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  • A layered sandstone wall appears to have been twisted and folded by many thousands of years of geological forces in Harris Wash in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah.
    Grand-Staircase-Escalante_Harris-Was...jpg
  • A fumerole shoots steam high into the air at Hverir, an especially active geothermal area in northern Iceland.
    hverir-fumerole-backlit.jpg
  • The Box Canyon of Mount Rainier National Park is an area where the Muddy Fork of the Cowlitz River carved a narrow gorge more than a hundred feet deep, but only 15 to 30 feet wide.
    Rainier_BoxCanyon_3818.jpg
  • A very narrow canyon leads through a petrified sand dune, known as the Wave, in the Coyote Buttes Wilderness in northern Arizona.
    WaveNarrowCanyon.jpg
  • The full moon sets over the Bryce Canyon amphitheater at sunrise. The Earth's shadow and a red band, known as the Belt of Venus, are visible just above the horizon. Bryce Canyon is a national park in Utah.
    BryceCanyonMoon.jpg
  • A narrow canyon winds through a petrified sand dune located at the Wave, Coyote Buttes Wilderness, northern Arizona.
    WaveCanyonAbove.jpg
  • A sandstone arch in the Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada, frames a view of another arch.
    vof-archinarch.jpg
  • Hundreds of hoodoos that make up the Bryce Canyon amphitheater are lit at sunrise. Bryce Canyon is national park in Utah. The hoodoos, or spires, are remanants of large sandstone fins that have been subjected to centuries of erosion.
    Bryce-Canyon_Amphitheater_Dawn_4388.jpg
  • A slot canyon makes a sharp curve in Coyote Gulch, located in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah. The narrow sandstone canyon was carved by flash floods.
    Grand-Staircase-Escalante_Coyote-Gul...jpg
  • Flash floods eroded a wavy pattern into the narrow walls of this slot canyon in the Coyote Gulch of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah.
    Grand-Staircase-Escalante_Wall-Curve...jpg
  • Sedimentary layers are visible in this section of the Calico Hills in the Red Rock Canyon Conservation Area in Nevada. The Calico Hills are made up of Aztec Sandstone, fossilized sand dunes that were laid down during the early Jurrasic Period 180-190 million years ago.
    NV_Red-Rock-Canyon_Sedimentary-Layer...jpg
  • A bright rainbow shines over the Atlantic Ocean near the Reynisdrangar sea stacks, also known as the Troll Rocks. The Troll Rocks are located near Vík, Iceland. According to Icelandic legend, the rocks are the remnants of trolls that were out fishing too late. The legend says trolls will turn to stone if they're exposed to daylight.
    Iceland_Vik_Troll-Rocks_Rainbow_2275...jpg
  • Atlantic Ocean waves flow into a sea cave in a basalt cliff near Hellnar on the Snæfellsnes peninsula in western Iceland.
    Iceland_Hellnar_Sea-Cave_9271.jpg
  • Cirrus clouds, turned red by the setting sun, frame the crescent moon as it shines over sand dunes in Discovery Park, Seattle, Washington. Discovery Park is Seattle's largest remaining green space and the sand is sediment dropped by glaciers during the last ice age.
    WA_Discovery-Park_Sand-Dunes_Sunset_...jpg
  • Colorful layers of siltstone, mudstone and shale are visible in the badlands near the Blue Mesa in Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona. The layers contain iron and manganese, which provide the pigments for the brilliant and varied colors.
    AZ_Petrified-Forest_Badlands_Painted...jpg
  • The La Ventana Arch, located in the El Malpais National Monument in New Mexico, has a span of about 120 feet (36 meters), making it the second-largest arch in the state. La Ventana is Spanish for "the window."
    NM_El-Malpais_La-Ventana-Arch_1446.jpg
  • Irregular columnar jointing, called entablature, is visible on an exposed hillside near Artist Point in the North Cascades of Washington state. These types of rock columns are formed when volcanic rocks cool, contract and crack.
    North-Cascades_Columnar-Jointing_Art...jpg
  • Irregular columnar jointing, called entablature, is visible on an exposed hillside near Artist Point in the North Cascades of Washington state. These types of rock columns are formed when volcanic rocks cool, contract and crack.
    North-Cascades_Columnar-Jointing_Art...jpg
  • A small waterfall flows over sandstone layers in Matthiessen State Park, located in LaSalle County, Illinois. Creeks carved a canyon that's as much as 45 feet (14 meters) deep, exposing sandstone layers.
