View of Grand Canyon
December 09, 2004
Referred by: Phil Dombrowski
Summary author: Phil Dombrowski
The striking photo above reveals the majesty of the Grand Canyon in northern Arizona. Different rock colorations are indicators of conditions at the time of deposition. Superposition shows the oldest rock. The Vishnu schist, at the bottom of the canyon, is over 1 billion years old, while the upper sedimentary rock layers are millions of years younger. Cutting by the Colorado River, in conjunction with uplift of the Colorado Plateau and the general slope of this region, has provided us with a magnificent open book on the Earth's history. [Revised November 2017]
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