I have been to both the north and south rims of the Grand Canyon. It is well worth the experience, and I would say that the views are a bit better from the north rim as you are at higher elevation there. Even saw some bison while there!
I'm from near that part of the world, and we prefer to stay on the North Rim when we go there. The view isn't as expansive, but even in high season, it's possible to find places in the park where you can seemingly have it all to yourself. Nothing like sitting with your legs dangling over the edge at Fire Point and watching the peregines hunt!
There is a trail called the lava falls trail ( I think) that is near one of the volcaones) I’d like to hike it but it’s brutal as you basically hike on a lava flow of basalt
Arizona has a few areas of active volcanism and many extinct volcanoes as well. Here in central AZ I live near mesas made by lava flows of the Hickey formation about 15 or so mya) from Joe’s Hill volcano ( squaw peak lava flows) etc
Worth adding that the shallow subduction of the Farallon plate caused tectonic uplift of the Kaibab limestone. So it's less like a flat rock was incised by the river cutting down, like a knife cutting through a block of butter, but more that the river was static and the limestone uplifted around it, like a piece of wood getting pulled through a table saw..
I would not have put 2+2 together were it not for the fact that that is precisely how the Columbia River Gorge was formed. The Columbia River 100 million years ago or so ran pretty much in a straight path over a relatively level surface from the Columbia Basin straight out to the Pacific Ocean; but when subduction of the Juan de Fuca Plate began in earnest and the forearc began to form, the flow of the river (along with its sheer weight) eroded the forearc enough to keep pace with its growth, until what we see today. People often wonder how a mere river could blast through such a large mountain range, when it wasn't "blasting through" it at all; it was just eroding the forearc building underneath it. Granted, the Missoula floods did much to carve the sheer cliffs on the Oregon side of the Gorge; but the gorge itself was formed long before the Missoula floods began happening.
Jimmy James....I have also heard that tectonic uplift helped form the Grand Canyon and it wasn't all cut away from water erosion alone. And also, I thought the oldest rocks were a lot older than just 1.8 Billion years. I think that the Grand Canyon still has a lot of mysteries and geologic facts to be discovered.
@@briane173 The Columbia river gorge is quite impressive at parts! Especially with those towering cliffs of basalt columns with all the topsoil eroded away from the Missoula floods. Shame that the Columbia is rather obscure outside of the west coast, and all the damn dams certainly don't help either. Some of the largest waterfalls in the world by flow rate used to be on the Columbia but got drowned behind reservoirs.
@@briane173 The same is true for almost all rivers that cut through mountain ranges. There are other examples, perhaps not as grand as the Columbia, but any river that had enough flow to keep it's channel while the earth around uplifted did the same thing...
When visiting the Grand Canyon South Rim, keep an eye out for all the sea life fossils at the very top of the south rim, imbedded into the white rock. Sea shells, sponges, etc are everywhere. The entire plateau was once below sea level, has risen to just over 7,000' at the south rim and over 8,000' at the north rim, and split open. This was done so that we could have an incredible location to run in...and so we do!
Very fascinating briefing on the Grand Canyon. My brother lives a couple of hours from the Canyon so I’ve visited it several times. It is truly one of the United States’ most endearing landmarks. Sedona is also beautiful, if not quite as breathtaking. Another great place to visit closer to our neck of the woods is Lassen Volcanic National Park. Much less crowded than Yosemite 😉
Geez, if you want to talk crowds, it's the reason I'm not going back to Grand Canyon. It's a victim of it's own success. (Same with Zion.) I do think Canyonlands (where the Green and Colorado Rivers conjoin) might be a better Grand Canyon than Grand Canyon, lol. It's a lot more accessible, and is a no-brainer with Arches and Dead Horse Point right next door...
Visitors from overseas are often advised that "if you only see one thing in the United States see the Grand Canyon. It is the one thing guaranteed to not disappoint."
That was really interesting to learn about the formation. I know some have questioned the Great Non-Conformity and it's existence and how that is significant in describing geological events time lines.
Earth was an iceball. The earth was also was broken by the producing oxygen from biological sources, it's a cooler atmosphere but a reactive atmosphere that turned into laughing gas, and the oceans where acidic. Essentially geology happened there's some rocks that survived, but nearly nothing survived. It's interesting to think about that life could've evolved from 1st complex multi cellular lifeforms to modern time and still have hundreds of millions to spare. Did it? Probably not for the same reason there's no deposits, the earth went from filled with life, to toxic, to ice Ball, thawed then ice again from the same thing as before.
I had the opportunity to visit the Grand Canyon multiple times. Once hiked down the south rim to the river and up the next day. To a geologist it is an amazing place with so much of the rock record exposed. From those days I still have the two map set of the geologic cross-section of the area.
I would like to see more on the Grand Canyon Region. How was the North Kaibab Forest high elevation formed? There is a massive volcanic cone on the Navajo Res. east of the Canyon that would be interesting to know about.
