Earth:Sheepeater Cliff

Short description: Rock formation in the United States

Sheepeater Cliff
Columnar basalt at Sheepeater Cliff
Location	Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA
Coordinates	[ ⚑ ] 44.891087°N 110.729635°W / 44.891087; -110.729635
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.

External links

• National Park Service Video – Sheepeater Cliffs