There
Is Circumstantial Evidence, Amounting Almost To Proof, And Figure 3 Of
Plate Facing Page 99 Suggests What That Evidence Is.
It should be carefully
noted that the Canyon has been cut through the highest portions of a ridge,
which runs generally from east to west, and the slopes of which, therefore;
were north and south from the ridge.
As one travels north from the Canyon,
he finds all the way along, for hundreds of miles, that he goes on a down
slope for a number of miles and then suddenly comes to the jutting edges of
slightly tilted strata (only 2 degrees) which make a cliff up which he must
climb. Arrived at the top of this, the downward descent begins again, until
another ridge of these slightly tilted strata appears, see Figure 3 of
plate facing page 99. Thus he continues up into Utah, and south and east
into Arizona.
Now, in imagination, restore these cliffs of Permian, Triassic, Jurassic
and even Cretaceous strata over the whole Canyon platform. Figure 4 of
plate facing page 99.
Red Butte, which is the prominent landmark seen from the railway on the
right, when going from Williams to the Canyon, is said to be a remnant of
the Permian.
Deposition of Strata in Shallow Water. It is, I believe, generally accepted
by the geologists that the accumulation of much of the sediments of the
Cambrian, Carboniferous, Permian, Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods
took place in shallow water, and that the sea bottom slowly sank under the
weight of the increasing deposits. Hundreds, thousands of years must have
elapsed during the process, for the indications are that the sinking did
not exceed a few inches every hundred years! As carefully measured, these
sediments then amounted to about two miles. Imagine, then, these Cambrian
rocks, that at El Tovar are clearly seen above the "granite" or Archaean,
sunk in the ocean, to the depth of two miles, and covered over with the
various strata, the topmost of which was barely above sea level at periods
of low tide.
Cretaceous Uplift. Then began another epoch of uplift. Slowly the
Cretaceous rocks emerged from the sea, and were subject to the fierce
attacks of nature that produce erosion. Now we have to grope blindly for a
while, as the wise ones do not have facts enough upon which to speak with
definite certainty. But it is assumed that a great warping of the earth's
crust took place, and that in this revolution some of the plateau
sank, - supposedly the northern part, though it certainly extended across
the Canyon nearly as far south as Williams and Ash Fork, and other
parts - the edges - arose, and thus formed a basin which became another vast
inland sea.
Eocene Lake. We know this was an inland sea, and had no connection with
the ocean, for all the fossils and sediments deposited in it reveal that
they are fresh-water organisms. In this sea, as in the earlier oceans, vast
deposits of sediment were made in the early Eocene period, and another
period of subsidence occurred.
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