[bad-landz] 
| a barren area in which soft rock strata are eroded into varied, fantastic forms. |
| bad·lands (bād'lāndz') pl.n. Barren land characterized by roughly eroded ridges, peaks, and mesas. |
| Bad·lands also Bad Lands (bād'lāndz') A heavily eroded arid region of southwest South Dakota and northwest Nebraska. The Badlands National Monument in South Dakota was established in 1939 to protect the area's colorful rock formations and prehistoric fossils. |
badlands
area cut and eroded by many deep, tortuous gullies with intervening saw-toothed divides. The gullies extend from main rivers back to tablelands about 150 m (500 feet) and higher. The gully bottoms increase in gradient from almost flat near the main rivers to nearly vertical at the edges of the tablelands. Because the rocks are not uniform in character, differences in erosion result in stair-step profiles. The joining and separating of the gullies cause many isolated irregular spires, small flat-topped buttes, or mesas, and produce a landscape of jagged, fluted, and seemingly inaccessible hills
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