SINE

Downstream from Phantom Ranch is Vishnu Schist that I came down to bottom to see. It should be easy to find because it is black and the same level as the River. It is the oldest stuff on earth anyone has found. It began as inorganic sediments and lava in an area of the big ancient supercontinent America was in. When that continent ran into volcanic islands near Antartica and Australia, this mixture got pushed down and buried under other material. That collision continued and led to mountains higher than the Rockies or Alps that pressed down on the material. That made it change into what it is now. With continued continental drift, it arrived here at Grand Canyon. This happened mostly before life on earth began, and explains why there are no fossils in the Vishnu Schist. It's almost two billion years old. The only thing older that anybody has touched is from the moon, which is why we think the moon was born when a meteor hit where the Pacific Ocean is now and knocked a moon size clod out of earth.