Navajo mountian is blister mountian where granite was injected into sedimentary layers . Lacolithic I'd IS the word. The abahos henry and Lasalle mountians in the area are the same the layers originally over the top were then eroded awsy
@@josephpiskac2781 Navajo Mt. is a lacolith. Sometimes the blister pops and an active volcano forms. Batholiths are injections of granite into overlying terrane and cool miles down before they get close to the surface. Many of the most beautiful mountains, like the Sierra Nevada, are erosional remnants of batholiths. We here in New Mexico have the Organ Mts. in the far south as the best examples. Look them up as they are gorgeous. The altitude difference between the north and south rim is a result of the Colorado Plateau, which is almost centered of the Four Corners and extends into Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico as a rough circular-ish shape occupying about 1/3 of each state's area. The Plateau is a tectonically quiet region for the most part but there are exceptions, like the volcano in the canyon, and others. The Plateau is an independent micro-plate that is slowly rotating clockwise amidst the terranes around it which are all spreading and headed NW while the Plateau stays put. It is slightly tilted down, north to south hence the rim elevation differences. A theory with much to back it up supports evidence that a very large lake formed on the east side of the Plateau, Lake Bidahochi, when the Kaibab Plateau rose and blocked the Colorado's previous course about 12 million yrs ago. What is now the Little Colorado was the remnant of the Colorado's drainage east of the Kaibab Plateau. The Colorado then drainage was west of the Kaibab Plateau but as the headwaters of it kept eroding back to the east, Lake Bidahochi filled deeper and deeper, approaching the altitude of the Kaibab. The headwater erosion moving east and the filling of Bidahochi connected in the middle of the Kaibab. Once that happened the Lake outflow rapidly eroded the new connection and drained Bidahochi in a matter of a few thousand years, some 5 million yrs or so back, the canyon, already a large erosional feature on the west side of the Kaibab, was formed and has been deepening ever since. It did not start on some sort of level terrane and erode down a mile. It, in a smaller form, had already been formed as the drainage of the Plateau and though nowhere near as deep as it is today, it was a major canyon. Stealing the Bidahochi water through headwater theft greatly and rapidly created something like we see today. So yes, It was formed by a flood but not the imaginary "Flood". As Back Road Junkie states, most of the canyons in the Rockies, at least, were formed as rivers ran over the yet-to-rise mountains (and again correctly the Farallon Plate was subducted beneath the American Plate but at a very shallow angle thus "crumpling" the land to the east which is why there is a mountain range in the near middle of the continent), and once the mountains began to rise it was slow enough that the rivers just kept cutting as the land beneath them rose. Many examples of rivers running straight through mountain ranges rather than diverting to easier drainages. Interestingly the remnants of the Farallon plate are as far east as the east coast but hundreds to thousands of miles deep. There is till the tiny bit off the US Pacific NW called the Juan de Fuca Plate and it is being subducted still. It's also the source of some of the planet's largest quakes and tsunamis and more still to come.
Here is an interesting topic. Aruba, where I live is said to be formed by volcanic activity but there isn't a volcano near it to our knowledge responsible. I would like to request a case study on this :)
The volcanic activity on Aruba is ancient - it happened in the Cretaceous period, around 100 million years ago. Back then, the Atlantic Ocean was much smaller and Aruba and the South American continent was much closer to Africa. It might have been related to the same volcanic system that eventually created Cape Verde.
Dear geologyhub, dang I've been really enjoying your videos. I live in the PNW and when MT ST helens erupted again in 2004, it gave me the sheer perspective of what a volcano can and will do. I was wondering if you would ever be willing to go into detail as to how scientists date geological Events? What technology is used to do that? I've always been curious.
The best!! I know so much about the GC but this paper as presented showed me so much more. Seemlessly written script, well read. The volcanic information is a doozy though. Thanks for that; and thanks also for your research skills - a lot of solid information in this 4.5 minutes. Much appreciated.
Thank you for this most interesting history of the GRAND CANYON ! My daughter a friend and I went up to the Grand Canyon our friend hadn’t been to see it ! We had a wonderful time looking around at the magnificent rock forms and the beautiful colors of the. Mountains ! What I enjoyed most was the politeness of the people ! Most were from different countries and most couldn’t speak each other’s language’s yet they , we “talked” ! As I watched people taking pictures of each other who couldn’t understand each other’s language I thought” GOD if you are watching us humans at this time , I hope we are making you happy too ! I feel the sun was a little brighter the cool breeze a little more gentle ! And all was right with that particular day ! To each and everyone no matter who you are on this Beautiful Planet 🌎🌍🌏 or WHERE YOU ARE LOVE ❤️ BLESSING 😇🙏👍 Peace 🕊be with you ! A special🙏😇👍❤️ Blessing for the. Peoples of UKRAINE 🇺🇦 AND LOVE ❤️ and Blessings 🙏😇🕊 to the innocent people of RUSSIA 🇷🇺 FROM AMERICA 🇺🇸 I STAND WITH UKRAINE 🇺🇦
Viva Arizona, home sweet home. There are a lot of theories about the Canyon and each has merit. Thanks much for posting this. We live in the San Pedro and not all that grand, it's still beautiful. hasta!
Its the only thing I’ve ever looked at with the naked eye, that my brain simply couldn’t even begin to estimate sizes and distances. Whether you’re looking at the other side, or at the bottom, everything is so far away, yet visible.....it almost doesn’t seem real. If you’re lucky, you can spot a hiker at the river’s bank or a rafting group.....and they appear so much smaller than you think they should, which then blows you mind about how far away and how huge everything is that you’re looking at. Yet, its all right in front of you.
Hi there I really love your channel it has reignited my passion for geology and mineralogy! I'm from Wales in the UK I was just wondering if you could do an episode about the extinct volcanic activity that scars the Welsh landscape to the north also if there was ever any activity in the south of Wales where I live maybe dye or sill intrusions? as there really isn't any information on that at all and I thought if anyone would know it would be you!! Many thanks and keep up the great videos they're very interesting and I even got my little sister into geology by showing her your videos:)
Great and interesting video. I was able to guide an 18 ft. raft (self-bailing Sotar, oar frame) 226.5 miles through the GC. Lee's Ferry to Diamond Creek. The canyon was amazing at every turn. We had 15 peeps in 5 boats and among us was an actual geologist. Whoot. He would tell us of ancient sand dunes (tapeats sandstone) & mathematical formulas of how far down (distance) a side canyon a stone was from its layer source as pertaining to how much time has passed. Lava Falls was a fun rapid.
