Butchart Butte is a -elevation summit located in the

Grand Canyon The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a mile (). The canyon and adjacent rim are contained within Grand Canyon Nati ...

, in

Coconino County Coconino County is a County (United States), county in the North Central Arizona, North-Central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. Its population was 145,101 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The county seat is Flagstaff, Arizon ...

of northern

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. It is situated on the North Rim, midway between Gunther Castle and

Siegfried Pyre Siegfried Pyre is a -elevation summit located in the eastern Grand Canyon, in Coconino County, Arizona, Coconino County of northern Arizona, Southwestern United States, United States. It is situated adjacent to the eastern North Rim, specificall ...

, and between the Chuar and Kwagunt Valleys.

Topographic relief Terrain (), alternatively relief or topographical relief, is the dimension and shape of a given surface of land. In physical geography, terrain is the lay of the land. This is usually expressed in terms of the elevation, slope, and orientati ...

is significant as it rises above the

Colorado River The Colorado River () is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The river, the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), 5th longest in the United St ...

in five miles. This

butte In geomorphology, a butte ( ) is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and table (landform), tablelands. The word ''butte'' comes from the French l ...

is named in honor for Dr. John Harvey Butchart (1907–2002), a mathematics professor and explorer well known for his hiking and climbing accomplishments at the Grand Canyon. He climbed 83 summits and claimed 28

first ascent In mountaineering and climbing, a first ascent (abbreviated to FA in climbing guidebook, guide books), is the first successful documented climb to the top of a mountain or the top of a particular climbing route. Early 20th-century mountaineers a ...

s within the canyon, for which he holds the record. This feature's name was officially adopted in 2009 by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. Fellow canyoneer Jim Haggart submitted the naming proposal for consideration, and whereas Butchart did climb nearest higher neighbor Siegfried Pyre, he did not climb this butte that now bears his name. Butchart Butte is composed of a cupola of remnant

Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years, from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.902 Mya. It is the s ...

Coconino Sandstone The Coconino Sandstone is a geologic formation (geology), formation composed of light-colored quartz arenite of Aeolian processes, eolian origin. It erodes to form conspicuous, sheer cliffs in the upper walls of Grand Canyon, as part of the Mog ...

overlaying strata of the Pennsylvanian-

Supai Group The Supai Group is a slope-forming sequence of mixed red beds and limestones that outcrop in the Colorado Plateau. The group was laid down during the Pennsylvanian to Lower Permian. Cliff-forming interbeds of sandstone are noticeable througho ...

. This in turn overlays the cliff-forming layer of Mississippian

Redwall Limestone The Redwall Limestone is an erosion-resistant, Mississippian age, cliff-former, cliff-forming geological formation that forms prominent, red-stained cliffs in the Grand Canyon. these cliffs range in height from to . It is one of the most fossili ...

, which in turn overlays

Cambrian The Cambrian ( ) is the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 51.95 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran period 538.8 Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the Ordov ...

Tonto Group The Tonto Group is a name for an assemblage of related sedimentary strata, collectively known by geologists as a '' Group'', that comprises the basal sequence Paleozoic strata exposed in the sides of the Grand Canyon. As currently defined, the T ...

, and finally

Neoproterozoic The Neoproterozoic Era is the last of the three geologic eras of the Proterozoic geologic eon, eon, spanning from 1 billion to 538.8 million years ago, and is the last era of the Precambrian "supereon". It is preceded by the Mesoproterozoic era an ...

Chuar Group at river level.N.H. Darton, ''Story of the Grand Canyon of Arizona'', 1917. According to the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

system, Butchart Butte is located in a

Cold semi-arid climate Cold is the presence of low temperature, especially in the atmosphere. In common usage, cold is often a subjective perception. A lower bound to temperature is absolute zero, defined as 0.00K on the Kelvin scale, an absolute thermodynamic ...

zone. Precipitation runoff from this feature drains to the nearby Colorado River via Chuar Creek (southeast) and Kwagunt Creek (northeast).

Gallery

File:Arizona, Tusayan, Grand Canyon Helicopters.jpg, Butchart Butte centered at top, South aspect, aerial view. File:Grand Canyon National Park, Siegfried, Butchart.jpg, Butchart Butte in upper right. Also in the frame are Apollo Temple, Jupiter Temple, and

. File:Cape Final view of Siegfried Pyre.jpg, Siegfried Pyre centered with Butchart Butte to right. From Cape Final. File:Grand Canyon, Siegfried Pyre.jpg, Aerial looking southwest at Siegfried Pyre (centered) and Butchart Butte (lower left) File:Grand Canyon from Point Imperial 01.jpg, Butchart Butte centered in back, looking southeast from Point Imperial. Also in the field of view: Mount Hayden, Colter Butte, Alsap Butte, and

. File:Over the Grand Canyon Butchart.jpg, Aerial view looking west, Butchart in bullseye File:Grand Canyon in Shadows, Aerial (25298588719).jpg, Butchart Butte in upper right

References

External links

* Weather forecast
National Weather Service

Butchart Butte photo
by Harvey Butchart {{Geology of the Grand Canyon area, , state=collapsed Grand Canyon Landforms of Coconino County, Arizona Buttes of Arizona Colorado Plateau Grand Canyon National Park Two-thousanders of the United States Sandstone formations of the United States

Gallery

See also

References

External links