This means that it comes from a time span of 47 million years
The hike into Hualapai Canyon is one that is full of beauty. The rock strata of Hualapai Canyon are diverse and cover many millennia. The top layer is Kaibab Formation. Below this is Toroweap Formation. Then comes Coconino Sandstone. This sandstone sits atop Hermit Shale. Lastly, there is the Supai Group before reaching the canyon floor. This photo highlights Hermit shale in the foreground and an outcropping of Coconino Sandstone in the background.
Let’s talk about the different layers of this canyon. The Kaibab Formation is made up of limestone. It is a Permian geologic formation. This means that it comes from a time span of 47 million years. It began 298.8 million years ago at the end of the Carboniferous period and continued until the beginning of the Triassic period 251.902 million years ago. The Kaibab Formation is found in Arizona, Nevada, Utah, California, and Nevada.
The Toroweap Formation is a darker cliff-forming strata that sits between the brightly colored cliffs of the Kaibab Formation and Coconino Sandstone. The Toroweap Formation is about 200 feet thick at its maximum point. It is made of red beds (sandstone, siltstone, and shale), gypsum, and fossiliferous limestone.
Coconino Sandstone can range from 65 feet to 300 feet in the Grand Canyon. The rocks is made of well-sorted and uniformly fine-grained quartz sand grains. It is nearly pure quartz, and the grains vary in thickness from 0.0045 inches to 0.98 inches. The rock is pale due to being such pure quartz.
The Toroweap Formation is about 200 feet thick
There are four sub-units to this layer of the rock bed
Hermit Shale is the final layer of this canyon. It is also known as the Hermit Formation. It is primarily composed of sandstone and mudstone, but it also contains siltstone and intraformational conglomerate. This layer of stone tends to be red and white with alternating layers of these colors. The siltstone can occasionally contain plant fossils.
The base layer of Hualapai Canyon is Supai Group. There are four sub-units to this layer of the rock bed: Espalande Sandstone, Wescogame Formation, Manakacha Formation, and Watahomigi Formation. This is a tick section of the canyon comprised of sandstone, mudstone, siltstone, limestone, and conglomerate. The rock here is colored with reddish shale, pinkish sandstone, and gray limestone.
Did you know?
- The layers of this canyon represent the five uppermost formations of the Grand Canyon.
- When Nelson Horatio Darton first labeled the Supai Formation, he included Hermit Shale and the Supai group as one layer.
- The lower three formations of the Supai Group were likely a broad coastal plain when they were at the surface.
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