Swilling Butte is a -elevation ridgeline summit located in the eastern

Grand Canyon The Grand Canyon (, yuf-x-yav, Wi:kaʼi:la, , Southern Paiute language: Paxa’uipi, ) 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 ...

, in

Coconino County Coconino County is a county in the north-central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. Its population was 145,101 at the 2020 census. The county seat is Flagstaff. The county takes its name from ''Cohonino'', a name applied to the Havasupai p ...

of northern

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States. It is the list of U.S. states and territories by area, 6th largest and the list of U.S. states and territories by population, 14 ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

. The landform is in a group of nearby summits,

Colter Butte Colter Butte is a summit located in the Grand Canyon in Coconino County of northern Arizona, US. It is situated four miles southeast of Point Imperial, where it towers above Nankoweap Canyon. Its neighbors include Brady Peak, 2.5 miles to the ...

, west, and Hutton and Duppa Buttes, east. All four buttes are at the north of the east-flowing Kwagunt Creek and Canyon drainage to the

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. s ...

. Swilling Butte is northeast of Atoko Point, East Rim of the

Walhalla Plateau Walhalla is the German form of Old Norse ''Valhöll'', which is commonly anglicised as Valhalla. It may refer to: * Walhalla (memorial), a hall of fame in Donaustauf, Bavaria, Germany. Places Australia * Walhalla, Victoria, Australia * Elec ...

(

Kaibab Plateau The Kaibab Plateau is a plateau almost entirely in Coconino County, Arizona (but extending slightly north into Kane County, Utah) in the Southwestern United States. The high plain is also known as the Buckskin Mountain, Buckskin Plateau, and ...

, North Rim), and west of the (north)-East Rim, Grand Canyon; the south-flowing Colorado River is west and adjacent to the East Rim. Swilling Butte is a triangular-platformSwilling Butte, (map elevations & contours), Lists of John
/ref> summit of bright-red, tall

Redwall Limestone The Redwall Limestone is a resistant cliff-forming unit of Mississippian age that forms prominent, red-stained cliffs in the Grand Canyon, ranging in height from to . Lithology Redwall Limestone consists predominantly of light-olive-gray to ...

. Being a

cliff-former A cliff-former is a geological unit of bedrock that is more resistant to erosion than overlying or underlying strata and consequently produces outcrops with high slope angles. It is more or less equivalent to ''ridge-former'', and may be contrast ...

, the Redwall is also a platform-former. The upper platform of the Redwall Limestone supports a remainder-debris of the

Supai Group The Supai Group is a slope-forming section of red bed deposits found in the Colorado Plateau. The group was laid down during the Pennsylvanian to Lower Permian. Cliff-forming interbeds of sandstone are noticeable throughout the group. The Supai ...

(a 4-unit group). Of the two lower units, no. 2 is a cliff-former, hard rocks (cliffs), of the

Manakacha Formation The (Upper) Late Pennsylvanian Manakacha Formation is a cliff-forming, sandstone, red-orange geologic unit, formed from an addition of eolian sand, added to marine transgression deposits, (siltstones, etc.), and found throughout sections of th ...

; the

slope-former A slope-former is a unit of bedrock which is less resistant to erosion than overlying or underlying units and consequently results in outcrops with low relative slope angles. It may be contrasted with cliff-former. Typical slope forming litholog ...

, (unit no. 1), the

Watahomigi Formation The Watahomigi Formation is a geologic formation in the Grand Canyon region of Arizona. It preserves fossils dating back to the Carboniferous The Carboniferous ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic that spans 60 million years ...

, forms most of the Supai debris upon the Redwall. Below the Redwall Limestone are members of the

Cambrian The Cambrian Period ( ; sometimes symbolized Ꞓ) was the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and of the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 53.4 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran Period 538.8 million years ag ...

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 ...

, the

Muav Limestone The Cambrian Muav Limestone is a geologic unit within the 5-member Tonto Group. It is about thick at its maximum. It is a resistant cliff-forming unit. The Muav consists of dark to light-gray, brown, and orange red limestone with dolomite and ...

and the

slopes In mathematics, the slope or gradient of a line is a number that describes both the ''direction'' and the ''steepness'' of the line. Slope is often denoted by the letter ''m''; there is no clear answer to the question why the letter ''m'' is used ...

of the

Bright Angel Shale The Cambrian Bright Angel Shale is the middle layer of the three member Tonto Group geologic feature. The 3-rock Tonto section famously sits upon the Great Unconformity because of the highly resistant cliffs of the base layer, vertical Tapeats S ...

Citations

External links

{{commons category, Redwall Limestone platform
Aerial view, Swilling Butte, MountainzoneSwilling Butte photo
by

Harvey Butchart John Harvey Butchart (May 10, 1907 – May 29, 2002) was a mathematics professor who was well known for his hiking exploits in and around the Grand Canyon in Arizona, United States. Beginning in 1945, Butchart explored the Grand Canyon's backco ...

Buttes of Arizona Colorado Plateau Grand Canyon, North Rim Grand Canyon Grand Canyon National Park Landforms of Coconino County, Arizona Two-thousanders of the United States