Aerial view Totem Pole at end of Yei-Bi-Chei pinnacles, north to Gypsum Creek and sand dunes, Monument valley, Arizona, USA

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number of mesas and buttes, the largest rising 300 metres (1000 feet) above the valley floor, which is itself 5000-6000 feet above sea level. The Monument valley buttes are stratified, as seen here. The reddish brown mudstones and siltstones of the Permian Organ Rock Shale is exposed at the base of the mesas and buttes. Forming massive cliffs above is the Permian DeChelly Sandstone, a fine-grained, quartz-rich sandstone that has a reddish colour due to haematite iron salts coating the sand grains. The Yei-Bi-Chei pinnacles are named for their resemblance to the real dancers who appear on the ninth and last night of the Navajo winter religious ceremony called the Night Way. An aerial view looking north towards sand dunes on the valley floor.

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Size: 4592px × 3056px
Location: Totem Pole, Monument Valley, Arizona, USA
Photo credit: © robert harrison / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: aerial, arid, arizona, brown, colorado, creek, desert, dunes, eroded, erosion, erosional, geography, geology, geomorphology, gypsum, landforms, landscape, monument, navajo, outcrop, park, pinnacles, plateau, pole, ridge, rock, rocks, sand, sandstone, states, totem, tribal, united, usa, valley, view, weathered, weathering, yei-bi-chei