The word erosion, from the Latin erodere (meaning to eat away), carries negative connotations, particularly in the western United States where overgrazing has created severe cases with frightening consequences.  But erosion is also nature's way of shaping and forming the earth, eating away at the strata.  You can witness the effects of water and wind almost everywhere.  One of the best known examples is the Grand Canyon.  In New Mexico, the Rio Grande Gorge (below) is another.

Rio Grande Gorge-1 El Malpais National Monument near Grants, New Mexico, is under constant construction, courtesy of wind.  Details of hoodoos there make other-worldly backdrops suitable for science fiction/fantasy book cover art and movie posters.

El Malpais fantasyscape Overgrazing, combined with wind and water, tends to carve the land, creating arroyos that frequently are vertical rather than horizontal, such as in the O'Keefe country landscape near Abiquiu.

O'Keefe Country geology Erosion works on human construction as well.  There is a reason adobe bricks need to be stuccoed or plastered.  Water develops adobe character in a real hurry, leaving hoodoos in its wake.

Adobe hoodoos 2

Perhaps the human character is also shaped by erosion.  Topic for another time...

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image@