Colorful landscape of Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA, as seen from Mather Point

Carved by the Colorado River and its tributaries which rise in the Rocky Mountains to the west, this magnificent steep sided gorge started to form nearly two billion years ago. This geological date is debated among geologists and archaeologists, with some putting the date at a more conservative estimate of 5 to 6 million years, when the Colorado River positively established its flow. Since then, the river has been gouging the canyon floor deeper and deeper, with the canyon walls moving apart due to the erosive action of the river. This was coupled with the simultaneous uplift of the canyon walls due to the action of the tectonic plate movement raising the Colorado Plateau. The Grand Canyon as we see it today was formed, which is now approximately 277 miles long, between 4 to18 miles wide and attaining a depth of over a mile. The lines demarcating the different strata of sediment rock as they were thrust upward, by the tectonic movement can clearly be seen in the picture, which was shot with a Canon DSLR EOS 550D, at a speed of 1/2000 sec. at f/11 and 75mm focal length.

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