By Ellie Zolfagharifard PUBLISHED: 09:17 EST, 27 January 2014 | UPDATED: 10:34 EST, 27 January 2014 When the Colorado River snaked its way through Arizona, it sliced its way through ancient canyons, at least one of which was 70 million years old. This is according to a new U.S. study which claims that while parts of the gorge are ancient, the river only carved the present form of the Grand Canyon less than 6 million years ago. The makes the world famous landmark relatively young in geological terms, and 65 million years younger than previously believed.
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Geologists dated sections of canyon by measuring temperature of rocks
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Found that Grand Canyon is a series of smaller canyons and that it only formed as it looks today six million years ago
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Hurricane segment and Eastern Grand Canyon, formed between 70 and 50 million years ago and between 25 and 15 million years ago, respectively
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Two end segments, Marble Canyon and the Westernmost Grand Canyon, are both young and were carved in the past five to six million years
What remains is open to interpretation, with some scientists suggesting the gorge cannot be defined as the ‘Grand Canyon’ without  the @placeholder river running through it.