Why is the Grand Canyon a hole?

The Grand Canyon is indeed a very big hole in the ground. It is 277 miles (446 km) long, up to 18 miles (29 km) wide and more than a mile (6,000 feet / 1,800 meters) deep. It is the result of constant erosion by the Colorado River over millions of years.



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Only a mile a deep, Grand Canyon is not the deepest in the world. For example, the Washington's Colombia River Gorge measures over a mile and a half in depth. Though not the deepest, Grand Canyon remains an incredibly impressive natural landform.

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The mystery of the Great Unconformity What's tricky about the Grand Canyon is that the rocks in its walls seem to be missing a big part of the picture. In 1869, a man named John Wesley Powell observed that several layers of rock that should've been in the Canyon walls were not present.

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The Grand Canyon is a breathtaking sight to behold. Its many caves, canyons, waterways and wildlife have mystified people for ages. While it is breathtaking, there's much we actually don't know about the Grand Canyon. Secrets are hidden in the rocks, which haven't been figured out or even discovered yet.

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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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Keep the Canyon Grand Uranium mining risks contamination of precious water sources, and proposed developments threaten the natural, cultural, and scenic values of the canyon. We address these issues head-on, protecting the Grand Canyon — the heart of the Colorado Plateau — for future generations.

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There are three ways to reach the canyon floor. You can do it by foot, following the many inner-canyon trails including the popular Kaibab or Bright Angel trails from the South Rim (note that Kaibab has a North Rim trailhead as well).

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The Native American village of Supai is the most remote village in the lower 48 states, and the only way to reach it is by helicopter or on foot.

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The Colorado River through Grand Canyon averages 300 feet (91 m) across and about 40 feet (12 m) deep. The average flow is between 12,000 and 15,000 cubic feet per second (cfs).

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You cannot walk to Africa from the Grand Canyon though unless you go up through Alaska then into Russia and all the way through Central Asia and into Africa.

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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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People have committed suicide at the Grand Canyon in a number of ways. As mentioned above, 75 people have jumped to their death. Another 13 people have taken their own lives by driving off the edge of the canyon. Three of these happened in 1993, not long after the movie Thelma & Louise premiered.

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Carved by the Colorado River and other geological forces, it is 277 miles long, up to 18 miles wide, and a mile deep. Nearly five million people visit the canyon annually, but as we later learned, only about one percent of them hike all the way to the bottom, as we planned to do.

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Nestled at the Bottom of Grand Canyon Phantom Ranch is the only lodging below the canyon rim, and can only be reached by mule, on foot, or by rafting the Colorado River.

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