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Grand Canyon National Park 6

The Grand Canyon is a very wide and deep canyon in the north of the American state of Arizona. Over millions of years, the waters of the Colorado have created this gap in the landscape. This extreme erosion was made possible by the fact that the area in which the gap is located rose further and higher. The Colorado erodes about 16 cm every 1000 years. The canyon is about 435 kilometers long and has a width that varies between 15 and 29 kilometers. According to measurements, the rock that is now exposed is approximately 2 billion years old. The geological structure is part of the Grand Staircase.

 

From the age of the canyon itself, very different assignments were made in various published studies. A study published in Nature came to 70 million years. A very recent study comes to 6 million years.

 

Despite the great width, the other side of the canyon is clearly visible from almost every point. This is due to the extremely low humidity in the desert-like area, so that the light absorption here is extremely low.

 

The walls of the Grand Canyon are streaked reddish due to the different compositions of the layers in succession. The Grand Canyon's red rock is prized at its most beautiful just after sunrise and just before sunset. It is therefore often recommended to visit the Canyon around these times.

 

Source: Wikipedia

 

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Uploaded on August 23, 2020
Taken on April 26, 2014