Pollux Temple Explained

Pollux Temple
Label:Pollux Temple
Label Position:bottom
Elevation Ft:6251
Elevation Ref:[1]
Prominence Ft:762
Isolation Mi:1.91
Parent Peak:Diana Temple (6,683 ft)
Country:United States
State:Arizona
Region:Coconino
Region Type:County
Part Type:Protected area
Part:Grand Canyon National Park
Range:Coconino Plateau
Colorado Plateau
Map:Arizona#USA 
Map Size:230
Coordinates:36.1206°N -112.3026°W
Coordinates Ref:[2]
Topo:USGS Piute Point
Rock:limestone, sandstone, mudstone
First Ascent:March 1969 by Alan Doty[3]
Easiest Route: climbing

Pollux Temple is a 6251feet summit in the Grand Canyon, in Coconino County of northern Arizona, US.[2] It is situated ten miles northwest of Grand Canyon Village, and less than one mile northeast of Jicarilla Point. Castor Temple is one mile northwest, and Diana Temple is one mile southeast. Topographic relief is significant as Pollux Temple rises nearly 4000abbr=offNaNabbr=off above the Colorado River in less than two miles. Pollux Temple is named for Pollux, the divine son of Zeus according to Greek mythology.[4] Clarence Dutton began the practice of naming geographical features in the Grand Canyon after mythological deities.[5] According to the Köppen climate classification system, Pollux Temple is located in a Cold semi-arid climate zone.[6]

Geology

The top of Pollux Temple is composed of Permian 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 Pollux Temple drains north to the Colorado River via Agate and Sapphire Canyons.

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Pollux Temple – 6,251' AZ . Lists of John . 2021-01-12 .
  2. 9627 . Pollux Temple . 2021-01-12.
  3. Todd R. Berger, Reflections of Grand Canyon Historians: Ideas, Arguments and First-Person Accounts, 2nd edition, 2008, Grand Canyon Association Publisher,, page 197.
  4. N.H. Darton, Story of the Grand Canyon of Arizona, 1917, page 80.
  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 . 1027-5606.
  7. N.H. Darton, Story of the Grand Canyon of Arizona, 1917, page 67.
  8. William Kenneth Hamblin, Anatomy of the Grand Canyon: Panoramas of the Canyon's Geology, 2008, Grand Canyon Association Publisher, .