Geology
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The Grand Canyon National Park
Grand Canyon In Depth Video Series
1.
Watch Episode 1:
More Than a View
Write a short summary of a few bits you found interesting or eye opening as you watched
More than just a view or a two-dimensional landscape, Grand Canyon is.
Discovering the Grand Canyon offers a plethora of opportunities and lessons.
A large area of land that cries out to be explored is present in a side canyon; all it takes is a
moment. All the things this landscape has to offer are included. I believe that for many people, it
really does begin to put things into perspective. As you stand here on the edge of the canyon, you
suddenly feel quite small, and your problems also seem relatively small, since there is just so
much to try to take in. Beyond only being a two-dimensional landscape, Grand Canyon is more
than that. The Grand Canyon has a plethora of lessons to be learned and things to explore. In a
side canyon, there is a vast landscape that is beginning to be explored. It just takes a moment to
stop.
For many people, it seems to really start putting things in perspective. With everything
there is to try to take in, you suddenly feel small and your problems seem small as you stand here
on the edge of the canyon.
2.
Watch Episode 4:
Night Sky
Write a short summary of a few bits you found interesting or eye opening as you watched
The Grand Canyon is an amazing place to experience the night sky. We have some of the darkest
skies in the country. Primarily because we are situated
high above a good portion of the atmosphere here on the Colorado Plateau.
So we are at 7,000 feet on the South Rim, which allows us to see the night sky without the
distortion of atmosphere, molecules, aerosols, dust.
If you look at a light pollution map of the United States the East Coast is pretty much completely
white washed with excess light and light pollution,
whereas, in the Southwest, there are still completely dark patches left.
And so they have become somewhat of sanctuaries for the night and Grand Canyon is certainly
one of those sanctuaries.
How the Earth Was Made:
Grand Canyon
Use the link above to watch the video and answer the questions below:
1.
How much water flows down the 1,450 mile long Colorado River each hour?
Response:
More than 800 million gallons
2.
About how many times has the area around the Grand Canyon been under an ocean after
the original six mile high mountains were eroded?
Response:
At least 8 times
3.
Why are the rock layers in the Grand Canyon different, but yet most of them are red?
Response:
Each sea deposited a distinct type of material that eventually solidified into rock.While the
estimated remains of marine life were crushed into light-colored limestone, other silt consisted of
some sand that transformed into buff-colored sandstone and other mud that solidified into darker
stone.
The dominant color, however, is red, which comes from the iron that is locked into every rock.
4.
What evidence cleared Hindu Canyon from having anything to do with the formation of
the Grand Canyon?
Response:
In 1969, this geologist discovered that the ancient river bed Hindu Canyon was unrelated to the
arrival of the Colorado River to the Grand Canyon area. The alignment of rim pebbles in Hindu
Canyon indicated that the river that once flowed there ran in the opposite direction that the
Colorado River does and could have never possibly have been the source of the Colorado River
5.
When did the Colorado River start to form the Grand Canyon?
Response:
5-6 million years ago
6.
What is John Douglass’ new idea published in 2000 about how the Grand Canyon
formed?
Response:
Enter John Douglass, Ph. D. with a radical idea known as the spill-over theory. What this theory
entails is that rivers from mountains to the east of the Grand Canyon poured water into a giant
basin, larger than Lake Michigan today.
7.
What does Joel Pederson’s sampling of different layers of sediment at the beginning of
the Grand Canyon at Lee’s Ferry tell us about the rate at which the Colorado river cut the
Grand Canyon?
Response:
Building up his evidence is precisely what Joel Peterson is doing. He's using the newest
technology to demonstrate just how quickly the Grand Canyon was carved. These stones, which
mark the historical location of the river and its course throughout the expedition, are all located
here at Lee's Ferry. Occasionally, these sizable sand lenses are visible, and we can utilize the
sand to pinpoint the precise date of these deposits. This at the very start of the Grand Canyon , is
the evidence he needs. As the Colorado River cut its way through the canyon, an increasing
amount of the sand and gravel debris was dumped at its border.
8.
What is needed besides the water to carve the Grand Canyon.
Volcanic activity began about six million years ago and has continued to within the last
several thousand years. Spectacular lava cascades down the Canyon walls have
helped date the Grand Canyon’s carving.
9. How does the steepness of the Grand Canyon (avg slope=10 feet per mile) help to carve the
deep canyon?
Response:
Where the river forms the canyon, the water from the river runs at a steeper slope than average.
This helped the river carve a definitive channel over time through something as hard as a rock.
It's not the water itself that carves away at the rock, though the water is essential for erosion to
take place.
10
What causes the Grand Canyon to be so wide (18 miles across at its widest point)?
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Response:
Much of the Grand Canyon 's width has been gained through the erosive action of water flowing
down into the Colorado River via tributaries . As long as water from snow melt and rain
continues to flow in these side drainages , erosion will continue .
11. How did volcanoes erupting at Toroweap Point 780,000 years ago continue to change the
Grand Canyon?
Response:
The Toroweap Fault underlies the valley, and volcanic activity along the fault resulted in the
Uinkaret volcanic field, from where lava flows filled the side canyon. Sediment and lava flows
eventually filled the side canyon to the level of the Esplanade Platform.
How Grand Canyon Was Formed Over Time
The simple way of describing the formation of the Grand canyon over time is DUDE.
1.
What do the letters DUDE stand for?
D:stands for deposition. Millions of years ago, oceans deposited layers and layers of sediment in
the area that now encompasses the Grand Canyon. When those oceans receded, more sand was
laid down as it blew across the region from dunes and shorelines. Then the oceans came back in
and laid down even more sediment.
U: stands for uplift. There were numerous processes at work in the Canyon’s creation. While
sand dunes and oceans were laying down layers, the earth was pushing up the Colorado Plateau.
D: is for down cutting. The Colorado River was a major player in the Grand Canyon’s formation.
It cut its way down through the Colorado Plateau, through all those layers of rock and sand.
E:stands for erosion. Water continues to wash away loose rock and sand, and it creeps into cracks
and crevices. When the water freezes and expands, it splits rocks from steep canyon walls and
continues to widen the Grand Canyon. Erosion created the giant terraced steps of the Grand
Canyon’s walls.
2.
Explain in your own words What each of these processes are.
D: Sediment carried by the wind, moving water, the sea, or ice is deposited.
Pebbles, sand, mud, and salts that have dissolved in water are some of the forms that sediment
can take. Salts can subsequently be left behind by evaporation or biological activity (like
seashells).
U:
In geology, uplift refers to an increase in the Earth's surface's vertical height as a result of natural
forces. In contrast to the more concentrated and severe orogeny, orogeny refers to the broad,
relatively moderate, and gentle uplift that is involved with mountain development.
D:The process of forming canyons is known as downcutting by geologists. When
a river chisels away rock and cuts down into the soil to form a canyon or valley, this process is
known as downcutting. Flooding causes downcutting to occur.
E:
The geological process of erosion is the wearing away and transportation of earthen materials by
wind and water. Similar to weathering, but without movement, it dissolves or breaks down rock.