The Geological Conditions Necessary to Form a Canyon

Cameron Duke of MinuteEarth explained why certain rivers can create canyons while others don’t. While all riverbanks are formed with water and time, it turns out that specific geological conditions are necessary to form a canyon. In this case, it’s tectonic activity. The Grand Canyon is an excellent example of this process.

The Grand Canyon is super-wide and super-deep, which might make you think that the Colorado River, which carved it, is particularly old or powerful. …So it’s not that rivers carve canyons, exactly, it’s that the world’s grandest  canyons grew up around their rivers.