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travel / great places / explorer / ja05
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Boning up on the badlands
Glossary
Hoodoos, mesas, buttes — Navigating Alberta's badlands requires some knowledge of geological jargon.
This short glossary should help:
Hoodoo: Eccentric-looking pillars of eroded rock, found in regions where sporadic,
heavy rainfall is typical. Hoodoos form when hard rock (such as a boulder) protects a column of more erodable sediment beneath it.
During rainy periods, material surrounding the hoodoo is washed away by direct rainfall and surface erosion, while the hoodoo
itself stands as a protected tower.
Mesa: Flat-topped hills or mountains, with sides that are steep and usually perpendicular.
"Mesa" is the Spanish word for "table" and not surprisingly, these geological formations are also
referred to as "table mountains". Mesas also form through erosion.
Butte: Like mesas, buttes are isolated hills with steep sides and flat tops. In fact,
buttes are mesas in a more advanced stage of erosion, before the landscape is completely consumed by wind and rain.
Sedimentary rock: Rocks that form when sediment is deposited in layers, and eventually gets "glued"
together. Sediment can be made up of both organic and inorganic material: everything for grains of rock, to dead plants and
animals. Sedimentary rock often forms under water and can be a rich source of fossils.
Coulee: A steep-sided valley or ravine, sometimes with a stream at the bottom.
Cretaceous: The period of time between 136 and 65 million years ago.
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For over 300 glossary terms relating to geography, check out CG
Kids Atlas Online's glossary.
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