While hiking through Morocco's Dadès Valley, Dr. Rowan Martindale spotted something so unusual that it immediately caught her attention.
Martindale, a paleoecologist and geobiologist at The University of Texas at Austin, was exploring the rugged landscape with fellow researchers, including Stéphane Bodin of Aarhus University. Their goal was to investigate ancient reef ecosystems that once existed beneath an ocean covering the region millions of years ago.
To reach those ancient reefs, the team had to cross extensive layers of rock known as turbidites. These deposits form when underwater avalanches of mud, sand, and debris rush down the seafloor and eventually settle into thick sediment layers. Ripple marks are common in such deposits, but Martindale noticed something unusual sitting on top of the ripples.
"As we're walking up these turbidites, I'm looking around and this beautifully rippled bedding plane caught my eye," says Martindale. "I said, 'Stéphane, you need to get back here. These are wrinkle structures!'"
What Are Wrinkle Structures?
