When the huge slab of rock that is Kata Tjuta was being folded, vertical joints or fractures cracked through the rock. Water seeped down the cracks and over millions of years the rock eroded away to form valleys and gorges that split the rock slab into blocks. Weathering and erosion wore away the rock blocks above the cracks to produce the rounded domes we see today. Kata Tjuta, the Anangu name for the collection of domes, means "many heads".