  We study the changes induced by the effective gauge field due to ripples on
the low energy electronic structure of graphene. We show that zero energy
Landau levels will form, associated to the smooth deformation of the graphene
layer, when the height corrugation, $h$, and the length of the ripple, $l$, are
such that $h^2 / (l a) \gtrsim 1$, where $a$ is the lattice constant. The
existence of localized levels gives rise to a large compressibility at zero
energy, and to the enhancement of instabilities arising from electron-electron
interactions including electronic phase separation. The combined effect of the
ripples and an external magnetic field breaks the valley symmetry of graphene
leading to the possibility of valley selection.
