>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.
>
But you have not shown how such currents can be localized to produce such a
phenomenon. The Gulf Stream along the East Coast of the US is analogous to
such a current as you describe, yet it is not currently digging a huge
canyon into the sedimentary pile along the east coast. Also you are missing
something from hydrodynamics. There is a constraint called the continuity
equation. It means that the change in mass of the fluid at any given
location must be compensated for by opposite changes in mass at other
locations. If you have several currents coming together at one point at the
western end of the Grand Canyon this means that a given volume there must
accomodate more mass than a given volume would elsewhere. In other words
all the matter must be smashed together. Yet, water is highly
INCOMPRESSIBLE. This is why two rivers than join form one much larger river.
It is patently and physically impossible for there to be a higher density of
water and sediment at the end of the Grand canyon than elsewhere. Because of
this, you model would expect that the cutting should be WIDER at the western
end than at the eastern end of the Canyon. But in point of fact, the
excavation width is remarkably constant across this distance.
>There, I win. :-)
I see you have learned the lesson of Vietnam--declare victory and go home. :-)
glenn
Adam, Apes, and Anthropology: Finding the Soul of Fossil Man
and
Foundation, Fall and Flood
http://www.isource.net/~grmorton/dmd.htm