What was the Grand Canyon before it was a canyon?

The Grand Canyon has been carved, over millions of years, as the Colorado River cuts through the Colorado Plateau. The Colorado Plateau is a large area that was elevated through tectonic uplift millions of years ago. Geologists debate the age of the canyon itself—it may be between 5 million and 70 million years old.



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The composition (sandstone) and presence of stromatolites indicate that this area was previously a very shallow sea. The rock layers in the Grand Canyon Supergroup have been tilted, whereas the other rocks above this set are horizontal.

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Uplift of the Colorado Plateau was a key step in the eventual formation of Grand Canyon. The action of plate tectonics lifted the rocks high and flat, creating a plateau through which the Colorado River could cut down. The way in which the uplift of the Colorado Plateau occurred is puzzling.

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The oldest rocks exposed in the canyon are ancient, 1,840 million years old. Conversely, the canyon itself is geologically young, having been carved in the last 6 million years.

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Finally, beginning just 5-6 million years ago, the Colorado River began to carve its way downward. Further erosion by tributary streams led to the canyon's widening. Still today these forces of nature are at work slowly deepening and widening the Grand Canyon.

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Geologists date this sandstone to 550 million years ago and explain the folding as a result of pressure from shifting faults underneath. But to Mr. Vail, the folds suggest the Grand Canyon was carved 4,500 years ago by the great global flood described in Genesis as God's punishment for humanity's sin.

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Except for the occasional visitor who hears a rock fall, or a rare large landslide, it is not apparent that the canyon is actively getting bigger. However, the erosional processes that originally formed the Grand Canyon are still active today as the Colorado River and its tributaries slowly cut deeper into the canyon.

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The Colorado River flows over 2,333 kilometers through the southwestern United States. It has been an essential source of water for the people that live by the river for thousands of years. The Colorado River cuts through the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

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By around 6 million years ago, waters rushing off the Rockies had formed the mighty Colorado River. As the plateau rose, the river cut into it, carving the canyon over time. Smaller rivers eventually cut the side canyons, mesas and buttes that are so characteristic of the canyon today.

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Roughly 5.5 million tourists visit the Grand Canyon each year, but few realise that this vast abyss is home to a tiny village hidden 3,000ft in its depths: Supai, Arizona.

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Could the origins of the Grand Canyon lie in an enormous flood? The answer is no, says geologist Bill Dickinson, an emeritus professor of geology at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

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Despite these strategically located private in-holdings, the vast majority of the Grand Canyon is owned by the federal government, held in trust for the American people and managed by a varied collection of federal agencies. Indian reservations, state land, and private land surround these federal lands.

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For the Hopi, it's a very spiritual place because of the Sipapuni, where we emerged from into this world. And it's where we go back to when we leave this world. I've felt an energy down there that is unreal. They say our ancestors dwell in the canyon, and I definitely feel that.

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Over the centuries, the rocks, dirt and silt the Colorado brought down from the Grand Canyon and the rest of its vast drainage basin either settled on what are now the banks of the river or formed an immense delta at its mouth.

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From the top of the Seven Devils Mountains to the deepest part of the Snake River, Hells Canyon is nearly 8,000 feet deep. That's almost 2,000 feet deeper than the famous Grand Canyon in Arizona.

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The Great Unconformity exposed in Grand Canyon separates the Tapeats Sandstone from ancient Proterozoic rocks. The Great Unconformity represents ~1.2 billion years of missing rock record, either due to erosion or non-deposition.

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A large sandstone boulder contains several exceptionally well-preserved trackways of primitive tetrapods (four-footed animals) which inhabited an ancient desert environment. The 280-million-year-old fossil tracks date to almost the beginning of the Permian Period, prior to the appearance of the earliest dinosaurs.

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