Antelope Canyon, Navajo Nation, Arizona

A fist of stone thrusts out of the water-sculpted wall of Antelope Canyon on the Navajo Nation of northern Arizona. Over the ages, flowing water has carved many deep, narrow slots canyons into the soft Navajo Sandstone which overlies this region in northern Arizona. Navajo Sandstone was formed when a vast sea of shifting sand dunes, reminiscent of todays Sahara Desert, blanketed this region approximately 190 million years ago. As these sands were buried beneath subsequent layers of sediment, the individual grains in the dunes were fused into solid rock as mineral-rich waters percolated down through them. With our limited grasp of deep time, it is difficult for us to comprehend even the brief amount of geologic time required to cut this canyon no less the 190 million years which have elapsed since these sands were first deposited. This photograph was made on the Navajo Nation.