These gully systems are the planet’s most extensive, and were formed naturally in the deep windblown deposits of Gobi …Desert silt. Sediment washing from these drainages adds greatly to the fertile effects of yearly floods on the North China Plain. The badlands are among the major reasons that China developed agriculture as early as it did. The right image shows elevations in color sequence without shadowing. The same palette is used in the left case, but here the frontlit surfaces are lightened, and the shadows on backlit areas create a 3D effect. Note how the remnant plateau surfaces are isolated in the shadowed case.

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