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I found this searching on the phrase "Grand Canyon of Europe". This isn't the only place that came up, but in my opinion, it probably qualifies. (Others were Goruppu Gorge on Sardinia and the Gorge d'Ardeche, France.) Canyon pictures are notoriously difficult to capture the scale of the place, so I'll try a couple. This is in northern Greece, up toward Albania. Building in front is a monastery. This last one is half-size; click for full size.

Thor's Hammer, Bryce Canyon, Utah.

WELLINGTON, Utah - Along Utah's Nine Mile Canyon lies what some call the longest art gallery in the world — thousands of prehistoric rock carvings and paintings of bighorn sheep and other wildlife, hunters wielding spears, and warriors engaged in hand-to-hand combat. But now, a dramatic increase in natural gas drilling is proposed on the plateau above the canyon, and preservationists fear trucks will kick up dust that will cover over the images. And they worry that one possible solution — a chemical dust suppressant — could make things worse by corroding the rock. "They're irreplaceable," said Steve Tanner, a...

More than two years after a precedent-setting move by the federal government cleared a path around environmental laws and legal challenges, the construction of a stretch of border fence across a deep canyon known as Smuggler's Gulch is set to begin next month. The project will require cutting earth from surrounding hills and filling in the canyon with more than 2 million cubic yards of dirt, an operation so large that critics fear disastrous environmental consequences. According to the latest plans from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the project will consist of constructing an earthen berm across the canyon...

Grand Canyon Gorge Is 9 Times Older Than Thought Hope Hamashige for National Geographic NewsApril 9, 2008 New research on the Grand Canyon challenges the long-held belief that the canyon was carved by the mighty Colorado River about six million years ago. Parts of the canyon were formed more than 50 million years earlier than previously thought, according to the new study. The newfound evidence, which will be presented in the May issue of the Geological Society of America Bulletin, shows that part of the canyon known as Upper Granite Gorge formed more than 55 million years ago. The history...

I went back to an old reliable for this one, and the picture I found was somewhat amazing on background. The amazing thing about this place is that it didn't exist 150 years ago! It is called "Georgia's Little Grand Canyon", and it formed due to drastic erosion caused by non-soil-conserving agricultural practices. Supporting Links: Providence Canyon State Park Wikipedia entry Providence Canyon Photographs of Providence Canyon State Park by Bruce Gourley

FORT HUACHUCA — A Tuesday fire on this Southern Arizona post was caused by a ricocheting practice round from a 40mm machine gun-like grenade launcher that hit a tank hulk being used as a target, post officials said. As of early Tuesday evening, the blaze, which is being called the Range 9 Fire, had consumed between 350 and 400 acres since it started about 10:30 a.m. Using the special range on the post were soldiers of the Arizona Army National Guard’s 860th Military Police Company, according to fort officials. The company, whose headquarters is in Casa Grande, is at the...

Grand Canyon of the Pacific/Hawaii: Click both for full size:

An Internet Publication for Real AmericansFrom The News WireTribe set to open Grand Canyon Skywalk Posted: Tuesday March 20,2007 - 12:14:55 am By CHRIS KAHN, Associated Press Writer 49 minutes ago HUALAPAI INDIAN RESERVATION, Ariz. - Visitors who have marveled at the Grand Canyon's vistas will now have a dizzying new option: a glass-bottom observation deck allowing them to gaze into the chasm beneath their feet. The Skywalk, which will be unveiled Tuesday, is being touted as an engineering marvel. The glass-and-steel horseshoe extends 70 feet beyond the canyon's edge with no visible supports above or below.For $25 plus...

Grab bag; a rare picture of Kerguelen from space (usually cloud-covered) and a nice picture of Bryce Canyon. Sorry I missed last week. If you click the Kerguelen picture, you get a 250-meter resolution version. Even though there have been surveys, supposedly there are still places on Kerguelen that have never been visited by a human being in recorded history. Bryce Canyon from Bryce Point

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) - Aravaipa Canyon, a coveted southern Arizona hiking spot, is no longer what it used to be. The area's wet summer dramatically altered the wilderness area about 50 miles northeast of Tucson, creating possibly record creek flows that scoured vegetation from the stream bed of Aravaipa Creek and flooded homes and ranches at the mouth of its 11-mile wilderness canyon.[snip]Scientists are still measuring the flood. The streamflow gauge recorded 6,000 cubic feet per second before it was washed away. The preliminary estimates of the U.S. Geological Survey were between 18,000 and 25,000 cubic feet of water per...

