how was the grand canyon created?

Question

me and my group of friends at my school. and we have to do an arizona virtual project. we are going to do the grand canyon. so if you can please answer soon. thanxs!

Answer 1

The most powerful force to have an impact on the Grand Canyon is erosion, primarily by water (and ice) and second by wind. Other forces that contributed to the Canyon's formation are the course of the Colorado River itself, vulcanism, continental drift and slight variations in the earths orbit which in turn causes variations in seasons and climate.

For an excellent site on the The Geology of the Grand Canyon
see the source link.

Answer 2

This story is from 2002. We are learning more about Mars all the time. As we learn, scientists speculate on this new knowledge. This speculation sometimes leads to wrong ideas, and new ideas then form. This is the way of science. On the earth, we know quite a bit about what happened on the earth throughout it's history. We know that in the span of human existence there was no world wide flood. As a matter of fact, there was no time on earth that the entire planet was covered by water. There were many local floods that may have seemed to the people around that the whole world (what little they knew about it) was flooding. These tales were written down and some one came up with the idea that a sky fairy caused the flood. When people without specialized training in the sciences propose an idea that is in line with some writings many thousands of years old, our modern day scientists can then see it these writings have any validity to what actually happened. Scientists have come to the conclusion that the Grand Canyon became as it is now by erosion by the Colorado River during the last 17 million years. Modern humans developed during the last 70,000 years. Sorry, no flood, no garden, just tales to help control other people.

Answer 3

The first thing you have to think is - how do you get a gorge a mile deep when the river cannot be below sea level. The answer is that the land had to rise.

Around 75 million years ago the Laramide orogeny (an orogeny is a mountain building event) pushed up the Rocky Mountains, and along with them the plateau that forms the rim of the canyon. The river was having none of this and gently eroded its way through the rising rock.

When you stand on the canyon rim you are around a mile above sea level - as high as Denver.

Answer 4

The Colorado river carved the deep gorge known as the Grand Canyon through abrasion and weathering over millions of years. It started out as a flood plain with a wide meandering path that eventually became a gully and then a stream. As the stream began to form a bed it grew larger forming a river bed. As water continued to carve the rock and soil the river bed, aided by natural erosion such as ice fractures, wind and other factors, eventually formed a valley and then the gorge we know as the Grand Canyon.

Answer 5

The canyon, created by the Colorado River cutting a channel over millions of years, is about 277 miles (446 km) long, ranges in width from 0.25 to 15 miles (0.4 to 24 kilometers), and attains a depth of more than a mile (1,600 m). Nearly two billion years of the Earth's history has been exposed as the Colorado River and its tributaries cut through layer after layer of sediment as the Colorado Plateaus have uplifted.

The first recorded sighting of the Grand Canyon by a European was in 1540, García López de Cárdenas from Spain. [1] The first scientific expedition to the canyon was led by U.S. Major John Wesley Powell in 1869. Powell referred to the sedimentary rock units exposed in the canyon as "leaves in a great story book". Long before that, the area was inhabited by Native Americans who built settlements within the canyon walls.

Answer 6

The Colorado river over millions of years

Answer 7

It took millions of years, it was slowly created by a river running thorugh it that carved the walls of the canyon.

Answer 8

colorado river eroded the ground thus forming the grand canyon

Answer 9

Erosion from the Colorado river over a lot of time.

Answer 10

Erosion