The Badlands Guardian was probably formed over a couple of millennia by successive periods of rapid erosion of the rock and soil by water from brief heavy rainfall events. The craters look like hills instead of the basins that they are in reality.Ī hollow face illusion shown in snow.
This optical illusion is similar to the phenomenon that makes craters on the Moon and similar planetary bodies sometimes look topographically inverted in images, though the effect is reversed. Though it is a basin feature, it looks like a range of hills at first glance from satellite images because of the hollow face illusion. The Badlands Guardian is an example of a feature that can be formed simply by wind and rain. Found at Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, and prepared at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology, Drumheller, Alberta. Late Cretaceous 75-74.5 million years ago. Numerous dinosaur fossils have been found in rocks from these regions.Ĭhasmosaurus belli ROM 843, Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology. Fossils tend to be best preserved in sediment-rich environments with high deposition rates, such as rivers and deltas, which form most of the rock and sediment making up badlands terrain. These areas in the United States and Canada are famous for their fossils. In Canada, badlands are especially common in the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. Other examples of this landscape are found in areas of the western United States in the Dakotas, Utah, and Montana, among other places. Hoodoo near Wahweap Creek, Page, Arizona. Wind erosion also plays a role, creating structures such as hoodoos - spindly rock towers that rise over the landscape like giants.
After the climate becomes arid, periodic rains will cause flash floods and rapid erosion that carves out canyons, gullies, and drainage basins. These landscapes are formed as sediment is deposited in rivers, oceans, tropical environments, lakes, and deltas. Badlands terrain consists of thick layers of soft sedimentary rock and soils that have been eroded over time by wind and rain to create fantastic geologic landscapes and features. Southeastern Alberta is characterized by badlands terrain. The Badlands Guardian feature is actually a drainage basin which was probably created during a period of rapid erosion. Giant Face-like Rock Formations and a Rock Shrine Found in Bulgaria.‘Mars Rat’ is Taking the Internet by Storm.
Mysterious, Giant Face Found on Cliff in Canada-Man-Made or Natural?.After the feature became widely known it was eventually dubbed the “Badlands Guardian.” Duane Froese, a professor of Geology at the University of Alberta, commented on the feature saying that Hickox was lucky to have found it. She shared it with friends on the Google Earth forum. She was looking for directions to a paleontology museum when the feature “jumped out” at her as she puts it. The feature was discovered by Lynn Hickox, an armchair explorer using Google Earth to search for interesting features. It is an example of pareidolia, a phenomenon which causes humans to see meaningful patterns where none exist. Observers have also noticed that a road leading to a natural gas well makes it appear as if the figure is wearing earphones connected to an iPod.Īlthough the feature looks very much like a carved head, it is in fact a natural feature created by erosion from wind and rain of the soft soil composed of sand, silt, and clay. Amidst the rugged terrain of the badlands of southeastern Alberta, Canada is a geologic feature that, from the air, bears a striking resemblance to an indigenous Canadian wearing a headdress.
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