Earth pyramids consist of cone-shaped heaps of clay and the boulders lying on top of them and often form bizarre landscape shapes. They can arise in soils from late Ice Age moraine clay, which has remained here on the Ritten from the Eisacktal main glacier and some local side glaciers. These soils are rock hard when dry, while when it rains they soften to a pulp and slide off, creating 10-15 meter high cliffs.
Continued rainfall washes away these slopes, but as rocks lay in the softer soil material, the clay beneath these rocks is sheltered from the rain and as the surrounding material continues to be eroded by the weather, the majestic earth pyramids grow out of the ground.
How long it takes for an earth pyramid to form is difficult to say, as there are too many components involved. It is also not possible to determine exactly how old an earth pyramid is or can become. What is certain, however, is that the largest and most beautiful pyramids can form over a period of up to thousands of years.
An earth pyramid is over very quickly once the capstone falls from the top of the pyramid: The material is thus exposed to the rain without protection and the column gets smaller with every rain. And while one earth pyramid disappears as a result of this process, the next one is already being created further up the slope.