View to the
south-southwest with the Little Colorado River in the
Lower left corner. Chuar Butte is just to the right of the
junction of the Little Colorado and Colorado Rivers with
Temple Butte just above it. The East Fork of Carbon Creek
(small streamlet to the right of Temple Butte) marks the
Butte Fault with the fault continuing across the river
into Tanner Creek. (More info on this section of the Butte
Fault on the next page in the sequence.) The Tapeats
Sandstone, the lowest layer in the Paleozoic rock layers,
forms the small cliff next to the river in the center of
the picture.
The near continuous 3,000-foot high cliff
just left of the center of the picture is named “Palisades
of the Desert”. If you visit the South Rim of the Grand
Canyon, the Palisades of the Desert can be seen from
several of the overlooks on the eastern portion of the
South Rim Highway.
The upstream path of the Little Colorado
River (not visible in the picture) before it joins the
main Colorado River is of some interest. The Colorado
River gradually turns toward the southwest without paying
any attention to the fact that it is turning into the
rising strata of the Kaibab Plateau. This implies it
established its course before the most recent 1,400 foot
uplift of the plateau. The Little Colorado River turns
north for 15 miles on the east side of the Kaibab Plateau
before it finally turns west to join the Colorado. This
implies it “was aware” of the Kaibab, and was trying to
avoid the rising strata. There is a suggestion here that
the Little Colorado didn’t have enough water to reach the
Colorado until a couple of million years after the main
Colorado pioneered the route. A possible sequence of
events might be:
1) 5.4 million years ago, the Colorado River established
its current route.
2) 5.4 to 3 million years ago, the Kaibab Plateau started
its most recent uplift.
3) 3 million years ago (and maybe less), the climate
became wet enough for the Little Colorado River to reach
the main river, and only then did it establish its route.
Return
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river
miles 48 to 56
Continue
to
river miles 64 to 72
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