Bananas for Scale
Grand Canyon

Photo by Jad Limcaco on Unsplash

Grand Canyon

A mile-deep gash through two billion years of rock/Landforms

The Grand Canyon in Arizona exposes nearly two billion years of Earth's geological history in its layered rock walls. The Colorado River carved it over roughly six million years, though some evidence suggests parts may be much older. Standing on the rim and looking down, you can see rocks from an era before complex life existed.

Measurements

Length446,000 m
1Grand Canyon length
12.7 millionBanana widths

About 446 km long

Maximum depth1,829 m
15.2Ski jump hills
4,064Necklace lengths
75,392Quarters

Over a mile deep at its deepest

Maximum width (rim to rim)29,000 m
1,220Tennis court lengths
82,857Spider web diameters
177,914iPhone Pro Maxes

Up to 29 km wide at some points

Approximate age of carving189 trillion s
2.2 billionMayfly lifespans
9.5 billionNYC-to-LA flights
63 trillionGoldfish memories

About 5-6 million years; some sections may be older

Estimated volume41.9 billion m³
233 trillionChampagne flutes
8.4 trillionShaquille O'Neal's shoes
6.4 quadrillionHuman eyeballs

About 41.9 cubic km of rock removed by erosion

Age of oldest exposed rock56.8 quadrillion s
47.3 trillionHalftime shows
21 trillionOil changes
5.9 trillionTitanic sinkings

Vishnu Basement Rocks are about 1.8 billion years old

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