Phantom Ranch Tour - a view from the South Kaibab Trail

This view is from the South Kaibab Trail. The Cambrian-age Muav Limestone occurs at the base of the Redwall escarpment and overlies the slope-forming Bright Angel Shale. The lower cliff on the right is the top of the Muav Limestone (Cambrian age). A massive layer of the much younger Temple Butte Limestone (Devonian age) was deposited directly on the Muav Limestone. Strata of Ordovician and Silurian age are "missing". The unconformable boundary between these flat-lying sedimentary formations represents a multi-million year gap in time associated with erosion and (or) long periods of non-deposition. (Beus, 1987). Above the next ledge is the lighter-gray cliff of the lower Redwall Limestone (Mississippian age).