de Chelly Sandstone

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

What looks like wind blown sand dunes at the bottom of Canyon de Chelly, these rock formations were actually just that. Created over a 100 million of years ago when this region became a Sahara-like desert, these massive dunes were once hundreds of feet deep. Compressed and held together by a "binding agent", this particular type of rock is known as "de Chelly sandstone" for the canyon it is found in.



"de Chelly Sandstone" © Kathy Dunham 2008