The Grand Canyon South RimLayers of sandstone, limestone, shale, and schist give the canyon its color and the interplay of shadows and light from dawn to dusk creates an ever-changing pallet of hues and textures.
Written in these bands of stone are more than two billion years of history.
Formed by the cutting action of the Colorado Rover as it flows through the Kaibab Plateau, the Grand Canyon is an open book exposing the secrets of the geologic history of this region.
Geologist believe it has taken between three million and six million years for the Colorado River to carve the Grand Canyon, but the canyons history extends much further back in time.
Million of year ago, vast seas covered this region. Sediments carried by sea water were deposited and over million of years, turned into limestone and sandstone.
When the ancient seabed was thrust upward to form the Kaibab Plateau, the Colorado River began its work of cutting through the plateau.
Today, 21 sedimentary layers, the oldest of which is more than a billion years old, can be seen in the canyon.
Beneath all those layers, at the very bottom, is a stratum, of rock so old that it has metamorphosed, under great pressure and heat, from soft shale to a much harder stone.
Called Vishnu schist, this layer is the oldest rock in the Grand Canyon and dates from two billion years ago.
In the more recent past, the Grand Canyon has been home to several Native American cultures including the Ancestral Puebloans, who are best known for their cliff dwellings in the Four Corners region.
About 150 years after the Ancestral Puebloans and Coconino peoples abandoned the canyon in the 13th century, another tribes, the Cerbat move into the area.
Today, the Hualapai and Havasupai tribes, descendents of the Cerbat people, still live in and near the Grand canyon on the south side of the Colorado river.
The Grand Canyon South Rim