While I briefly visited the Grand Canyon in early spring one year, while on a motorcycle trip, this kind of erosion is also visible in southern Alberta and in north Dakota. Horseshoe Canyon in Alberta is one of my favourite spots to visit.
If you visit the northern rim the visitors center has a marvelous geologic map of the canyon. The canyon itself and the side canyons all follow faults in the rock caused by uplift of the whole region. On top of that, the north rim is about 1000 ft higher than the south rim. Bulge, split., carve.
Did you know that the oldest rock in Bryce Canyon National Park, is just about the youngest rock in Zion. The oldest rock in Zion, is about the same age as the youngest rocks in the Grand Canyon. So just by traveling down US-89 through Utah and Arizona, you can see around 2 billion years of rock layers. GeologyHub should do a video on the Grand Staircase. It's fascinating geology...
Great videos.... I come from a small green village in England, the grand canyon, scablands etc. scare me to death with their enormity ...... Sara 🤗💞🇬🇧 xxxxx
I visited the South Rim in March 2020 right before the pandemic and it was a sight to behold. And before getting there I even saw the San Franciso Peak and a few of Arizona's volcanoes
Hey I loved the video! I definitely didn't know about the Volcano. I have a video suggestion for you about: Mount Rinjani & Mount Batur. I was looking for volcanoes on Google earth and I found those amazing looking volcanoes. Thanks If you even think about using the idea
My brother used to give tours of the Canyon. I was on two of his tours. The first time my brother had me close my eyes until he led me to this huge rock and told me to sit there. I look up and the sight is unbelievable. It doesn't look real. Words don't do it justice. I have a question, were there mountains once where the GC stands now? If so how long ago? I love your videos.
I remember visiting back in the late 90s with my brother and parents though I was quite young. What I do remember more was Bryce and Zion more as that's where they did one of the kid ranger things for a day and you collect the badges on places you visit and at the end of the day you'd get some reward. I think I still have that sash somewhere. GH, I say do one for Bryce and Zion Canyons too. :D
Went to both on a trip to that region years ago with my family (although sadly not the Grand Canyon as well). Zion has all sorts of wonderful features and is absolutely spectacular for just how deep, steep, and narrow it gets. There's all sorts of fun natural water-related features throughout the park to visit. Bryce is also incredibly fun to explore with all those hoodoos you get nowhere else quite like that. Coral pink sand dunes is also worth a visit too, incredibly underrated and obscure but that pinkish-orange sand is otherworldly, especially near sunset.
I love beautiful landscapes😍! Thank you so much for a vid about one of the most famous ones in the US, GHub! I dunno about ya'll, but learning about these wonders enhances them for me.
Please do a vid on the escarpment, hammada and valley terrain west of Taouz in the southern Tafilalet of Morocco. I have explored this area in detail over the last 25 years in my Land Rover I think you will find it fascinating and full of interest. Thanks for all the great geology vids .
Very nice vid. I always learn something new every day and I certainly didn't know about the volcanic activity before. I bet you wish you could take your geology tools to Mars and sample the mighty Valles Marineris ;)
Great video. I believe there is some current research into whether glacial lake outbursts during the Younger Dryas events may have contributed to some of the erosion. Similar to the Scablands in Washington State. However this was likely only a partial contribution.
We have a similar geologic feature in Australia just west of Sydney, where large canyons have been carved into the sandstone rock. These form the Gardens of Stone national park and the western edge of the Wollemi National Park. Tall pillars of sedimentary rock are prominent and are in danger of collapse caused by underground mining.
Fun fact, orange isn't a real color according to my Munsell soil classification book. It's either reddish yellow or yellowish red. Not sure about other geologic disciplines though.
I’d like to learn more about Green rock faults associated with large fault lines as with the sierras. The green rock faults are found before a large fault line and can go for miles.
Could you do some videos on ancient volcanoes in the Appalachian Mountains and New England? I would love for you to do a video on the Osipee Mountain Ring Dike or the New England Seamounts.
I have a good topic maybe you can make one of Malham cove or The Netherlands vulcano's because the Netherlands have 2 vulcano's one in the north sea and one in the waddenzee 🙂
Could you do a video on Changbai Mountain please? It was recently brought to my attention as a particular oddity... ans sure enough it's intraplate but I'm not sure why? Is there a newly formed hotspot there that is yet to create much volcanism? I'm interested to find out more as it seems a peculiar case...
Whats so strange is that it starts from flat terrain yet is a quite impressively sized canyon. Most other commonly cited massive canyons seem more like valleys between massive mountains than a giant steep hole in the ground. The closest thing I could find to the Grand Canyon are a few in southern Africa and some in Mexico but that style of canyon seems to be rather rare.
