Grade 7 - Geo Project - Valleys Ex.
Grand Canyon 19SEP25
Kaitlyn, Jren, Zayn, Dozie
Colour Coding
Blue - Landform Information
Orange - How was this Landform created?
Red - How has this landform changed?
Green - Mapping Information
Teal - How have humans changed this area?
Gray - Other Information, Fun Facts, etc.
Purple - Definations
Target Dates / Due Dates
Task Launch - Friday, September 19
Research Due - Tuesday, September 23
Slideshow Due - Presentations Begin: Monday, September 29
Resource Used Information Found
Geo Grade 7 Textbook - -Valley-depression in land
p. Zayn -V shaped valleys-water running through
-U shaped valley-from moving ice
-Exp. Grand canyon
-Visual ex on pg.20-2
-Land that falls between cracks of a valley can become a rift valley
-Valleys are usually found between mountains and hills
-Valleys are be created by erosion and tectonic plates moving
Britannica Dozie -The Grand canyon is an immense canyon that was cut by the Colorado River
about 5-6 million years ago
-The Grand canyon was established as a national park in 1919 and in 1979
-popular tourist destination.
-the grand canyon lies in the southwestern portion of the colorado plateau
- The Colorado plateau consists of rocks and lava flows
-the greatest depths of the grand canyon lie more then a mile below its rim
-the grand canyon was created by the colorado river cutting through it
National Geographic ★ Giant valleys, called rifts, are found where two pieces of Earth's crust
Kaitlyn are separated or split apart.
★ Rivers and streams make most primary valley cuts, carving
steep-walled sides and a narrow floor that from afar looks like the
letter "V.
The Papillon Jren -the grand canyon was eroded by the colorado river about 70m years ago,
exposes history that dates back to 1.2b years
-the grand canyon was created by erosion from the colorado river
Grade 7 - Geo Project - Valleys Ex. Grand Canyon 19SEP25
Kaitlyn, Jren, Zayn, Dozie
-the entire grand canyon national park is about 4930km2
-the canyon spans 446 km long
Continued from last page -at the widest point 28km wide
-at deepest point about 1.6km deep
-grand canyon is divided into multiple rims
-south rim, north rim and west rim
-the grand canyon is located in north western arizona
-south rim abt 1hr 20 min from flagstaff
↳ city with abt 150k people
-4hr from las vegas
-or 2hr 30m by flight
-native americans lived in this area for thousands of years
National Park Service -the story begins 2b year ago
jren cuz im so sigam -formation of igneous and metamorphic rock
↳type of rock that forms from the cooling of lava of rock
↳type of rock that forms when igneous or sedimentary rock is changed by
intense heat, pressure
-between 70m and 30m years ago the plate tectonics lifted the region
up creating the flat colorado plateau
-5-6m years ago the colorado river and tributary streams eroded the
area creating the grand canyon
↳ tributary streams are smaller bodies of water that flow into a bigger
body of water
-still today these forces still make the grand canyon bigger and wider
-layer of sedimentary rock was formed upon igneous and metamorphic rock
(basement rock)
-the geologicalist use stratigraphic column to find out oldest rock and the
youngest rock
↳ every layer is younger as you go on
-refered to as principle of superposition
-all rocks are laid horizontally
-the grand canyon is located in north western arizona
-the kaibib limestone is the uppermost rock of the grand canyon
-was once the bottom of the ocean
-now its 2750km at some points
-the uplift of the Colorado plateau is was a key step is formation of the
grand canyon
-the plate tectonics lifted up the the rocks high and flat
-creating a plateau that the colorado river could cur down
-the way that it was formed is kinda weird
-normally its just the deformation of rock
-the colorado plateau is just lifted high and flat
-the way this happened is being investigated
-the two ways that are being predicted are “shallow angle subduction” and
"continued uplift through isostasy"
↳tectonic process where one plate dips less than 30 degrees
↳also known as post glacial rebound, is where the rise of lands rising that
were once burden by glaciers
Grade 7 - Geo Project - Valleys Ex. Grand Canyon 19SEP25
Kaitlyn, Jren, Zayn, Dozie
What are Valleys?
Continued from last page -a valley is a landform an area of low lying land next to a high areas such
as mountains or hills
-a canyon is a type of erosion valley with really steep sides
-the grand canyon is a rlly good example of water caved canyon
-water has rlly good erosive power
-glaciers can change large areas of land by abrasion
↳ abrasion a scraping, plucking and lifting action
-the rock surface is worn down like wood with sandpaper
-glaciers can pluck of lift large chunks of rock
-these rocks freeze into the glacier
-these rocks abrade the rock over the glacier travels
↳ abrade means to wear away, or remove something by rubbing scraping or
grinding it
-these do not exist in the grand canyon
-although these exist in other national parks in the us
↳ an example is the yosemite national park in cailfornia
-rift valleys are when two plates of earth’s crust is pulled apart
-plates pull apart along divergent boundaries
↳ divergent boundaries are when two plates pull apart creating new
lithosphere as magma rises from the mantle to create crust
↳ eg. rio grande rift
-not all rifts are located underwater, some are on land, such as the example
above
How did the Colorado River Carve such a big Canyon?
-the colorado river has been carving away for 5-6m years
-the oldest rocks are 1.8b years old
-the canyon isn't as old as the rocks
-the youngest rock layer is just 270m years old, many years older than the
canyon its self
Sub Section
-gradiant is a measure of a slope
↳ the higher than the gradiant, the steeper the slope
-for a riverbed, the greater the slope the faster the water travels
-on the 466km journey, the colorado river descends 610m, giving it a lot of
power to erode away rocks and stuff
-there is a lot of water flowing through the colorado river
-a river with a large volume can carry lots of sediment
↳ sediment is any solid material from sand and pebbles or plants that are
moved by natural forces
-compared with other rivers, the colorado river is pretty small in volume
-but when it floods it has a lot of volume
-on average its about 91m wide and 12m deep
-the average flow rate is between 12,000 and 15,000 cubic feet per second
-during a flow it can be 300,000 cubic feet per second
-some people say at the close of the ice age 1m cubic feet per second
-for reference, a cubic foot is also the size of a basketball
-mechanical weathering happens quickly in arid regions
Grade 7 - Geo Project - Valleys Ex. Grand Canyon 19SEP25
Kaitlyn, Jren, Zayn, Dozie
↳ process of weathering that breaks large rocks into small rocks without
Continued from last page changing their chemical composition
↳ arid regions are regions without precipitation resulting in a dry region
-in arid regions there is often very little soil
-video on valleys and the grand canyon are found at the top of the page
Adobe Stock Images -image of a valley
National Park Service -human have changed the grand canyon a lot
-humans have introducted non-native plant and animal species
-these compete with native plants and animals for their resources
-smog and general pollution have drifted into the park, from coal power
plants and cities near by
-effects visibility from viewing areas
-water in streams has at times been polluted with feces from trespass cattle
and humans
↳ tresspass cattle are livestock are somewhere where they shouldn’t
-the construction of the glen canyon dam in 1963 irreversibly altered the
riparian and aquatic ecosystems within the park
↳ riparian the area adjacent to rivers and streams
-the natural quiet of the area has been altered by planes
-forest landscapes changed by the decades of wildfire suppression
-laws have been passed to protect the park
-ie no flying zones