Small buttes of red and orange cap the relatively rolling landscape underlain by Cretaceous-age marine sedimentary rocks of the Pierre Shale and Fox Hills Formation. The Cretaceous sedimentary beds tend to be covered with thick grasses and shrub forest along ravines. The soil formed from the shaley, marine sediments contain more essential mineral nutrients for plants and hold more soil moisture than the overlying continental sediments of the White River Group exposed in the badlands.

The URL is: https://gotbooks.miracosta.edu/gonp/badlands/html2/badl0134.htm Last modified: 11/29/2010