As I walk in the woods along the Roseau River I can see the little hills and valleys that were once the river's bed hundreds or thousands of years ago. As rivers wiggle their way downstream, they carve away one bank while depositing that bank’s mud on the other side forming wider and wider loops until a chunk of land is turned into an island. If the river can find a slightly lower path, it will jump to a new bed, leaving its old bed to dry up. Look at the course of the Mississippi south of St. Louis for examples of this on a large scale. State boundaries that used to follow the river are now illogically inland in places.
I was recently at the Grand Canyon and have been wondering if the Roseau River could ever rival the Grand Canyon. I don't know if a licensed geologist would agree with me, but my research leads me to say yes it could. It would take awhile and none of us would be around to enjoy the view, but I believe it's possible.
The earth and the sun are both about 4.5 billion years old. According to scientists, the sun won't even start to run out of fuel for another five billion years, so time is not a problem. Anyone who says Roseau could never be the next Grand Canyon should study the record. Since the first supercontinent formed 3.6 billion years ago (Vaalbara) nine more supercontinents have come and gone since the most recent one, Pangaea began to break up 170 million years ago. The next supercontinent, already named Pangaea Proxima, is estimated to come together in 250 million years.
All this breaking up and reforming of continents is thanks to plate tectonics. The continents and assorted parts of continents are on plates sliding over the slippery asthenosphere like plates on a lurching ship’s table. Our part of North America spent a lot of time on the equator before moving to a cooler latitude. But like the snowbird, it will go south again. Meanwhile our own Grand Canyon could form right here in Roseau County.
The bedrock at the bottom of the Grand Canyon is two billion years old. The bedrock under Wannaska, known as the Canadian Shield, is three billion years old. Over a period of a billion years, the area around the Grand Canyon was covered by a series of deserts and shallow seas. The layers of sand and sea creatures were slowly compressed into sandstone, mudstone, and limestone. Lava and magma from volcanoes produced volcanic rock. The dinosaurs came and went. Dinosaurs will not be welcome at Wannaska Canyon.
About 65 million years ago the land around the Grand Canyon was lifted up about a mile high. Plate tectonics at work again. The Colorado River then began its job of cutting down a mile through these many layers all the way to the bedrock. Much as I love the Roseau River, I doubt it's up to the job of reaching the basement. Perhaps landowners will agree to divert the Red River into the bed of the Roseau for the public good. We don't ask that the river run south like the Colorado. We're not expecting miracles. An act of God will suffice.
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| Artist's rendition of the future Wannaska Canyon National Park |
Did anyone among the tourists attempt to dislodge a tectonic plate while you were there, like at Lake Mead National Recreation area? Thought maybe that was a new thing now.
ReplyDeleteHi there, Mr. Great Tectonic! What an hypothesis for our little river. A future we can only imagine unless reincarnations exist as some would have it. Sounds like there may be riverfront property in Beltrami Forest, if anyone is here to buy it.
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