How was the Grand Canyon Formed?

The Grand Canyon Arizona is a natural wonder of the world at some points it appears like a magic city of rock, with temples, towers, and castles of dazzling colors. One of the most amazing things about it is that the Grand Canyon was made by a river. The waters of the Colorado River cut out this great gorge in the course of thousands of years. 

when you consider that is was cut out of solid rock in many places, you begin to appreciate the tremendous force of these waters. Even now, year by year, the rushing Colorado continues to cut deeper into the bottom of the gorge. In certain places, the gorge of the Grand Canyon is more than a mile deep, and it from 4 to 18 miles wide.

As the river cut deep into the plateau to from the Canyon, it laid bare on the rock walls of the Canyon the story of hundreds of millions of years of the earth’s history. Down at the bottom of the gorge, beside the river, ancient crystalline rock is exposed. This its buried remnant of an ancient mountain range which was folded back on itself and worn down by weather and water. 

The rise and fall of this mountain range millions of years ago is revealed only by the erosion of the Grand Canyon. On the base of this buried mountains range rest beds of quartzite, sandstone, and limestone. They were formed over the years as ocean waters from the east and from the west flooded the section, and as whole mountain ranges rose and disappeared. 

Prof of the fact that great seas once rushed over these rocks is to be found in the fossils that turn up here. There are fossil remains of seaweed, sea shells, and fish.