when dry, the stabilized dunes were eroded into the corrugated, sharply dissected bluffs we see today.

The dominant features of this landscape are "peak and saddle" topography, "razor ridges" (narrow ridges, often less than 10 ft 0 wide, which fall off at near ninety-degree angles on either side for 60 ft 0 or more), and "cat-step" terraces (caused by the constant slumping and vertical shearing of the loess soil). The soil has a characteristic yellow hue and is generally broken down into several units based on the period of deposition