Pollux Temple is a summit 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 ...

, US. It is situated ten miles northwest of

Grand Canyon Village Grand Canyon Village is a census-designated place (CDP) located on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, in Coconino County, Arizona, United States. Its population was 2,004 at the 2010 Census. Located in Grand Canyon National Park, it is wholly ...

, and less than one mile northeast of Jicarilla Point. Castor Temple is one mile northwest, and Diana Temple is one mile southeast.

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 Pollux Temple rises nearly 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 less than two miles. Pollux Temple is named for Pollux, the divine son of Zeus according to

Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...

Clarence Dutton Clarence Edward Dutton (May 15, 1841 – January 4, 1912) was an American geologist and US Army officer. Dutton was born in Wallingford, Connecticut on May 15, 1841. He graduated from Yale College in 1860 and took postgraduate courses there until ...

began the practice of naming geographical features in the Grand Canyon after mythological deities. 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, Pollux Temple 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.

Geology

The top of Pollux Temple is composed of

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 ...

Toroweap Formation The Toroweap Formation outcrops as a distinct layer of generally darker, interbedded slope- and cliff-forming strata lying between the brighter colored cliffs of the Kaibab Limestone above, and Coconino Sandstone below. It outcrops in Grand Can ...

overlaying cream-colored, cliff-forming, Permian

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 ...

. The sandstone, which is the third-youngest of the strata in the Grand Canyon, was deposited 265 million years ago as sand dunes. Below the Coconino Sandstone is reddish, slope-forming, Permian

Hermit Formation The Permian Hermit Formation, also known as the Hermit Shale, is a nonresistant unit that is composed of slope-forming reddish brown siltstone, mudstone, and very fine-grained sandstone. Within the Grand Canyon region, the upper part of the Her ...

, which in turn overlays the Pennsylvanian-Permian

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 ...

.William Kenneth Hamblin, ''Anatomy of the Grand Canyon: Panoramas of the Canyon's Geology'', 2008, Grand Canyon Association Publisher, . Further down are strata of the conspicuous cliff-forming 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 ...

, the

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 granite of the

Paleoproterozoic The Paleoproterozoic Era (also spelled Palaeoproterozoic) is the first of the three sub-divisions ( eras) of the Proterozoic eon, and also the longest era of the Earth's geological history, spanning from (2.5–1.6 Ga). It is further sub ...

Vishnu Basement Rocks The Vishnu Basement Rocks is the name recommended for all Early Proterozoic crystalline rocks (metamorphic and igneous) exposed in the Grand Canyon region. They form the crystalline basement rocks that underlie the Bass Limestone of the Unkar Gr ...

at river level in Granite Gorge. Precipitation runoff from Pollux Temple drains north to the Colorado River via Agate and Sapphire Canyons.

Gallery

File:Pollux Temple - Grand Canyon.jpg, Pollux Temple from Jicarilla Point. (

Mencius Temple Mencius Temple, (former alternate name, Twin Buttes South) is a 7,001 ft major butte, part of the twin buttes of Confucius and Mencius Temples, near the beginning of Western Grand Canyon. Mencius Temple is south of Confucius Temple (0.56&n ...

in upper right) File:Grand Canyon DEIS Aerial Photo Pollux Temple.jpg, Aerial of Pollux Temple centered, casting shadow onto Castor Temple (upper left) File:Pollux Temple, Sapphire Canyon.jpg, Pollux Temple (upper left), with Sapphire Canyon, from Tonto Trail File:Panorama from Point Sublime - Grand Canyon.jpg, Pollux Temple centered in distance, from Point Sublime.
Artwork by

William Henry Holmes William Henry Holmes (December 1, 1846 – April 20, 1933), known as W. H. Holmes, was an American explorer, anthropologist, archaeologist, artist, scientific illustrator, cartographer, mountain climber, geologist and museum curator and dire ...

References

External links

* Weather forecast
National Weather Service
* Pollux Temple from Piute Point
Flickr
photo
Pollux Temple photo
by

Harvey Butchart John Harvey Butchart (May 10, 1907 – May 29, 2002) was an American hiker and mathematician who was well known for his exploits in and around the Grand Canyon in Arizona, United States. Beginning in 1945, Butchart explored the Grand Canyon's bac ...

{{Geology of the Grand Canyon area, , state=collapsed Grand Canyon Landforms of Coconino County, Arizona Mountains of Arizona Mountains of Coconino County, Arizona Colorado Plateau Grand Canyon National Park One-thousanders of the United States Grand Canyon, South Rim Grand Canyon, South Rim (west) Castor and Pollux

Geology

Gallery

See also

References

External links