On July 3, 1869, a news storey titled "The Shocking Disaster" ran on the front page of the conventional Chicago Tribune. A team of researchers led by one-handed geologist john Wesley Powell was involved in an incident, according to the article. That group's mission is the same. But it's not simple. Travelling down the Green River in Wyoming, roughly a thousand kilometres downhill. The news spread that the boat they were on had sunk, that everyone on board had perished, and that only one survivor had managed to escape.
Years that have been lost
Powell's study tour is out of the usual. It had been an exciting journey. They had made numerous plans to cross 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometres) on a roaring river. Work and security suspects, including aboriginals and ex-convicts, were also apprehended.
John Wesley Powell's visit is commemorated on a postage stamp.
Their mission began with four boats in all. They also had the bravery to face anything on a regular basis, including swirling water, cascading waterfalls, and dangerous rocks. One of their boats capsized just a few days into the journey. Only six out of ten travellers were to return home, it was decided.
According to the laws of the earth, the location where the vertical crystal rock was found should be 10,000 feet thick. However, it was just 500 feet in reality. Typically, the rocks are placed one on top of the other. However, the "Great Contradiction" defied precedent.
The youngest of the hard, crystalline rocks, according to geologists, is 1.7 billion years old. The earliest sandstone layer, for example, is thought to have developed 550 million years ago.
Snowball is the first theory.
Putting today's events on the Earth's glaciers into context and estimating what might have happened during the gap. The greenland Glacier is the world's second-largest ice sheet, covering 80 per cent of the island's surface area, or around 1.7 million square kilometres. Glaciers, like rivers, can move. But at a snail's pace. They gradually distance themselves from the Earth's surface. Similar processes occurred across the whole surface of the Earth when it was a giant iceberg. They imagined the snowball would have been a “wet” glacier on the Earth's surface, based on a model generated by another team many years ago. It would have also been transportable.
Theory 2: A supercontinent's demise
The disappearance of the supercontinent Rodinia is another option for the disappearance of a billion-year-old rock. east Antarctica, India, Siberia, China, South America, North America, and a large portion of Africa are all gathered at one location. It joined for the first time a billion years ago. Rodinia would have appeared like a vast, hilly plateau for around 200 million years, according to this theory. It's possible that all life existed in the enormous ocean that surrounded it. It's possible that it was finally destroyed with nothing left save the surface. The loss of the rocks could be due to this.
Theory 3: Space Confusion
A billion years can only be erased in one of two ways. Either rock did not come into being. Alternatively, they might all be eliminated. The Great Canyon, often known as the Grand Canyon, is a prime example of the Great Contradiction. And you can see similar looks in a variety of places. If the two layers of destroyed rock were not caused by the same remarkable event as the Earth becoming a snowball, it would appear that they were not caused by the same amazing occurrence. According to Flowers, it could have been generated by a variety of events, including the ascent of the Earth's crust.
The unresolved puzzle
The puzzle, on the other hand, did not go away. The discussion is still going on. All experts agree that further data is required. This is, fortunately, likely to be available. A technique is known as "thermochronology" plays an important role. It tells the narrative of a rock's formation by monitoring how its temperature has changed throughout time. According to professor McDonald, "we have the opportunity to retrieve the missing chapters in the history of the earth" with this technology.
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