Thursday, August 7, 2008

Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon is a huge rift in the Colorado Plateau that exposes uplifted Proterozoic and Paleozoic strata. The Grand Canyon is unmatched all through the world for the vistas it offers to visitors on the rim. It is not the deepest canyon in the world — together the Barranca del Cobre in Northern Mexico and Hell's Canyon on the Oregon-Idaho border are deeper — other than Grand Canyon is known for its overwhelming size and its complicated and colorful landscape. Physically it is significant because of the thick series of ancient rocks that are wonderfully preserved and bare in the walls of the canyon. These rock layers evidence much of the early geologic history of the North American continent. Grand Canyon is also one of the majority spectacular examples of natural erosion in the world.

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