badlands

A landscape of soft, easily eroded sedimentary rock carved by water and wind into a maze of steep gullies, sharp ridges, narrow ravines, and fantastically sculpted formations — terrain too rough to cross and too barren to farm. Badlands are among the most visually dramatic landscapes on earth and among the most inhospitable. The type locality is the Badlands of South Dakota, but the landform occurs wherever soft rock meets sparse vegetation and intense erosion.