精致拱门，拱门国家公园，犹他州 Delicate Arch, Arches National Park, Utah (© Mark Brodkin Photography/Getty Images)

精致拱门，拱门国家公园，犹他州 Delicate Arch, Arches National Park, Utah (© Mark Brodkin Photography/Getty Images)

藏在精致拱门里的百年时光 Centuries of time in a Delicate Arch

拱门国家公园，美国犹他州

精致拱门是美国最受欢迎的地质景点之一。在犹他州拱门国家公园的2000个石拱门中，精致拱门是最有名的那一座，也是这里最大的岩石拱门。犹他州的车牌和邮票也有印有精致拱门。只需徒步三英里，就能到达这座拱门，这也是公园里最棒的徒步旅行路线之一。每年都有近140万人前往拱门国家公园，只为一睹精致拱门的全貌。

Arches National Park, Utah

This stunning structure is Delicate Arch, the most famous of 2,000 stone arches scattered around Arches National Park in Utah. It is made up of Entrada Sandstone, the grains of which once formed a massive desert. They were cemented together by minerals, forming sandstone riddled with tiny holes. Over millennia, the rain seeped in and slowly dissolved the rock from the inside, forming these eye-catching sculptures. Most of the arches in the national park are formed from Entrada Sandstone and were once buried by other rock layers. They won't last forever, but over time, new shapes will emerge from the layers of rock below to replace them. Every year, close to 1.4 million people visit the park to see Delicate Arch and this slowly shifting landscape for themselves.