The Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon

A Canyon So Grand The Grand Canyon, located in the Arizona desert, is so big that we can see it from space.

A canyon is a big, steep valley that is usually formed by a river. The Grand Canyon National Park covers about 1, 900 square miles (4, 921 sq km). In some places the canyon is more than a mile (1. 6 km) deep. It can take two weeks to go through the canyon on a river raft.

The Grand Canyon became a national park in 1919. National parks are special places. The land and the animals that live there are protected.

Formation Time and erosion helped form the Grand Canyon. Erosion happens when bits of the ground are worn away. For millions of years, the Colorado River ran over and wore away the earth until a canyon was made. The rocks at the bottom of the canyon are almost two billion years old.

The Grand Canyon is striped with colors. The stripes are layers of sediment that stacked on top of each other over many years. Each layer helps us learn how Earth has changed over time.