    IL_Matthiessen_Waterfall_Layers_0789.jpg
  • A small waterfall flows over sandstone layers in Matthiessen State Park, located in LaSalle County, Illinois. Creeks carved a canyon that's as much as 45 feet (14 meters) deep, exposing sandstone layers.
    IL_Matthiessen_Waterfall_Layers_0777.jpg
  • Paulina Creek drops 80 feet (24 meters) at Paulina Falls, located in the Newberry National Volcanic Monument in Deschutes County, Oregon. Paulina Falls is located on the west flank of the Newberry Volcano, a potentially active volcano that last erupted nearly 1,500 years ago. The waterfall flows over and erodes remnants of previous eruptions; over a period of 2,000 years, geologists believe the waterfall has moved 200 feet (61 meters) upstream due to erosion.
    OR_PaulinaFalls_Newberry_9870.jpg
  • Balanced Rock (left), a prominent feature of Arches National Park near Moab, Utah, is turned red by the golden light of sunrise. The balanced rock is a cap rock that is 55 feet (17 meters) tall and makes up nearly half the overall height of the formation. The formation is made up of several layers of sandstone, which erode at different rates; the layer between the cap rock and the pedestal erodes at a much faster rate than the others.
    ArchesNP_BalancedRock_F02_2576-08.jpg
  • Balanced Rock, a prominent feature of Arches National Park near Moab, Utah, is turned red by the golden light of sunrise. The balanced rock is a cap rock that is 55 feet (17 meters) tall and makes up nearly half the overall height of the formation. The formation is made up of several layers of sandstone, which erode at different rates; the layer between the cap rock and the pedestal erodes at a much faster rate than the others.
    ArchesNP_BalancedRock_F02_2576-06.jpg
  • Atlantic Ocean waves crash through an arch on the Dyrhólaey peninsula near Vík, Iceland. Dyrhólaey means "the hill island with the door-hole" and there are several arches in the peninsula, including one that is spectacularly large. The peninsula's basalt cliffs are as much as 120 meters (394 feet) tall.
    Iceland_Dyrholaey_Waves_Arch_2218.jpg
  • A bright rainbow shines over the Atlantic Ocean near the Reynisdrangar sea stacks, also known as the Troll Rocks. The Troll Rocks are located near Vík, Iceland. According to Icelandic legend, the rocks are the remnants of trolls that were out fishing too late. The legend says trolls will turn to stone if they're exposed to daylight.
    Iceland_TrollRocks_Rainbow_2275.jpg
  • Several mountains in the Canadian Rockies reflect in the turquoise-colored Moraine Lake, located in Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada, at sunrise. This area is known as the Valley of the Ten Peaks, named for the ten tall mountains at the lake's edge. Moraine Lake has a unique aqua color that results from the silt deposited by glaciers.
    Banff_MoraineLake_Sunrise_8278.jpg
  • The Icelandic mountain Thrihnukagigur last erupted more than 4,000 years ago. Shown here is the inside of the volcano's magma chamber, the space inside the mountain which housed molten rock from deep inside the earth. Thrihnukagigur means Three Peaks Crater. The cone leading to one of the peaks is shown near the top center.
    Iceland_MagmaChamber_Thrihnukagigur_...jpg
  • Skyline Arch is visible above the desert landscape of Arches National Park, located near Moab, Utah. Skyline Arch has a span of 69 feet (21 meters). It doubled in size, reaching its present size, in a single rockfall in 1940.
    Arches_SkylineArch_5027.jpg
  • Dozens of iron concretions are found on a bluff in the Grand staircase Escalante in southern Utah. These iron concretions formed naturally between 6 and 25 million years ago as water dissolved the iron pigment in the red sandstone in the area. The pigment flowed down through the now bleached sandstone and then solidified when it came in contact with oxygenated water, forming a new iron mineral called hematite between the grains of sandstone. Over time, the sandstone eroded away, leaving the more durable iron concretions behind. These largely spherical balls are composed of a hard outer layer of hematite covering a ball of pink sandstone. By volume, the sandstone makes up the majority of these iron concretions, though those found elsewhere in the Colorado Plateau may contain much more hematite. Scientists aren't sure why they form in spheres or if they need something in particular as a nucleus to start growing.
