Abstract
Those of us who have travelled through the Rocky Mountains or the Badlands were probably made at least partially aware of the fact that the Earth's surface is scarred with many unusual features. Although we usually associate these with geological events of the past, the question remains, are these events of the distant or more recent past? Also, are these events similar to the processes which continue to mold the Earth today or were they of greater magnitude at some point in history? To answer this we have to look at what sorts of features generally compose the crust of the Earth.