badlands
Stark, gullied terrain
Badlands are barren, heavily eroded terrain characterized by steep gullies, ravines, and sparse vegetation.
The soil is typically too poor for farming and the landscape too rugged for easy travel.
The term describes any such desolate region: The drought turned the overworked farmland into badlands. (Capitalized Badlands refers to the specific region in South Dakota.)
Bleak and abandoned
- aridDevoid of water
- inhospitableUnwelcoming, harsh to visitors
- bleakDreary and without cheer
- lifelessDevoid of animation
parched · stark · dusty · harsh · sparse · forbidding · sunbaked · treeless
Isolated flat-topped hills
- mesasFlat-topped isolated hills
- hoodoosCurses or stone columns
- pinnaclesHighest or culminating points
- spiresTapering architectural towers
ravines · gullies · canyons · cliffs · escarpments · outcrops · plateaus · slopes
Atmospheric breakdown of materials
- sedimentParticles settling in liquid
- gullyChannel carved by flowing water
- canyonDeep river-cut gorge
- formationCreation or arrangement
strata · layering · deposition · alluvium · geomorphology · abrasion · scouring · flash floods
desolate
Bleak and abandoned
- aridDevoid of water
- inhospitableUnwelcoming, harsh to visitors
- bleakDreary and without cheer
lifeless · parched · stark · dusty · harsh · sparse · forbidding · sunbaked · treeless · waterless
buttes
Isolated flat-topped hills
spires · ravines · gullies · canyons · cliffs · escarpments · outcrops · plateaus · slopes · ridges
weathering
Atmospheric breakdown of materials
formation · strata · layering · deposition · alluvium · geomorphology · abrasion · scouring · flash floods · mudstone
- landformsmountain, cliff, valley, volcano, mountain ridge
- landscapesmountain, valley, hills, landscape, scenery
- American landscapeprairies, plains, Great Plains, heartland, Midwest
- arid landscapesdesert, sand dunes, dunes, salt flat, cracked earth
- Extreme Terrainabyss, arctic, Antarctic, Antarctica, Death Valley
- Frontier LandsWild West, Outback, Alaska, Yukon, wilderness
badlandsfertile plains
Productive flat agricultural land
farmland · breadbasket · agricultural land · arable land · grasslands
badlandsflatlands
Level, unvarying terrain
plains · open country · lowlands · steppes · savanna
badlandspromised land
Hoped-for place of fulfillment
garden · Eden · paradise · utopia · land of milk and honey
- the BadlandsArid, heavily eroded region
- Badlands National ParkProtected eroded prairie landscape