Astounding Geological Rock Formations

Third Part in a series on astounding geological rock formations from around the world. The geologic world we see today—from rock canyons to moqui marbles—is billions of years in the making. For time incomprehensible, magma flowed and rocks took form. Minerals aggregated. Floods cut earth to shape basins and canyons, now carved artwork of dirt and crumbling stone. Surprisingly the scenes of the rock formations look like they belong to some other planet ...

Bisti Badlands, New Mexico

A remote no-man's land administered by the Bureau of Land Management, the Bisti Badlands in central New Mexico cover about 4,000 acres of high desert. In this expanse there are hoodoos, swirled clay hills, layered stone, coal, silt, mud, shale, and other "phantasmagoric formations of earth and stone," as one guidebook puts it. Looks like Mars to me...

Nambung National Park, Australia

Nambung's famous pinnacles are eerie limestone formations built over eons from shells and other accumulated sediment of an ancient sea. Once buried in deep sand, the pinnacles now stand exposed after wind has blown the desert away grain by grain to reveal the nature sculpture art.

Atacama Desert, Chile

Among the driest places on the planet, the Atacama Desert is a plateau on South America's Pacific coast stocked with endless weird formations in salt flats, basins, planes of sand and lava flows.

Giant's Causeway, Northern Ireland

Tens of thousands of interlocking basalt columns form ocean-side displays unique enough to garner World Heritage Site status by the United Nations. The site's hexagonal posts, formed from solidified lava, represent stair steps tumbling into the foamy sea.

Devil's Marbles, Australia

Immense egg-shape boulders called Karlu Karlu sit exposed in desert air at the Devils Marbles Conservation Reserve in the Northern Territory of Australia. A complex geologic origin involves granite spheres formed by magma then later lifting to become exposed as the crust moved and sandstone eroded away.

Etretat, Seine-Maritime, Normandy, France

Etretat's chalk cliffs, famous for their natural arches and gleaming prominence above the Atlantic waves.

Hopewell Rocks, New Brunswick

Tidal erosion in the Bay of Fundy has cut these lopsided rock fins, sometimes called the Flowerpot Rocks. Sedimentary conglomerate and sandstone are no match to the ocean's persistency, which submerges the base of these formations twice a day.

Perce Rock, Canada

Quebec's iconic Perce Rock, included among the "Seven Wonders of Canada" by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, is an island in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence that boasts a gigantic natural rock arch. Visitors can kayak around the limestone formation, which is more than 1,000-feet-long and almost 300-feet-tall, or walk to the rock on a spit of land that emerges in low tide.

Wave Rock, Australia

This outcrop in Western Australia curls like a wave that's about to crash. It is actually a 50-foot-tall formation of granite that eroded underground before becoming exposed to air and weathering smooth. It's one of several similar "wave rocks" near the town of Hyden. Really awesome! Like giant waves frozen in time...

Reference: Forbes Traveler

More Geological Artworks in Arizona and California

There are works of arts that are so stunning, that you literally hold your breath and stare awe-struck in disbelief! There are multi-colored rock formations that are carved by nature, over million of years in bare lands that tumbles out of view like an art gallery designed by no less than the gods that spread across not only in Utah but across Arizona and some in California as well!

Slot Canyon, Arizona

Formed by water and polished smooth from innumerable flash floods, slot canyons cut vertically into stone to create deep natural chambers—some just shoulder-width across but 100-feet-deep. Sunlight trickles in and bounces on sandstone walls, light revealing red and tan rock that can glow like it's illuminated from within.

Garrapata Beach on the Big Sur, California

Coastal headlands crash into the sea at Garrapata Beach, a state park off U.S. Highway 1 near the town of Carmel, California. Waves break on rocks often obscured by fog, with dense redwood groves standing above like sentinels on the watch giving it an eerie atmosphere.

Monument Valley, Arizona

Improbable stacks of stone define the buttes of Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, a Navajo Nation preserve administered like a National Park. Meandering rivers long ago exposed the park's tall stone, washing sand and sediment away to unveil formations that resemble palaces on Mars.

Mono Lake, California

Calcium carbonate deposits called tufas sprout in and around Mono Lake, an alkaline body of water that's thought to be one of the oldest lakes in North America. Fault lines at the base of the nearby Sierra Nevada mountain range keep the Mono Lake area geologically and geothermically active to this day.

Devils Tower, Wyoming

Devils Tower is a 1,000-foot-high monolith of columnar basalt. The flat-top formation is cylindrical and fluted, with basalt columns and thousands of cracks marking up a 360-degree vertical face.

Reference: Forbes Traveler

Stunning Geologic Artworks In Utah

There are works of arts that are so stunning, that you literally hold your breath and stare awe-struck in disbelief! In Utah there are multi-colored rock formations that are carved by nature, over million of years in bare lands that tumbles out of view like an art gallery designed by no less than the gods!

Glen Canyon, Utah

Cliffs carved over millions of years by the rushing Colorado River define Glen Canyon, now part of the reservoir of Lake Powell. Sandstone cliffs tower over placid water, where boating, fishing, kayaking, scuba diving and swimming are touted activities by the National Park Service, which administers Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.

Bryce Canyon, Utah

In Southwestern Utah this immense high-altitude amphitheater of eroding stone has water- and wind-sculpted hoodoos and undulating red, orange and white rock pinnacles poking into the sky. Some spires are 200 feet high and at an altitude near 9,000 feet.

Arches National Park, Utah

More than 2,000 natural arches dot Arches National Park in east-central Utah. Fins of sandstone eroded for eons by water and wind eventually formed into these great hoops of stone, including Delicate Arch (pictured), a 50-foot formation that is a symbol for the state of Utah.

Grand Staircase Escalante, Utah

In this park's 1.9 million acres, hikers and rock hounds can find slot canyons, river valleys, hundred-story cliffs and natural sandstone arches. Iron oxide concretions called Moqui marbles which are pea- to softball-size natural rock spheres—sit in the sun by the tens of thousands deep in the monument's back country.

Zion Park, Utah

Skyscraping rock walls, sandstone domes and narrow canyons make Zion National Park one of the country's most dramatic natural preserves. Deep red Navajo Sandstone and a stone-sawing section of the North Fork of the Virgin River define the park, which attracts hikers, climbers.

Reference: Forbes Traveler