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Geological Formations

Antelope Canyon

Erosional and Karst Formations

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Antelope Canyon is a slot canyon on Navajo land near Page, Arizona, cut into the Navajo Sandstone, a formation of ancient wind-deposited dune sand cemented into rock roughly 190 million years ago. The canyon's narrow, flowing passageways, in places barely wide enough for a person to pass through while towering many meters overhead, were carved primarily by flash flooding: fast-moving rainwater rushing through the sandstone over thousands of years eroded the relatively soft rock, smoothing its walls into sinuous curves and shapes that shift with the light. Divided into an upper and a lower section, the canyon's sculpted sandstone, which glows orange and red where sunlight penetrates from above, makes it among the most photographed slot canyons in the American Southwest, and the same flash flooding that formed it remains an active hazard today.

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