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Study suggests that an ancient version of the Colorado River may have ended in the Bidahochi basin, where sediments, zircons, and fossils help geologists investigate a lost route before the formation of the current Grand Canyon.
Geologists suggest that an ancient version of the Colorado River may have ended in a reservoir in the Bidahochi basin, east-southeast of the Grand Canyon, before reaching the ravines it would help carve.
The hypothesis, published in the journal Science, seeks to fill nearly five million years. The Colorado had already descended from the Rocky Mountains at least 11 million years ago.
Evidence indicated that the river broke through the canyon system about 5.6 million years ago. Before that, the fate of its waters remained unexplained, when the geological trail cooled in the north of Arizona.
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Geologists trace sediments to Bidahochi
John Douglass, a geologist from Paradise Valley Community College, co-authored the study. He worked with researchers from the United States Geological Survey and universities in the American West.
The team tested the findings with fossils and geological records, focusing the investigation on the Bidahochi Formation. Douglass stated that more than a dozen hypotheses have tried to explain the formation of the canyon and the path of the Colorado River.
The group believes that the Colorado River flooded the Bidahochi basin, now on Navajo Nation lands, before overflowing from the Colorado Plateau. The flow would follow into gorges that would form the current Grand Canyon.
Crystals acted as trackers
The project advanced when Douglass met with John He, a geologist from the University of California, Los Angeles, and Emma Heitmann, a doctoral student at the University of Washington.
They were studying remnants of Lake Bidahochi. The body of water was never fully explained, and there is no consensus on its size, the rivers that fed it, or the causes of its disappearance.
The analysis relied on zircons, microscopic and resistant crystals found in Bidahochi sediments. As they change little since their formation in magma, they can indicate the origin of the sediments.
John He compared the zircons to time vaults. By the age and geochemical signature of these crystals, the researchers assessed where the material carried by the ancient Colorado River came from.
The technique used was detrital zircon geochronology. It measures proportions of uranium and lead isotopes in samples, allowing estimation of the age and origins of the deposits.
The results compared 6.6 million-year-old Bidahochi zircons with samples deposited upstream and downstream of the Colorado River. For the team, this reinforces the connection between the river and the basin.
Fossils of fish reinforce the hypothesis
The study also relied on paleontological evidence. Fish fossils from the upper Bidahochi Formation had characteristics similar to modern species adapted to the rapids of fast-flowing Colorado rivers.
Three specimens exhibited enlarged fins and slender caudal peduncles, characteristics observed in species of the genera Catostomus and Gila. These indications support the presence of environments linked to the ancient Colorado River.
Even so, the hypothesis may not convince all geologists. The theory of a “megaflood” in Bidahochi has been debated for decades, and part of the scientific community has remained resistant.
John He stated that the ecosystem likely changed with the arrival of the Colorado River to the basin. For him, the scenario can be understood as the birth of the current Colorado River.
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