The Formation Of The Grand Canyon

In the satellite imagery from Google Earth it is easy to see how the Grand Canyon formed.

Ice ages recur periodically. An ice age begins when it gets cold enough that the snow of one winter hasn't completely melted when the snow of the next winter begins. Snow piles up year after year, decade after decade, and century after century. The weight of the snow above compresses the snow below into ice. Eventually, much of a continent is covered by a vast sheet of ice. The sheet might be 1-2 km thick, it's height being limited by the altitude of the clouds from which the snow falls.

Since so much water is tied up in glaciers, it causes the sea level to drop. This made it possible to walk from Siberia to Alaska, and that is how the native Indians got to the Western Hemisphere. It is also how people got to Japan.

The vast sheet of ice is affected by the spin of the earth. The centrifugal force of the spin pulls toward the equator. But the pull is greater closer to the equator. This causes the sheet of ice to be pulled toward the equator and this is why glacial movement shapes the land during the ice ages.

The Colorado Plateau is a wide area of high ground that is surrounded by mountains. The reddish area in the center of the following image, from Google Earth, is the plateau. The dark areas surrounding it is the Rocky Mountains.

The southern part of the reddish area is the Painted Desert. The northern part is the San Rafael Desert and the eastern part is the San Juan Basin.

During every ice age this reddish area fills with glacial ice. Since it is surrounded by mountains it forms a basin. At the end of the ice age, the ice melts. The Colorado Plateau is high ground so the water will rush out, to lower ground, if it has an opening. It acts like a water tower, the height of the water provides the pressure when a tap is opened.

This is what forms the Grand Canyon, shown by the red line. At the end of every ice age the great rush of water takes the same route to lower ground. Each time, it carves the canyon deeper.

That is how the Grand Canyon formed.