Corridors of Time

Corridors of Time


1,700,000,000 Years of Earth at Grand Canyon
Panoramic Photography and Text by Ron Redfern
Introduction by Carl Sagan

It has been said that there is no landscape on earth that is more
astonishing than the Grand Canyon of Arizona. People who visit
Grand Canyon are likely to satisfy a lifetime’s ambition when they
do so.

I had visited Grand Canyon twice. When I first stood on its rim
gazing across this giant, my reaction to the canyon was the scene
of divinity, or the product of “鬼斧神工”. The scene was also so weird
and lonely. Then, during the second visit, my reaction was: How was
the Canyon formed? How old is it? What were the hammer and the
blade forces that made the Canyon Grand?

CORRIDOR OF TIME is a 1980 Reader’s Digest Edition. In this book,
Carl Sagan (1934-1996), the notable American Astronomer,
Astrochemist, Planetary scientist and Author, did the introduction:

“Everything is connected with everything else. If we look deep
enough, we can find strands of casuality binding together any two
objects or events in the Cosmo. But occasionally we come upon a
thing speaks to us eloquently of profound connections, both in time
and space. The Grand Canyon of northwestern Arizona was cut over
the ages by the Colorado River. The exposed rocks in the Canyon
walls have a story to tell, if we are willing to pay attention; and clarify
the processes which create and destroy the landscape of Earth. There
are Precambrian formation from the time before there were any
individual plants or animals big enough to see; there are Mesozoic
rocks, from the time when hissing reptiles limbered through the
steaming jungles; there is Sunset Crater, a volcano which erupted in
the eleventh century A.D., burying in ash a village made by creatures
who evolved on Earth only a few millions years earlier. Much of the
story of our planet can be found in the Grand Canyon section
of the Colorado Plateau.”



Those who had visited the Grand Canyon would agree that there is
one place on our planet where nearly two billion years of natural
history are set forth in a unique and breathtaking display: the region
of the most spectacular terrain on Earth.

We have planned to make our third visit in the near future.

Yeh Tze