    IronConcretions_HarrisWashUtah_4183.jpg
  • Pegmatite, a light-colored granite, forms bright stripes on the otherwise dark walls of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison in Colorado. These stripes were found on the Painted Wall, an especially dramatic part of the national park and the highest cliff in all of Colorado. Pegmatite is the result of especially water-rich magma, which is the last to cool and harden. Because it remains fluid longer, it is able to squeeze into cracks in rocks, resulting in the light-colored lines here.
    CO_PaintedWall_GunnisonNP_1965.jpg
  • Pegmatite, a light-colored granite, forms bright stripes on the otherwise dark walls of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison in Colorado. These stripes were found on the Painted Wall, an especially dramatic part of the national park and the highest cliff in all of Colorado. Pegmatite is the result of especially water-rich magma, which is the last to cool and harden. Because it remains fluid longer, it is able to squeeze into cracks in rocks, resulting in the light-colored lines here.
    CO_PaintedWall_GunnisonNP_1966.jpg
  • Baring Creek flows through a very narrow gorge, called Sunrift Gorge, in Glacier National Park, Montana. The gorge has very smooth, straight sides because it eroded along vertical fractures in the rock known as joints. Sunrift Gorge began to form after large Pleistocene glaciers began to retreat from that area and with a maximum cut down rate of 0.003 inch per year, this gorge is the result of several millions of years of erosion.
    Glacier_SunriftGorge_0812.jpg
  • Several ring-billed and herring gulls fly over Dry Falls in Grant County, Washington, which at one time was believed to be the largest waterfall that ever existed. Geologists believe that during the last ice age, ice dams resulted in giant glacial lakes in eastern Washington, Idaho and Montana. When those dams failed, as they did dozens of times, glacial lakes Columbia and Missoula rapidly drained, creating a cataclysmic flood. During the floods, what is now Dry Falls was a spectacular waterfall, 400 feet high (121 meters), 3.5 miles wide (5.63 kilometers). Water may have raced over its massive cliffs at 65 miles an hour (105 km/hour), a flow that's estimated to be ten times as powerful as all the world's current rivers combined. The cliffs shown here represent a small fraction of the ice age waterfall. Dry Falls Lake is pictured in the foreground; Green Lake is visible in the background.
    WA_DryFalls_Gulls_5825.jpg
  • The nearly full moon rises through the North Window in Arches National Park, Utah.
    Arches_NorthWindow_Moon_4936.jpg
  • A vibrant shaft of light illuminates a tumbleweed on the floor of Antelope Canyon in Page, Arizona. Antelope Canyon is a slot canyon that was carved by violent flash floods. Beams of light form only when the sun is nearly overhead, lighting up the blowing sand that fills the canyon, which is dozens of feet deep. The Navajo people call the canyon Tsé bighánílíní dóó Hazdistazí, which means "the place where water runs through rocks."
    AntelopeCanyon_Beam_Tumbleweed_0493.jpg
  • Several arches have been worn into a narrow slot canyon known as Peek-a-Boo Gulch, located in the Grand Staircase Escalante in Southern Utah.
    PeekABoo-Arches.jpg
  • Pacific Ocean waves spray high into the sky through a blowhole name Spouting Horn at Cape Perpetua, Oregon. Blowholes are essentially skylights in ocean caves. At high tide, water fills the cave and the pressure from incoming waves forces the water through the small opening and high into the sky.
    OR_SpoutingHorn_6269.jpg
  • The deep branches in the soil of the Painted Hills in John Day National Monument, Oregon illustrate the dendritic drainage pattern. Numerous feeder streams, creeks and rills flow into the main channel, resulting in a deep channel that resembles the branches of a tree.
    OR_PaintedHills_DendriticDrainage_31...jpg
  • The Painted Hills in John Day National Monument, Oregon are comprised of several layers of ash and pumice deposits from the Cascades and area volcanoes. The deposits were laid down approximately 33 million years ago. The red comes from rusty iron minerals; golden layers are rich with oxidized magnesium and iron, metamorphic claystone; the black comes from manganese.
    OR_PaintedHills_CloseUp_3145.jpg
  • Pacific Ocean waves carved a narrow inlet into the rocky shoreline at Yachats, Oregon. The wave action is blurred by an 8 second exposure.
    OR_DoubleArch_Yachats_Twilight_4289.jpg
  • The Pancake Rocks, located in Punakaiki on the West Coast of New Zealand, are layered columns of limestone, somewhat resembling stacks of pancakes. Geologists are not certain of their origin. New Zealand's Southern Alps are visible on the horizon.
