Preserved in stone for almost 3 billion years

Below are a series of images of fossilized ripples from close to where I live and where I love to hike.

These ripples are common in quartzites of the Magalieberg mountain ranges.

The quatrzites are sand stones were baked solid by the volcanic intrusions of the bushveld Igneous complex.

The sand stones and other layers were deposited over the course of 300 million years in alternating shallow and deep water. At this time the earths atmosphere had very little oxygen and so they are yellow to white in color. The reddish stains, on some of them, are external only and more recent, from when the climate was tropical to sub-tropical.

The rock forms bedding planes along these ripple layers as these usually represent the termination or a change in deposition. The solidified rocks then more easily split apart along these bedding planes to reveal the ripples

These ripples are beautifully preserved and very similar to what we would find in an area with shallow moving water

These are negative casts on the underside of a rock shelf where the lower rock with the ripples has broken away.

More common less well preserved ripples

Ripples in two directions, showing changes in directions of currents while the sand was being deposited.

If you care to read more about the Magaliesberg mountain range Wikipedia has some nice stuff
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magaliesberg