|
The Grand Canyon Caverns (, ), located just a few miles east of Peach Springs, Arizona, lie below ground level. They are among the largest dry caverns in the United States. Dry caverns compose only 3% of caverns in the world. Because of the lack of water, stalagmites and stalactites are rare in the caverns. Air comes into the caverns from the Grand Canyon through of limestone caves, a fact discovered when red smoke flares were ignited in the caves, and two weeks later, red smoke was seen protruding from vents, near Supai, AZ, in the Grand Canyon. During the Mississippian Period 345 million years ago, the southwest United States was covered by ocean. Skeletons of sea life settling to the depths, created a mud with a high percentage of calcium. This eventually hardened into the limestone bedrock seen in the caverns today. Over millions of years, the bedrock was pushed up to over above sea level. Approximately 35 million years ago, rainfall flowed into the rock, and eroded passages that lead to the Colorado River and what is now the Grand Canyon. Millions of years later, the evaporating water left calcium deposits on the walls and floors, creating the formations that can be viewed today. The site featured in an episode of the popular TV series 'Ghost Adventures' in October 2015, Season 11 episode 7. The episode featured various accounts of paranormal activity during the investigation including rocks being thrown and railings rattling without explanation. ==Contemporary history== In 1927, cowboy and woodcutter Walter Peck was walking through the area on his way to play poker with his friends when he stumbled and nearly fell into a hole. Peck and some of his friends returned the next day to the large, funnel shaped hole with lanterns and ropes. With a rope tied around his waist, he was lowered into the hole to a depth of , and began exploring. Speckles on the walls led Peck to think he had discovered a gold mine. He gathered samples of the shiny rocks and had his friends pull him back to the surface. He then purchased the property and began making preparations for a gold mining operation. But once the assay reports were completed, he learned that his potential mother lode was nothing more than iron oxide. Not one to give up on entrepreneurial opportunities, Peck decided to open the caverns to travelers and began charging 25 cents to lower these early cavers down into the caverns, where they were able to view what had been reported to be the remains of a caveman located on a ledge. Although the 'caveman' had also brought scientists from the east to study the remains, in the 1960s the "caveman" was shown to be the remains of two inhabitants of the area. These men had died in the winter of 1917-1918, barely a decade before the caverns' discovery. Part of a group of Hualapai Native Americans harvesting and cutting firewood on the caverns' hilltop, they were trapped there for three days by a snowstorm. Two brothers died from influenza, and since the ground was frozen solid with and covered in snow, they were buried in what was thought to be only a hole, as returning them to their tribal headquarters in Peach Springs risked spreading the flu. In 1935, the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration made an agreement with Peck to build a new entrance to the Caverns. In 1962, another entrance was built by blasting a shaft into the limestone and installing a large elevator. At that time the natural entrance was also sealed off at the request of the Hualapai Indians as it was considered a sacred burial place. Near the natural entrance, the skeletal remains of a Paramylodon harlani (Glossotherium harlani) were also found. This giant and extinct ground sloth lived during the Age of Mammals around 11,000 years ago, when the woolly mammoth and saber tooth cat roamed North America. Peck had named the caverns ''Yampai Caverns'', with the name being changed several times. Up until 1957, they were known as ''The Coconino Caverns''. From 1957 through 1962, they were known as ''The Dinosaur Caverns'' and there are plenty of contemporary but artificial 'dinosaur' artifacts from this era that exist to this day. In 1962, they were renamed ''The Grand Canyon Caverns'', as they are connected to the Grand Canyon to the north. During the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, the U.S. government deployed enough water and food rations to the caverns to support 2,000 people for up to two weeks. These supplies remain there today and are seen by visitors who tour the caverns. But a more interesting fact is that these supplies are still as ready to eat and drink as they were when deployed due to the constant dryness and cool temperature of the air inside. Not simply a Historic Route 66 roadside tourist attraction, the caverns are the location of ongoing scientific work related not only to cave exploration, but to space exploration as well. A cosmic ray telescope was installed in 1979 under of solid limestone by the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of New Mexico. The purpose of the telescope is to study interstellar cosmic rays that constantly bombard the earth from deep space, penetrating solid rock. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Grand Canyon Caverns」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|