Badlands National Park

Steven Dutch, Professor Emeritus, Natural and Applied Sciences, University of Wisconsin - Green Bay

Major areas of badland topography are in brown.

Badlands Stratigraphy

	The Sharps formation makes up the highest pinnacles, underlain by the thin ledge-forming Rockyford Ash. The Brule Formation, often banded pink and white, makes up most of the Badlands cliffs.
	From top to bottom: gray Chadron Formation, red Interior Paleosol, yellow Yellow Mounds Paleosol, and yellow-gray Fox hillsFormation.











	From top to bottom: gray Chadron Formation, red Interior Paleosol, yellow Yellow Mounds Paleosol, and yellow-gray Fox hillsFormation.

	Pierre Shale west of the Badlands, showing a small slump.
	Valley of Sage Creek. Gray Pierre Shale underlies the valley bottom while buff Fox hillsFormation occurs in the foreground. The Badlands here are a couple of kilometers southeast of the road and the intervening area is designated wilderness.


	Views from the Sage Creek Rim Road






	Overlooking Yellow Mounds. Most of the Badlands stratigraphy is visible here. Cretaceous Fox hillsFormation underlies the yellow and red paleosols, Chadron Formation forms the low hills above. Brule Formation makes up the cliffs and Rockyford Ash and Sharps Formation occur at the very top.


	That rib sticking out of the slope at right center is actually a sandstone dike, possible evidence of paleoseismicity during the mid-Tertiary.

	Looking north across the White River valley with the Badlands scarp forming a light band on the horizon.

	Looking south from the same location. Below: paleo-badland topography stabilized by grass and trees.

	This hill north of Wounded Knee is capped by Ogalalla Formation, the formation that forms the High Plains aquifer further south.

	This landscape near Wounded Knee suggests the fate of some badlands topography. Given a chance, vegetation takes root and stabilizes the slopes.