When the red hot ash covering the buried ice and snow in the valley caused that ice to melt and "flash" to steam, something called “steam explosion pits” (up to 40m deep) were formed. They had nearly vertical sides until gravity collapsed them to produce a “rill and gully” effect, one of the features of badlands topography. (Rills are small gullies). The great badlands features in the US could also have been produced by catastrophic forces and some by volcanic action.
Wakati jivu jekundu la moto lililofunika barafu na theluji bondeni lilisababisha barafu kuyeyuka na kulipusha mvuke,unaoitwa “tundu la mvuke ulipukao” (kiasi cha mita 40 kwenda chini) lilifanyika likawa na pande zilizokuwa wima hadi mvuto ukaziporomosha kufanya “mfereji na korongo,”kati ya maumbile ya Badlands. (mifereji midogo na korongo) maumbile makuu ya Badlands katika Marekani pia kuna uwezekano yaliwezeshwa na nguvu za machafuko na baadhi ya tendo la volkeno.