The Epeiric Inundation and Catastrophic Spillover Framework: A Systems-Architecture Model of Southwestern North American Geomorphology and the Carving of the Grand Canyon

This independent research paper (version 2.1) presents a rigorous, pattern-seeking geological model detailing the formation of the vast, topographically continuous structural corridors that span multiple states across the broader Southwest. It describes a cascading chain of events that caused the formation of the regional landmarks we see today, including the violent, cataclysmic carving of the Grand Canyon, formation of Moab arches, The Goosenecks of the San Juan, Mineral Canyon, Vermillion Cliffs, Zion, The Painted Desert and more. Utilizing regional terrain data and structural stratigraphy, the framework demonstrates how a centennial-scale inland sea breach—specifically tracking pre-priming Flaming Gorge and Gates of Lodore breaches that inundated the Uinta Basin and injected the the Southwest region through the Green River injection nozzle, triggering a boulder-laden, "dinosaur bone soup" and salt-slurry onslaught of the San Rafael Swell and the Paradox Basin network—induced a series of overflows and automated, high-velocity cataclymic chain-reaction events that carved and sculpted dramatic, deep bedrock contours across the entire Southwestern US region before exhausting violently at Grand Wash Bay and the Lake Mead basin. The self-sustaining system also featured a high-energy clean-water recirculation loop that flushed the engine from the northern inland sea inlet until the entire system drained. This open-access preprint offers a clinical, systems-level analysis to resolve long-standing academic debates surrounding previously unexplained Southwestern geographic features, and provides a clear resolution to the ongoing debate of how the entire, magnificent Southwestern landscape we see today was formed. Version 2.1 Release Notes: This minor version update corrects a few geographic inaccuracies and provides additional details on key events in the chain. Key modifications in Version 2.1 include: Detailed descriptions of the Uinta Basin pre-priming events at Flaming Gorge, The Gates of Lodore and Dinosaur National Monument Added descriptive accounts of the Green River 3-way injection nozzle and north-central Paradox Basin inundation through Canyonlands Expanded descriptions of the eastern Paradox Basin breach at Comb Wash, Goosenecks of the San Juan formation and the Eastern Exhaust Valve Corrected geographic inaccuracies relating to the northwest cascade through Capitol Reef and the Divide Canyon funnel