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Image available from the NASA
Space Shuttle Earth Observations Photography database Photo
#STS060-083-005
The winding course of the Colorado River through northern Arizona's
mile-deep Grand Canyon is well marked on the map by a vivid contrast
in pattern and color. A narrow ribbon of red is occasionally visible;
it differentiates the Precambrian
granites and tilted metamorphic
rocks along the riverbanks from the younger, overlying Paleozoic
sedimentary rocks in the canyon
walls and at the rim (in blue). Abundant water from melting Pleistocene
glaciers is probably responsible for the most recent episode of erosion
that has deepened the canyon. |