    NZ_PancakeRocks_5038.jpg
  • The Waikato River drops 11 meters (36 feet) at Huka Falls near Taupo, New Zealand. Huka Falls is the largest waterfall along the river.
    NZ_HukaFalls_0875.jpg
  • NoParkingLavaV.jpg
  • NoParkingLavaH.jpg
  • Several mountains in the Canadian Rockies tower over Moraine Lake, located in Banff National Park. This area is known as the Valley of the Ten Peaks, named for the ten tall mountains at the lake's edge. Moraine Lake has a unique aqua color that results from the silt deposited by glaciers.
    MoraineLake.jpg
  • The Kolob Canyons of Zion National Park, Utah, are turned golden red by the setting sun in this panoramic view.
    KolobCanyonPanorama.jpg
  • An iceberg carries a rock though Jökulsárlón, Iceland's glacial lagoon. Glaciers have been known to carry rocks great distances. Rocks fall onto glaciers, which move slowly down mountains. When the glacier melts so much that it can no longer support the rock, the rock is dropped and it becomes known as a glacial erratic. The term referrs to rocks that are different in size, shape or composition from other rocks around them.
    Iceland_Jokulsarlon_GlacialErratic_5...jpg
  • A small hole in the clouds on a stormy fall afternoon allows the sun to light up Vishnu Temple while the rest of the Grand Canyon is in a deep shadow. Vishnu Temple is visible from the south rim of the Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona.
    GrandCanyon_VishnuTemple.jpg
  • The track of an Allosaurus is left pressed into the sandstone near Potash, Utah. Scientists believe the dinosaur had an average length of nearly 30 feet. At the time dinosaurs roamed Utah, the area was marshy. Over time the mud that held their footprints turned to sandstone.
    DinosaurTrackAllosaurus.jpg
  • Clouds, lit by the full moon, streak by Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming. Thinner parts of the clouds caught the moons light; the streaks are the result of a four-minute exposure.
    DevilsTowerStreaks.jpg
  • Pacific Ocean waves crash through an arch and into the Devil's Punchbowl, located on the Oregon coast near Newport. The Devil's Punchbowl, near Depoe Bay, is a natural formation, formed when the roof over two sea caves collapsed. Waves crash in the bowl during stormy weather at high tide.
    DevilsPunchbowl_stormy_3807.jpg
  • Delicate Arch, dusted by winter snow, is framed by a natural arch at sunset in Arches National Park, near Moab, Utah.
    DelicateArchWinter.jpg
  • The late afternoon sun shines through Delicate Arch, a freestanding natural arch in Arches National Park, Utah. The arch, approximately 65 feet (20 meters) tall, was carved by the wind from an Entrada sandstone fin.
    DelicateArchSunburst.jpg
  • Fall colors line the bluff at Tomichi Point, high above the Gunnison River in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Colorado. The gorge is the steepest in North America, dropping 2,772 feet (845 meters) at one point. It's called the Black Canyon because it's so steep in places that light doesn't reach the bottom.
    CO_Gunnison_TomichiPoint_1941.jpg
  • The fast-moving Gunnison River carves a deep gorge in the rock at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park in Colorado. Near this point, the Gunnison River drops 240 feet per mile (45 m/km), causing it to gain speed and strength to erode tougher rock. The Gunnison River drops more within the national park than the Mississippi River does between Minnesota and the Gulf of Mexico.
    CO_Gunnison_Exclamation_2054.jpg
  • Several monoliths that make up the Cathedral Valley of Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, are visible from the summit of one of the peaks that lines the valley. The monoliths are carved from Entrada sandstone. Some peaks are capped with gray marine sandstone, known as the Curtis Formation.
    CathedralValley_CapitolReef.jpg
  • A large rock is balanced on a sandstone pillar in the Hartnet Draw of Capitol Reef National Park, Utah. Balanced rocks form when a layer of more durable rock sits atop a layer that is less resistant to erosion.
    CapitolReefBalancedRock.jpg
  • The steep canyon walls of Wall Street frame a tall hoodoo in Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah.
    BryceWallStreetFramed.jpg
  • Hundreds of hoodoos that make up the Bryce Canyon amphitheater are lit at sunrise. Bryce Canyon is national park in Utah. The hoodoos, or spires, are remanants of large sandstone fins that have been subjected to centuries of erosion.
