Grand Canyon | Fact & Information

Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon is one of the natural wonders of the world. It is a deep, wide gorge carved by the Colorado River in northern Arizona, United States. It is one of the most beautiful canyons of the world.

Colorado plateau

The Colorado Plateau is a large beautiful plateau in south-western United States. It  is characterised by horizontal, layered rocks, lava flows, deep canyons, barren, and dry lands. The climate is dry and arid and the area is. sparsely vegetated. The plateau covers an area of around 3,32,850 sq km and has an average elevation of 1,500 m. It includes areas drained by the Colorado River and its territories. The Grand Canyon section of thegplateau is the highest section of the
Colorado Plateau.

The Grand Canyon lies In the south-western portion of the Colorado Plateau. The mighty Colorado River has cut through the rocks of the Colorado Plateau lot about 6 million years forming the canyon. The canyon is 43.2 km long, 6.4 to 28.8 km wide, and is more than a mile deep at places.

The two rims

The North Rim of the Grand Canyon is approximately 2,500 m. It is around 366 no higher than the South Rim.The average width between the two rims is around 16 km.The North Rim is remote. It also has comparatively cooler weather and experiences heavy snowfall in winters.The South Rim is the busiest and the most developed part. It has a pleasant climate for most part of the year, although winters in this rim are extreme like in the North Rim.

Grand Canyon National park

The Grand Canyon National Park covers the deepest and the most beautiful sections of the Canyon. It covers an area of 4,864 sq km.The park is a World Heritage Site and was established as a national monument in 1908 and as a national park in 1919. The natural beauty of the park attracts about million visitors yearly. The headquarters of the park are located at the Grand Canyon Village.

Rock layers

The rocks and the walls of the Grand Canyon are a living timeline of the Earth’s history over the past 6 million years.The rocks at the bottom of the canyon are 2.5 billion years old. These rocks are known as Vishnu Schist to geologists. A 540-million-year-old layer of limestone overlies the granite and schist layer. On top of these two layers is a layer of limestone, freshwater shale, and cemented sandstones. This forms a large part of the canyon’s walls. Most of the rock layers added over the past thousand years and sheets of lava deposits of the recent past have been removed by erosion.

Flora and fauna

The Grand Canyon has varied flora and fauna. The bottom of the canyon has mostly droughtresistant trees such as agave and varieties of cactus as the regian receives scanty rainfall and remains dry for rnost part of the year. The rims, however, have a Wide variety of plants. The forests of the South Rim are abundant With species of pine, mahogany, and oak. The Grand Canyon is also home to a large number of animals such as squirrels, coyotes, foxes, deer, badgers, bobcats, rabbits, chipmunks, and kangaroo rats.

Archeological findings

Human artifacts that are thousands of years . old have been found in the Grand Canyon. Most of the remains belong to the PaleoIndian, Archaic, Basketmaker, Ancestral Pueblban, Cohonina, Cerbat, Pai, Zuni, Hopi, Navajo, and Euro-American culture groups. One of the most fascinating finds at the Grand Canyon are the split-twig figurines.These are small animal figurines made using a single twig split in the middle. They are around 2,000 to 4,000 years old.

Colorado River

The Colorado River flow from the Rocky hiountains to the Gulf of California in the US. It is 2,320 km long It is the main force behind the creation of the beautiful Grand Canyon. The river is 853 In above sea level at the North Rim and 762 m above sea level at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.