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The geology of the Grand Canyon area exposes one of the most complete sequences of rock on the planet, representing a period of nearly 2 billion years of the Earth's history in that part of North America. The major sedimentary rock layers exposed in the Grand Canyon and in the Grand Canyon National Park area range in age from 200 million to nearly 2 billion years old. Most were deposited in warm, shallow seas and near ancient, long-gone sea shores. Both marine and terrestrial sediments are represented, including fossilized sand dunes from an extinct desert. Physiographically, it is the highest area of the Colorado Plateau.

Uplift of the region started about 75 million years ago in the Laramide orogeny, a mountain-building event that is largely responsible for creating the Rocky Mountains to the east. Accelerated uplift started 17 million years ago when the Colorado Plateaus (on which the area is located) were being formed. In total these layers were uplifted an estimated 10,000 feet (3,000 m) which enabled the ancestral Colorado River to cut its channel into the four plateaus that constitute this area.

The canyon, created by the Colorado River is 277 miles (446 km), ranges in width from 4 to 18 miles (6.4 to 29 km) and attains a depth of more than a mile (1.6 km). Its main axis is east to west. The South Rims is lower than the North Rim by about 800 feet. Nearly two billion years of the Earth's history have been exposed as the Colorado River and its tributaries cut their channels through layer after layer of rock while the Colorado Plateau was uplifted.

Wetter climates brought upon by ice ages starting 2 million years ago greatly increased excavation of the Grand Canyon, which was nearly as deep as it is now by 1.2 million years ago. Also about 2 million years ago volcanic activity started to deposit ash and lava over the area. At least 13 large lava flows dammed the Colorado River, forming huge lakes that were up to 2,000 feet (610 m) deep and 100 miles (160 km) long. The nearly 40 identified rock layers and 14 major unconformities (gaps in the geologic record) of the Grand Canyon form one of the most studied sequences of rock in the world.

Deposition of sediments

Some important terms: A geologic formation is a rock unit that has one or more sediment beds, and a member is a minor unit in a formation. Groups are sets of formations that are related in significant ways, and a supergroup is a sequence of vertically related groups and lone formations. The various kinds of unconformities are gaps in the geologic record. Such gaps can be due to an absence of deposition or due to subsequent erosion removing the rock units.

Metamorphic and igneous basement

The Granite Gorge Metamorphic Suite consists of the metasedimentary Vishnu Schist and the metavolcanic Brahma and Rama Schists. All were formed 2 billion to 1.8 billion years ago in Precambrian time when thousands of feet of ash, mud, sand, and silt were laid down in a shallow backarc basin similar to the modern Sea of Japan. The basin was between an early form of North America called Laurentia and an orogenic belt of mountains and volcanoes in an island arc similar to modern Japan.

From 1.8 to 1.6 billion years ago at least two island arcs collided with the proto-North American continent.Template:Inote This process of plate tectonics compressed and grafted these marine sediments onto Laurentia and uplifted them out of the sea. Later, these rocks were buried 12 miles (19 km) under the surface and pressure-cooked into metamorphic rock. This is the resistant rock now exposed at the bottom of the canyon in the Inner Gorge. No identifiable fossils have been found in the Suite, but lenses of marble now seen in these units were likely derived from colonies of primitive algae.

As the volcanic islands collided with the mainland around 1.7 billion years ago, blobs of magma rose from the subduction zone and intruded the Granite Gorge Metamorphic Suite. These plutons slowly cooled to form the Zoroaster Granite; part of which would later be metamorphosed into gneiss. This formation can be seen as light-colored bands in the darker garnet-studded Vishnu Schist (see 1b in Figure 1). The intrusion of the granite occurred in three phases: two during the initial Vishnu metamorphism period, and a third around 1.5 billion years ago. The third phase was accompanied by large-scale faulting, particularly along north-south faults, leading to a partial rifting of the continent. The collision expanded the continent from the Wyoming–Colorado border into Mexico and almost doubled the crust's thickness in the Grand Canyon region. Part of this thickening created the 5-to-6-mile (8 to 10 km) high ancestral Mazatzal Mountains.

