Integrative Natural History of Amnicon Falls State Park, Part 14: Bank Shot

Integrative Natural History of Amnicon Falls State Park, Part 14: Bank Shot | Wisconsin, USA

(Last updated on April 16, 2025)

While a corner of the park's Lower Falls is visible at bottom left, most of the image is filled with the northeastern bank of the Amnicon River's middle branch.

Taken from the southwestern side of the falls, just downstream of the Horton Covered Bridge.

Over the postglacial centuries, the rushing, tannin-stained waters of this North Woods stream have carved a weirdly beautiful exposure of Orienta Sandstone. Above that outcrop a duff-covered slope leads up to a timber-cribbed park trail.

The texture produced by the rock's thin and essentially flat-lying strata is unearthly, and remindful of orbiter photos of the Martian surface. But then the Paper Birch (Betula papyrifera) saplings and Beaked Hazel (Corylus cornuta) shrubs struggling to survive on the soilless stone confirm just what planet, swarming with life in a very un-Martian way, we're really looking at.

The Orienta, the oldest formation of the Bayfield Group, has a maximum depositional age of 1.059 Ga. Most likely it dates to the final portion of the Mesoproterozoic era, after the main extensional and eruptive episodes of the Midcontinent Rift.

Incidentally, notice the number of conifer cones strewn like dark dots on both the rock and the duff. These are from the larger Red Pines (Pinus resinosa) that inhabit and help stabilize the slope.

You'll find the other photos and descriptions of this series in my Integrative Natural History of Amnicon Falls State Park album.

Taken in: United States / Wisconsin / Amnicon / Amnicon Falls (show map)

Taken on: June 19, 2008

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Camera: NIKON COOLPIX S4, f/3.5, 1/88 sec, 6.3mm, ISO 50 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	NIKON COOLPIX S4
Aperture:	f/3.5
Exposure Time:	0.011 sec (1/88)
Focal Length:	6.3mm
ISO:	50
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
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