My husband and I experimented with working from home from somewhere else. For our first attempt, we chose Flagstaff, Arizona. One of the main reasons we chose this location was its proximity to the Grand Canyon.
The North Rim
For the first time in our adult lives, we were near the North Rim of the canyon at a time when it was open to visitors. The Visitor’s Center at the North Rim is above 8000 ft and gets a considerable amount of snow even early in the season. We took advantage and traveled there for a day of hiking.
The Grand Canyon and science
The science behind this amazing and very large hole in the ground is a story of sedimentation and erosion. Sedimentary rocks are laid down in layers. Sediments (such as sands) from ancient oceans make up these layers. Geologists can determine the age each layer was deposited. They use radioactive dating of fossils and other materials found in the layers to do so.
Erosion is the action of wind, water, and other forces (such as mass and repeated movement of animals or humans) that wears away at soil and rock. In the case of the Grand Canyon, the water of the Colorado River was the main actor in causing the erosion that led to this massive structure.
The rock layers
The Colorado river eroded land that was largely made of sedimentary rock layers. The top layer is the youngest and the layers get older as one goes deeper into the canyon. The rocks making up these layers range from 250 million to 1.25 billion years old1.
Not just at the Grand Canyon
Rock layers, flat like at the Grand Canyon, or tilted due to earthquakes causing uplift, are everywhere. What makes the Grand Canyon so amazing is the size of the rock formations and the awesome depth of the canyon. In addition the layers are so easy to see there.
Rock layers elsewhere may include rocks of different ages and types than those we saw. Sometimes they are visible at the side of highways, when large cuts needed to be made to build the roads. My favorite place (not including the Grand Canyon) is Sidling Hill in western Maryland. The Grand Canyon is worth a trip just to see it. However, if you ever find yourself in or near MD, check out Sidling Hill. And no matter where you are, look for the rock layers!
1https://sedimentology.uconn.edu/2017/01/25/the-grand-canyon-from-the-sediment-perspective/# Last accessed October 3, 2022.
