Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Yardang!







I found this Yardang while on an all day search for "The Wave" after we left Page, AZ and were making our way down to the Grand Canyon for New Year's Eve 2010.  If you were looking for a little geology lesson then you have stumbled upon the right post for the day.  
I had my mom pull off the side off the side of the road so I could go and get a better look at this interesting natural formation.  From far away this looked really small, but as I got closer I realized how enormous it really was.  
A Yardang is basically a "mushroom-like" formation carved out of rock.  It is formed by wind blowing around it for thousands of years causing the weaker and more fragile rock on the lower portion to wear away, leaving the stronger upper portion to erode slower.  When wind removes rock fragments and small sediments it is known in geological terms as Deflation.  If you go out west be on the lookout for some Yardangs!  It doesn't hurt that they have a pretty sweet name to help you remember them either!

1 comment:

  1. i thought that word was an exclamatory phrase you made up! haha God's GLORY

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