Southern Rocky Mountains

ScienceDaily (July 2, 2009) — Is it possible that something as insubstantial and transitory as snow could be responsible for large scale vertical movements of Earth’s surface and the excavation of deeply incised gorges?

Extensive regions of the southern Rocky Mountains of the Southwestern United States have experienced more than 1.5 km of erosion over the past 10 million years, including the development of deeply incised canyons almost a kilometer deep. And while climate change has been suspected of having a role in the removal of vast volumes of Earth’s crust, determining the specific processes responsible for the large scale erosion has proved problematic.

In this month’s GSA Today article, John Pelletier of the University of Arizona has identified the likely culprit — snow.

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