yardang

Definition

A large wind-eroded mass of soft or poorly consolidated rock in a desert region which lies parallel to the prevailing winds, often with an unusual shape.

Etymology

From yardan, ablative of Turkish yar ("cliff", "precipice").

Example Sentences

• "My Chinese guide and I were standing in the Yardang National Geopark, on the border between Gansu Province and the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in China’s extreme northwest. The nearest town was Dunhuang, 110 miles to the southeast. Enormous yardangs — curving sandstone and mudstone strata carved by winds — towered over us. Others floated on the far horizon."