Where Is the Grand Canyon? by O'Connor Jim

Author:O'Connor, Jim [O'Connor, Jim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: mg non-fiction
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2015-01-22T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 5

A Layer Cake of Rock

The Grand Canyon is located in a 130,000-square-mile region called the Colorado Plateau. The plateau covers northern Arizona, southern Utah, the southwest corner of Colorado, and part of northwest New Mexico. (It also contains ten national parks, including Grand Canyon.)

Most of the plateau consists of thousands of layers of sedimentary rock formed when ancient oceans covered the area. When the oceans disappeared, the plateau remained.

So how was the Grand Canyon made? The simple answer is erosion from the river. For millions of years the Colorado River cut its way through many layers of different rock. Little by little, the river sliced into the land—a slice that is nearly three hundred miles long and over a mile deep.

Erosion from the Colorado River, however, is not the only reason the canyon exists. The desert terrain of the Southwest does not encourage plant growth. Without plants and their root systems to hold soil, more erosion occurs.

Although the Southwest has an arid—or dry—climate, it does rain and snow at the canyon at times. And when it does, the storms are violent. Rainfall is hard, and this speeds erosion, too. The yearly winter rains run down the canyon walls and wash sand, pebbles, rocks, and boulders into the gorge.

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