If you read geology books on the conventional wisdom about what created the Grand Canyon, the most oft-posited hypothesis has to do with the rise of the Colorado Plateau on which the Canyon rests, combined with the downcutting of the Colorado River. I’ve more recently come in contact with a hypothesis that suggests the Grand Canyon’s rapid creation over just the last few million years is better explained by the backflow from a gigantic prehistoric lake situated to the east of the Canyon.

Evidence exists for a lake in this region, a body of water larger than Lake Michigan, which lends credence to the idea that a catastrophic flood helped carve the gorge so deep and so quick. What do you think?