Grand Canyon's Mysteries of Origin Solved

Newswise — For over 135 years, the best scientific minds were baffled by the origin of the Grand Canyon. They recognized that the Colorado River carved this natural masterpiece, but exactly when and how eluded them. Only in the last few years has a consensus begun to emerge and now, for the first time, author James Lawrence Powell reveals how the mystery came to be solved in his new book, "Grand Canyon: Solving Earth's Grandest Puzzle."

Powell explains how geologists have concluded that the rock forming the Grand Canyon emerged from underground, and the Colorado River cut through it, actually running in the opposite direction. At another time, hundreds of feet of gravel buried an ancestor of today's Colorado River, then erosion removed the gravel and resurrected the river in what James Lawrence Powell has dubbed the "Lazarus Theory."

James Lawrence Powell is Executive Director of the National Physical Science Consortium, and a former Director and President of the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.Powell's book is published by Pi Press and will be released on April 18, 2005. It is filled with historical photographs of the early research expeditions, is 352 pages, cloth, and will retail for $27.95