Subsequent erosion lasting 300 million years stripped much of the exposed sediments and the mountains away. This reduced this very high mountains to small hills a few tens to hundreds of feet (tens of meters) high. Geologist John Wesley Powell called this major gap in the geologic record, which is also seen in other parts of the world, the Great Unconformity. Other sediments may have been added but, if they ever existed, were completely removed by erosion. This feature is one of the best examples of an exposed nonconformity; an unconformity that has bedded rock units above igneous or metamorphic rocks.

Grand Canyon Supergroup

In late Precambrian time, extension from a large tectonic plate or smaller plates moving away from Laurentia thinned its continental crust, forming large rift basins. which would ultimately fail to split the continent. Eventually, this sunken region of Laurentia was flooded with a shallow seaway that extended from at least present-day Lake Superior to Glacier National Park in Montana to the Grand Canyon and the Uinta Mountains. The resulting Grand Canyon Supergroup of sedimentary units is composed of nine varied formations that were laid down from 1.2 billion and 800 million years ago in this sea. Good exposures of the supergroup can be seen in eastern Grand Canyon in the Inner Gorge and from Desert View, Lipan Point and Moran point.

The oldest section of the supergroup is the Unkar Group (a group is a set of two or more formations that are related in notable ways). It was laid down in an offshore environment. The first formation to be laid down in the Unkar Group was the Bass Limestone. A wave-eroded gravel that later lithified into a basal conglomerate is known as the Hotauta Member of the Bass Limestone. The Bass Limestone was deposited in a shallow sea near the coast as a mix of limestone, sandstone, and shale. It is 120 to 340 feet (37 to 100 m) thick and grayish in color. Averaging 1250 million years old, this is the oldest layer exposed in the Grand Canyon that contains fossils—stromatolites. Hakatai Shale is made of thin beds of marginal-marine-derived mudstones, sandstones, and shale that, together, are 445 to 985 feet (136 to 300 m) thick. This formation indicates a short-lived regression (retreat) of the seashore in the area that left mud flats. Today it is very bright orange-red and gives the Red Canyon its name. Shinumo Quartzite was a resistant marine sandstone that later formed islands in Cambrian time. Those islands withstood wave action long enough to become re-buried by other sediments in the Cambrian Period. It was later metamorphosed into quartzite. Dox Sandstone is over 3,000 feet (910 m) thick and is made of ocean-derived sandstone with some interbedded shale beds and mudstone. Ripple marks and other features indicate it was close to the shore. Outcrops of this red to orange formation can be seen in the eastern parts of the canyon. Fossils of stromatolites and algae are found in this layer. At 1070 ± 70 million years old, the Cardenas Lava is the youngest formation in the Unkar Group. It is made of layers of dark brown basaltic rocks that flowed as lava up to 1,000 feet (300 m) thick.

Nankoweap Formation is around 1050 million years old and is not part of a group. This rock unit is made of coarse-grained sandstone, and was deposited in a shallow sea on top of the eroded surface of the Cardenas Lava. The Nankoweap is only exposed in the eastern part of the canyon. A gap in the geologic record, an unconformity, follows the Nankoweap.

All formations in the Chuar Group were deposited in coastal and shallow sea environments about 1000 to 700 million years ago. Galeros Formation is a mainly greenish formation composed of interbedded sandstone, limestone, and shale with some shale. It ranges in color from red to purple. Fossilized stromatolites are found in the Galeros. Kwagunt Formation consists of black shale and red to purple mudstone with some limestone. Isolated pockets of reddish sandstone are also found around Carbon Butte. Stromatolites are found in this layer. Sixtymile Formation is made of tan-colored sandstone with some small sections of shale.

About 800 million years ago the supergroup was tilted 15° and block faulted in the Grand Canyon Orogeny. Some of the block units moved down and others moved up while fault movement created north-south-trending fault-block mountain ranges. About 100 million years of erosion took place that washed most of the Chuar Group away along with part of the Unkar Group (exposing the Shinumo Quartzite as previously explained). The mountain ranges were reduced to hills, and in some places, the whole 12,000 feet (3,700 m) of the supergroup were removed entirely, exposing the basement rocks below. Any rocks that were deposited on top of the Grand Canyon Supergroup in the Precambrian were completely removed. This created a major unconformity that represents 460 million years of lost geologic history in the area.

