Check out the Route 66 pavement specimen. It’s absolutely incredible and unique.

Discovered stuck in a karstic hollow 30 yards downstream, there are four distinct pavement layers visible. Intact. For what I’m studying – the pavement and geology along 66 – a sample like this absolutely records the relative ages of pavement in this area, allowing for extrapolating over a great distance in eastern Arizona.

This is why it’s useful to search downstream from Route 66, scouring over dry washes and arroyos for pavement samples eroded free from the roadbed and pushed away by seasonal flooding.

Because I received a few kind offers to purchase this sample, let me say I’m not selling it. It’ll end up in a chosen museum in the future along with my field notes.

I’m totally geeking out over this pavement parfait. It’s like a Rosetta stone for interpreting pavement history and geology!