1 dead and about 15 people may be missing as flash flood tears through the Grand Canyon CNN - August 31, 2026
2026 Grand Canyon flood Wikipedia
The secret underground system keeping the Grand Canyon alive Science Daily - June 2, 2026
Water comes from a single source: Roaring Springs, a cave-fed spring on the North Rim. Although hikers can hear and glimpse the spring from the North Kaibab Trail, there is no trail leading directly to it. Roaring Springs provides water not only for park visitors but also for the plants, animals, and ecosystems that depend on it. As the region becomes hotter and drier, protecting this vital water source is becoming increasingly important.
Fossil discovery in the Grand Canyon reveals a sea world teeming with strange prehistoric life The Brighterside - August 22, 2025
More than half a billion years ago, the Grand Canyon was not the arid landscape we know today but a shallow, tropical sea teeming with strange life. More than half a billion years ago, the Grand Canyon was not the arid landscape we know today but a shallow, tropical sea teeming with strange life. Now, scientists have uncovered a remarkable fossil record from this ancient world that is rewriting what we know about early animal evolution.
Bizarre ancient creatures unearthed in the Grand Canyon Science Daily - August 14, 2025
A groundbreaking fossil discovery in the Grand Canyon has unveiled exquisitely preserved soft-bodied animals from the Cambrian period, offering an unprecedented glimpse into early life more than 500 million years ago. Researchers uncovered molluscs, crustaceans, and exotic worms with remarkable feeding adaptations, preserved in a nutrient-rich “Goldilocks zone” that fueled evolutionary experimentation. The find not only reveals the complexity of Cambrian ecosystems but also draws intriguing parallels between ancient biological innovation and modern economic risk-taking. A new species of priapulids, also known as penis or cactus worms, which were widespread during the Cambrian but are nearly extinct today.
Two of Arizona's most famous landmarks may be linked by cosmic violence: the asteroid that gouged out Meteor Crater may have also caused the formation of an ancient lake in the Grand Canyon Science Alert - July 23, 2025
Two of Arizona's most famous landmarks may be linked by cosmic violence: the asteroid that gouged out Meteor Crater may have also caused the formation of an ancient lake in the Grand Canyon. This surprising connection between Arizona's world-renowned geological features stretches back 56,000 years, to when a 300,000 ton nickel-iron asteroid slammed into the Colorado Plateau with the force of over 150 atomic bombs, creating the largest meteor crater in the United States. The resultant impact-generated earthquake may have caused a rockslide in the Grand Canyon, damming the Colorado River and temporarily creating a body of water 80 kilometers (50 miles) long and more than 100 meters (around 370 feet) deep in what is today Nankoweap canyon.
Stunning Grand Canyon Fossils Reveal Evolution's Weird Experiments Science Alert - July 23, 2025
A stunning new fossil find from the Grand Canyon fills in some blanks from a time when evolution began experimenting with weird new forms. About half a billion years ago, life on Earth really started cooking in an event we now call the Cambrian explosion. The fossil record from that time reveals a spike in bizarre, complex creatures appearing within a relatively short amount of time, laying the roots for most of the major animal groups that exist today. Frustratingly, fossils from later in the Cambrian period are rarer, so we don't have a clear picture of evolution's experimental second album. But a newly discovered batch of extremely well-preserved fossils could patch up that gap. These are about 505 million years old – 3 million years younger than the Burgess Shale, the layer in which fossils from the Cambrian explosion appear.
Wildfire destroys a historic Grand Canyon lodge and other stores and structures (Video) CNN - July 15, 2025
A wildfire that tore through a historic Grand Canyon lodge and raged out of control Monday had been allowed to burn for days before erupting over the weekend, raising scrutiny over the National Park Service’s decision to not aggressively attack the fire right away. The wildfire along the canyon’s more isolated North Rim where most visitors don’t venture was burning quickly with no containment, fire officials said. No injuries had been reported, but more than 70 structures were lost, including a visitors center and several cabins. At first, the fire didn’t raise alarms after igniting from a lightning strike on July 4. Four days later, the Park Service said the fire was being allowed to burn to benefit the land and fire crews were keeping close watch.
