Many will attest to the grandeur of the natural feature that exists in northern Arizona, but the formation of the Grand Canyon has confounded geomorphologists to this day. This confusion can be attributed to the Kaibab Plateau, an anomaly considering that the Colorado River flows seamlessly through it. Since the 19th century, four prevalent hypotheses have been proposed, starting with the lake overflow proposal, first put forward by John Newbury and then strengthened by Eliot Blackwelder. Newbury argued that a structure must have filled an ancient lake, causing water to spill out and cut into the Grand Canyon. This argument holds that the river must have come after the existence of the plateau. Unbeknownst to Newbury, the facility would be the Kaibab Plateau. Blackwelder later used the Muddy Creek problem, in which older limestone stands were abruptly disrupted by the rapid arrival of the Colorado River, to support the idea that the Colorado River was younger than the Kaibab Plateau. . John Powell objected to Newbury's belief that the plateau was older, arguing that the river already existed when uplift of the plateau occurred giving it its current formation. This theory is known as Antecedence, but because of the Muddy Creek dilemma another proposal was needed to further make the case for an ancient river. Through superposition theory, Alan Strahler stated that an old river would be assisted by slope retreat caused by uplift. Finally, Eddie McKee attempted to address the Muddy Creek problem by explaining that a second drainage to the west, or the proposed Hualapai drainage, reached the Colorado River to the east, due to uplift that helped lower the base level. various advanced hypotheses support the...... middle of paper ...... the formation that once covered the circular caps we see today (6d). In conclusion these various factors explain the theory that the Kaibab Plateau is actually much older than the Colorado River and that the Lake Overflow Theory best explains the multiple processes that helped create these natural features of the current landscape. Lake Bidahochi would have flooded from time to time, and combined with the lower elevation on the Kaibab Plateau, incision would have begun. Considering that major rivers have the ability to erode materials such as basaltic bedrock, crossing the Kaibab Plateau would have proven possible. With the circular scarps retreating from the plateau, the meanders of both rivers are explained, and the presence of Colorado River limestone in a sequence of ancient basins now demonstrates that the river was younger than the uplift that occurred in this region.