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Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park in western Colorado
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from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Canyon_of_the_Gunnison_National_Park
The canyon's name owes itself to the fact that parts of the gorge
only receive 33 minutes of sunlight a day.
The
Gunnison River drops an average of 34 feet per mile through the entire
canyon, making it the 5th steepest mountain descent in North America.
The extreme steepness and depth of the Black Canyon formed as the result
of several geologic processes acting together. The Gunnison River is
primarily responsible for carving the canyon. The
Precambrian (4.6 billion to 541 million years ago)
gneiss
and schist
rocks that make up the majority of the steep walls of the Black Canyon
formed 1.7 billion years ago during a metamorphic period. |