Canyon

Sumidero Canyon, Mexico

The word canyon is Spanish in origin (cañón,[4] pronounced [kaˈɲon]), with the same meaning. The word canyon is generally used in North America, while the words gorge and ravine (French in origin) are used in Europe and Oceania, though gorge and ravine are also used in some parts of North America. In the United States, place names generally use canyon in the southwest (due to their proximity to Spanish-speaking Mexico) and gorge in the northeast (which is closer to French Canada), with the rest of the country graduating between these two according to geography. In Canada, a gorge is usually narrow while a ravine is more open and often wooded. The military-derived word defile is occasionally used in the United Kingdom.

Most canyons were formed by a process of long-time erosion from a plateau or table-land level. The cliffs form because harder rock strata that are resistant to erosion and weathering remain exposed on the valley walls.

Canyons are much more common in arid than in wet areas because physical weathering has a more localized effect in arid zones. The wind and water from the river combine to erode and cut away less resistant materials such as shales. The freezing and expansion of water also serve to help form canyons. Water seeps into cracks between the rocks and freezes, pushing the rocks apart and eventually causing large chunks to break off the canyon walls, in a process known as frost wedging.[5] Canyon walls are often formed of resistant sandstones or granite.

Snake River Canyon, Idaho

Sometimes large rivers run through canyons as the result of gradual geological uplift. These are called entrenched rivers, because they are unable to easily alter their course. In the United States, the Colorado River in the Southwest and the Snake River in the Northwest are two examples of tectonic uplift.

Canyons often form in areas of limestone rock. As limestone is soluble to a certain extent, cave systems form in the rock. When a cave system collapses, a canyon is left, as in the Mendip Hills in Somerset and Yorkshire Dales in Yorkshire, England.

The definition of "largest canyon" is imprecise, because a canyon can be large by its depth, its length, or the total area of the canyon system. Also, the inaccessibility of the major canyons in the Himalaya contributes to them not being regarded as candidates for the biggest canyon. The definition of "deepest canyon" is similarly imprecise, especially if one includes mountain canyons, as well as canyons cut through relatively flat plateaus (which have a somewhat well-defined rim elevation).

The Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon (or Tsangpo Canyon), along the Yarlung Tsangpo River in Tibet, is regarded by some as the deepest canyon in the world at 5,500 metres (18,000 ft). It is slightly longer than the Grand Canyon in the United States.[7] Others consider the Kali Gandaki Gorge in midwest Nepal to be the deepest canyon, with a 6,400 metres (21,000 ft) difference between the level of the river and the peaks surrounding it.

Vying for the deepest canyon in the Americas is the Cotahuasi Canyon and Colca Canyon, in southern Peru. Both have been measured at over 3,500 metres (11,500 ft) deep.

The Grand Canyon of northern Arizona in the United States, with an average depth of 1,600 metres (5,200 ft) and a volume of 4.17 trillion cubic metres (147 trillion cubic feet),[8] is one of the world's largest canyons. It was among the 28 finalists of the New7Wonders of Nature worldwide poll. (Some referred to it as one of the seven natural wonders of the world.)[9]

The largest canyon in Africa is the Fish River Canyon in Namibia.[10]

In August 2013, the discovery of Greenland's Grand Canyon was reported, based on the analysis of data from Operation IceBridge. It is located under an ice sheet. At 750 kilometres (470 mi) long, it is believed to be the longest canyon in the world.[11]

The Capertee Valley in Australia is commonly reported as being the second largest (in terms of width) canyon in the world.[12][13]

Panoramic view of the Capertee Valley in Australia, the second largest (in terms of width) of any canyon in the world

Some canyons have notable cultural significance. Evidence of early humanoids has been discovered in Africa's Olduvai Gorge. In the southwestern United States, canyons are important archeologically because of the many cliff-dwellings built in such areas, largely by the ancient Pueblo people who were their first inhabitants.

