Coronado Butte is a -elevation summit located in the Grand Canyon, in Coconino County of Arizona, United States. It is situated west of the Moran Point overlook on the canyon's South Rim, and one mile northeast of Sinking Ship, its nearest higher neighbor. Topographic relief is significant as this butte rises above the Colorado River in . Coronado Butte is named for Francisco Vázquez de Coronado (1510–1554), the explorer whose 1540 expedition was the first European sighting of the Grand Canyon, among other landmarks.Gregory McNamee, Grand Canyon Place Names, 1997, Mountaineers Publisher, , page 39. This geographical feature's name was officially adopted in 1906 by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. The first ascent was made by John Hance and tourist prior to 1900, in the 1890s.John Annerino, 'Hiking the Grand Canyon", 2017, Simon & Schuster, According to the Köppen climate classification system, Coronado Butte is located in a cold semi-arid climate zone.
Geology
The summit of Coronado Butte is composed of cream-colored, cliff-forming, Permian Coconino Sandstone with a Kaibab Limestone caprock.N.H. Darton, Story of the Grand Canyon of Arizona, 1917, page 63. 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 slope-forming, Permian Hermit Formation, which in turn overlays the Pennsylvanian-Permian Supai Group. Further down are strata of Mississippian Redwall Limestone, and Cambrian Tonto Group.William Kenneth Hamblin, Anatomy of the Grand Canyon: Panoramas of the Canyon's Geology, 2008, Grand Canyon Association Publisher, . Precipitation runoff from Coronado Butte drains north into the nearby Colorado River.
Gallery
See also Geology of the Grand Canyon area
References
External links
Weather forecast: National Weather Service