The mystery of the Great Unconformity is inherently tied to two of geology’s other great enigmas: the rise and fall of Snowball Earth and the sudden emergence of complex life in the Ediacaran and ...

Scientists are floating a new way to explain a geological feature called the Great Unconformity, where the record of a billion years is just missing from between the layers of rock. Or, to be more ...

When the famed explorer John Wesley Powell bumped, splashed and thrashed his way down the Colorado River in 1869, he discovered one of the most striking geologic features on Earth.

Some rocks below the Great Unconformity are 1.2 billion years older than those above it. In some places, the rocks below the Great Unconformity are about 1.2 billion years older than those above ...

"The Great Unconformity" has perplexed geologists since it was first described nearly 150 years ago. It is an erosion surface found worldwide, but best exposed at the bottom of the Grand Canyon ...

©2025 Las Vegas Review-Journal. Visit reviewjournal.com.. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. The Great Unconformity site is seen at Frenchman Mountain on Monday, Feb. 17, 2025, in Las Vegas.

This rock exposes the Great Unconformity, where 1.1 billion-year-old Pikes Peak granite is topped with 510 million-year-old sandstone outside of Manitou Springs, Colorado.

The size of the Great Unconformity also differs across the canyon, with a smaller gap to the east, Peak said. At its smallest, the gap covers about 250 million years.

The Great Unconformity was first described by John Wesley Powell during a boat expedition in 1869 along the Colorado River, which carved Arizona's Grand Canyon. It was one of the first well ...

Nick Saines, an environmental geologist, speaks at the Great Unconformity site at Frenchman Mountain on Monday, Feb. 17, 2025, in Las Vegas. (Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @bizutesfaye ...