Figure 101: Grand Canyon Cross Section. The tipped and beveled layers are part of the Precambrian. The beveled plane, at the Cambrian-Precambrian interface, is sometimes called The Great Unconformity. A similar, but much smaller, example of tipped and beveled layers is shown in the cross-bedded sandstone in Figure 103. Beveling implies relative motion. Near the top of the Grand Canyon is a 400-foot-thick layer of cross-bedded sandstone. The white arrow points to the quartzite block shown in Figure 102.

Figure 102: Transported Block in the Grand Canyon. In the left figure, notice the large, 5–10-ton block near the center, and the shadows of photographer Jim McDowell (my son-in-law) and two grandsons, Sean and Ryan McDowell. The right figure is an enlargement of the block with Ryan and Sean (left to right).

Geology professor Arthur V. Chadwick brought this block to my attention in 1978²⁵ and later in a visit to my office. The block—a very hard material called quartzite—was lifted, transported from right to left, and deposited on layers which, at the time, were soft mud. Other mud layers then blanketed the block. (See the deformed layers below and above the block.) Professor Chadwick correctly identified the lifting force: a very dense, rapidly-flowing, sand/mud/water slurry, which plucked the block off the lower quartzite layer upstream (far to the right of these pictures). Part of that “pink” quartzite layer is seen in the first picture (lower right). The easiest way to lift and transport such a heavy block is in a dense liquefied (and therefore, very buoyant), sediment/water mixture.

This rapid transport, which was immediately above the Cambrian-Precambrian interface, occurred during the compression event. Below the sliding slurry, a sand layer decelerated and compressed first. That compression squeezed up water that lubricated the slide and heated the quartz sand, so it became quartzite.²⁶ Compression also tipped the layers up, causing them to be beveled by the overriding, sliding layers. The camera is looking north; therefore, the slurry slid from east to west, which is consistent with the direction the Americas hydroplate slid away from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. (Evolutionary geologists who do not understand the physics and the rapid continental drift that ended in the compression event, explain the flat Cambrian-Precambrian interface as a result of hundreds of millions of years of erosion. For them, unimaginable time explains everything. Lazy and sloppy thinking.)

See Figure 101 for a cross section of this region. The block is located at 36°7'34.80"N, 112°8'39.60"W. Hikers should not attempt to reach this remote, rugged, off-trail location unless they are in excellent physical condition and have permission from the Grand Canyon Backcountry Office.

Figure 103: Cross-Bedded Sandstone. Dry sand can have a maximum slope of only 32 degrees. Cross-bedded sandstone, such as shown here, often has much greater slopes. Therefore, this sand, confined between layers that have since eroded, was probably wet when the layers tipped.

Figure 104: Formation of Liquefaction Plumes and Mounds. (a) During the flood phase, global liquefaction sorted water-saturated sediments into nearly horizontal layers. (b) During the compression event, massive liquefaction caused less-dense sand/water mixtures to float up as plumes, through denser overlying layers. (Figure 59 on page 124 shows a similar phenomenon.) Later, if the surface layers were not cemented as well as the sandstone plume, the surface layers could erode away, leaving the harder, more-resistant plume exposed. (c) If a plume spilled out on the ground, a mound would form.

Figure 105: Liquefaction Plume 1. A hundred of these plumes are found in Kodachrome Basin State Reserve in south-central Utah, 10 miles east of Bryce Canyon National Park. I am standing at the bottom left of this tall plume.

Figure 106: Liquefaction Plume 2. This plume can be traced down several hundred feet through the large rock in the bottom half of the picture. The plume grew up from a known horizontal sandstone layer that has identical chemical characteristics.²⁷ After the plume pushed upward, cementing occurred, with the sandstone plume becoming harder than the material it penetrated. The softer layers surrounding the plume later eroded away, leaving the plume exposed. [See Figure 104b.] Notice the person waving at the bottom left of this plume.

Figure 107: Liquefaction Mound.²⁹ This and hundreds of similar sandstone mounds occupy the basin of the former Grand Lake. The breaching of Grand Lake carved the Grand Canyon. [See pages 202–234.]

The compression event produced massive liquefaction in water-saturated sand layers. During the few minutes the liquefaction lasted, some sand-water mixtures erupted, much like a volcano. Here, the eruption was onto the floor of Grand Lake. The large, mushy pile of sand quickly settled into the shape of an upside-down bowl. As the flood waters drained off the continents, this large, wet sand pile was protected, because it was deep in a lake. As the warm lake cooled, silica dissolved in the water was forced out of solution, thereby cementing the mound’s sand grains. A century or so later, when Grand Lake spilled out, rushing water around the mound eroded the softer sediments on which the mound rested, producing the deep “moat” that separates the man at the lower right from the mound.

Figure 108: Ayers Rock. This popular tourist attraction in central Australia is 225 miles southwest of Alice Springs. Ayers Rock rises 1,140 feet from the desert floor and has a perimeter of 5.6 miles. Geologists who try to explain the origin of Ayers Rock say its sand came from the Musgrave mountain range 60 miles to the north and was dumped by water at its present spot. To account for its vertical layers, they say the rock “tipped,” but the forces, energy, and mechanisms to do this are never explained. However, most geologists admit they do not know the origin of Ayers Rock.

Ayers Rock has characteristics of both a broad liquefaction plume and a liquefaction mound. [See Figure 104.] Its surface layers (bedding) are nearly vertical, and they connect to a horizontal sandstone layer underground. It formed in the Amadeus Basin, whose contained waters covered and protected it while the flood waters drained from the earth. Probably most soft sediments, through which the plume rose, were swept away when the basin’s lake finally discharged. The many large holes in the sides of Ayers Rock show where water drained out. (Almost 20 miles away, this same, deep horizontal sandstone layer also connects to a series of liquefaction eruptions called the Olgas.)

The sand grains comprising Ayers Rock are jagged but, if exposed to rapid currents, would have become rounded. Had the grains been weathered for thousands of years, they would have become clay. Instead, these grain characteristics are consistent with the gentle currents produced by liquefaction and the rapid cementing in the years after the flood.

Figure 109: Small Water Vents. These water vents are smaller than a pebble; others, such as those in Ayers Rock, are larger than a car. Water vents are quite different from the shallow and smooth bowl-like depressions which wind and rain produce.

Figure 110: Medium-Size Water Vents. Geology professor Dr. Douglas A. Block points to one of many holes in the side of a huge liquefaction mound in southern Utah. If these holes were places where rock was weakly cemented, similar holes should be on the tops of mounds. Instead, the tops are smooth. Cementing in mounds and cross-bedded sandstone is remarkably uniform and hard, showing that the cement was uniformly dissolved throughout water that saturated the sand.