Social Studies: My Favorite Wonder: Natural World

This is my favorite wonder of the natural world.

Grand Canyon


The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided gorge carved by the Colorado River in the United States state of Arizona. The canyon is 277 miles (446 km) long, ranges in width from 4 to 18 miles (6.4 to 29 km) and attains a depth of over a mile (1.83 km)(6000 feet).

About one million years ago, volcanic activity (mostly near the western canyon area) deposited ash and lava over the area, which at times completely obstructed the river. These volcanic rocks are the youngest in the canyon.

The Grand Canyon has suffered some problems with air pollution, attributed to the nearby Navajo Generating Station, a coal-burning power plant. In 1991 an agreement was reached with the Navajo Generating Station in Page, Arizona, to add air pollution control devices to their smokestacks.

In September 1540, under orders from the conquistador Francisco Vázquez de Coronado to search for the fabled Seven Cities of Cibola, Captain Garcia Lopez de Cardenas, along with Hopi guides and a small group of Spanish soldiers, traveled to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon between Desert View and Moran Point. Pablo de Melgrossa, Juan Galeras, and a third soldier descended some one third of the way into the Canyon until they were forced to return because of lack of water. In their report, they noted that some of the rocks in the Canyon were "bigger than the great tower of Seville."

James Ohio Pattie, along with a group of American trappers and mountain men, was probably the next European to reach the Canyon in 1826, although there is little documentation to support this.

Jacob Hamblin (a Mormon missionary) was sent by Brigham Young in the 1850s to locate easy river crossing sites in the Canyon.

In 1857 Edward Fitzgerald Beale superintendent of an expedition to survey a wagon road along the 35th parallel from Fort Defiance to the Colorado river led a small party of men in search of water on the Coconino plateau on the south rim of the Grand Canyon.

In 1858, John Strong Newberry became probably the first geologist to visit the Grand Canyon.

Sources:
Wikipedia