Hey Glenn,
This is indirect, but below is a post to the ASA site:
Wed, 03 Dec 1997 21:09:47 -0600 Glenn Morton wrote:
> You left out the real liklihood that the delta will shift somewhere else.
> The Mississippi River has not always emptied where it does today. 5000
> years ago it was depositing sediment far to the west of its present location
> and at one time it deposited its sediment eastward in the Chandeleur Sound.
> Spreading the sediment out, allows for subsidence to accomodate the space.
> I also did a calculation a few days ago in which I calculated that the
> Mississippi spread its sediments over around 115,000 square miles and given
> the rate of sediment influx observed today it would take 49 million years to
> deposit the 40,000 + feet of sediment we see out there.
When I was in school, I calculated the volume of sediment in the Gulf
Coast Geosyncline and, assuming it all came from the present drainage
basin (about half the continental US), I figured that the average
thickness of the sediment (if spread over the drainage area) was about
one mile thick.
If there has been a mile of erosion from the entire US, then the
topography we see now is obviously different than in the past. Assuming
the YEC model, if the continents popped up maybe over a period of
several weeks or months, and the flood waters ran off carrying massive
amounts of sediment, Grand Canyon could have been carved as the last
phase of this continuous process. IOW, the water which would now be
impounded may not equal the water available at the time. Also, water
may have been flowing from different directions to cause the barbed
canyons, present-day lakes would not be required.
There, I win. :-)
Bill