Pollux Temple is a summit in the Grand Canyon, in Coconino County of northern Arizona, US.[N.H. Darton, Story of the Grand Canyon of Arizona, 1917, page 80.] Clarence Dutton began the practice of naming geographical features in the Grand Canyon after mythological deities.[Randy Moore and Kara Felicia Witt, The Grand Canyon: An Encyclopedia of Geography, History, and Culture, 2018, ABC-CLIO Publisher, page 151.] According to the Köppen climate classification system, Pollux Temple is located in a Cold semi-arid climate zone.
Geology
The top of Pollux Temple is composed of
Permian Toroweap Formation overlaying cream-colored, cliff-forming, Permian Coconino Sandstone.
[N.H. Darton, Story of the Grand Canyon of Arizona, 1917, page 67.] 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.
[William Kenneth Hamblin, Anatomy of the Grand Canyon: Panoramas of the Canyon's Geology, 2008, Grand Canyon Association Publisher, .] 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
Surface runoff from Pollux Temple drains north to the Colorado River via Agate and Sapphire Canyons.
Gallery
File:Pollux Temple - Grand Canyon.jpg|Pollux Temple from Jicarilla Point. (Mencius Temple in upper right)
File:Grand Canyon DEIS Aerial Photo Pollux Temple.jpg|Aerial of Pollux Temple centered, casting shadow onto Castor Temple (upper left)
File:Pollux Temple, Sapphire Canyon.jpg|Pollux Temple (upper left), with Sapphire Canyon, from Tonto Trail
File:Panorama from Point Sublime - Grand Canyon.jpg|Pollux Temple centered in distance, from Point Sublime.
Artwork by William Henry Holmes.
See also
External links
