Super El Niño Triggers Collapse of Alien Throne, Iconic New Mexico Geological Site

Extreme weather driven by a super El Niño has toppled Alien Throne, one of the most iconic rock formations in New Mexico, United States. The discovery came on 30 October when Kialo Winters, a tour guide with Navajo Tours USA, was leading a group along the Valley of Dreams trail near the Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah Wilderness. On reaching the site, he found that the rock tower that had been the area's main attraction lay in pieces.

“We turned the corner, and my heart just dropped,” he said, as quoted by The Guardian. Alien Throne, long the centerpiece of local tourism promotions, had shattered into fragments. Winters strongly suspects that heavy rain and flooding that hit northwestern New Mexico a week earlier were the cause. At the time, hundreds of people had to be evacuated and rescued from the roofs of their homes in Farmington, the nearest town.

The damage was not limited to Alien Throne. Another formation nicknamed King of Wings—which Winters calls “the unicorn of hoodoos”—was also reported damaged. User posts on the hiking site AllTrails indicated that the formation had broken before 9 October, before the heavy rains hit. “It's a big loss for us,” Winters said. But he added, “The land is alive, and we understand that it changes. The erosion that formed it is also what brought it down, as our elders say.”

The rock towers, or hoodoos, in the Four Corners region—covering Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico—are indeed shaped by erosion over thousands of years. However, the extraordinary storm intensity during this year's super El Niño season has accelerated that natural process. There have been no official reports of similar damage in other national parks such as Chiricahua, Goblin Valley, Gold Butte, and Cathedral Gorge, although rangers say they have not yet carried out a comprehensive survey.

“They are traditional markers in our tribal history that have guided our ancestors across this land for generations,” Winters said.

For the Navajo people, the rock formations are not merely tourist attractions but part of their cultural narrative and sacred wayfinding markers. Winters therefore urged visitors to let the damaged site “rest” and not to climb the remnants of the formation or take rocks as souvenirs. “It's illegal and disrespectful to the community as a whole,” he stressed.

This event is not an isolated case. Last October, Hawaii's centuries-old Hōlei sea arch also collapsed into the Pacific Ocean. The pattern shows that climate change threatens not only human infrastructure but also invaluable geological and cultural heritage. Scientists warn that a super El Niño can trigger more frequent extreme weather, accelerating the weathering of natural rock formations.

Nevertheless, local authorities have not issued an official statement on the exact cause of the collapse. The Navajo Nation and the Bureau of Land Management are scheduled to conduct field inspections to determine whether natural factors or human intervention were involved. Meanwhile, the impact on the tourism sector is expected to be significant, as Alien Throne is one of the main icons that draws thousands of visitors each year.

For Indonesia, this phenomenon is a reminder that geological sites and cultural heritage at home—such as the karst formations in Gunung Sewu or the nature reserves in Nusa Tenggara—are also vulnerable to increasingly intense extreme weather. Mitigation measures and early monitoring are needed to protect natural assets that hold not only economic but also spiritual value for local communities.

Looking ahead, the big question is how many more natural wonders will be lost before the world seriously tackles the climate crisis. The story of Alien Throne may be just the beginning of a long list of damage that cannot be undone.