The climate for the Badlands has been variable and unpredictable with extreme weather that has shaped the landscape and terrain over millions of years. In the layers of rock that form the crevices and formations that make up the badlands are specific markers that show how the climate has changed over the last 40 million years.
28-30 million years ago: the upper layers of the badlands were formed by wind and water that continued to cool the climate. (upper light tan layers)30-34 million years ago: the brule formation was created when the climate began to dry up and cool down creating the tan and red layers near the upper middle
34-37 million years ago: a subtropical forest that covered the ground would flood and leave many individual layers that hold a dense array of fossilized remains buried in the flooded layers of the chadron formation. (many colored shallow layers in the middle of the formation).
69-75 million years ago:a shallow inland sea stretched across the great plains which formed the bottom black colored layer of Pierre shale rock.
In the last 500,000 years the climate has changed and the wind and river formations that were part of the annual climate began to erode the many layers of rock and carve the gorges that have created the formations of the badlands.
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| The Badlands have an extremely dry climate, averaging under 24 inches of rain annually |
Credits:
http://www.nps.gov/badl/planyourvisit/weather.htm
http://www.weather.com/weather/wxclimatology/monthly/graph/USSD0018
Photo Credits:
-column rock formation of the Badlands picture
http://www.nps.gov/badl/naturescience/geologicformations.htm
- Picture of the Dry climate
http://thumbs.media.smithsonianmag.com//filer/0c/ae/0cae1d39-c687-46f8-bf6f-690dc6cead96/badlands4.jpg__1072x0_q85_upscale.jpg
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