23+24 September 2012: GRAND CANYON

Days 7 & 8:

'Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it, not a bit': Theodore Roosevelt speaking of the South Rim (1903)

'For a time it is too much like a scale model or an optical illusion.' : Joseph Wood Krutch

'The Grand Canyon is something that all astronauts look for from space, and everyone is excited as a child when they spot it for the first time.': Ken Bowson, Mission Commander, International Space Station.

The Bare Statistics:

• 277 miles long
• 18 miles across at the widest point
• average 10 miles across from South to North rim
• 1 mile deep on average.
• highest point is nearly 9,000 feet above sea level.

How old is it?
The top layers of rock are c.270 million years old, while the inner canyon is about 1.8 billion years old.
The lower 2,000 feet of canyon was cut and eroded in the last 750,000 years.

How it was made:
The canyon was formed by huge torrents of water carrying loads of dry, rocky sediment, cutting deep into the rocks of an uplifted plateau. As the cuts got deeper, the land around them gave way and fell apart, thus creating a deep and wide hole in the plateau.


There ARE no words to describe it.
If you get the chance, go and see it! It will live with you forever.