The following list contains only the most notable canyons of the world, arranged by continent and then country.

Africa

Fish River Canyon, Namibia

Oribi Gorge, South Africa

Brazil

Itaimbezinho Canyon, Brazil

• Itaimbezinho Canyon, Rio Grande do Sul

United States

Green River overlook, Canyonlands National Park, Utah

• Antelope Canyon, Arizona
• Apple River Canyon, Illinois
• Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Colorado
• Blackwater Canyon, West Virginia
• Breaks Canyon, Kentucky and Virginia
• Cane Creek Canyon Nature Preserve, Alabama
• Canyon de Chelly, Arizona
• Canyonlands National Park, canyons of the Colorado River and its main tributary the Green River, Utah
• Cheat Canyon, West Virginia
• Clifton Gorge, Ohio
• Clifty Creek Falls, Indiana
• Cloudland Canyon, Georgia
• Columbia River Gorge, Oregon and Washington
• Conkle’s Hollow, Ohio
• Crooked River Gorge, Oregon
• Dismals Canyon, Alabama
• Glen Canyon, Utah and Arizona
• Glenwood Canyon, Colorado
• Grand Canyon, Arizona
• Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, Wyoming
• Gulf Hagas, Maine
• Hells Canyon, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington
• Leslie Gulch, Oregon
• Linville Gorge, North Carolina
• Little Grand Canyon, Illinois
• Little River Canyon, Alabama
• McCormick's Creek Canyon, Indiana
• New River Gorge, West Virginia
• Oneonta Gorge, Oregon
• Palo Duro Canyon, Texas
• Pine Creek Gorge, Pennsylvania
• Providence Canyon, Georgia
• Quechee Gorge, Vermont
• Red River Gorge, Kentucky
• Rio Grande Gorge, New Mexico
• Snake River Canyon, Idaho
• Tallulah Gorge, Georgia
• Tennessee River Gorge, Alabama and Tennessee
• The Trough, West Virginia
• Waimea Canyon, Hawaii
• Walls of Jericho, Alabama
• Zion Canyon, Utah

Asia

One of the Three Gorges of the Yangtze river, China

The gorge of the Kabul River in Afghanistan

Others

• Afghanistan—Tang-e Gharu
• Japan—Tenryū-kyō in Nagano Prefecture
• Kazakhstan—Charyn Canyon
• Nepal—Kali Gandaki Gorge
• Pakistan—Indus River Gorge through the Himalaya
• Turkey—Ihlara Valley in Aksaray Province

Cheddar Gorge, England

Le cirque de la Madeleine, Gorges de l'Ardèche, France

Ukraine

Buky Canyon, Ukraine

• Aktove canyon
• Buky Canyon
• Dniester Canyon

Others

• Albania—Osum Canyon
• Bosnia and Herzegovina—Rakitnica, Drina, Neretva, Vrbas
• Bulgaria—Trigrad Gorge
• Germany—Partnach Gorge
• Greece—Vikos Gorge, Samaria Gorge
• Greenland—Greenland's Grand Canyon
• Iceland—Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyon
• Kosovo—Rugova Canyon
• North Macedonia—Matka Canyon
• Montenegro/Bosnia and Herzegovina—Tara River Canyon
• Montenegro—Morača, Piva
• Norway—Sautso Canyon
• Poland/Slovakia—Dunajec River Gorge
• Slovenia—Vintgar Gorge
• Switzerland—Aare Gorge

Joffre Gorge, Karijini National Park, Australia

• Ithaca Chasma on Saturn's moon Tethys
• Valles Marineris on Mars, the largest known canyon in the solar system
• Vid Flumina on Saturn's largest moon Titan is the only known liquid-floored canyon in the solar system besides Earth[14]

Venus has many craters and canyons on its surface. The troughs on the planet are part of a system of canyons that is more than 6 400  km long.

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Look up canyon in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Media related to Canyons at Wikimedia Commons