Nature · Mather Point vicinity · USGS rim-to-river section
Grand Canyon: depth and source profile
This Grand Canyon grid section drops approximately 1,441 meters from a selected South Rim cell near Mather Point to the modeled Colorado River surface.
≈ 1,441 m
Data-derived estimate- Measurement
- Vertical drop below the selected rim cell · approximately 1,441 meters
- Subject or version
- Mather Point vicinity · USGS rim-to-river section
- In feet, rounded
- 4,727.6 ft (1 ft = 0.3048 m)
Add more subjects or change the units in the playground.
A little more perspective
The selected USGS rim cell is 2174.9028 meters in NAVD88 at 36.060417° N, 112.107731° W. Along the original north–south column, the lowest cell is 733.9389 meters at 36.099306° N. Subtraction gives 1440.9639 meters of vertical drop. These decimals preserve raster values; they are not millimeter survey accuracy.
The profile contains 861 unchanged cells at approximately 10.27-meter spacing and crosses the Colorado River corridor. This is one explicitly bounded section near the Mather Point viewpoint, not the maximum depth of the whole Grand Canyon. The section continues up the opposite slope, and its northern endpoint is below the selected South Rim elevation.
One native north–south column from the USGS 2026-06-01 n37w113 one-third-arc-second DEM. The highest original rim cell in the specified southern 110-cell search interval defines zero. All subsequent cell elevations are subtracted from that unchanged NAVD88 value; no interpolation, vertical exaggeration or river-depth correction is applied. The lower endpoint is the modeled river surface, not the submerged channel bed. Meridian distances use the NAD83 ellipsoid at the section center.
Quick facts
This Grand Canyon grid section drops approximately 1,441 meters from a selected South Rim cell near Mather Point to the modeled Colorado River surface.
For a presentation or a research note, include the subject, the measurement definition, and the measurement used. A picture alone cannot explain those choices. The comparison guide explains how to export an image and its source notes together.
Sources and measurement notes
- USGS: original 2026 topographic elevation tile
- USGS: 3DEP products and bare-earth DEM definitions
- National Park Service: Mather Point location and viewpoint context
- National Park Service: South Rim and river corridor map
Canyon depth depends on the chosen rim and lower endpoint. This reference is one source-defined section.
Source review recorded . Maintained by Ishan Karunaratne. Suggest a correction with a source and the exact measurement being compared.