The Grand Canyon

On the second day of our road trip (see my last post here), we visited the Grand Canyon, which is in northern Arizona.

The Grand Canyon was formed by the Colorado River. The river ran over soil on the ground, and washed it away. Soon the river got to solid rock, and began to wear through that, too. As it wore through the rock, a huge gorge formed, with the river flowing through it. That gorge was the early Grand Canyon.

As time went by, the canyon got deeper and deeper. The sides of the canyon fell into the river at places, and the river washed it away. When it rained, creeks and streams ran down into the canyon, eroding the sides and giving it an intricate, complicated shape.

Finally, after about 40 million years of erosion, my family and I came along, and looked at the result. It's pretty impressive. Unfortunately, it was rather cold at the time, so we weren't able to stay as long as we would have liked; but it was a great experience just the same.

While I was there, I took the stereoscopic pair of images you can see at the bottom of the post. If you go cross-eyed until the images completely overlap, the combined result will appear 3D. It is very hard for inexperienced people to do that; if you have trouble, try this: put your fingertip in front of the screen, below the photos. While looking at your fingertip, slowly bring it closer and closer to your face. Keep your head level relative to the photos while you do this. Pay attention to the two photos, and stop moving your finger when the photos completely overlap (about 1 foot from your face). Carefully look at the photos; do not allow your eyes to readjust. If you're lucky, the result will be an image that appears 3D. If not, that's okay; some people just can't do it.

For the next post in the Arizona Road Trip series, go to http://greatmst.blogspot.com/2013/02/meteor-crater.html