    BryceCanyonAmphitheaterTight.jpg
  • Glaciers scoured the granite surface and deposited giant boulders at Olmstead Point near Tioga Pass in Yosemite National Park.
    Yosemite_OlmsteadPoint_0758.jpg
  • Red clouds lit by the sunrise seem to swarm from the fossilized sand dunes known as the Beehives in the Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada. The dunes were formed by a proccess known as aeolian erosion.
    vof-beehives.jpg
  • A small sandstone window frames a view of a narrow slot canyon in the Coyote Wash area of Grand Staircase National Monument in Utah. Flash floods carved narrow canyons in the sandstone.
    Grand-Staircase-Escalante_Coyote-Gul...jpg
  • A band of cirrus clouds turns pink at sunset over the Calico Hills in the Red Rock Canyon Conservation Area in Nevada. The Calico Hills are made up of Aztec Sandstone, fossilized sand dunes that were laid down during the early Jurrasic Period 180-190 million years ago.
    NV_Red-Rock-Canyon_Calico-Hills_Suns...jpg
  • Two hardened tubes are visible in the Ape Cave, a lava tube located near Mount St. Helens in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in Washington state. The ape cave formed about 2,000 years ago during the only known period when fluid basaltic lava erupted from the volcano. The outside edges of the lava flow cooled first, providing a crust that allowed fluid lava to continue flowing inside. This period of activity may have lasted a year during which the lava level rose and fell, leading to the unique shapes inside the cave. The Ape Cave lava tube is 13,042 feet (3976 meters) long, ranking as the third-longest in North America. The cave is named for a local hiking club, the St. Helens Apes.
    WA_Ape-Cave_Two-Tubes_1065.jpg
  • The Colorado River makes a dramatic, almost circular bend at Horseshoe Bend, south of Page, Arizona, in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. The towering red cliffs are about 1,000 feet (305 meters) above the river.
    AZ_Horsehoe-Bend_Stormy-Sunrise_0613.jpg
  • Dozens of iron concretions are trapped in a sandstone pothole in the Grand Staircase Escalante in southern Utah. These iron concretions formed naturally between 6 and 25 million years ago as water dissolved the iron pigment in the red sandstone in the area. The pigment flowed down through the now bleached sandstone and then solidified when it came in contact with oxygenated water, forming a new iron mineral called hematite between the grains of sandstone. Over time, the sandstone eroded away, leaving the more durable iron concretions behind. These largely spherical balls are composed of a hard outer layer of hematite covering a ball of pink sandstone. By volume, the sandstone makes up the majority of these iron concretions, though those found elsewhere in the Colorado Plateau may contain much more hematite. Scientists aren't sure why they form in spheres or if they need something in particular as a nucleus to start growing.
    IronConcretions_Pothole_HarrisWashUt...jpg
  • The erosion patterns of the hills in the Sante Fe National Forest are visible in this aerial view captured from near El Valle, New Mexico.
    NM_Sante-Fe-Forest_Aerial_2409-BW.jpg
  • A bent pine tree grows near the top of a sandstone column in Zion National Park, Utah.
    Zion_Bent-Tree_8334.jpg
  • A bright halo circles the sun as it shines through the clouds over the Little Missouri River and Wind Canyon in Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota.
    ND_RooseveltNP_Little-Missouri-River...jpg
  • The peaks of Round Mountain and Mount Higgins, located near Darrington, Washington, are turned to silhouette at sunset in this view from the summit of North Mountain. The Olympic Mountains are visible in the background.
    Darrington_RoundMountain_Silhouette_...jpg
  • A towering columnar basalt cliff is partially reflected in the waters of Breiðasund in the town of Stykkishólmur, Iceland. Columnar basalt is a volcanic rock formed when basalt lava rapidly cools at or very near the Earth's surface. Basalt, which is naturally grey or black, is rich in iron and can rapidly rust, taking on a reddish-brown appearance.
    Iceland_ColumnarBasalt_Stykkisholmur...jpg
  • The Icelandic mountain Thrihnukagigur last erupted more than 4,000 years ago. Shown here is the inside of the volcano's magma chamber, the space inside the mountain which housed molten rock from deep inside the earth. Thrihnukagigur means Three Peaks Crater.