Tonto Group

During the Paleozoic era, the western part of what would become North America was near the equator and on a passive margin. The Cambrian Explosion of life took place over about 15 million years in this part of the world. Climate was warm and invertebrates, such as the trilobites, were abundant. An ocean started to return to the Grand Canyon area from the west about 550 million years ago. As its shoreline moved east, the ocean began to concurrently deposit the three formations of the Tonto Group.

Tapeats Sandstone averages 545 million years old and is made of cliff-derived medium- to coarse-grained sand and conglomerate that was deposited on an ancient shore (see 3a in figure 1). Ripple marks are common in the upper members of this dark brown thin-bedded layer. Fossils and imprint trails of trilobites and brachiopods have also been found in the Tapeats. Today it is a cliff-former, 250 to 300 feet (76 to 91 m) thick. Bright Angel Shale averages 530 million years old and is made of mudstone-derived shale interbeded with small sections of sandstone and shaly limestone with a few thin beds of dolomite. It was mostly deposited as mud just offshore, and contains brachiopod, trilobite, and worm fossils (see 3b in figure 1). The color of this formation is mostly various shades of green with some brownish-tan to gray parts. It is a slope-former, 325 to 400 feet (99 to 120 m) thick. Glauconite is responsible for the green coloration of the Bright Angel. Muav Limestone averages 515 million years old and is made of gray, thin-bedded limestone that was deposited farther offshore from calcium carbonate precipitates (see 3c in figure 1). It is fossil poor yet trilobites and brachiopods have been found in it. The western part of the canyon has a much thicker sequence of Muav than the eastern part. The Muav is a cliff-former, 250 to 375 feet (76 to 110 m) thick.

These three formations were laid down over a period of 30 million years from early to middle Cambrian time. Fossils of trilobites and burrowing worms are common in these formations. We know that the shoreline was transgressing (advancing onto land) because finer grade material was deposited on top of coarser-grained sediment. Today, the Tonto Group makes up the Tonto Platform seen above and following the Colorado River; the Tapeats Sandstone and Muav Limestone form the platform's cliffs, and the Bright Angel Shale forms its slopes. Unlike the Proterozoic units below it, the Tonto Group's beds basically lie in their original horizontal position. The Bright Angel Shale in the group forms an aquiclude (barrier to groundwater seeping down), and thus collects and directs water through the overlying Muav Limestone to feed springs in the Inner Gorge.

Temple Butte, Redwall, and Surprise Canyon

The next two periods of geologic history, the Ordovician and the Silurian, are missing from the Grand Canyon sequence. Geologists do not know if sediments were deposited in these periods and were later removed by erosion or if they were never deposited in the first place. Either way, this break in the geologic history of the area spans about 165 million years.

Geologists do know that deep channels were carved on the top of the Muav Limestone during this time. Streams were the likely cause but marine scour may be to blame. Either way, these depressions were filled with freshwater limestone about 350 million years ago in the Middle Devonian in a formation that geologists call the Temple Butte Limestone (see 4a in figure 1). Marble Canyon in the eastern part of the park displays these filled purplish-colored channels well. The Temple Butte Limestone is a cliff-former in the western part of the park where it is gray to cream-colored dolomite. Fossils of animals with backbones are found in this formation; bony plates from freshwater fish in the eastern part and numerous marine fish fossils in the western part. The Temple Butte is 100 to 450 feet (30 to 137 m) thick; thinner near Grand Canyon Village and thicker in western Grand Canyon. An unconformity representing 40 to 50 million years of lost geologic history marks the top of this formation.

The next formation in the Grand Canyon geologic column is the cliff-forming Redwall Limestone, which is about 500 feet (150 m) thick (see 4b in figure 1). The Redwall is composed of thick-bedded, dark brown to bluish gray limestone and dolomite with white chert nodules mixed in. It was laid down in a retreating shallow tropical sea near the equator during 40 million years of the early to middle Mississippian. Many fossilized crinoids, brachiopods, bryozoans, horn corals, nautiloids, and sponges, along with other marine organisms such as large and complex trilobites have been found in the Redwall. In late Mississippian time, the Grand Canyon region was slowly uplifted and the Redwall was partly eroded away. A Karst topograpy consisting of caves, sinkholes, and subterrainian river channels resulted but were later filled with more limestone. The exposed surface of the Redwall gets its characteristic color from rainwater dripping from the iron-rich redbeds of the Supai and Hermit shale that lie above.

