The Howlands Butte, elevation , is a minor butte in the southeast drainage of the very large Clear Creek drainage. Clear Creek is a medium length flowing creek, just upstream of the major

Bright Angel Creek Bright Angel Creek is an American body of water located at the bottom of the Grand Canyon National Park flowing into the Colorado River at the end of the North Kaibab Trail on the north side of the river. The creek originates from Roaring Spring ...

outfall into the Colorado River,

Granite Gorge Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

. The Howlands Butte was officially named in 1932 for brothers Seneca and Oramel G. Howland, members of the Powell Geographic Expedition of 1869. Just two days from the expedition's intended destination, the pair and William H. Dunn left the expedition, fearing they could not survive the dangers of the river much longer. They hiked out of the canyon and were never seen again. Separation Rapids on the river is where they departed from Powell.

Gallery

File:The Howlands Butte, Redwall Limestone, Grand Canyon (view from the South Rim).jpg, Howlands Butte, south aspect File:The Howlands Butte viewed from Clear Creek Trail.jpg, The Howlands Butte viewed from northwest on Clear Creek Trail File:Clear Creek Grand Canyon.jpg, Angels Gate (left) and The Howlands Butte (right) from northwest File:The Howlands Butte.jpg, The Howlands Butte

Geology

The geology of The Howlands Butte is relatively obvious, being that is 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 ...

massif of the Redwall Limestone. Interestingly, two rock units, commonly thin layers, are found, one on top of the Redwall platform (a cliff-former result of non-easily erodible rock), the other under the Redwall, on another platform, 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 ...

. The Surprise Canyon Formation is on top; the

Temple Butte Limestone The Devonian Temple Butte Formation, also called Temple Butte Limestone, outcrops through most of the Grand Canyon of Arizona, USA; it also occurs in southeast Nevada. Within the eastern Grand Canyon, it consists of thin, discontinuous and rela ...

is below. The prominence of The Howlands Butte is a remainder cliff (or shelf) of cliff-former, unit 2-of-4

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 Su ...

, 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 ...

. It sits on

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 litholo ...

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 ...

. And both Supai units sit on debris, and a remaining-layer of Surprise Canyon Formation.Geologic Map The Tonto Group units are below, and then Basement rocks are found at Granite Gorge.

References

External links

*
Top of The Howlands Butte, Grand Canyon, 2-18-1973
{{DEFAULTSORT:Howlands Butte Grand Canyon Grand Canyon National Park Landforms of Coconino County, Arizona Mountains of Arizona Mountains of Coconino County, Arizona North American 1000 m summits

Gallery

Geology

See also

References

External links