24 Replies to “Honey, I Finished The Internet”

  1. There is a similiar rock formation near my in-laws ranch in north eastern Montana. At least it looks very similiar to the photos.

  2. My take, rock jointing.
    http://www.geographynotes.com/geology-2/structural-geology/joints-definition-classification-and-consideration-geology/1375
    Geologist, retired. I visited the Cypress Hills while tripping bits, drilling gas wells to the north in Saskatchewan. Only had a few hours but the place is fascinating. Stand on what was the top of land prior to glaciation, look down to what the ice left behind, or took away. Highest place west of the Appalachians. Complete different biology compared to the surrounding prairies. You can jump in any of the south side streams and canoe to the gulf of Mexico. Pack a lunch.

    1. I’m reminded of inter-granular corrosion in which the grain boundaries of a metal corrode first, often resulting in spalling of the remaining material.

    2. Given the geology of the region, we’re starting with an assumption this is a nice, moderately-fine-grained sedimentary rock, (I’d assume part of the Cypress Hills formation itself) and I can see layering in some of the rocks that would support this. The directions of the jointing and variable weathering are odd to me, but then the jointing is likely much older than the current surface morphology. What I am saying is, that if an unjointed formation was being bent up along the ridge, I would expect our major joints to parallel the ridgeline But the more significant and continuous joints run perpendicular to the ridgeline. Second, I generally expect jointing to generate relatively evenly spaced breaks, especially in its primary direction, but here we can see alternating series of thin and thick bands of blocks running perpendicular to the ridgeline. Even more interesting to me is that the thinner bands of blocks seem to have been more resistant to weathering – they seem to protrude up above their larger neighbors. In the section where the rocks are still closely spaced this gives the impression of a formation with an almost vertical strike – tilted 90 degrees to the horizontal. Of course that’s kind of ridiculous given the way the conglomerate bed seems to lie upon the hilltop, and the documented geology of the region. Definitely an outcrop that would make someone scratch their head. Below is a link to a 4MB pdf of a 1999 geologic map of Saskatchewan. Cypress Hills is essentially the youngest and therefore topmost formation, and you can find it in the southwest of the map.

      https://pubsaskdev.blob.core.windows.net/pubsask-prod/93754/93754-Geological_Map_of_Saskatchewan.pdf

      1. That was my first thought on viewing. Sedimentary column with multiple sandstone layers, rotate 90 degrees, scrape mostly flat by ice, allow to weather.

        We see this orthogonal fracturing all the time at the coal mines. Along the bedding plane, straight down dip, straight across dip. We design our walls around it as it’s a well understood failure mode at moderate dip angles. No need for joint sets IMHO.

  3. These appear to be ancient lava floes. Further west, there are what look like block walls coming from East Butte in the Sweetgrass Hills range. These were also made from lava floes.
    The lava cools and forms the cube shaped formations.
    We used to say they were built by ancients. Then a geologist came along and ruined the story.

    1. Well I really do apologize for that. Read this article for some details at what you see at the Cypress Hills. Even if you aren’t geologically inclined, it’s fascinating reading. It’s a unique part of Canaduh that as I stated before one should make the trip and pay the Hills a visit. Bring the kids. Couple of campgrounds and lakes and just go kick some stones. Bring your imagination and a camera. Avoid when raining, that road mud is treacherous, believe me on that. F-150’s don’t slalom well.

        2. We used to have fun with Planetary humor when covering the evolution of the Solar System, Uranus and Mars come to mind. Baddoom, tish.

  6. I think they’re called “pillows”, caused by molten lava flowing into water, which would account for the linear shapes.

    1. Sorry Yop, pillow lava extrusions under water are very rounded, the heat from the source will be maintained in the most efficient shape for the lava to keep flowing inside/underneath. That would give tubes and other rounded-to-spherical features.

  7. My first take is that it was the top of a geological dike ( or dyke) but that would depend on how far down the rocks, or what they came from, go into the ground.
    These do not look like they go very far. If they are just loose on top of the ground this becomes even more impressive.
    Here is a dike like I am thinking of.

    https://csmsgeologypost.blogspot.com/2011/10/dikes-at-willow-creek.html

    It was so long ago that I visited Ft Walsh that I think the Indian wars were just over.

  8. PO’ed in AB has the right answer. It is a layer of jointed sandstone or grit, lying conformably on older rocks. It’s been out in the weather a long, long time, much moreso than most rocks we see on the prairies, which were glaciated as recently as 12000 years ago.

    No volcanic rocks in Cypress Hills at all, as far as I know. Pillow lavas don’t form nice square blocks like that; the pillows look more like flattened onions. Imagine filling green trash bags with wet cement, and stacking them; they conform to the space available.

    1. If you go here: http://uregina.ca/~sauchyn/geog497&897/hills.html you will see a time line covering Bearspaw age up to Cypress Hills that show NO intrusive component to the rock formations. No dykes. Just sediments. I know, how boring. Nothing exciting happens in Saskatchewan.
      As for “pillow” lavas they have a “tail” telling you which way is “up” and they really do look like pillows. The tail is pointing down. Seen ’em in 2.8 billion year old underwater flows in the Red Lake area, Ontario, almost like they were formed yesterday. You can watch them form underwater, live off Hawaii today.

  11. God’s dominoes? Or, in Latin, would that be “Sanctos Dominos”? That sounds vaguely like a song to me…

    1. Well, originally I thought Inca Highway 49. Didn’t someone write a song about it in the 80’s?

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