Scientists are uncovering a surprising chapter in the Grand Canyon’s history: a meteor may have struck the region thousands of years ago. Back when the canyon was taking shape, much of the region was underwater. Over time, shifting marine environments, changing climates, and multiple extinction events caused oceans and seas to recede or vanish. Yet, despite the passage of millions of years of evolution, traces of ancient species have survived, leaving clues for scientists to piece together the canyon’s long-lost past.
The Grand Canyon was once filled with water
That is one of the reasons why whale skeletons and other marine fossils often turn up far from today’s oceans. Just like the Sahara desert, it was once underwater, and now holds the remains of Mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, sea snakes, and countless other creatures that swam – and died – there. The same goes for a spike-toothed creature recently discovered in the Grand Canyon.
Long before mammals appeared and eventually took to the land, Earth was home to ancient life forms that remain a mystery because evidence of them is so rare. But this latest discovery changes that. Scientists have uncovered a creature whose lineage survived multiple mass extinctions, leaving behind remarkable fossil evidence.
A meteor shock could have reshaped the geological formation in the region
Thousands of years ago, a meteor may have slammed into the region hard enough to trigger a massive landslide in the Grand Canyon, temporarily damming the Colorado River. In Stanton’s Cave, in Marble Canyon, geologists discovered driftwood and lake sediments that could tie this event to the Meteor Crater, also called Barringer Crater, in northern Arizona. Radiocarbon dating puts the driftwood at about 56,000 years old. Since the cave now sits 150 feet (46 meters) above the river, the wood probably floated there in a paleo lake formed by a landslide.
Karl Karlstrom, co-lead author and professor at the University of New Mexico, said the flood needed to move the driftwood would have been ten times larger than any flood seen in the past several thousand years. The meteor impact may have triggered a magnitude 5.4–6 earthquake, shaking cliffs 100 miles away and sending the landslide crashing down.
Using driftwood and sediment from caves as high as 3,084 feet (940 meters), the team estimates the lake stretched roughly 50 miles (80 km) long and nearly 300 feet (91 meters) deep. Eventually, the dam eroded, the lake drained, and sediment filled the canyon.
How scientists connected the dots: The theory requires further work
While the evidence points to a link between the meteorite, landslide, and lake, researchers emphasize that more work is needed to rule out other causes, such as local earthquakes or random rockfalls. Paleontologists have uncovered a tightly preserved set of fossils in the greenish shales of the Bright Angel Formation. Though the rocks now rise above the Colorado River, they first formed nearly 500 million years ago in the Cambrian Period.
The discovery includes mollusks, crustaceans, and other creatures with features that survive in species today. Even back then, these animals were evolving complex structures, showing that competition and adaptation were already shaping life long before the world we know existed – and before the meteor struck the area.
Some parts of the Canyon might be toxic: Uranium could destroy the region
Since its opening in 2023, the Grand Canyon uranium mine has released toxic substances into the water, according to 91.5 KJZZ. Uranium carries both promise and risk: it fuels nuclear reactors, but can also be used for weapons. In the canyon, most of the uranium sits in ancient chimney-like formations called breccia pipes. These structures hold concentrated uranium ore, and mining companies view them as rich but buried resources, but, just like Uranium, they are starting to be revealed.
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