If you drive the road south from Carlsbad Caverns, stop, take a few minutes and look closely along the weathering face of the State-Line Outcrop. If you are patient you will find places where dark layers of limestone and the light layers of gypsum have been folded into remarkably intricate patterns.

Harmonic microfolding in the Castile Formation

The patterns reminded us of weavings and pottery fashioned by native artists in New Mexico. Certainly, they had been seen along the sides of deeply cut arroyos by many long before us. Here was Nature's art, ready to be expanded and fabricated by the human imagination.

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