Surprise Canyon Formation is a sedimentary layer of purplish-red shale that was laid down in discontinuous beds of sand and lime above the Redwall (see 4c in figure 1). It was created in very late Mississippian and possibly in very earliest Pennsylvanian time as the land subsided and tidal estuaries filled river valleys with sediment. Surprise Canyon was unknown to science until 1973 and can only be reached by helicopter. Fossil logs, other plant material and marine shells are found in this formation. An unconformity marks the top of the Surprise Canyon Formation and in most places this unconformity has entirely removed the Surprise Canyon and exposed the underlying Redwall.

Supai Group

An unconformity of 15 to 20 million years separates the Supai Group from the previously-deposited Redwall Formation. Supai Group was deposited in late Mississippian, through the Pennsylvanian and into the early Permian time, some 320 million to 270 million years ago. Both marine and non-marine deposits of mud, silt, sand and calcareous sediments were laid down on a broad coastal plain similar to the Texas Gulf Coast of today. Around this time, the Ancestral Rocky Mountains rose in Colorado and New Mexico and streams brought eroded sediment from them to the Grand Canyon area.

The Supai in the western part of the canyon contains limestone, indicative of a warm, shallow sea, while the eastern part was likely a muddy river delta. This formation consists of red siltstones and shale capped by tan-colored sandstone beds that together reach a thickness of 600 to 700 feet (180 to 210 m). Shale in the early Permian formations in this group were oxidized to a bright red color. Fossils of amphibian footprints, reptiles, and plentiful plant material is found in the eastern part and increasing numbers of marine fossils are found in the western part.

Formations of the Supai Group are from oldest to youngest (an unconformity is present at the top of each): Watahomigi (see 5a in figure 1) is a slope-forming gray limestone with some red chert bands, sandstone, and purple siltstone that is 90 to 175 feet (27 to 53 m) thick. Manakacha (see 5b in figure 1) is a cliff- and slope-forming pale red sandstone and red shale that is 200 to 275 feet (61 to 84 m) thick. Wescogame (see 5c in figure 1) is a ledge- and slope-forming pale red sandstone and siltstone that is 100 to 225 feet (30 to 69 m) thick. Esplanade (see 5d in figure 1) is a ledge- and cliff-forming pale red sandstone and siltstone that is 225 to 300 feet (69 to 91 m) thick. An unconformity marks the top of the Supai Group.

Hermit, Coconino, Toroweap, and Kaibab

Like the Supai Group below it, the Permian-aged Hermit Shale was likely deposited on a broad coastal plain (see 6a in figure 1) The alternating thin-bedded iron oxide, mud and silt were deposited via freshwater streams in a semiarid environment from 280 to 250 million years ago. Fossils of winged insects, cone-bearing plants, and ferns are found in this formation as well as tracks of vertebrate animals. It is a soft, deep red shale and mudstone slope-former that is 160 to 175 feet (49 to 53 m) thick. Slope development will periodically undermine the formations above and car- to house-sized blocks of that rock will cascade down onto the Tonto Platform. An unconformity marks the top of this formation .

The Coconino Sandstone formed some 260 million years ago as the area dried out and sand dunes made of quartz sand invaded a growing desert (see 6b in figure 1). Some Coconino fills deep mudcracks in the underlying Hermit Shale and the desert that created the Coconino lasted for 5 to 10 million years. Today, the Coconino is a 375 to 650 feet (114 to 198 m) thick golden white to cream-colored cliff-former near the canyon's rim. Eolian (wind-created) cross bedding patterns of the frosted, well-sorted and rounded sand can be seen in its fossilized sand dunes. Also fossilized are tracks from lizard-like creatures and what look like tracks from millipedes and scorpions. An unconformity marks the top of this formation.

