Arizona’s White Pocket Looks Like a Swirled Stone Wonderland

If you’re interested in seeing some of the most peculiar rock formations that Arizona has to offer, most people will seek out a permit for The Wave. But a few miles from this site, and deep into the desert, is another geologic wonder called White Pocket.

The formations here look more like twisted brain tissue or a marbled cake. The red, orange, and white rocks continue to fold over one another in what seems like an alien world, with a geology completely different from that of the other canyons in the area.

Jurassic Sandslide

To understand how White Pocket was formed, time-travel back to the Jurassic period, around 190 million years ago. At the time, this area was a desert, with extensive sand dunes covering it.

Normally, the sand dunes form layers of sandstone. This is what happened to form the canyons across the Southwest. At White Pocket, however, something went wrong before the sandstone formed.

The phenomenon geologists call soft-sediment deformation describes how the sand beneath White Pocket was still wet. An enormous event, most likely an earthquake, moved the sand dunes. The wet sand collapsed onto itself. The sand’s red and white layers folded onto one another like batter in a mixing bowl.

Once the sand settled into this new configuration, the earth covered the sand dune over millions of years, eventually forming solid sandstone.

Left Behind In The Desert

The ground eventually shifted once more, exposing White Pocket to the desert air.

Today, the site is located in the middle of the Paria Plateau. The sandstone is made of two different minerals; the white sandstone weathered differently from the red sandstone below it. The white sandstone cracked into geometric shapes while the red sandstone remained smoother to the touch.

It is not easy to get to White Pocket Oasis. The roads are miles deep into the sand. Four Wheel Drive vehicles are necessary to reach the park. However, due to its isolation, it is one of the best spots to view an ancient geological disaster that occurred millions of years ago.