Given both the past video on this channel and what I have been reading up on the Colorado Plateau in an effort to better understand what is driving the basin and Range Province I think it might have to do with the nature of the uplift being magmatic in nature in particular this and similar canyons are regions appear to involve the overlap of old stable and resilient cratonic crust experiencing significant uplift due to upwelling hot material and the associated extensional forces within active rift complexes. The only areas today where this type of activity is occurring are Africa and North America and potentially Antarctica though the latter would be buried under deep ice if it existed and thus would likely look entirely different. If the conditions for this type of formation are the active destruction of old to ancient cratonic crust due to magmatic induced rifting then it makes a lot of sense why it is so rare both because there is much less Precambrian age cratons left and because such features are geologically short lived. The explanation for why the basin and range province exists is still contentious but based on seismic tomography there seems to be a natural alignment between the termination of the Farallon plate and the Colorado Plateau and larger basin and Range Province as well as the continuation of the Juan de Fuca ridge and East Pacific Rise including the variations in transform offsets. As the subduction of a spreading ridge would coincide with the end of oceanic crust creation then if the underlying mantle upwelling currents are stable enough to persist it would line up with right where it needs to be to explain the volcanism as well as the strange clockwise rotation. The termination of arc volcanism also likewise matches up suspiciously well suggesting the processes are related. In this case the Colorado Plateau would likely have only begun to erode once the upwelling asthenosphere got enough leverage to start tearing the Colorado Plateau off of the Laurentian shield likely using existing fractures in the rocks. In this case there is an ancient Mesoproterozoic fault that has been reactivated in the Rockies and the same is probably true in general. If this is the case it is logical to expect more Grand Canyon like features will form as long as North America continues to move to the South West and or the East Pacific Rise continues to be Earth's most active mid ocean ridge system like it has for the last ~150to 200+ million years. It also probably helps a lot that to the North the Yellowstone hotspot is melting its way through the ancient North American Craton. The main reason I suspect the ridge rather than just a general slab hole is due to Geology Hub's video nothing the potentially simultaneous nature of a number of volcanoes along the western edge of the Colorado Plateau and the magmatic composition of that lava.
@@Dragrath1 Best explanations I've seen are the remnants of the Farallon plate melting and dehydrating away beneath the whole area, creating a region of warm wet mantle under the western US. This comes with sporadic volcanism and some very odd uplift. The uplift of the Rockies has also been associated with the accretion of the North Cascade microplate which did some funky stuff to the subduction zone and caused compression of the North American plate. The Colorado plateau is so unique because its a nice flat area uplifted remarkably high, there's no other upland region on the planet quite like it. The flat surrounding terrain, soft sandstone, and continuous uplift were the perfect formula to get this weird situation of a giant hole in the ground in an otherwise flat landscape. As for similar-ish scenarios, there's also some interesting flat slab subduction underneath eastern China which may have melted the underside of a sizable chunk of the region, but there it sank down to form lowlands instead of rising up to form uplifted plateaus (although the stretched craton of the basin and range I guess is kinda lowlands - its really only the areas around the rockies that got uplifted quite like that). There's even a few incredibly obscure volcanic features scattered around the region to show for it. If I had to give my extremely amateur opinion, the unique combination of some remarkable flat slab subduction plus the compression that lifted up the rockies helped create this unusual situation. All courtesy of the Farallon and the tendency of the west coast to collect microcontinents.
If the canyon was formed by erosion, there must have been some massive amounts of rain in that area to form all those side canyons! I simply cannot believe that water erosion was the primary force creating the canyon complex. Look carefully at the overview picture of the entire canyon; does it not look very much like a lightning bolt with leaders going off in both directions from the main bolt? Or like what results from applying a strong electric current to both ends of a piece of wood? Possibly something to consider.
I have been to both the north and south rims of the Grand Canyon. It is well worth the experience, and I would say that the views are a bit better from the north rim as you are at higher elevation there. Even saw some bison while there!
One of the places I hope I will visit someday in the future.
Is the voice of the videos automated generated ?
@@MadeiraGeology it’s my voice (not some text to speech algorithm) just I have autism so it sounds weird. Rather naturally monotone.
@@GeologyHub I knew I liked you! #SpectrumPals
GeologyHub, please slow down you slide show, especially when you have text on screen. Sometimes I don't even have time to hit pause.
I'm from near that part of the world, and we prefer to stay on the North Rim when we go there. The view isn't as expansive, but even in high season, it's possible to find places in the park where you can seemingly have it all to yourself. Nothing like sitting with your legs dangling over the edge at Fire Point and watching the peregines hunt!
I didn't realize there is an active volcano in the Grand Canyon. Thank you!
It can even be visited, although access is a bit difficult as it requires a lengthy 4WD dirt road
@GeologyHub Perhaps adding guided trips could be something you offer in the future?
There is a trail called the lava falls trail ( I think) that is near one of the volcaones) I’d like to hike it but it’s brutal as you basically hike on a lava flow of basalt
A real holy grail to study Geology
Never knew there were volcanics in this region
pressure valves .. unclear origin.
Arizona has a few areas of active volcanism and many extinct volcanoes as well. Here in central AZ I live near mesas made by lava flows of the Hickey formation about 15 or so mya) from Joe’s Hill volcano ( squaw peak lava flows) etc
That was a well spent almost 5 minutes 💛
Worth adding that the shallow subduction of the Farallon plate caused tectonic uplift of the Kaibab limestone. So it's less like a flat rock was incised by the river cutting down, like a knife cutting through a block of butter, but more that the river was static and the limestone uplifted around it, like a piece of wood getting pulled through a table saw..
I would not have put 2+2 together were it not for the fact that that is precisely how the Columbia River Gorge was formed. The Columbia River 100 million years ago or so ran pretty much in a straight path over a relatively level surface from the Columbia Basin straight out to the Pacific Ocean; but when subduction of the Juan de Fuca Plate began in earnest and the forearc began to form, the flow of the river (along with its sheer weight) eroded the forearc enough to keep pace with its growth, until what we see today.
People often wonder how a mere river could blast through such a large mountain range, when it wasn't "blasting through" it at all; it was just eroding the forearc building underneath it. Granted, the Missoula floods did much to carve the sheer cliffs on the Oregon side of the Gorge; but the gorge itself was formed long before the Missoula floods began happening.
Jimmy James....I have also heard that tectonic uplift helped form the Grand Canyon and it wasn't all cut away from water erosion alone.
And also, I thought the oldest rocks were a lot older than just 1.8 Billion years.
I think that the Grand Canyon still has a lot of mysteries and geologic facts to be discovered.
