Collections of these dome-like hills are common in landscapes throughout the United States. Depending on your region, you might know them as Mima mounds, hogwallow mounds, or even pimple mounds–and their origin isn’t always clear. Theories range from seismic activity to gophers—and even just an accumulation of sediment. The prairie mounds on our homepage today are part of Oregon’s Zumwalt Prairie, a protected grassland area in northeast Oregon. Encompassing some 330,000 acres, it’s of one of the largest remaining tracts of bunchgrass prairie in North America. Once part of an extensive grassland in the region, this portion has remained preserved due to its high elevation, which made farming difficult.
Mysterious prairie mounds abound
Today in History
More Desktop Wallpapers:
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Valentines Day
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Harvest season begins
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India Republic Day
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Old Town in Prague, Czech Republic
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The dancing trees of Sumba Island
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’Chess on ice’
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The Grand Départ: Tour de France begins
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Gardens by the Bay nature park, Singapore
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Chilling out in the Arctic
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Milford Sound/Piopiotahi rainforest in New Zealand
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National Trails Day
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Let’s go mothing
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And you thought moths were boring
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Castle Square, Old Town, Warsaw, Poland
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Central Highlands of Vietnam
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World Octopus Day
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Birds of a feather flocking together
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Smoking nights in Austria
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A bull, some flowers, and a stratovolcano
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Halo around the sun
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Big Bend National Park turns 78
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A little bit of Wonderland in New York City
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March of the flowers
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Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting
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El Valle de la Luna, Chile
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Dragon dance performed in Chenzhou, Hunan Province, China
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Bluebells in Hertfordshire, England
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It s World Poetry Day
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Nothing plain about it
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’Chess on ice’