The Abbadessa Badlands

The Abbadessa Badlands form a stunning sculpted clay ridge within the oldest geological substrate of the Bolognese hills, the "Argille Scagliose" clayey formations.

This is a complex dominated by a variegated clay matrix in which rocks of various nature and age (from 180, for ophiolitic fragments, to 60 million years ago) are embedded.

Clay has very peculiar characteristics. Made of extremely small particles, it is impermeable and it softens considerably with water.

For this reason, it is a highly erodible rock, creating unstable slopes, where badlands, with their desert-like conditions, form.