Next in the geologic column is the 200-foot (61 m) Toroweap Formation (see 6c in figure 1). It consists of red and yellow sandstone and shaly gray limestone interbedded with gypsum. The formation was deposited in a warm, shallow sea as the shoreline transgressed (invaded) and regressed (retreated) over the land. The average age of the rock is about 250 million years. In modern times it is a ledge- and cliff-former that contains fossils of brachiopods, corals, and mollusks along with other animals and various terrestrial plants. The Toroweap is divided into the following three members: Seligman is a slope-forming yellowish to reddish sandstone and siltstone. Brady Canyon is a cliff-forming gray limestone with some chert. Wood Ranch is a slope-forming pale red and gray siltstone and dolomitic sandstone. An unconformity marks the top of this formation.

One of the highest, and therefore youngest, formations seen in the Grand Canyon area is the massive Kaibab Limestone, 250 to 350 feet (76 to 107 m) thick (see 6d in figure 1). A prominent ledgy cliff-former, the Kaibab was laid down in middle Permian time an average of about 225 million years ago. The Kaibab was deposited in the deeper parts of the same advancing warm, shallow sea where the underlying Toroweap was formed. The Kaibab is typically made of sandy limestone sitting on top of a layer of sandstone, but in some places sandstone and shale are near or at the top. This is the cream to grayish-white rock that park visitors stand on while enjoying the spectacular vistas of the canyon from both rims (some call it "Grand Canyon's bathtub ring" due to its appearance). It is also the surface rock covering much of the Kaibab Plateau just north of the canyon and the Coconino Plateau immediately south. Shark teeth have been found in this formation as well abundant fossils of marine invertebrates such as brachiopods, corals, mollusks, sea lilies, and worms. An unconformity marks the top of this formation.

Mesozoic deposition

Uplift marked the start of the Mesozoic and streams started to incise the newly dry land. Streams flowing through broad low valleys in Triassic time deposited sediment eroded from nearby uplands, creating the once 1,000-foot (300 m)-thick Moenkopi Formation. The formation is made from sandstone and shale with gypsum layers in between. Moenkopi outcrops are found along the Colorado River in Marble Canyon, on Cedar Mountain (a mesa near the southeastern park border), and in Red Butte (located south of Grand Canyon Village). Remnants of the Shinarump Conglomerate, itself a member of the Chinle Formation, are above the Moenkopi Formation near the top of Red Butte but below a much younger lava flow.

Formations totaling over 4,000 to 5,000 feet (1,200 to 1,500 m) in thickness were deposited in the region in the Mesozoic and Cenozoic but were almost entirely removed from the Grand Canyon sequence by subsequent erosion. The geology of the Zion and Kolob canyons area and the geology of the Bryce Canyon area records some of these formations. All these rock units together form a super sequence of rock known as the Grand Staircase.

Creation of the Grand Canyon

Uplift and nearby extension

The Laramide orogeny affected all of western North America by helping to build the American cordillera. Kaibab Uplift, Monument Upwarp, the Uinta Mountains, San Rafael Swell, and the Rocky Mountains were uplifted, at least in part, by the Laramide orogeny. This major mountain-building event started near the end of the Mesozoic, around 75 million years ago, and continued into the Eocene period of the Cenozoic. It was caused by subduction off the western coast of North America. Major faults that trend north–south and cross the canyon area were reactivated by this uplift. Many of these faults are Precambrian in age and are still active today. Streams draining the Rocky Mountains in early Miocene time terminated in landlocked basins in Utah, Arizona and Nevada but there is no evidence for a major river.

Around 18 million years ago, tensional forces started to thin and drop the region to the west, creating the Basin and Range province. Basins (grabens) dropped down and mountain ranges (horsts) rose up between old and new north–south–trending faults. However, for reasons poorly understood, the beds of the Colorado Plateaus remained mostly horizontal through both events even as they were uplifted an estimated 9,000 feet (2,700 m). One hypothesis suggests that the entire plateau shifted in a clockwise rotation during the uplift and this helped to maintain its stability. The extreme western part of the canyon ends at one of the Basin and Range faults, the Grand Wash, which also marks the boundary between the two provinces.