Study finds link between Grand Canyon landslide and Meteor Crater impact PhysOrg - July 15, 2025
An article, titled "Grand Canyon landslide‐dam and paleolake triggered by the Meteor Crater impact at 56 ka," highlights the striking coincidence in the geologic ages of a meteor impact and a landslide dam that blocked the Colorado River, forming a paleolake in the Grand Canyon about 56,000 years ago.
Geologists rewrite textbooks with new insights from Cambrian rocks of Grand Canyon PhysOrg - November 9, 2024
Since soon after our planet formed, Earth's 4.6 billion-year-long history was dominated by single-celled life. Something dramatic happened about 500 million years ago called the Cambrian "explosion," during which an incredible diversity of life forms became preserved in the rock record. These fossils included major groups of diverse animals that evolved into animal groups still living today (including humans).
Ancient Rock Art Is Scattered Throughout The Grand Canyon - But You'll Never Know Where IFL Science - July 23, 2024
The Grand Canyon is a spectacular sight to behold in and of itself, but did you know the surrounding national park is also home to a wealth of prehistoric rock art? Don't be disappointed if you didn't - the exact whereabouts of the vast majority of it remains a closely guarded secret. Take Shamans' Gallery, a site that most people would never have heard of were it not for word-of-mouth and later, the Internet. First recorded in 1987 and named by American archaeologist Polly Schaafsma, it features a large panel of rock art paintings - called pictographs - depicting anthropomorphic characters, deer, birds, and other abstract features.
Its style has been described as Grand Canyon or Esplanade Polychrome, the latter after the distinctively red and tan bed of sandstone that forms the canyon and though it can be difficult to precisely date rock art, it’s estimated to date back to the Archaic period, which lasted from around 8500 BCE to roughly 2000-1000 BCE.
Geologists dig into Grand Canyon's mysterious gap in time that covers hundreds of millions of years PhysOrg - August 19, 2021
Huge Open Buckets of Uranium Ore Found at Grand Canyon? Totally Fine, Experts Say. Live Science - February 21, 2019
For nearly 20 years, a trio of 5-gallon (19 liters) paint buckets sat near the taxidermy exhibit at Grand Canyon National Park's museum collections building. Those buckets, it turns out, weren't holding paint - they were actually loaded up with uranium ore, a naturally occurring rock rich in uranium that gives off potentially dangerous radiation. Elston "Swede" Stephenson, a health and wellness manager at the park's South Rim, recently described the uranium find and subsequent "cover-up" in a series of email blasts to Congress, his fellow National Park Service employees and the staff of The Arizona Republic newspaper. Stephenson warned that thousands of employees, tourists and school groups who visited the exhibit between 2000 and 2018 were likely "exposed" to dangerous amounts of radiation, especially groups of kids who sat for 30-minute presentations in the uranium's vicinity. These children may have been exposed to roughly 1,400 times the safe radiation dosage allowed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Stephenson wrote. Scary stuff, if true.
Stunning Views of Grand Canyon National Park Live Science - February 20, 2019
It is not the widest nor longest nor deepest canyon in the world, but the Grand Canyon of northern Arizona is certainly one of the most impressive and most visited natural wonders found on the planet. Photographs, no matter how spectacular, cannot capture nor prepare one for the awe-inspiring sight of viewing the immensity of this canyon for the first time. Neophytes to the canyon have been known to shed an emotional tear as they initially stand in awe before its colossal grandeur. Fortunately for all mankind, early political leaders saw its limitless natural value to science and the soul of mankind and preserved this special grand place of earth as a national park 100 years ago, on Feb. 26, 1919.
Tiny footprints, big discovery: Reptile tracks oldest ever found in grand canyon PhysOrg - November 9, 2018
A geology professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, has discovered that a set of 28 footprints left behind by a reptile-like creature 310 million years ago, are the oldest ever to be found in Grand Canyon National Park. The fossil trackway covers a fallen boulder that now rests along the Bright Angel Trail in the national park. It's the oldest trackway ever discovered in the Grand Canyon in an interval of rocks that nobody thought would have trackways in it, and they're among the earliest reptile tracks on earth.
Cambrian Sixty-mile Formation of Grand Canyon yields new findings PhysOrg - June 2, 2018
Nearly five decades ago, in the late 1970s, was the last time a new formation was discovered and defined in the Grand Canyon with the discovery of the Surprise Canyon Formation. Now, a team of scientists have studied one of the last Grand Canyon strata to be dated - the SixtyMile Formation.