Reflection at the Wave

The story of the Wave, in Arizona’s Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness, began in the Jurassic era, 190 million years ago, when dinosaurs still stalked the earth and much of the American Southwest was covered by the largest sea of sand in geologic history. Towering sand dunes marched across the landscape, driven by winds that alternated periodically in direction. Over millions of years, those dunes solidified into layered Navaho sandstone. Some layers were produced when the wind steepened the lee slope of sand dunes beyond the angle of repose, causing sand to cascade down the face of the dune. Other layers were produced when the wind created ripples across nearly horizontal sandy surfaces. These layers eroded at different rates, driven by differences in the hardness of the layers. The layers also exhibit different colors—red, orange, pink, purple, yellow, and brown—as iron-rich fluids and ground water interacted with the porous sandstone. Erosion by periodic flash floods along a large joint in the Navaho sandstone gave the Wave its initial shape. Later, howling winds carrying abrasive sand particles further sculpted the layers into the astonishing forms we see today.

Although geologists believe that flash floods are no longer the primary architect of the Wave, recent rains can still create an ephemeral reflecting pool nestled in the Wave’s curvaceous depths. I was fortunate during my morning at the Wave that the wind was calm, and I was able to capture a classic image of the Wave reflected in still water.