Uplift from the Laramide orogeny and the creation of the Basin and Range province worked together to steepen the gradient of streams flowing west on the Colorado Plateau. These streams cut deep, eastward-growing, channels into the western edge of the Colorado Plateau and deposited their sediment in the widening Basin and Range region.

The Colorado River is born and cuts down

Rifting started to create the Gulf of California far to the south 6 to 10 million years ago. Around the same time, the western edge of the Colorado Plateau may have sagged slightly. Both events changed the direction of many streams toward the sagging region and the increased gradient caused them to downcut much faster. From 5.5 million to 5 million years ago, headward erosion to the north and east consolidated these streams into one major river and associated tributary channels. This river, the ancestral Lower Colorado River, started to fill the northern arm of the gulf, which extended nearly to the site of Hoover Dam, with estuary deposits.

At the same time, streams flowed from highlands in central Arizona north and across what is today the western Grand Canyon, possibly feeding a larger river. The mechanism by which the ancestral Lower Colorado River captured this drainage and the drainage from much of the rest of the Colorado Plateau is not known. Possible explanations include headward erosion or a broken natural dam of a lake or river. Whatever the cause, the Lower Colorado likely captured the landlocked Upper Colorado somewhere west of the Kaibab Uplift. The much larger drainage area and yet steeper stream gradient helped to further accelerate downcutting.

Ice ages during the Pleistocene brought a cooler and wetter pluvial climate to the region starting 2 to 3 million years ago. The added precipitation increased runoff and the erosive ability of streams (especially from spring melt water and flash floods in summer). With a greatly increased flow volume the Colorado cut faster than ever before and started to quickly excavate the Grand Canyon two million years before present, almost reaching the modern depth by 1.2 million years ago.

The resulting Grand Canyon of the Colorado River trends roughly east to west for 278 miles (447 km) between Lake Powell to Lake Mead. In that distance, the Colorado River drops 2,000 feet (610 m) and has excavated an estimated 1,000 cubic miles (4,200 km) of sediment to form the canyon. This part of the river bisects the 9,000-foot (2,700 m)-high Kaibab Uplift and passes seven plateaus (the Kaibab, Kanab, and Shivwits plateaus bound the northern part of the canyon and the Coconino bounds the southern part). Each of these plateaus are bounded by north to south trending faults and monoclines created or reactivated during the Laramide orogeny. Streams flowing into the Colorado River have since exploited these faults to excavate their own tributary canyons, such as Bright Angel Canyon.

Volcanic activity dams the new canyon

Volcanic activity started in the Grand Canyon area 3 million years ago. Lava flows dammed the Colorado River at least 13 times from 1.8 million to 500,000 years ago, creating lakes that were 200 to 2,000 feet (61 to 610 m) deep and extended as far as Moab, Utah. One such dam was formed around 725,000 years ago when cinder cones in the Uinkaret volcanic field erupted basaltic lava that flowed into western Grand Canyon. The Toroweap dam formed 1.2 million years ago when lava reached the canyon floor. While some believe that these lava dams were stable, lasting up to 20,000 years and forming large reservoirs, others think they failed quickly and catastrophically as massive floods. Lava flows traveled downriver 76 miles (121 km) from river mile 178 to 254.

Recent geology, human impact, and the future

The end of the Pleistocene ice ages and the start of the Holocene began to change the area's climate from a cool, wet pluvial one to dryer semi-arid conditions similar to that of today (although much of the rim then, as now, received enough precipitation to support large forests). With less water to cut, the erosive ability of the Colorado was greatly reduced (the rocks of the Inner Gorge are also relatively resistant to erosion). Mass wasting processes thus began to become relatively more important than they were before. Steeper cliffs and further widening the Grand Canyon and its tributary canyon system occurred. An average of two debris flows per year reach the Colorado River from tributary canyons to form or expand rapids. This type of mass wasting is the main way the smaller and steeper side canyons transport sediment but it also plays a major role in excavating the larger canyons.