    Iceland_MagmaChamber_Thrihnukagigur_...jpg
  • Sycamore Creek, a tributary of the Verde River, flows through Sycamore Canyon near Williams, Arizona. Sycamore Canyon, which is 21 miles (34 kilometers) long, is the second largest canyon in Arizona's redrock country, behind only Oak Creek Canyon. This scene was captured from Sycamore Point.
    AZ_SycamoreCanyon_8793.jpg
  • The full moon shines over the Conata Basin, located in Badlands National Park, South Dakota. Badlands National Park protects nearly 250,000 acres of sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles, and spires, as well as the largest protected mixed grass prairie in the United States.
    Badlands_ConataBasin_FullMoon_1673.jpg
  • A large granite arch frames a pinyon pine as well as several prominent City of Rocks features, including Elephant Rock (at left) and the Bread Loaves (at right). This arch is part of Window Rock in the City of Rocks National Reserve in southern Idaho.
    Idaho_CityOfRocks_Arch_Sunrise_0993.jpg
  • A bent pine tree grows near the top of a sandstone column in Zion National Park, Utah.
    Zion_BentTree_1678.jpg
  • Dozens of iron concretions are trapped in a small crack in the Grand staircase Escalante in southern Utah. These iron concretions formed naturally between 6 and 25 million years ago as water dissolved the iron pigment in the red sandstone in the area. The pigment flowed down through the now bleached sandstone and then solidified when it came in contact with oxygenated water, forming a new iron mineral called hematite between the grains of sandstone. Over time, the sandstone eroded away, leaving the more durable iron concretions behind. These largely spherical balls are composed of a hard outer layer of hematite covering a ball of pink sandstone. By volume, the sandstone makes up the majority of these iron concretions, though those found elsewhere in the Colorado Plateau may contain much more hematite. Scientists aren't sure why they form in spheres or if they need something in particular as a nucleus to start growing.
    IronConcretions_HarrisWashUtah_4194.jpg
  • Smooth patches of a granite face, known as glacial polish, shine in the late afternoon sun near Olmsted Point in Yosemite National Park, California. Rocks and other materials get trapped on the bottom of glaciers. As glaciers move down the face of a rock, these materials become part of a very abrasive surface. Combined with the force from the glacier's tremendous weight, they are able to scour away sections of the rock face they travel over, leaving behind a smooth, shiny, polished finish.
    Yosemite_GlacialPolish_9156.jpg
  • Smooth patches of a granite face, known as glacial polish, shine in the late afternoon sun near Olmsted Point in Yosemite National Park, California. Rocks and other materials get trapped on the bottom of glaciers. As glaciers move down the face of a rock, these materials become part of a very abrasive surface. Combined with the force from the glacier's tremendous weight, they are able to scour away sections of the rock face they travel over, leaving behind a smooth, shiny, polished finish.
    Yosemite_GlacialPolish_9137.jpg
  • The crescent moon hovers over Battleship Rock, a 7018 foot (2139 meter) mountain in Sandoval County, New Mexico. Like other peaks in the Jemez Mountains, it was caused by a slip along a fault line.
    NM_BattleshipRock_1609.jpg
  • A rainbow forms over the rugged landscape of the Valley of Fire in Nevada. The Valley of Fire, Nevada's oldest state park, derives its name from the fire-colored red sandstone formations.
    VOF_ValleyOfFire_Rainbow_0869.jpg
  • Stawamus Chief, a 702 meter (2,303 foot) granite dome, towers over the nearby town of Squamish, British Columbia, Canada. Geologists believe Stawamus Chief is a remnant of a magma chamber that was once well below the Earth's surface. Slow moving molten magma cooled and turned into granite deep below the surface and was gradually exposed by erosion over tens of millions of years.
    BC_StawamusChief_5485.jpg
  • The Tuweep Overlook, also spelled Toroweap, provides one of the most dramatic views of the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Here, the canyon is 3,000 feet deep and one mile wide. It's one of the few places on the canyon rim where you can see both the Colorado River and all the way across the canyon.
    GrandCanyon_TuweepSunrise_4815_v.jpg
  • A ranger talks to visitors at the Johnston Ridge Observatory about the dome-building activity in the crater of Mount St. Helens, Washington.
    StHelens_Johnston_Ranger_4103.jpg
  • Several "mushroom pedestal" rock formations dot the landscape in Theodore Roosevelt National Park in the Badlands of North Dakota. The formations are carved by rain and wind.
    roosevelt-columns-1873.jpg
  • A small sandstone window frames a view of a narrow slot canyon in the Coyote Wash area of Grand Staircase National Monument in Utah. Flash floods carved narrow canyons in the sandstone.
