December Light in the Grand Canyon

by Lee Craig

Title

December Light in the Grand Canyon

Artist

Lee Craig

Medium

Photograph - Fine Art Photography

Description

This image of the Grand Canyon, USA, was produced on a cold December day when the temperatures had reached 18 degrees below zero the night before. Not many tourists were taking in the majestic sight that day, which was a shame for them and a good thing for me. The vibrant colors of the canyon are so varied as the temperature drops and the air is crisp and clear.
The road to the Grand Canyon from the south crosses a plateau that gives no hint at what you are about to see. You wonder if you have made a wrong turn. You wonder if somehow it has been moved! All at once an immense gorge a mile deep and up to 18 miles wide opens up. The canyon is so vast that even from the best vantage point only a fraction of the canyon's 277 miles can be seen. For thousands of years, the area has been continuously inhabited by Native Americans who built settlements within the canyon and its many caves. The Pueblo people considered the Grand Canyon ("Ongtupqa" in Hopi language) a holy site and made pilgrimages to it. It is contained within and managed by Grand Canyon National Park, the Hualapai Tribal Nation, and the Havasupai Tribe. Weather in the Grand Canyon varies according to elevation. The forested rims are high enough to receive winter snowfall, but along the Colorado River in the Inner Gorge, temperatures are similar to those found in Tucson and other low elevation desert locations in Arizona. Temperatures vary wildly throughout the year, with summer highs within the Inner Gorge commonly exceeding 100 °F (37.8 °C) and winter minimum temperatures sometimes falling below zero degrees.
The Colorado River has carved the Grand Canyon into four plateaus of the Colorado Plateau Province. The Province is a large area in the Southwest characterized by nearly-horizontal sedimentary rocks lifted 5,000 to 13,000 feet above sea level. The Plateau’s arid climate produced many striking erosional forms, culminating in the Grand Canyon. The Canyon’s mile-high walls display a largely undisturbed cross section of the Earth’s crust extending back some two billion years. Three “Granite Gorges” expose crystalline rocks formed during the early-to-middle Proterozoic Era (late Precambrian). Originally deposited as sediments and lava flows, these rocks were intensely metamorphosed about 1,750 million years ago. Magma rose into the rocks, cooling and crystallizing into granite, and welding the region to the North American continent. Beginning about 1,200 million years ago (late Proterozoic), 13,000 feet of sediment and lava were deposited in coastal and shallow marine environments. Mountain building about 725 million years ago lifted and tilted these rocks. Subsequent erosion removed these tilted layers from most areas leaving only the wedge-shaped remnants seen in the eastern Canyon.

This and the other works in my portfolio and galleries are suitable for home and business décor. Please browse my work to find the perfect piece for your needs. Many of the images are available in several size formats.

Uploaded

March 23rd, 2014

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