@@briane173 The Columbia river gorge is quite impressive at parts! Especially with those towering cliffs of basalt columns with all the topsoil eroded away from the Missoula floods. Shame that the Columbia is rather obscure outside of the west coast, and all the damn dams certainly don't help either. Some of the largest waterfalls in the world by flow rate used to be on the Columbia but got drowned behind reservoirs.
@@briane173 The same is true for almost all rivers that cut through mountain ranges. There are other examples, perhaps not as grand as the Columbia, but any river that had enough flow to keep it's channel while the earth around uplifted did the same thing...
When visiting the Grand Canyon South Rim, keep an eye out for all the sea life fossils at the very top of the south rim, imbedded into the white rock. Sea shells, sponges, etc are everywhere. The entire plateau was once below sea level, has risen to just over 7,000' at the south rim and over 8,000' at the north rim, and split open. This was done so that we could have an incredible location to run in...and so we do!
Very fascinating briefing on the Grand Canyon. My brother lives a couple of hours from the Canyon so I’ve visited it several times. It is truly one of the United States’ most endearing landmarks. Sedona is also beautiful, if not quite as breathtaking. Another great place to visit closer to our neck of the woods is Lassen Volcanic National Park. Much less crowded than Yosemite 😉
Shhhhh ! Now everybody will know ! ;-)
Cheers !
Geez, if you want to talk crowds, it's the reason I'm not going back to Grand Canyon. It's a victim of it's own success. (Same with Zion.)
I do think Canyonlands (where the Green and Colorado Rivers conjoin) might be a better Grand Canyon than Grand Canyon, lol. It's a lot more accessible, and is a no-brainer with Arches and Dead Horse Point right next door...
Visitors from overseas are often advised that "if you only see one thing in the United States see the Grand Canyon. It is the one thing guaranteed to not disappoint."
This is a surreal video to see posted.
I love it whenever you talk about Arizona
That was really interesting to learn about the formation. I know some have questioned the Great Non-Conformity and it's existence and how that is significant in describing geological events time lines.
Earth was an iceball. The earth was also was broken by the producing oxygen from biological sources, it's a cooler atmosphere but a reactive atmosphere that turned into laughing gas, and the oceans where acidic. Essentially geology happened there's some rocks that survived, but nearly nothing survived.
It's interesting to think about that life could've evolved from 1st complex multi cellular lifeforms to modern time and still have hundreds of millions to spare.
Did it? Probably not for the same reason there's no deposits, the earth went from filled with life, to toxic, to ice Ball, thawed then ice again from the same thing as before.
@@nothuman3083 that is one theory. My theory is that a corner of the planet got very drunk and blacked out for 1.2B years. B-)
@@solarnaut - that corner of the planet is Alabama and Florida. It's still blacked out.
One of the most awaited videos on the channel
Finally one of these I already knew about, and then you mentioned the volcano I didn't know about.
What an excellent explanation of how and why the Grand Canyon exists. A most beautiful geographic oddity indeed.
I had the opportunity to visit the Grand Canyon multiple times. Once hiked down the south rim to the river and up the next day. To a geologist it is an amazing place with so much of the rock record exposed. From those days I still have the two map set of the geologic cross-section of the area.
I would like to see more on the Grand Canyon Region. How was the North Kaibab Forest high elevation formed? There is a massive volcanic cone on the Navajo Res. east of the Canyon that would be interesting to know about.
All that was caused by the Flood.
Navajo mountian is blister mountian where granite was injected into sedimentary layers . Lacolithic I'd
IS the word. The abahos henry and Lasalle mountians in the area are the same the layers originally over the top were then eroded awsy
@@jeffbybee5207 Thank you that is a geologic process I did not know existed.
@@josephpiskac2781 Navajo Mt. is a lacolith. Sometimes the blister pops and an active volcano forms. Batholiths are injections of granite into overlying terrane and cool miles down before they get close to the surface. Many of the most beautiful mountains, like the Sierra Nevada, are erosional remnants of batholiths. We here in New Mexico have the Organ Mts. in the far south as the best examples. Look them up as they are gorgeous.
The altitude difference between the north and south rim is a result of the Colorado Plateau, which is almost centered of the Four Corners and extends into Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico as a rough circular-ish shape occupying about 1/3 of each state's area. The Plateau is a tectonically quiet region for the most part but there are exceptions, like the volcano in the canyon, and others. The Plateau is an independent micro-plate that is slowly rotating clockwise amidst the terranes around it which are all spreading and headed NW while the Plateau stays put. It is slightly tilted down, north to south hence the rim elevation differences. A theory with much to back it up supports evidence that a very large lake formed on the east side of the Plateau, Lake Bidahochi, when the Kaibab Plateau rose and blocked the Colorado's previous course about 12 million yrs ago. What is now the Little Colorado was the remnant of the Colorado's drainage east of the Kaibab Plateau. The Colorado then drainage was west of the Kaibab Plateau but as the headwaters of it kept eroding back to the east, Lake Bidahochi filled deeper and deeper, approaching the altitude of the Kaibab. The headwater erosion moving east and the filling of Bidahochi connected in the middle of the Kaibab. Once that happened the Lake outflow rapidly eroded the new connection and drained Bidahochi in a matter of a few thousand years, some 5 million yrs or so back, the canyon, already a large erosional feature on the west side of the Kaibab, was formed and has been deepening ever since. It did not start on some sort of level terrane and erode down a mile. It, in a smaller form, had already been formed as the drainage of the Plateau and though nowhere near as deep as it is today, it was a major canyon. Stealing the Bidahochi water through headwater theft greatly and rapidly created something like we see today. So yes, It was formed by a flood but not the imaginary "Flood".
