A Canyon in Time
By: Whitney French
Grade: 5
5.E.3A.1 Construct explanations of how different landforms and surface features result from the location and movement of water on Earth's surface through watersheds (drainage basins) and rivers.
Look at the bottom of this page. Below you will see some characters who are here to give you some additional information throughout the book. Click on each one whenever you see them on a page. Before you move on, click on each one so that they can introduce themselves.
The Grand Canyon is located in the state of Arizona. The canyon itself is 277 miles long, and has a depth of 18 miles at it's deepest point.
The Grand Canyon is managed by the Grand Canyon National Park. The Hualapai Tribal Nation also has juridiciton over the area, since their Native American ancestors once lived along the river.
This is probably how the Grand Canyon looked over 17 million years ago. Notice how the banks of the river are only slightly higher than the river.
The process of erosion can be seen in the diagram above. As the river continually flows this process repeats itself over and over. One can see how over the course of 17 million years this would have created the Grand Canyon.
The Grand Canyon has been eroding for over 17 million years. During that time, several layers of the earth's surface have been exposed. Above are all the layers of the earth's surface that have been exposed due to this erosion.
The canyon has been excavated for many years. Due to the age of the exposed rock, fossils from all different ages and eras have been discovered. Mining has also been popular in the Grand Canyon. Uranium mines have been discovered in recent years.
Efforts have been mad by several presidencies in order to preserve the canyon. The Grand Canyon National park was established in 1906 by president Theodore Rosevelt. In 2009 mining was suspended by the Obama administration.
