Time Sculptures

In the Grand Canyon every rock is a saga, a trace of a bygone era — the vestige of a vanished sea, the delta of a lost river, the dunes of a desert, the decay of a swamp. Solidified by time and interment, each remnant has been parted from its parent strata or is in the process of being so. Weathering and erosion, those final processes that close the curtain for all rock, slice, cleave, and carve elegant forms from the ancient strata. In the concluding moments of their rock-lives (for when they rest upon the surface of the Earth, their being is nearly ended), we may admire and caress them. Sand in swirling river currents, grit in the wind, the power of frost, raindrops, and snowflakes whittle away and perfect the objects until they are no more.

Mountains survive a couple hundred million years, if they're lucky. Continents wander about the planet, glaciers advance and retreat, plant and animal species appear, flourish, and wither. As humans we walk upon the planet a geologic clock tick. But a human hand placed upon a rock is a connection with the deep history of our planet.

Redwall limestone is about 350 million years old. Four billion years after Earth's creation, the sea laid down the sediments that crystallized into this stone. This happened only 100 million years after plants

TIME SCULPTURES

(PRECEDING PANEL, PAGE 22) On the Navajo Indian Reservation, a creek softens the contours of sculpted bedrock, continuing the eons-old artistry of weather and erosion. (PAGE 23) A doorway of stone frames a striated cliff in Paria Canyon.

(ABOVE AND OPPOSITE PAGE) Conglomerate rock caps protect towers of soft rock from weathering.

First ventured out of those ancient oceans to explore the dry land. Animals soon followed the pioneering plants.

A hundred million years after Redwall Time, a catastrophe of unknown cause exterminated up to 90 percent of Earth's species. Geologists title that mysterious chapter of Earth history “The Great Dying.” Shortly thereafter the dinosaurs came into prominence. They reigned 180 million years then they too vanished, also during an environmental upheaval. Mammals thrived in the wake of the reptiles' misfortune. Then about 3 million years ago our turn came: The first human beings walked upon the rock.

I doubt if the rocks have noticed any passing human. But with our frantic scurryings and whirling minds, we may take note of the rock beside the rapid, the sculptured streambed, the balanced rock, and the pebbles along the shore.

Erosion dismantles the strata and fashions statuary, assembles the architecture, and designs the etchings. There are sculptures in natural galleries everywhere, down in canyons, beneath rivers, along escarpments, and across badlands the Grand Canyon, Paria Canyon, Glen Canyon, Bryce and Zion, and ten thousand more nameless exhibitions. Here in this portfolio are just a few.

TIME SCULPTURES

TIME SCULPTURES

TIME SCULPTURES

(LEFT) Mud curls form a colorful mosaic in Paria Canyon's Buckskin Gulch. (ABOVE) Sunlight peeks through an opening in a horizontal-patterned slot canyon in the Glen Canyon area.