Ancient Landscapes of the Grand Canyon Region / The Geology of Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce, Petrified Forest & Painted Desert

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Ancient Landscapes of the Grand Canyon Region, by Edwin Dinwiddie McKee, Illustrated by Louis Schellbach and Russell Hastings
THE GRAND CANYON—1. SCHISTS AND GRANITES (ARCHEAN ERA): 2. SANDSTONES, LIMESTONES, SHALES (ALGONKIAN ERA): 3. TONTO FORMATIONS (CAMBRIAN PERIOD): 4. REDWALL LIMESTONE (MISSISSIPPIAN PERIOD): 5. SUPAI SANDSTONE AND SHALE (PERMIAN PERIOD): 6. HERMIT SHALE (PERMIAN PERIOD): 7. COCONINO SANDSTONE (PERMIAN PERIOD): 8. TOROWEAP AND KAIBAB FORMATIONS (PERMIAN PERIOD). NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
THE GEOLOGY OF GRAND CANYON, ZION, BRYCE, PETRIFIED FOREST & PAINTED DESERT
BY Edwin D. McKee, Asst. Director Museum of Northern Arizona
Sketches and Charts by Louis Schellbach 3rd Park Naturalist, Grand Canyon National Park, and Russell Hastings
PUBLISHED BY EDWIN D. MCKEE 1931
COPYRIGHT 1931 Edwin D. McKee Thirteenth Edition, 1952
PRINTED BY COCONINO SUN CO. Flagstaff, Arizona
Probably no place in the world of similar area has recorded a more complete or a more interesting resume of the earth’s history than has the high plateau country of northern Arizona and southern Utah. Although many great events and some long intervals of time are not represented by the formations of this region, yet of the five major chapters or eras into which all of time has been divided by geologists, at least some parts of each have left their traces in this area.
Whether on the brink of the mighty Grand Canyon, among beautiful logs of the Petrified Forest, or beneath the lofty walls of Zion—the “Rainbow of the Desert”—one looks upon rocks which are not alone curious or colorful, but which are also records of the past inscribed and illustrated in an intensely interesting manner. In one place is seen the sand of ancient dunes, in another the border of an early sea, or perhaps the floodplain of mighty rivers, and in all of these remain the unmistakable evidences of life—plants and animals preserved to make a reality of the living, moving past. Everywhere are found the evidences of those great processes of nature—erosion of the high country, land formation in the low country, and mighty crustal movements slowly raising or lowering the land in both.