Africa's present day split is along a spreading fissure, like the Atlantic Ridge...ever widening.
The Grand Canyon is the result of fast flowing water erosion.
They are nothing alike.

God is wonderful, eh ?

 

[Barbarian]

Why would one single river in the area or in North America as a whole dig down so deeply into the area and there is absolutely no evidence of another river even digging down 50'?

There are many such rivers. The Virgin River in Zion National Park is one. About 800 m. deep.

 

[miamited]

Hi Barbarian

So, this river that carved the Grand Canyon was at one point 18 miles wide or so? Honestly, the ice age theory better applies to the creation of the Grand Canyon than a river. But I don't believe that either theory holds water when considering all of the evidence. And the Zion river has many open areas where there doesn't appear to have been any carving by the water current moving through it.

 

[Barbarian]

And the Grand Canyon was (and is) gradually cut away by erosion of rock. There is no way for rapid water flow to cut entrenched meanders like this:

 

[miamited]

Hi Barbarian

And so that little river down there used to be 5-10 miles wide?

 

[Barbarian]

If it was, it wouldn't have cut such a narrow bed. Before the land was uplifted, it likely moved around a lot as riverbeds do when there is no uplift...

Older rivers are like this. Oxbows form when the channel moves, leaving an isolated curved lake. The channel moves because the outer banks of a curve in the river erode and the inner bank tends to accumulate sediment. When the land is uplifted, the river is "rejuvenated" and is trapped in the existing bed, cutting deeper and deeper into rock.

The wider valley at the top is from movement of the channel. I grew up on an Island in the Mississippi river; the river was less than a mile across at that point, but the valley was many miles wide, due to the meandering of the river.

 

[Barbarian]

So, this river that carved the Grand Canyon was at one point 18 miles wide or so?

No. But the valley was, due to meanders. That was before the land was uplifted, and the river became trapped in the existing channel.

Honestly, the ice age theory better applies to the creation of the Grand Canyon than a river.

Not if you consider how rivers work.

And the Zion river has many open areas where there doesn't appear to have been any carving by the water current moving through it.

Can you show us one? Typically, that would have to be in an area with no uplift.