Why Don’t All Rivers Make Canyons?

Not all rivers have enough power to carve deep canyons like the Grand Canyon.

Think of a river as a kid playing with water in a sandbox. If the kid just gently pours water over soft sand, it doesn’t make much of a dent, it’s more like making a little puddle. But if the kid dumps lots of water and shakes the sandbox hard, the sand starts to move and makes a bigger hole.

Rivers are like that kid. A small river with not much water or speed is like a gentle pour, it might make a small stream or a shallow valley. But a big, fast river, especially if it has rocks or sediment in it, can be like the kid who dumps and shakes, it can carve out deep canyons over time.

Some rivers don’t get to work long enough or hard enough to make a canyon. If a river flows into flat land or stops moving, it doesn’t keep digging deeper. It's like if the kid stops playing, there’s no more hole. So not all rivers have the power and time to make canyons.