As Back Road Junkie states, most of the canyons in the Rockies, at least, were formed as rivers ran over the yet-to-rise mountains (and again correctly the Farallon Plate was subducted beneath the American Plate but at a very shallow angle thus "crumpling" the land to the east which is why there is a mountain range in the near middle of the continent), and once the mountains began to rise it was slow enough that the rivers just kept cutting as the land beneath them rose. Many examples of rivers running straight through mountain ranges rather than diverting to easier drainages. Interestingly the remnants of the Farallon plate are as far east as the east coast but hundreds to thousands of miles deep. There is till the tiny bit off the US Pacific NW called the Juan de Fuca Plate and it is being subducted still. It's also the source of some of the planet's largest quakes and tsunamis and more still to come.
@@okeefecybermesa THANK YOU I need to read this a few times and let it all soak in!
Here is an interesting topic. Aruba, where I live is said to be formed by volcanic activity but there isn't a volcano near it to our knowledge responsible. I would like to request a case study on this :)
The volcanic activity on Aruba is ancient - it happened in the Cretaceous period, around 100 million years ago. Back then, the Atlantic Ocean was much smaller and Aruba and the South American continent was much closer to Africa. It might have been related to the same volcanic system that eventually created Cape Verde.
How's the fishing?
Just wanted to compliment your improved narration in your videos. I do enjoy all the information you present,
Awesome job! I would love to see more videos like this
Thank you so much I asked for this exact video on your channel and you happened to do it! Love Geology hub!
Dear geologyhub, dang I've been really enjoying your videos. I live in the PNW and when MT ST helens erupted again in 2004, it gave me the sheer perspective of what a volcano can and will do. I was wondering if you would ever be willing to go into detail as to how scientists date geological Events? What technology is used to do that? I've always been curious.
The best!! I know so much about the GC but this paper as presented showed me so much more. Seemlessly written script, well read. The volcanic information is a doozy though. Thanks for that; and thanks also for your research skills - a lot of solid information in this 4.5 minutes. Much appreciated.
another fantastic and interesting post. thanks so much GH. cheers bud.
The Grand Canyon is one of the most interesting geological areas of the world.
The unconformity, and the deep carved canyon are puzzling features.
Thank you
Thank you for this most interesting history of the GRAND CANYON ! My daughter a friend and I went up to the Grand Canyon our friend hadn’t been to see it ! We had a wonderful time looking around at the magnificent rock forms and the beautiful colors of the. Mountains ! What I enjoyed most was the politeness of the people ! Most were from different countries and most couldn’t speak each other’s language’s yet they , we “talked” ! As I watched people taking pictures of each other who couldn’t understand each other’s language I thought” GOD if you are watching us humans at this time , I hope we are making you happy too ! I feel the sun was a little brighter the cool breeze a little more gentle ! And all was right with that particular day !
To each and everyone no matter who you are on this Beautiful Planet 🌎🌍🌏 or WHERE YOU ARE LOVE ❤️ BLESSING 😇🙏👍 Peace 🕊be with you ! A special🙏😇👍❤️ Blessing for the. Peoples of UKRAINE 🇺🇦 AND LOVE ❤️ and Blessings 🙏😇🕊 to the innocent people of RUSSIA 🇷🇺 FROM AMERICA 🇺🇸 I STAND WITH UKRAINE 🇺🇦
Amazing geologic feature! Crazy features even within the canyon
Very interesting, thanks a lot ! I flew over it in helicopter 30 years ago and i remeber as if it was yesterday! Gorgeous !
Viva Arizona, home sweet home. There are a lot of theories about the Canyon and each has merit. Thanks much for posting this. We live in the San Pedro and not all that grand, it's still beautiful. hasta!
Never knew the Grand Canyon had a active volcanic field in it. Thank you!
Its the only thing I’ve ever looked at with the naked eye, that my brain simply couldn’t even begin to estimate sizes and distances. Whether you’re looking at the other side, or at the bottom, everything is so far away, yet visible.....it almost doesn’t seem real. If you’re lucky, you can spot a hiker at the river’s bank or a rafting group.....and they appear so much smaller than you think they should, which then blows you mind about how far away and how huge everything is that you’re looking at. Yet, its all right in front of you.
Awesome ! ! ! B-)
As a Non Conformist … I gotta love the Great Non Conformity ..
Hi there I really love your channel it has reignited my passion for geology and mineralogy! I'm from Wales in the UK I was just wondering if you could do an episode about the extinct volcanic activity that scars the Welsh landscape to the north also if there was ever any activity in the south of Wales where I live maybe dye or sill intrusions? as there really isn't any information on that at all and I thought if anyone would know it would be you!! Many thanks and keep up the great videos they're very interesting and I even got my little sister into geology by showing her your videos:)
Awesome Mr.G 🤘
Thanks! Still want to go visit it. On my list. I do enjoy your work.
Awesome video things I never knew about the Grand canyon
Great and interesting video. I was able to guide an 18 ft. raft (self-bailing Sotar, oar frame) 226.5 miles through the GC. Lee's Ferry to Diamond Creek. The canyon was amazing at every turn. We had 15 peeps in 5 boats and among us was an actual geologist. Whoot. He would tell us of ancient sand dunes (tapeats sandstone) & mathematical formulas of how far down (distance) a side canyon a stone was from its layer source as pertaining to how much time has passed.
Lava Falls was a fun rapid.
While I briefly visited the Grand Canyon in early spring one year, while on a motorcycle trip, this kind of erosion is also visible in southern Alberta and in north Dakota. Horseshoe Canyon in Alberta is one of my favourite spots to visit.
ooh, this was super informative and neat to learn! she really is a beauty to behold 💕
I love that you ended the video with a sample from the trail of time. Great video as always!
If you visit the northern rim the visitors center has a marvelous geologic map of the canyon. The canyon itself and the side canyons all follow faults in the rock caused by uplift of the whole region. On top of that, the north rim is about 1000 ft higher than the south rim. Bulge, split., carve.
