Chuar Butte

Chuar Butte is a prominent 6,500-foot-elevation (1,981 meter) summit located in the Grand Canyon, in Coconino County of northern Arizona, USA.[2] It is situated 1.5 miles northwest of Cape Solitude on the canyon's East Rim, three miles southeast of Gunther Castle, and immediately west of the confluence of the Colorado River and Little Colorado River. This position also places it where Marble Canyon ends, and the Grand Canyon begins. Topographic relief is significant as it rises nearly 3,800 feet (1,160 meters) above the river in less than one mile. According to the Köppen climate classification system, Chuar Butte is located in a Cold semi-arid climate zone.[3]

Chuar Butte
Aerial view looking northeast
Highest point
Elevation6,500 ft (2,000 m) [1]
Prominence1,513 ft (461 m) [1]
Parent peakGunther Castle (7,199 ft)[1]
Isolation2.95 mi (4.75 km) [1]
Coordinates36°11′45″N 111°49′29″W [2]
Geography
Chuar Butte
Location in Arizona
Chuar Butte
Chuar Butte (the United States)
LocationGrand Canyon National Park
Coconino County, Arizona, US
Parent rangeKaibab Plateau
Colorado Plateau
Topo mapUSGS Cape Solitude
Geology
Type of rocksandstone, siltstone, limestone
Climbing
Easiest routeclass 5.2 climbing[1]

History

Chuar Butte was named by John Wesley Powell for Chuarrumpeak, or Chuar-ru-um-pik, a young Kaibabits tribal chief who assisted Powell and was known among early settlers as "Chuar" for short.[2][4][5][6] A variant name for this butte is Chuarooum Peak.[2] This feature's name was officially adopted in 1906 by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names.[2]

Chuar Butte and adjacent Temple Butte are the historical site of wreckage from the 1956 Grand Canyon mid-air collision, in which two commercial airliners collided, resulting in the deaths of all 128 on board both planes. This disaster was a catalyst that forced the government to overhaul airline regulation and to establish the Federal Aviation Administration. The site was designated a National Historic Landmark on April 22, 2014, and is in a remote area of the canyon that is only accessible to hikers.

Geology

The top of Chuar Butte is composed of Permian Kaibab Limestone, which overlays cream-colored, cliff-forming, Permian Coconino Sandstone.[7] 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, which in turn overlays the Pennsylvanian-Permian Supai Group. Further down are strata of Mississippian Redwall Limestone, and finally Cambrian Tonto Group at river level. The Butte Fault is on the west side of Chuar Butte. Uplift along the fault has lifted the Neoproterozoic Chuar Group 3,000 feet relative to the limestone layer, exposing mudstone of the Chuar Group.[8]

  • Chuar Butte from north rim of Little Colorado River
  • Aerial view looking north
  • Aerial view looking south
  • Aerial view looking north
  • Chuar Butte centered at top, view from Desert View
  • Chuar Butte (shaded) behind Temple Butte
  • Chuar Butte left of center in the distance, seen from Desert View

See also

References
  1. "Chuar Butte - 6,500' AZ". Lists of John. Retrieved January 2, 2021.
  2. "Chuar Butte". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. Retrieved 2021-01-02.
  3. Peel, M. C.; Finlayson, B. L.; McMahon, T. A. (2007). "Updated world map of the Köppen−Geiger climate classification". Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 11. ISSN 1027-5606.
  4. William Culp Darrah, Powell of the Colorado, 1951, Princeton University Press, page 155.
  5. Gregory McNamee, Grand Canyon Place Names, 1997, Mountaineers Publisher, ISBN 9780898865332, page 35.
  6. Powell’s Surveyors at Pipe Spring NPS.gov
  7. N.H. Darton, Story of the Grand Canyon of Arizona, 1917, page 62.
  8. William Kenneth Hamblin, Anatomy of the Grand Canyon: Panoramas of the Canyon's Geology, 2008, Grand Canyon Association Publisher, ISBN 9781934656013, page 70.
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