Mon Jun 5 09:31:01 2006 Pacific Time New Mexico's Chaco Canyon: A Place of Kings and Palaces? BOULDER, Colo., June 5 (AScribe Newswire) -- Kings living in palaces may have ruled New Mexico's Chaco Canyon a thousand years ago, causing Pueblo people to reject the brawny, top-down politics in the centuries that followed, according to a University of Colorado at Boulder archaeologist. University of Colorado Museum anthropology Curator Steve Lekson, who has studied Chaco Canyon for several decades, said one argument for royalty comes from the rich, crypt-style burials of two men discovered deep in a Chaco Canyon "great house"...

This is one of the better pictures of the Upper Falls I could find. The Upper Falls don't get nearly the publicity or the views of the Lower Falls, but they are very dramatic. Because they don't get the publicity, they also don't get as much coverage by professional photographers, so a lot of the images on the Web are digital and don't really capture their beauty. Note the people on the edge-of-the-falls overlook for scale.

FORWARD OPERATING BASE HIT, Iraq, Jan. 23, 2006 – Eight days of back-breaking searches through villages and fields along the western Euphrates River Valley have yielded thousands of pieces of ordnance as Iraqi soldiers and U.S. Marines continue Operation Koa Canyon in Iraq's Anbar province. Aimed at isolating insurgents and their weapons, the combined Iraqi and U.S. force began the latest sweep Jan. 15 and have uncovered a staggering amount of weaponry. The soldiers and Marines are making their way inch by inch through caves, fields, wadis and islands in an attempt to disrupt the insurgents. So far, the combined...

Last week's search on "chasm" discovered the Amazing Link below the image. The image is also of Elves Chasm on the Colorado River. The image is from this part of the Web site (the author holds landscape photography workshops -- and he appears to be quite good) The 25-Year Dream And here is the Amazing Link. It's a full 360-degree panorama of Elves Chasm. It's one of the most remarkable images I've ever seen. BEFORE YOU CLICK: the panorama expands the browser to full screen and requires Quicktime. And it's a big image. Panorama of Elves Canyon

A bit foggy on ideas this week, I decided to see what the first picture was if I Googled for images on the word "chasm". Though this is not the first picture that was found, it is the first place that was found, and it's called "The Chasm" in Milford Sound, New Zealand. Now here's a mini-challenge: where's your favorite chasm*? It has to actually be (officially) named "chasm" -- gorges, canyons, and gulches don't count. (I did a bit more Googling, and found a mind-blowing... well, have fun.) *and no chasmas from Mars, either

Two GREAT views of the Grand Canyon and Bandelier NM and environment. Arizonans, I'd like you to check the larger version of the Arizona image and see if you can identify a particular weird feature. (See below the image for my question.) Click on each image to see the larger version. Grand Canyon in Snow (Larger version is 2.1 MB.) In the larger version, to the west of the lower Grand Canyon and southeast of Lake Mohave and a small mountain range, there's a flat light-brown patch. Does anyone know what that is, or is it an image artifact? Bandelier...

There are a number of “battles” worth fighting in the whole “naturalism vs. good science” debates, including the allowing of intelligent design to be taught and discussed. However, the fighting to keep the young-earth creationist book in the Grand Canyon is not one of them. While I don’t condone the banning of any books, the Park Service can choose what it does or does not sell at its stores (though the book in question wouldn’t be banned, just moved). The following is a letter to the Park Service I wrote when the issue first arose: Regarding the supposed “Book-Banning by...

Senator Kerry, as your tour over "Flyover Country" continues, it must be really hard on your stomachs. You and the missus are used to the finest cuisine and now have to look like you are eating like the locals. All the little people are so impressed! I know you must have been embarassed by the revelation that you ate on the bus at stop and threw the local food in the garbage. We all saw that you really didn't eat at Wendy's. I mean, everyone thought you were eating at Wendy's, but then you had some take out at a...