Photographer: Rebecca Roush
Summary Author: Stu Witmer
The John Day Fossil Beds National Monument spreads across northern Oregon in three sections. The Painted Hills Unit, near Mitchell features hills that appear to be taken directly from an Impressionist canvas. The colors include many shades of yellow, grey, black and red. These colors originated with mineral and organic material as well as rhyolitic volcanic tuff that fell on what was, 40 - 50 million years ago, a huge floodplain. The red seen here indicates the presence of iron. The photo was taken along the Painted Cove Interpretive Trail where you can get a close-up view of this ancient laterite paleosol.
Photo Details: Top - Camera Maker: SONY; Camera Model: MVC-CD500; Focal Length: 15.8mm; Aperture: ƒ/6.3; Exposure Time: 0.0040 s (1/250); ISO equiv: 100; Software: Adobe Photoshop 7.0.
