The power of running water

I enjoyed reading about the canyon in the Independent Record. Having lived here for 40 years, I've driven through it countless times through hot, cold, wet and dry seasons. The wettest I can remember was in 1979 when landslides blocked it seven times on one side and five on the other. I don't remember which was which. Even in the wettest season it never dug small canyons like it did the last time the road and railroad were blocked. Those, I understand, were dug in two days or less. Also on Mt. Saint Helens in 1982, two years after it first blew its top in 1980, it erupted again and the runoff dug out a mini grand canyon in a week or so. The power of running water is awesome.

Which brings me to Bill Sniffin's statement of the Wind River digging out the canyon in millions of years.

I did some calculating and came up with this. I understand the canyon is some 1,300 feet deep but we will round it off at 1,500 feet deep. He mentioned it digs at less than 1 inch a year so we will just say 1 tenth a year. That comes out to 180,000 years to dig it out. That is way less than one million and much less than millions of years.

One other problem is to dig it out of the Copper Mountains the water would have to start at the top. Being as the mountain range goes all around the south side of the entire basin, how did the river get to the top in the first place? Also, the river would have to repeat the process downstream in the Big Horn Canyon.

I think that using just basic math and a little common sense the old age earth belief can be proven to be the myth that it is.

If anyone would like to discuss the matter further with me, my address is in the phone book.

Thank you IR for your time and printing this letter.

Duane Richter