Great work in production!
Always nice to remember my own state contains such beauty when stuck in the blandness of the Phoenix Valley
Great video, there's always something to learn about the Grand Canyon.
Did you know that the oldest rock in Bryce Canyon National Park, is just about the youngest rock in Zion. The oldest rock in Zion, is about the same age as the youngest rocks in the Grand Canyon.
So just by traveling down US-89 through Utah and Arizona, you can see around 2 billion years of rock layers.
GeologyHub should do a video on the Grand Staircase. It's fascinating geology...
Great videos....
I come from a small green village in England, the grand canyon, scablands etc. scare me to death with their enormity ......
Sara 🤗💞🇬🇧 xxxxx
I visited the South Rim in March 2020 right before the pandemic and it was a sight to behold. And before getting there I even saw the San Franciso Peak and a few of Arizona's volcanoes
Fascinating!
Hey I loved the video! I definitely didn't know about the Volcano.
I have a video suggestion for you about:
Mount Rinjani & Mount Batur.
I was looking for volcanoes on Google earth and I found those amazing looking volcanoes.
Thanks If you even think about using the idea
My brother used to give tours of the Canyon. I was on two of his tours. The first time my brother had me close my eyes until he led me to this huge rock and told me to sit there. I look up and the sight is unbelievable. It doesn't look real. Words don't do it justice.
I have a question, were there mountains once where the GC stands now? If so how long ago? I love your videos.
I remember visiting back in the late 90s with my brother and parents though I was quite young. What I do remember more was Bryce and Zion more as that's where they did one of the kid ranger things for a day and you collect the badges on places you visit and at the end of the day you'd get some reward. I think I still have that sash somewhere.
GH, I say do one for Bryce and Zion Canyons too. :D
Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park are both spectacular so your parents were very wise.
@@sentientflower7891 very.
Went to both on a trip to that region years ago with my family (although sadly not the Grand Canyon as well). Zion has all sorts of wonderful features and is absolutely spectacular for just how deep, steep, and narrow it gets. There's all sorts of fun natural water-related features throughout the park to visit. Bryce is also incredibly fun to explore with all those hoodoos you get nowhere else quite like that. Coral pink sand dunes is also worth a visit too, incredibly underrated and obscure but that pinkish-orange sand is otherworldly, especially near sunset.
I love beautiful landscapes😍! Thank you so much for a vid about one of the most famous ones in the US, GHub! I dunno about ya'll, but learning about these wonders enhances them for me.
Beautiful! I have always dreamt about the Gran Canyon. Flying over it as a bird.
I flew over it in a jet at sunrise and also at sunset and it is spectacular from 25,000+ feet.
I am curious about the uranium situation around the Grand Canyon. I thought they were trying to mine it at one point.
A different video for a change of sorts thanks.
Great work on the video
I recommend talking about Red Rock Park in Gallup, NM with pyramid rock and church rock respectively.
very cool volcano in the canyon who knew? thank you stay safe
Please do a vid on the escarpment, hammada and valley terrain west of Taouz in the southern Tafilalet of Morocco. I have explored this area in detail over the last 25 years in my Land Rover I think you will find it fascinating and full of interest. Thanks for all the great geology vids .
Very nice vid. I always learn something new every day and I certainly didn't know about the volcanic activity before. I bet you wish you could take your geology tools to Mars and sample the mighty Valles Marineris ;)
Great video. I believe there is some current research into whether glacial lake outbursts during the Younger Dryas events may have contributed to some of the erosion. Similar to the Scablands in Washington State. However this was likely only a partial contribution.
Good stuff.
Would love a episode on Canyon De Chelley....
Fascinating
I am auditing a structual geolpdy class at SUU. The transformed metamorphic rocks were most enjoyable.
I nearly got the chance to work at the Grand Canyon at the South Rim, when Fred Harvey/Amfac still owned it. I wish I could have now
Beautiful
A volcano went off in the Grand Canyon 900 years ago? That’s crazy but not surprising.
Can you make a video about the Gardnos crater?
would u do the volcanic field there to and if it’s still active? and can u also to the extinct volcano in sussex county new jersey?
This is a deep subject.
amazing place
We have a similar geologic feature in Australia just west of Sydney, where large canyons have been carved into the sandstone rock. These form the Gardens of Stone national park and the western edge of the Wollemi National Park. Tall pillars of sedimentary rock are prominent and are in danger of collapse caused by underground mining.
Fun fact, orange isn't a real color according to my Munsell soil classification book. It's either reddish yellow or yellowish red. Not sure about other geologic disciplines though.
What about the prehistoric lake which rapidly collapsed sending tons of water through the Grand Canyon?
Try to make a video about the springerville volcanic feild in arizona
Geologic oddity: Stone Mountain, Georgia! Please!
I’d like to learn more about Green rock faults associated with large fault lines as with the sierras. The green rock faults are found before a large fault line and can go for miles.
Pictures never do this place justice. You HAVE to see it in person to grasp the size...its mind boggling.
Most enjoyable
Could you do some videos on ancient volcanoes in the Appalachian Mountains and New England? I would love for you to do a video on the Osipee Mountain Ring Dike or the New England Seamounts.
Could you do a video on the geology of the Hudson River valley and the Catskill mountains in New York
Can we have a video on the extinct volcano on the Isle of Skye in Scotland
3:30 what was the cause for the magmatism that resulted in spatter cones and basalt lava flows?
Please do the Richat Structure or the Eye of the Sahara. Thank you.
He has: ruclips.net/video/vf5gk3Zw208/видео.html
My childhood dream is to visit this area, imma make possible in the future.
