Exfoliating sandstone pattern, Ding Canyon, San Rafael Swell, Utah, USA.

A brown sandstone rock pattern exfoliates in Ding Canyon on BLM land in the San Rafael Swell, near Goblin Valley State Park, Utah, USA. As part of the Colorado Plateau, the San Rafael Swell is a giant dome-shaped anticline of sandstone, shale, and limestone (160-175 million years old) that was pushed up during the Paleocene Laramide Orogeny 60-40 million years ago. Since then, infrequent but powerful flash floods have eroded the sedimentary rocks into valleys, canyons, gorges, mesas, and buttes. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior that administers American public lands.

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Filename: 1503SW3-143_Ding-Canyon.jpg
Copyright: © Carol Dempsey / PhotoSeek.com
Image Size: 5472x3648 / 8.1MB; http://www.photoseek.com/; abstract desert pattern
Contained in galleries: Utah: Goblin Valley State Park, San Rafael Reef, 2015 Mar 3-Apr 8: all: Utah, Colorado hikes

A brown sandstone rock pattern exfoliates in Ding Canyon on BLM land in the San Rafael Swell, near Goblin Valley State Park, Utah, USA. As part of the Colorado Plateau, the San Rafael Swell is a giant dome-shaped anticline of sandstone, shale, and limestone (160-175 million years old) that was pushed up during the Paleocene Laramide Orogeny 60-40 million years ago. Since then, infrequent but powerful flash floods have eroded the sedimentary rocks into valleys, canyons, gorges, mesas, and buttes. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior that administers American public lands.