In 1963 Glen Canyon Dam and other dams farther upstream started to regulate the flow of the Colorado River through Grand Canyon. Pre-dam but still historic flows of the Colorado through Grand Canyon ranged from 700 to 100,000 cubic feet (20 to 2,832 m) per second with at least one late 19th century flood of 300,000 cubic feet (8,500 m) per second. Discharge from Glen Canyon Dam exceeds 48,200 cubic feet (1,360 m) per second only when there is danger of overtopping the dam or when the level of Lake Powell otherwise needs to be lowered. An interim conservation measure since 1991 has held maximum flows at 20,000 cubic feet (570 m) per second even though the dam's power plant can handle 13,200 cubic feet (370 m) per second more flow.

Controlling river flow by use of dams has diminished the river's ability to scour rocks by substantially reducing the amount of sediment it carries. Dams on the Colorado River have also changed the character of the river water. Once both muddy and warm, the river is now clear and averages a 46 °F (8 °C) temperature year-round. Experimental floods approaching the 48,200 cubic feet (1,360 m) per second level mentioned above have been carried out in 1996 and 2004 to study the effects on sediment erosion and deposition.

About 45 earthquakes occurred in or near the Grand Canyon in the 1990s. Of these, five registered between 5.0 and 6.0 on the Richter Scale. Dozens of faults cross the canyon, with at least several active in the last 100 years.

Most of the Colorado River runs through the canyon's narrow Inner Gorge. The stream gradient of the Colorado River is still steep enough to suggest that the river could cut another 1,200 to 2,000 feet (370 to 610 m) assuming no additional uplift in the geologic future. This does not account for human impact, which would tend to slow the rate of erosion.

Notes

1. A type of unconformity called a disconformity was formed.(Kiver 1999, p. 402) Disconformities show erosional features such as valleys, hills and cliffs that are later covered by younger sediments.
2. An exception is the slight effect that uplifts, upwarps and swells created by earlier phases of the Laramide orogeny have. For example, formations exposed on the South Rim are 800 feet (240 m) lower than the same formations on the North Rim due to the fact that the North Rim is closer to the highest part of the Kaibab Uplift.(Foos 1999, p. 1)
3. Increased precipitation also allowed evergreen forests, in modern times limited to an elevation of 7,000 feet (2,100 m), to extend well into the canyon.(Price 1999, p. 42)
4. The Grand Canyon region gently slopes southward, so water on the North Rim flows into the canyon and water on the South Rim tends to flow away. Tributary canyons are therefore larger north of Grand Canyon and smaller south of it. Grand Canyon Village on the South Rim is located 2 miles (3.2 km) from the Colorado River and 4,460 feet (1,360 m) above it while Bright Angel Point on the North Rim is located 7.75 miles (12.47 km) from the river and is 5,940 feet (1,810 m) above it.(Chronic 2004, p. 98)
5. Since then, 50 feet (15 m) of additional erosion has excavated the canyon.(Kiver 1999, p. 407)

