Painted Hills

Painted Hills is one of the three units of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, located in Wheeler County, Oregon It totals 3,132 acres (12.7 km²) and is located 9 miles (14 km) northwest of Mitchell, Oregon and 75 miles east of Bend. [cite web | title = John Day Fossil Beds National Monument - Painted Hills Unit | publisher = U.S. National Park Service | url = http://www.nps.gov/joda/planyourvisit/painted_hills_unit.htm | accessdate = 2006-12-01] Painted Hills is named after the colorful layers of its hills corresponding to various geological eras, formed when the area was an ancient river floodplain.

The black soil is lignite that was vegetative matter that grew along the floodplain. The grey coloring is mudstone, siltstone, and shale. [cite web | title = John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, Oregon | publisher = U.S. Geological Survey | url = http://3dparks.wr.usgs.gov/johnday/html2/jd297.htm | accessdate = 2006-12-01] The red coloring is laterite soil that formed by floodplain deposits when the area was warm and humid. [cite web | title = John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, Oregon | publisher = U.S. Geological Survey | url = http://3dparks.wr.usgs.gov/johnday/html/jd275.htm | accessdate = 2006-12-01]

An abundance of fossil remains of early horses, camels, and rhinoceroses in the Painted Hills unit makes the area particularly important to vertebrate paleontologists.cite book | first = David | last = Alt | coauthors= Hundman, Donald W. | title = Northwest Exposures: A Geologic History of the Northwest | publisher = Mountain Press | pages=227-231 | date = 1995 | id = ISBN 0-87842-323-0]

References

External links

* [http://www.nps.gov/joda/ John Day Fossil Beds National Monument Homepage]
*http://www.uoregon.edu/photo_archives/2004gallery/_spring/paintedhills.html
* [http://www.commonties.com/blog/2006/09/24/thirty-million-years-ago-today/ Painted hills in Oregon photo slideshow]