英国南安普敦大学研究团队发现了一个可能改写北美地质史理解的新线索。1约8亿年前，超大陆罗迪尼亚分裂时形成的一个巨大悬崖系统，其高度约为1公里，沿北美西部延伸数千公里。1这一古老景观可能在科罗拉多河开凿大峡谷近10亿年之前就已经暴露了大峡谷最深层的岩石。1该研究成果已发表在《地质学》杂志上。1
该项目由南安普敦大学、德国GFZ亥姆霍兹地球科学研究中心、波茨坦大学和美国伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-香槟分校联合完成。1古老悬崖系统可能跨越今天的亚利桑那州、犹他州、爱达荷州、怀俄明州、科罗拉多州、得克萨斯州、俄克拉荷马州、阿肯色州、密苏里州和伊利诺伊州。1研究估计，该过程可能在某些地点移除了约8公里厚的岩石。1大峡谷虽保存约20亿年的地质历史，但超过一半的岩石记录缺失，这一发现可能为北美地质记录中超过10亿年的缺失提供了解释。1
Researchers from the University of Southampton have identified an ancient cliff system that may have exposed the Grand Canyon's deepest rock layers nearly a billion years before the Colorado River carved the canyon itself 1. This massive escarpment formed approximately 800 million years ago when the supercontinent Rodinia broke apart 1. The discovery, published in the journal Geology, offers a potential explanation for a striking gap in North America's geological record: over half of the rock layers preserved in the Grand Canyon, spanning more than a billion years, are missing 1.
The ancient cliff system originally stood roughly one kilometer high and extended thousands of kilometers across the western United States 1. Scientists estimate that this dramatic landscape feature removed approximately 8 kilometers of rock in certain locations through erosion and weathering processes 1. The original escarpment likely spanned across what is now Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, and Illinois 1. The research involved collaboration between the University of Southampton, Germany's GFZ Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, the University of Potsdam, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 1.
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