References

1. ^ http://www2.nature.nps.gov/geology/education/foos/grand.pdf
2. ^ Chronic 2004, p. 198 Cite error: The named reference "Chronic2004p98" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
3. Foos 1999, p. 1
4. ^ Chronic 2004, p. 100
5. Harris 1997, p. 18
6. ^ Kiver 1999, p. 398
7. ^ Price 1999, p. 23
8. Tufts 1998, p. 10
9. ^ Chronic 2004, p. 101
10. ^ Harris 1997, p. 22
11. ^ Harris 1997, p. 19
12. ^ Price 1999, p. 24
13. Beus & Morales 2003, p. 45
14. Beus & Morales 2003, p. 47
15. Beus & Morales 2003, p. 55
16. Beus & Morales 2003, p. 56
17. Beus & Morales 2003, p. 75
18. Beus & Morales 2003, p. 61
19. Beus & Morales 2003, p. 63
20. Beus & Morales 2003, p. 65
21. Harris 1997, p. 11
22. Kiver 1999, p. 399
23. ^ Kiver 1999, p. 400
24. Price 1999, p. 28
25. ^ Kiver 1999, p. 401
26. Price 1999, p. 50
27. ^ Kaibab.org, "Grand Canyon Rock Layers"
28. ^ Harris 1997, p. 23
29. ^ Kiver 1999, p. 402
30. Price 1999, p. 29
31. ^ Price 1999, p. 30
32. ^ Price 1999, p. 31
33. ^ Price 1999, p. 32
34. Chronic 2004, p. 102
35. ^ Harris 1997, p. 24
36. Price 1999, p. 33
37. ^ Chronic 2004, p. 103
38. ^ Kiver 1999, p. 405
39. Harris 1997, p. 25
40. Price 1999, p. 36
41. ^ Price 1999, p. 39
42. Price 1999, p. 47
43. ^ Chronic 2004, p. 104
44. ^ Price 1999, p. 58
45. ^ Chronic 2004, p. 105
46. Harris 1997, p. 27
47. ^ Kiver 1999, p. 407
48. ^ Kiver 1999, p. 395
49. ^ Price 1999, p. 54
50. Price 1999, p. 40
51. Price 1999, p. 41
52. Karlstrom, K., Crow, R., Peters, L., McIntosh, W., Raucci, J., Crossey, L., and Umhoefer, P., 2007, 40Ar/39Ar and field studies of Quaternary basalts in Grand Canyon and model for carving Grand Canyon: Quantifying the interaction of river incision and normal faulting across the western edge of the Colorado Plateau: GSA Bulletin, v. 119, no. 11/12, p. 1283-1312.
53. Hamblin, W.K., 1994, Late Cenozoic lava dams in the western Grand Canyon: Geological Society of America Memoir 183, 139 p.
54. Fenton, C.R., Poreda, R.J., Nash, B.P., Webb, R.H., and Cerling, T.E., 2004, Geochemical discrimination of five Pleistocene lava-dam outburst-flood deposits, western Grand Canyon, Arizona: The Journal of Geology, v. 112, p. 91–110, doi: 10.1086/379694.
55. ^ Price 1999, p. 57
56. Torresan, Laura Zink. "Grand Canyon Studies: Glen Canyon Dam". United States Geological Survey. Retrieved 2009-08-30.
57. ^ Torresan, Laura Zink. "Effects of Glen Canyon Dam on Water in the Colorado River". United States Geological Survey. Retrieved 2009-08-30.
58. Torresan, Laura Zink. "Controlled Flood". United States Geological Survey. Retrieved 2009-08-30.
59. Chronic 2004, p. 199

Bibliography

• Beus, Stanely S.; Morales, Michael, eds. (2003). Grand Canyon Geology (2nd ed.). New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-512299-2.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Bronze, Black (2003). The Colorado River Super Guide Map of the Grand Canyon. Flagstaff, Arizona: Dragon Creek Publishing.
• Chronic, Halka (2004). Pages of Stone: Geology of the Grand Canyon and Plateau Country National Parks and Monuments (2nd ed.). The Mountaineers Books. ISBN 0898866804.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Foos, Annabelle (1999). "Geology of Grand Canyon National Park, North Rim" (PDF). Retrieved 2008-08-11. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Harris, Ann G. (1997). Geology of National Parks (5th ed.). Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing. ISBN 0-7872-5353-7. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Kiver, Eugene P. (1999). Geology of U.S. Parklands (5th ed.). New York: Jonh Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-471-33218-6. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Tufts, Lorraine Salem (1998). Secrets in The Grand Canyon, Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks (3rd ed.). North Palm Beach, Florida: National Photographic Collections. ISBN 0-9620255-3-4.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Powell, James Lawrence (2005). Grand Canyon: Solving Earth's Grandest Puzzle. Pi Press. ISBN 0-13-147989-X.
• Ribokas, Bob (2000). "Grand Canyon Rock Layers". Grand Canyon Explorer. Retrieved 2005-03-20.
• Price, L. Greer (1999). Geology of the Grand Canyon. Grand Canyon, Arizona: Grand Canyon Association. ISBN 0-938216-68-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Rudd, Connie (1990). Grand Canyon The Continuing Story. KC Publishing, Inc. ISBN 0-88714-046-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

External links

• Grand Canyon National Park
• The Grand Age of Rocks: The Numeric Ages for Rocks Exposed within Grand Canyon
• pbs.org: Geologic timelime for the Grand Canyon
• Interactive Hypermedia on GC geology & Colin Fletcher's trek through the Canyon likened to a Bach fugue

• Geology of Arizona
• Grand Canyon
• Regional geology of the United States