The Grand Canyon is one of the world’s most awe-inspiring natural landmarks. Since receiving National Park status in 1919, the park has seen a continual increase of visitors each year. Today nearly 5 million people flock to the park annually and the number is steadily increasing. Cutting into the Colorado Plateau at 2,133 meters (~7,000 feet), spanning roughly 446 kilometers (~277 miles) in length, and covering approximately 4,931 square kilometers (~1,904 square miles) in total, the canyon is colossal to say the least (Edwards, 1997). Such a massive expanse naturally raises questions about how it was formed. How could such a large crater-like depression in the Earth’s surface come to be? What forces have resulted in the formation of something
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Innovations in geography and biology made it easier for scientists to learn more about the world around them, and the development of new scientific fields like geology and anthropology showed a curiosity to understand the natural world even more. In 1858, a physician and scientist by the name of John S. Newberry performed some of the first geologic studies of the Grand Canyon, beginning a trend that would continue to this day. Although he lacked modern vocabulary, methodology, and theory at the time to explain what he was seeing, Newberry still presented his belief that water erosion was the main culprit in forming the canyon. This idea was a wild one at the time and even made members of the scientific community have to reconsider what they thought to be the age of the Earth, due to the extreme amount of time it would have taken for water to erode the canyon’s walls so drastically. Throughout 1871-1872, Newberry’s student Grove Karl Gilbert visited the park numerous times and named some of its key features – the Colorado Plateau is one example. In 1869, geologist John Wesley Powell theorized that the river existed first, then cut the Grand Canyon as the surrounding Colorado Plateau rose. Between 1875 and 1891, Civil War veteran-turned-geologist Clarence Dutton spent much of his time writing pieces explaining how he believed that the formation of the Canyon required …show more content…
Dictionary.com defines erosion as, “the process by which the surface of the earth is worn away by the action of water, glaciers, winds, waves, etc.” 80 million years ago, the North American Plate slid under the Pacific Plate when they collided at North America’s west coast. The Rocky Mountains formed as a result of this collision, and it also caused the uplift of the Colorado Plateau. The Colorado River flowing over the rising Plateau created something of a “buzz saw,” or a deep groove in the surface of the plateau. This formed a notch in the surface from which the river could not escape from once it eroded enough of a groove to maintain the water that ran over it. It is suspected that the Canyon itself only took about 4 million years for the river to carve (PBS Learning,
Innovations in geography and biology made it easier for scientists to learn more about the world around them, and the development of new scientific fields like geology and anthropology showed a curiosity to understand the natural world even more. In 1858, a physician and scientist by the name of John S. Newberry performed some of the first geologic studies of the Grand Canyon, beginning a trend that would continue to this day. Although he lacked modern vocabulary, methodology, and theory at the time to explain what he was seeing, Newberry still presented his belief that water erosion was the main culprit in forming the canyon. This idea was a wild one at the time and even made members of the scientific community have to reconsider what they thought to be the age of the Earth, due to the extreme amount of time it would have taken for water to erode the canyon’s walls so drastically. Throughout 1871-1872, Newberry’s student Grove Karl Gilbert visited the park numerous times and named some of its key features – the Colorado Plateau is one example. In 1869, geologist John Wesley Powell theorized that the river existed first, then cut the Grand Canyon as the surrounding Colorado Plateau rose. Between 1875 and 1891, Civil War veteran-turned-geologist Clarence Dutton spent much of his time writing pieces explaining how he believed that the formation of the Canyon required …show more content…
Dictionary.com defines erosion as, “the process by which the surface of the earth is worn away by the action of water, glaciers, winds, waves, etc.” 80 million years ago, the North American Plate slid under the Pacific Plate when they collided at North America’s west coast. The Rocky Mountains formed as a result of this collision, and it also caused the uplift of the Colorado Plateau. The Colorado River flowing over the rising Plateau created something of a “buzz saw,” or a deep groove in the surface of the plateau. This formed a notch in the surface from which the river could not escape from once it eroded enough of a groove to maintain the water that ran over it. It is suspected that the Canyon itself only took about 4 million years for the river to carve (PBS Learning,