Nature’s Pipe Organ

Nature’s Pipe Organ by Kenneth Clarke:  Now hanging on the wall behind our bed, this is an unframed matt finished picture printed by LTLprints.com using permanent eco-solvent digital inks at 1440 dpi on a single seamless cut-out sheet of premium 10mil re-usable self-adhesive fabric paper, mounted on 1/4 inch white foam board. It is 48 inches wide by 24 inches tall. Retail price, $189.00; plus packing and shipping. Purchase information can be obtained by e-mailing me directly at kccandcj@yahoo.com.

Picture Background: This picture of Bryce Canyon was taken on a trip my wife and I made there in October of 2009. Though it was snapped in the late afternoon, because we were riding with someone else, I was unable to stay any longer in hopes of getting better lighting. The Hoodoos in the picture are formed by two weathering processes that continuously work together in eroding the edges of the Paunsaugunt Plateau. The primary weathering force at Bryce Canyon is frost wedging. In addition to frost wedging, acidic rainwater slowly dissolves the limestone grain by grain. It is this process that rounds the edges of hoodoos and gives them their lumpy and bulging profiles. Where internal mudstone and siltstone layers interrupt the limestone, you can expect the rock to be more resistant to the chemical weathering because of the comparative lack of limestone. Many of the more durable hoodoos are capped with a special kind of magnesium-rich limestone called dolomite. Dolomite, being fortified by the mineral magnesium, dissolves at a much slower rate, and consequently protects the weaker limestone underneath it in the same way a construction worker is protected by his/her hardhat.