We debated how we wanted to approach this photo challenge for a while as there are so many different directions you could go with it. While browsing through our photos, we decided we would showcase some layered rocks and such that we happened upon while road tripping through western America.

In geology, a stratum is sedimentary rock or soil that has consistent internal characteristics that distinguish it from other layers. Each layer is typically one of many parallel layers that sit on top of each other and were made by natural forces. Strata are usually seen as bands of different colors in exposed rocks, banks, and cliffs. 

Painted dessert

Painted desert in Arizona

Layered rock in Alaska

Resurrection Bay in Alaska

Layered mountain

“Cake” Mountain – Arizona

This last one isn’t an actual rock, but a petrified tree from the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. The trees in this park are fossilized remains from the Mesozoic Era over 225 million years ago. The colorful layers inside this petrified tree are from iron oxide deposits.

Petrified tree

Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona