By chance, archaeologists have established a possible link between the meteorite which formed the Meteor Crater in Arizona, and a landslide in the Grand Canyon which would have occurred more than 50,000. Their hypothesis is supported in a study published on July 15, 2025. A coincidence … which fell well.
A story of chance, of coincidence … It is often in this way that the best stories begin, like that of this archaeological hypothesis which links two emblematic places of Arizona: the Grand Canyon and the Meteor Crater.
An international research team published a study in the journal Geology July 15, 2025. She presents her theory, according to which the impact of the meteorite having formed the Meteor Crater in Arizona would have led to a landslide in the Grand Canyon.
“It is important to understand the effects of the impacts of meteorite on earth, like the one who contributed to the extinction of dinosaurs, and we think we have found a link between the strike which created the meteor crater and a paleolac in the great canyon which formed at the same time”explains in a press release from Chris Baisan, the main author of the study, and specialist in research on circles of trees at the University of Alberta.
How did archaeologists manage to establish such a link? It all starts with a coincidence …
Stanton’s Cave, or Stanton’s cave
In a cave in the east of the Grand Canyon, called Stanton’s Cave (La Cave de Stanton, in French), archaeologists have long documented driftwood and sediments that would have belonged to a lake. However, the opening of this cave is 45 meters above the level of the Colorado river.
How did this wood and these sediments reach until then? And, since when have they been there? “It would have taken a flood ten times greater than all those that have occurred in the last thousands of years”said Karl Karlstrom, co-author of the study, and a distinguished emeritus professor at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, in the same press release.
A landslide occurred downstream of the cave
In the 1980s, one of the co-authors of the article, Richard Hereford, had already presented a study demonstrating the probability that there was a landslide near a canyon called Nankoweap. It would have occurred about 35 km downstream from Stanton’s cave and could have caused the formation of a dam, then a lake. This would explain how driftwood and sediment ended up in this cave.
Driftwood was dated more precisely in 2019 by the specialist and co-author of the study, Jonathan Palmer, of the University of South Wales in Sydney. Result: he would have about 55,000 years.
Chance does things well. Jonathan Palmer went to Meteor Crater at the bend of a trip to the United States, to go to the laboratory of Chris Baisan … who worked precisely on these wooden samples! He then learned that the impact of the meteorite dates from 50,000 years ago. Coincidence? … Not for Jonathan Palmer!
« There was this completely unexpected question that no one had asked before Says Chris Baisan. “” And it happened simply because people from different regions of the world went visit. »
Other sediment and wood samples from sites downstream from the cave have been analyzed and have a similar age of around 55,600 years, which strengthens the hypothesis presented by researchers.
Meteorite, landslide and driftwood
The meteorite having caused the Meteor Crater weighed around 300,000 tonnes and the earthquake caused would have been 5.4 to 6 on the Richter scale.
“We do not precisely know the intensity of tremors”explains Chris Baisan. “There would have been the shock wave when the object goes into the air, then the explosion wave, and finally the impact, which could have been enough to trigger a landslide in the canyon. »» However, an event capable of leading to a landslide and the formation of a lake is extremely rare. Well, a meteorite too, that said …
“We have developed these arguments without claiming to have final evidence. Other possibilities exist, such as an accidental landslide or a local earthquake within a thousand years following the impact of the Meteor Crater, which could have occurred independently ”specifies Karl Karstrom. « Nevertheless, the impact of the meteorite, the massive landslide, the lake deposits and the driftwood above the river level are all rare and unusual phenomena. »»
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