The Grand Canyon - Grade: A PDF

Preview

Summary

The Grand Canyon essay...

Description

Mora 1

Aimee Mora Professor Cheyenne Cummings SMT 312-04 October 23,2018 How the Earth Was Made: The Grand Canyon The Grand Canyon a beautiful geological icon that is known for its depth, immense size, colors that show red hues and its golden tones in sunlight. The documentary How the Earth Was Made: The Grand Canyon, by the history channel, studies how the grand canyon was formed and its history. I found the video to be interesting as I have always found the grand canyon to be facinating because of its beautiful red hues and its immense size so knowing how it was formed and how it gets its color is interesting to me. was formed and its history.The Grand Canyon in Arizona faces erosion which uncovered rocks in the canyon and therefore these rocks can tell us a lot about how it was formed. The Grand Canyon has always been eye catching to me because of the way it's shaped and its red hues so watching the documentary answered my curiosities on how it was formed and how it gets its red color. Upon watching the documentary I have to agree with the “spillover theory”, the evidence of the rocks/fossils explaining the age and history of grand canyon, and also the way the documentary impacted my thoughts on the grand canyon. The evidence that stood out to me the most on how the grand canyon was formed was the “spillover theory.” So the spillover theory was applied to the grand canyon and the way I saw it in one of the experiments performed it happens as a mass amount of water spills over forming and cutting the sand or soil. This theory works on the grand canyon as Ashish states, “The Colorado River flowed across a vast plain. Around the same time, the Kaibab Plateau started to appear in the middle of the rivers flow. Since the water couldn’t pass over or through the plateau,

Mora 2

the rivers course was diverted”(‘para’ 1).. I feel like the spillover theory could only make sense if the water spilled was of big amounts and fast because only those factors would explain the energy and capacity of water cutting and forming the grand canyon. Because if u were for example to pour little water and slow it would have little effect and probably not cut through much. However knowing that the water spilled in large amounts and fast makes sense that the immense pressure of the water would eventually cut and form the grand canyon. The piece of information that interested me the most was the age and history of the grand canyon. This is because I’ve always admired the beautiful red hues and golden tones the grand canyon reflects so knowing how it gets these colors is fascinating to me. The grand canyon is immense and the rocks play a significant role on the color and the age of the grand canyon. Before even watching the video I concluded myself that the grand canyon gets its red hues from the sun. The grand canyon has many different layers of rock upon watching documentary I found that the dominant color is red because iron is locked between the rocks and rusts which makes sense to me now. In the documentary the age of the grand canyon is said to be 5.5 million years old as in Muddy Creek the limestone discovered there revealed the date the Colorado River arrived hence the river forming and cutting the grand canyon. This evidence seems pretty accurate to me but you can never be right as most geologists and scientists are still debating the age and how it formed. The documentary impacted my thoughts on the Grand Canyon. While watching the documentary I learned how it was formed, its age, its depth, its width, its colors, and just a lot of information that makes up the grand canyon. It was very informative but then I started to think of what kind of hazards does the Grand Canyon possess. The documentary did not explain hazards or anything that one can relate to their own experiences. Yes I agree that if one is planning to

Mora 3

visit the grand canyon this documentary will further quench their curiosities on why the grand canyon looks like it does and how it formed but it wouldn’t give us information on safety hazards. One linkage that I found for the grand canyon are flash floods as the staff from the website My Grand Canyon Park state that, “Heavy rainfall, even miles away, can cause flash flooding, sending a torrent of water down dry washes and transforming slow-moving rivers to life-threatening channels”(‘para’ 2). Many people who visit the grand canyon hike, camp, or just go to take a view but one needs to be prepared for flash floods by knowing the trails and avoiding dangerous paths. Hazard preparedness for visiting the grand canyon should include being cautious of all edges, being hydrated as heat is strong over there, and know the paths well. In conclusion I found the documentary of How the Earth Was Made: Hawaii, by the history channel to be quite informative but also engaging. The documentary has its strengths and its weaknesses. Strengths being that the video provided various evidence on the formation of the grand canyon. Weaknesses being that it did not relate to us the viewer I feel like it needed information on what to do to be safe when visiting the grand canyon. Overall the documentary was good it provided us with knowledge on the formation of the grand canyon.

Even till this day the formation of The Grand Canyon is still a mystery as some evidence is

Mora 4

burried deep but the most accurate conclusion is that the grand canyon was formed by erosion and the Colorado River. Sources Ashish. “How Was The Grand Canyon Formed? » Science ABC.” Science ABC, Science ABC, 20 July 2018, www.scienceabc.com/nature/how-was-the-grand-canyon-formed.html. Staff. “6 Hazards to Avoid in the Grand Canyon.” My Grand Canyon Park, 29 Sept. 2017, www.mygrandcanyonpark.com/park/grand-canyon-hazards....