Disoriented - Giant City State Park - Southern Illinois - October 2022

            This picture is every bit as insane as it looks - looking up from between 2 massive natural limestone/shale/iron oxide walls is this tree that grew strong and tall enough to finally start getting that sunlight. According to Palaeogeology (the geology of a region at any given time in the distant past - thanks Google Machine!), standing in this same area a couple hundred million years ago would have me under a shallow sea.

From a PDF regarding this amazing area:

The bluffs of the Shawnee Hills often jut above ground like giant
stone walls with flat surfaces. This sandstone was formed more
than 250 million years ago as sandbars and dunes in a great river
delta that drained the Pennsylvanian swamps of Illinois. This delta
emptied freshwater into a shallow ocean just a few miles to the
south. These sand sediments were compacted and cemented together over millions of years to form sandstone. Earthquakes have
uplifted, cracked , and crumpled the earth in this area to form hills,
bluffs, and the giant cracks or fissures in the rock. Over millions of
years the erosion by wind and water have etched the bluffs by removing softer areas of stone. Look around for areas with pocketlike depressions called honeycombs. Also notice the thick ridges
of dark brown material. These iron oxide deposits were created by
dissolved iron compounds in groundwater precipitating out into
solid form within the sandstone. Adding to the slow change of the
bluff walls are the lichens and mosses that slowly cover rock surfaces and then die to become soil for ferns, herbaceous plants, and
trees. Only the sheerest walls have not been covered over by the
soil and vegetation, and they maintain the cloak of green mosses
or gray-green lichens. 
   

Taken on: October 27, 2022

Tags:

Shawnee

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Camera: Nikon D850, f/8.0, 1/100 sec, 18mm, ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D850
Lens:	18.0-35.0 mm f/3.5-4.5
Aperture:	f/8.0
Exposure Time:	0.01 sec (1/100)
Focal Length:	18mm
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	No Flash
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Saturation:	High
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop 24.0 (Windows)
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