Badlands

**The Badlands** Bennett and Matthew

 Introduction media type="googlemap" key="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=50+Rice+Street,+Wellesley+Hills,+MA+02481-6007+(Wellesley+High+School)&daddr=Badlands+National+Park&hl=en&geocode=FRR_hQIdzlzA-yEmus2tJc0inCkDqaRJToHjiTHIp6O7ZnNyGw%3BFWF3mwIdX2Ls-SHwd-baMV5oaQ&mra=ls&sll=42.303055,-71.279404&sspn=0.007364,0.01929&ie=UTF8&ll=42.465635,-86.60054&spn=3.04237,30.70064&output=embed" width="472" height="267" align="right"
 * The** Ba[[image:mapmapmapmapmapmapmapmapII.png width="269" height="158" align="left" caption="Trail Map of Badlands National Park (Source #2)" link="@http://www.nps.gov/badl/planyourvisit/upload/Cedar%20Pass%20Area,%20Badlands-2.pdf"]]dlands is a national park located in south-western South Dakota, between the town of Kadoka and the state of Wyoming. 4  The Badlands have been preserved as a national park because of the astounding grandeur of the rock formations rising from the rolling grass prairie. 1,2,3  The Castle and Medicine Root trails are some of the longest and most traversed, both which which allow the viewer to see a large portion of the awe-inspiring rock formations in the park. 2  Along these paths one would view the pinnacles and spires towering above them as they wander through the grassland below. There are also accumulations of fossils, mostly from the Oligocene epoch in the Tertiary period, from the Cenozoic era. 1,2,3

Geologic Setting **Deposition** **Throughout** the Late Cretaceous Period, and Eocene and Oligocene Epochs, sediment was deposited on the region now known as the Badlands. 2  This sediment has been covered by further deposition of soil and sand particles, which have increased the pressure put on the underlying material, causing it to cement and compact together to form the hard, firm sedimentary rock that exists now. 6 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> All layers, varying in times and agents of deposition, form rocks of different colors and compositions lie in an extensive stratigraphic column. Many of these layers include ash, due to large volcanic eruptions in the nearby Rocky Mountains about 28-30 million years ago, which settled over the Badlands and covered them entirely <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">.2,3 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Another source of deposition was the fact that in this region existed a vast floodplain, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">3 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> which would periodically dump sediment during year floods in the form of natural levees, which are large piles of sediment on either side of a river, being deposited when water slows after escaping the stream, reaching its critical settling velocity. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">6 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Another possible source of deposition for this sediment is that as the river entered this broad, flat, plain, it could have immediately reached critical settling velocity as it spread out and dumped off sediment in a large area called an alluvial fan. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">6 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Much soil has also been deposited by the advance and retreat of glaciers, which has happened more than four times in the last 2 million years. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">3 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> As these massive flows of ice retreat over an area, they release all types of rock and sediment in their end moraines and outwash plains that house the sediment released by the ice, which cannot support it after it melts. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">6 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> At one point the glacier reached its furthest extent in the Badlands, and released enormous amounts of sediment. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">3 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Unfortunately, all of these depositional features have been lost due to years of cementation and compaction as more soil and sediment is being deposited on top of it, and the long period of erosion the Badlands are experiencing. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">2,6 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">**The** Sharps Formation, deposited 28-30mya, in the Oligocene epoch, by wind and water, the Sharps Formation - a mix of sediment and ash from volcanic eruptions to the west - makes up the rugged topography of the region. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">2 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">**Rockyford** Ash, amassed 30 million years ago, during the Oligocene, this thick layer of volcanic ash makes up the bottom of the Sharps Formation and is used as an orient for the geologic time scale and relative dating. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">2 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">