I have a good topic maybe you can make one of Malham cove or The Netherlands vulcano's because the Netherlands have 2 vulcano's one in the north sea and one in the waddenzee 🙂
Hi Geology Hub. Do you have any insight on Stalactite Cave in central Israel?
Have you already done a video on the canyon in Twin Falls Idaho? If not please do!!
What are your thoughts on the Spill-over theory for the creation of GC?
Are there any geologic oddities in North Carolina?
Could you do a video on Changbai Mountain please? It was recently brought to my attention as a particular oddity... ans sure enough it's intraplate but I'm not sure why? Is there a newly formed hotspot there that is yet to create much volcanism? I'm interested to find out more as it seems a peculiar case...
I keep looking for discarded cartons marked "ACME"...
😅 beware the falling anvils.
The volcanic field is frequently forgot or ignored even by the park guides.
if we can just do "geologic oddities" and such you should talk about Hạ Long Bay in Vietnam!
Can you do a video on the volcano north of the Grand Canyon?
I'd like a video on the Mississippi Embayment. I recently learned a volcanic hotspot played a part in its creation. Plus it's closer to home. lol
The great earthquake that made the river flow backwards? Amazing stuff! I fished in reelfoot lake when younger, it was made by that earthquake!
Whats so strange is that it starts from flat terrain yet is a quite impressively sized canyon. Most other commonly cited massive canyons seem more like valleys between massive mountains than a giant steep hole in the ground. The closest thing I could find to the Grand Canyon are a few in southern Africa and some in Mexico but that style of canyon seems to be rather rare.
You're right. For a world as huge as ours, the Grand Canyon is quite the surprising bit of geology. That it took only 6M yrs is an interesting point.
Given both the past video on this channel and what I have been reading up on the Colorado Plateau in an effort to better understand what is driving the basin and Range Province I think it might have to do with the nature of the uplift being magmatic in nature in particular this and similar canyons are regions appear to involve the overlap of old stable and resilient cratonic crust experiencing significant uplift due to upwelling hot material and the associated extensional forces within active rift complexes. The only areas today where this type of activity is occurring are Africa and North America and potentially Antarctica though the latter would be buried under deep ice if it existed and thus would likely look entirely different.
If the conditions for this type of formation are the active destruction of old to ancient cratonic crust due to magmatic induced rifting then it makes a lot of sense why it is so rare both because there is much less Precambrian age cratons left and because such features are geologically short lived.
The explanation for why the basin and range province exists is still contentious but based on seismic tomography there seems to be a natural alignment between the termination of the Farallon plate and the Colorado Plateau and larger basin and Range Province as well as the continuation of the Juan de Fuca ridge and East Pacific Rise including the variations in transform offsets. As the subduction of a spreading ridge would coincide with the end of oceanic crust creation then if the underlying mantle upwelling currents are stable enough to persist it would line up with right where it needs to be to explain the volcanism as well as the strange clockwise rotation. The termination of arc volcanism also likewise matches up suspiciously well suggesting the processes are related. In this case the Colorado Plateau would likely have only begun to erode once the upwelling asthenosphere got enough leverage to start tearing the Colorado Plateau off of the Laurentian shield likely using existing fractures in the rocks. In this case there is an ancient Mesoproterozoic fault that has been reactivated in the Rockies and the same is probably true in general.
If this is the case it is logical to expect more Grand Canyon like features will form as long as North America continues to move to the South West and or the East Pacific Rise continues to be Earth's most active mid ocean ridge system like it has for the last ~150to 200+ million years. It also probably helps a lot that to the North the Yellowstone hotspot is melting its way through the ancient North American Craton.
The main reason I suspect the ridge rather than just a general slab hole is due to Geology Hub's video nothing the potentially simultaneous nature of a number of volcanoes along the western edge of the Colorado Plateau and the magmatic composition of that lava.
@@Dragrath1 Best explanations I've seen are the remnants of the Farallon plate melting and dehydrating away beneath the whole area, creating a region of warm wet mantle under the western US. This comes with sporadic volcanism and some very odd uplift. The uplift of the Rockies has also been associated with the accretion of the North Cascade microplate which did some funky stuff to the subduction zone and caused compression of the North American plate.
The Colorado plateau is so unique because its a nice flat area uplifted remarkably high, there's no other upland region on the planet quite like it. The flat surrounding terrain, soft sandstone, and continuous uplift were the perfect formula to get this weird situation of a giant hole in the ground in an otherwise flat landscape.
As for similar-ish scenarios, there's also some interesting flat slab subduction underneath eastern China which may have melted the underside of a sizable chunk of the region, but there it sank down to form lowlands instead of rising up to form uplifted plateaus (although the stretched craton of the basin and range I guess is kinda lowlands - its really only the areas around the rockies that got uplifted quite like that). There's even a few incredibly obscure volcanic features scattered around the region to show for it. If I had to give my extremely amateur opinion, the unique combination of some remarkable flat slab subduction plus the compression that lifted up the rockies helped create this unusual situation. All courtesy of the Farallon and the tendency of the west coast to collect microcontinents.
do a video on Glen Canyon and the surrounding canyon country of southern Utah!! PLEASSSE
Does anyone know if Lake Bonneville ever drained into the Colorado as well as the Snake?
If the canyon was formed by erosion, there must have been some massive amounts of rain in that area to form all those side canyons! I simply cannot believe that water erosion was the primary force creating the canyon complex. Look carefully at the overview picture of the entire canyon; does it not look very much like a lightning bolt with leaders going off in both directions from the main bolt? Or like what results from applying a strong electric current to both ends of a piece of wood? Possibly something to consider.
Millions of years. Millions of years. Millions of years
Couls.younmake a video on then cooper canyon in Mexico? I have heard is a lot biger than the grand C.