Vesta Temple

Vesta Temple is a 6,299-foot-elevation (1,920 meter) summit located in the Grand Canyon, in Coconino County of northern Arizona, USA.[3] It is situated eight miles west-northwest of Grand Canyon Village, and immediately northeast of Mimbreno Point. Marsh Butte is one mile northeast, Eremita Mesa immediately southeast, and nearest higher neighbor Diana Temple is one mile north. Topographic relief is significant as Vesta Temple rises 3,900 feet (1,190 meters) above the Colorado River in 2.5 miles. Vesta Temple is named for Vesta, the goddess of the hearth, home, and family according to Roman mythology.[4] Clarence Dutton began the practice of naming geographical features in the Grand Canyon after mythological deities.[5] This geographical feature's name was officially adopted in 1908 by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names.[3] According to the Köppen climate classification system, Vesta Temple is located in a Cold semi-arid climate zone.[6]

Vesta Temple
 
Aerial view, Vesta Temple left, Diana (right)
Highest point
Elevation6,299 ft (1,920 m) [1]
Prominence889 ft (271 m) [1]
Parent peakDiana Temple (6,683 ft)[2]
Isolation1.27 mi (2.04 km) [2]
Coordinates36°05′37″N 112°16′08″W [3]
Geography
Vesta Temple
Location in Arizona
Vesta Temple
Vesta Temple (the United States)
LocationGrand Canyon National Park
Coconino County, Arizona, US
Parent rangeCoconino Plateau[1]
Colorado Plateau
Topo mapUSGS Piute Point
Geology
Type of rocklimestone, sandstone, mudstone
Climbing
First ascentAlan Doty

Geology

The summit of Vesta Temple is composed of Permian Kaibab Limestone and Toroweap Formation overlaying 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.[8] Further down are strata of the conspicuous cliff-forming Mississippian Redwall Limestone, the Cambrian Tonto Group, and finally granite of the Paleoproterozoic Vishnu Basement Rocks at river level in Granite Gorge. Precipitation runoff from Vesta Temple drains northeast to the Colorado River via Topaz Canyon and Boucher Creek.

Vesta Temple in front of Diana Temple. Hermit Formation (red slope) below white cliff of Coconino Sandstone, Toroweap Formation (slope, white ledge, slope), and Kaibab Formation (top cliff of Vesta and Diana Temple).

See also

References
  1. "Vesta Temple, Arizona". Peakbagger.com. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
  2. "Vesta Temple - 6,299' AZ". Lists of John. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
  3. "Vesta Temple". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
  4. N.H. Darton, Story of the Grand Canyon of Arizona, 1917, page 81.
  5. Randy Moore and Kara Felicia Witt, The Grand Canyon: An Encyclopedia of Geography, History, and Culture, 2018, ABC-CLIO Publisher, page 151.
  6. 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.
  7. N.H. Darton, Story of the Grand Canyon of Arizona, 1917.
  8. William Kenneth Hamblin, Anatomy of the Grand Canyon: Panoramas of the Canyon's Geology, 2008, Grand Canyon Association Publisher, ISBN 9781934656013.
Vesta Temple lower right corner
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