    Grand-Staircase-Escalante_Coyote-Gul...jpg
  • Owachomo Bridge is the smallest, thinnest, and likely oldest natural bridge in Natural Bridges National Monument, Utah. Its span measures 180 feet (55 meters) and its only 9 feet (3 meters) thick at its thinnest point.
    OwachomoSunsetUT.jpg
  • The Little Blitzen Gorge is one of four massive gorges located on the west face of Steens Mountain in southeastern Oregon. Steens Mountain is a roughly 30-mile (48-kilometer) long block mountain that rises a mile above the Alvord Desert. Massive internal pressure forced the ridge upward; glaciers carved dramatic gorges on the western face. Steens Mountain is the largest block-fault mountain in the Great Basin of Oregon and Nevada.
    OR_SteensMountain_LittleBlitzenGorge...jpg
  • The rising sun begins to illuminate the east face of Steens Mountain in southeast Oregon. Steens Mountain is a roughly 30-mile (48-kilometer) long block mountain that rises a mile above the Alvord Desert. Massive internal pressure forced the ridge upward; glaciers carved dramatic gorges on the western face. Steens Mountain is the largest block-fault mountain in the Great Basin of Oregon and Nevada.
    OR_SteensMountain_EastFace_Sunrise_3...jpg
  • This panorama shows the colorful layers that give the Painted Hills in the John Day National Monument in Oregon their name. The layers represent different ash and pumice deposits from the Cascades and area volcanoes. The deposits were laid down approximately 33 million years ago. The red comes from rusty iron minerals; golden layers are rich with oxidized magnesium and iron, metamorphic claystone; the black comes from manganese.
    OR_PaintedHills_Panorama_3098.jpg
  • The John Day River flows past the tall columnar basalt walls that make up Picture Gorge in John Day National Monument, Oregon. The white stains on the columns illustrate how high the water level has been.
    OR_JohnDay_PictureGorge_ColumnarBasa...jpg
  • An ocean storm and one of the highest tides of the year causes water to spray high out of Devils Churn, a very narrow inlet located south of Yachats, Oregon. Pacific Ocean waves eroded the very narrow channel in the basalt. During storms and the highest tides, water erupts out of the end of the inlet.
    OR_DevilsChurn_Wide_5955.jpg
  • Pacific Ocean waves crash into Devils Churn, a narrow inlet located on the Oregon coast south of Yachats. Devils Churn is located in the Siuslaw National Forest and is the result of thousands of years of erosion on the basalt shoreline.
    OR_DevilsChurn_6089.jpg
  • The Pacific Ocean reaches several hundred feet inland at Cooks Chasm, a narrow inlet near Yachats, Oregon.
    OR_CooksChasm_6570.jpg
  • The rising sun shines between two of the Moeraki Boulders, located at Koekohe Beach along Otago coast of New Zealand. Dozens of large, almost perfectly spherical boulders line the beach. About two-thirds of the rocks range in size from 1.5 to 2.2 metres (4.6 to 6.7 ft).
    NZ_MoerakiBoulders_8753.jpg
  • The Lundadrangur Rock Arch towers high above the Atlantic Ocean at Dyrhólaey, Iceland. The Dyrhólaey Cliffs, which stand 120 meters (394 feet), were formed during an underwater volcanic eruption during the last ice age.
    Iceland_DyroholaeyArch_1820.jpg
  • The Tuweep Overlook, also spelled Toroweap, provides one of the most dramatic views of the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Here, the canyon is 3,000 feet deep and one mile wide. It's one of the few places on the canyon rim where you can see both the Colorado River and all the way across the canyon.
    GrandCanyon_TuweepSunrise_4807.jpg
  • Two small creeks actually combine near the Continental Divide above Logan Pass in Glacier National Park, Montana.
    GlacierNPTwoCreeks.jpg
  • During one of the highest tides of the year, Pacific Ocean waves enter the Devil's Punchbowl, a collapsed sea cave located on the Oregon coast near Depoe Bay.
    DevilsPunchbowl_8305.jpg
  • Flash floods eroded a wavy pattern into the narrow walls of this slot canyon in the Coyote Gulch of the Grand Staircase Escalante, Utah.
    CoyoteGulchWavyWalls.jpg
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