Earth:Sheepeater Cliff
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Short description: Rock formation in the United States
| Sheepeater Cliff | |
|---|---|
 Columnar basalt at Sheepeater Cliff | |
| Location | Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA |
| Coordinates | [ ⚑ ] 44°53′28″N 110°43′47″W / 44.891087°N 110.729635°W |
| Geology | Cliff |
| Age | 500,000+ years |
The Sheepeater Cliffs are a series of exposed cliffs made up of columnar basalt in Yellowstone National Park in the United States . The lava was deposited about 500,000 years ago during one of the periodic basaltic floods in Yellowstone Caldera, and later exposed by the Gardner River. The cliffs are noted as a textbook example of a basaltic flow with well defined joints and hexagonal columns. They were named after a band of Eastern Shoshone known as Tukuaduka (sheep eaters). Many of the exposed cliffs are located along a steep inaccessible canyon cut by the Gardner near Bunsen Peak, but some of the cliffs located just off the Grand Loop Road can be reached by car.
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