 * The** Brule Formation, a thick layer if burnt orange stone, built up between 30-34mya, in the early Oligocene epoch, when bands of sandstone were deposited by long, twisting, rivers that flowed from the Black Hills down through this plain below. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">2 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: sub;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Yellow ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Mounds, Resulting from when the Balck Hills and Rocky Mountains uplifting, the soil on the ocean floor was exposed to surface and dried in and weathered into a yellow soil. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">2 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">The ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Pierre Shale, deposited between 69 and 75 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period, when sediment sunk down through the stagnant seawater that resided in this part of the United States and formed a black mud on the ocean floor that hardened into shale. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">2 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; font-weight: normal;">
 * The** Chadron Formation, deposited between 34 and 37 million years ago, during the Eocene epoch of the Cenozoic Era, by rivers existing in a local flood plain, this grayish stone was created by the seasonal flooding of the rivers. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">2 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Faults and Folds** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-weight: normal;"> ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> In **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> the Badlands National Park, an example of tectonic activity is the Badlands escarpment, a steep slope that is resulting from the uplifting of rock along a fault. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">3 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> An uplift is a result of igneous rock rising up to the surface through sedimentary rock that lies on top of it.6 Another instance of tectonic activity is in the North Unit of the park where there is a series of folds and faults in the Sage Creek Arch. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">3 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> These faults are breaks in the rock resulting from old earthquakes, where the bedrock fractures at one point, called the focus, and then the entire section begins to slip along a fault, in this case a normal fault, where the footwall rises while the hanging wall slips downwards, a result of tensional stress on the rock. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">6 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">This system of faults and folds is known as SCAFS (Sage Creek Anticline/Fault System), which cuts through most of the badlands, and whose moderate slippage is responsible for much of the escarpments in the park. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">6

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Weathering and Erosion**
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> About **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> 500,000 years ago, when rivers stopped flowing through the Badlands from the Black Hills and were channeled into the Cheyenne River, erosion began to dominate the region. Modern rivers began to [[image:Badlands02.png width="293" height="197" align="left" caption="A large arrangement of castles in the Badlands (Source #3)"]]cut through the Badlands and erode deep channels and canyons that swerved and slunk throughout the landscape. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">2 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> At this time, rivers erode through the once floodplain at a rate of one inch per year by cutting straight down through the sediment and rock to base level, the point at which the river cannot cut any deeper. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">6 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> It can be seen that the rivers in the Badlands have not achieved that depth, as they are still carving out steep-walled canyons in this landscape. Another agent of erosion which affected this area was the continental glacier that spread over this land, dragging rocks along its surface, creating striations, and also plucking up new ones from the bedrock. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">3 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> There have been no glaciers in the Badlands for thousands of years, so their effects cannot be observed with the eye, as can the effects of water on the Badlands. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">3 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Today, on the other hand, there is also a large amount of weathering going on in the Badlands, both of the chemical and mechanical type. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">3 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Evidence of the chemical weathering in the Badlands is the abundance of pinnacles (also known as monuments) that rise high above the surrounding rock. The reason for their existence is differential weathering, which is the event where different rocks are part of the same mass, and the rock less resistant to chemical weathering disappear, while the more resistant rock stays, in a feature such as a pinnacle. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">6 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Another source of weathering in the park, but mechanical, is frost wedging in the area. This is very common in the badlands, as there are only 130 days of the year that frost is not experienced, which often melts later in the day. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">3 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> This constant freezing and melting of water occurring in the rocks causes existing cracks to expand and split the rock. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">6 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> There are three other common erosional features in the Badlands: Castles, walls, and hoodoos. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">2 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Castles are block-shaped features that protrude from the Badlands, usually at the intersection of stream channels, which have eroded the bedrock around it by cutting down to base level, but never eroded away those accumulations of rock. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">6 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Walls are steep-sided slopes, called escarpments, that are either a result of mass movements or tectonic activity.6 Hoodoos are inverted cones of bedrock which rest on softer clay, a result of a faster rate of erosion at the base of the feature, usually a result of running water near the base, while the top remains safe from the river. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">6 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> This fast rate of erosion will cause the Badlands to erode completely away in another 500,000 years, a very short amount of time on the geologic time scale. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">2

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">Climate and Weather ** Climate **
 * Weather** in the Badlands is often unpredictable, and subject to great changes. It has a vast temperature range, from -40 degrees Fahrenheit to 116 degrees Fahrenheit. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">2,3 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Summers are often very hot and dry, with only occasional thunderstorms showering the [[image:http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/4303/rainshadowpng.png width="219" height="219" align="left" caption="Diagram of the mechanics of a rain shadow (By Matthew Dylewsky - click for enlargment)" link="@http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/4303/rainshadowpng.png"]]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">parched soil. Over the course of a year, only about 16-17 inches of precipitation will fall in the Badlands. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">3 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> These weather patterns are largely due to the rain shadow formed by the Rocky Mountains, which tower over the Badlands on the west side. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">3 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">As humid air moves in off of the Pacific, it is forced up the Rockies orthographically. As it rises, it undergoes adiabatic cooling, and, so long as there are condensation nuclei present, precipitates. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">1 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> This causes little moisture to be left in the air as it goes down the mountain, and thus results in little precipitation in the Badlands.

