Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Hoodoo's in the Alberta Badlands

Did you know Canada.. Hoodoo's are a tall, thin spire of rock that protrudes from the bottom of an arid drainage basin or badland. They take millions of years to form. The top capsrocks are the hardest part and they protect the soft rock below from wearing away - if there was no caprock, the soft sandstone erodes away very quickly. 

Hoodoos range in size from 5 feet to heights exceeding a 10-story building. Hoodoos are very fragile and can erode completely if their capstone is dislodged.

The heart of Alberta's badlands is The Drumheller Valley - one of the few areas in the world where sedimentary layers from earlier geological periods have been scraped off by natural processes, exposing a rich deposit of animal and plant fossils and even complete dinosaur skeletons.  You can take the Hoodoo Trail to view these amazing creations of nature.

Source: Travel Drumheller, Wikipedia

2 comments:

  1. Ah the memories! I spent many a hot Alberta afternoon climbing around on these bad boys when I was a child. I would come back to the campsite with pockets full of tiny fish fossils some of which I have to this day. I think things have changed over the years as fencing has gone up around the most fragile rock formations. We were oblivious all those years ago to the damage we were doing stomping about and picking away with our plastic shovels!

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  2. Oh my gosh, that sounds like fantastic times and memories - and ones not too many other people have!!

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