The expression ‘fault-fin landscape’ is proposed for topography marked by sets of blade-like fins and walls of rock, controlled by deformation band shear zones, which project metres above upland surfaces of porous sandstone. Dramatic examples occur along monoclines of Navajo Sandstone in the Colorado Plateau region of southern Utah, USA. The fins express differential rates of erosion of porous (20–25%) host sandstone relative to deformation band shear zones (<1% to 5% porosity), which are made highly resistant by collapse of porosity, cataclasis of quartz grains, and silica precipitation.