The strange stripes in our homepage image reveal tiers of fossil beds in Badlands National Park in South Dakota. Beneath the multicolored surface lies the land"s history, including the remains of ancient horses, camels, tigers, and rhinos. The barren landscape, dotted with pinnacles and prairies, was formed by two geological processes: deposition, where the layered rocks were gradually stacked up on top of each other by inland seas, winds, and rivers over millions of years, and erosion, which began about 500,000 years ago. The Red Shirt Table, at 3,340 feet, is the highest point in the park, which was established on this day in 1978. It protects 379 square miles of rocky buttes, pinnacles, and prairies. This inhospitable terrain was called "Mako Sica," or "land bad" by the Oglala Lakota people, who have lived here for hundreds of years. Still thirsty for knowledge? Visit the national park"s museum collection. There are over 360,000 objects that have a lot more to reveal!
Badlands National Parks 45th anniversary
Today in History
More Desktop Wallpapers:
-
National Lighthouse Day
-
Fiesta at Siesta
-
Art in the chapel
-
Crown Fountain by Jume Plensa at Millennium Park in Chicago
-
Smoking nights in Austria
-
The Kelpies statues in Falkirk, Scotland
-
National Museum of African American History and Culture
-
Here, fishy!
-
Celebrating Panama s independence
-
Ahh-tumn
-
The mountaintop of toppled gods
-
It s harvest time on World Food Day
-
International Archaeology Day
-
Venture into a prehistoric gallery of art
-
American Wetlands Month
-
A winter light show
-
Halloween
-
National Find a Rainbow Day
-
The crossroads of empires
-
It s time to fall back
-
The Girl Scouts celebrate 110 years
-
International Day of Human Space Flight
-
White dunes, blue lagoons
-
Let s crack the code
-
Short-eared owl
-
International Lighthouse Weekend
-
American bison, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
-
Pi Day
-
Salt of the earth
-
Sunburst at Angkor