**Effect on Features**
 * The** freezing colds and sweltering hots cause plenty of expansion and contraction in the rock. Along with this, any moisture that seeps into cracks in the rocks can freeze and wedge them apart. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">3 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Chemical weathering, however, is most active in hot and humid areas, so the dry and cold of the Badlands causes it to act slowly. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">1 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> This means that the climate causes mechanical weathering on features, but little chemical weathering.


 * Change in Climate **
 * The** climate is changing, though very little. There is evidence of glacial activity long past, which proves that at one point, the area was covered in ice and snow. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">2,3 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> This occurred during the last ice age. Scientific theories suggest that ice ages happen in cycles, so it is probable that it will, at some point in the future, be covered in ice again. Other than a possible ice age, the climate in this region is mostly static. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">3 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">

**Sunlight**
 * In** the Badlands, at 43°50'N latitude, the hours of sunlight range from 8:55 to 15:28. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">4,5 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> On December 21st, the winter solstice and the shortest day of the year, the day is slightly under nine hours long. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">5 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> As the Earth rotates around the sun and this latitude is facing more towards the sun, that increases, reaching about fifteen and a half hours on June 21st, the summer solstice, and the longest day of the year. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">5 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Throughout the seasons, the solar intensity never reaches that of the tropics, however it certainly does have an effect, as there are large temperature changes. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">2,3

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">Biomes
 * Flora **[[image:http://www.nps.gov/badl/naturescience/images/Rikk-pdogs-mammals_1.jpg width="234" height="153" align="right" caption="Praire dogs burrowing underground for protection (Source #2)"]]
 * The** Badlands national park is a temperate grassland. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">2,3 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> This means that it has a high range of temperatures, little rain, and its dominant vegetation is grass. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">6,7 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> There are several varieties of grass in temperate grasslands such as blue gamma grass, buffalo grass, Johnson grass, and various grains. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">7 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> There are also some types of flowers, though they are not as widespread as the grass. There are asters, goldenrods, vetches, and sweet clovers among them. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">7 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> These plants are well suited for this region because they are small, flimsy, yet well rooted. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">7 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> This allows them to sway in the wind and not be pulled away by it. They also are able to survive with little water, which is important due to the small amount of precipitation yearly. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">7 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">


 * Fauna **
 * Common** in temperate grasslands are certain animals. These include bison, deer, mice, rabbits, badgers, skunks, owls, garter snakes, rattle-snakes, red-tailed hawks and prairie dogs. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">6,7 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> These animals are suited for this region because they can survive off of what is available, namely grass. Hawks, as well as other predators, can survive by eating the small rodents and snakes. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">7 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Another important attribute that helps some of these animals survive is their ability to burrow, so as to protect themselves from predators and the winds. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">6,7

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 140%;">Human Impact <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> **Because** the Badlands are already eroding at such a rapid rate, and do not host a large number of endangered species of plant or animal, it would seem as though there is no way that humans could affect this system in place. In fact, there is really only one main way that humans can have an impact on this magnificent national park. The way that this could be true regards carbon emissions, and how they increase the amount of acid rain. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">6 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> In an area that is barely protected by meager amounts of soil, it is very suspect to mechanical and chemical weathering, of which acid rain is a large contributor. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">6 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> When the amount of carbon dioxide in the air is increased, the raindrops that are falling absorb more carbon dioxide as they hurtle towards the earth creating a more acidic carbonic acid, causing to have an easier time dissolving many rocks, especially those rich in feldspar. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; vertical-align: super;">6 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">**Works Cited** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> 1. "Badlands National Park Information Guide." //Badlands National Park - Welcome to Badlands National Park//. Web. 10 June 2010. <[]>.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">2. "Badlands National Park (U.S. National Park Service)." //U.S. National Park Service - Experience Your America//. Web. 09 June 2010. <[]>.

3. "Geology of Badlands National Park: A Preliminary Report." //Geopubs - USGS Publications of the Western United States//. Web. 10 June 2010. <[]>.

//4. Google Maps//. Web. 10 June 2010. <[]>.

//5. Naval Oceanography Portal//. Web. 10 June 2010. <[]>.

6. Tarbuck, Edward J., Frederick K. Lutgens, and Dennis Tasa. //Prentice Hall Earth Science//. Boston, MA.: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009. Print.

7. "Temperate Grasslands Biome." //The Wild Classroom: Biology Videos and Podcasting via Ecogeeks//. Web. 10 June 2010. <[]>.