Geological Features Of Death Valley
One of the most unique factors of Death Valley is its thoroughly different geological characteristics. There is volcanic activity, occurrences of erosion and deposition, as well as interesting types of landforms, minerals and rocks that all makes up Death Valley’s complicated, but interesting geological history and features. The current aspect of the geology of Death Valley as well as the shape of its future is all but dull, but how did Death Valley get this, both intriguing and beautiful, landscape?
The present topography and landscape of Death Valley National Park was formed by extremely slow, but major, changes over many many years. The oldest rocks found in Death Valley were formed over 1.7 billion years ago. These rocks date back to …show more content…
the Precambrian Era, and even though they are able to be seen in portions of the Black and Panamint Mountain Ranges, geologists are not able to decode them because they have been so heavily changed throughout all these years. The next best resource of deciphering the geologic history of Death Valley would be the marine sediments formed during the beginning of the Paleozoic Era, about 500 million years ago.
These rocks and sediments suggest that during the Paleozoic Era, Death Valley was the location of a warm and shallow sea.
One of these types of rocks and sediments includes limestone, found in the Funeral and Panamint Mountains in Death Valley. Limestone is a biogenous type of marine sediment. Biogenous meaning ‘made up of life’, is composed of the hard and rock-like parts of dead organisms, such as the teeth and bones. The reason why geologists believe that Death Valley was once a shallow, warm sea is because limestone is typically formed and found in shallow parts of the …show more content…
sea.
As time passed, this warm and shallow sea began to retreat towards the west as the land began propelling upwards. This uplift was caused by the movement of tectonic plates. Death Valley lies near the border between two of these tectonic plates. Compressional forces slowly folded, twisted and broke the fragile crust while the tectonic plates gradually moved sideways in relation with each other. This extensive deformation of the rock occurred throughout the Mesozoic Era, between 65.5 million years ago to 251 million years ago.
As the movement of fault and the creating of mountains spread throughout the land surface, the Earth’s crust enervated. Hot and molten magma underneath the surface of the Earth erupted, thus creating volcanoes at these weak points. The volcanoes in the Northeast, present day Nevada, covered the Death Valley area with many layers of ash. Time passed and the heart of the volcanic activity moved westward, making a link of volcanoes, from the present day Furnace Creek area, to Shoshone. This practically entombed the older rocks in the Black Mountains. The subsidiary results of the eruptions comprise of Artist’s Palette, and the borax deposits that became very lucrative in the late 1800s. This chain of volcanic activity in Death Valley went on throughout part, which was two million years ago to 65.5 million years ago, of the Cenozoic Era.
About three million years ago, the movement of the crust changed, and Death Valley as how we know it finally began to form. The forces changed direction, so that compression became expansion. This expansion of the crust permits large chunks of land to gradually slip past each other along faults, thus forming valleys and mountain ranges that alternate between each other. For example, the Panamint Mountain Range and Badwater Basin are now both located on the same tectonic plate. They are both turning eastward, like a single structure, although one is located 282 feet below sea level, while the highest peak on the Panamint Mountain Range, called Telescope Peak, is 11,049 feet above sea level.
Erosion and deposition, though quite the opposites, occurred in Death Valley around the same time.
Uninterrupted erosion was happening in Death Valley, although it was very slow. While the Earth would sink, the ground adjacent to the sinking part would wear off. As for deposition, water trailing down the mountains would bring down sand and rocks, which would be deposited at the base of the mountain. For example, beneath the surface of Badwater Basin, there is 11,000 feet of layered salt and deposition. Death Valley has been put through some major climate changes throughout the past three million years. Death Valley was part of a group of large lakes during North America’s last Ice Age. However, due to a sudden warming in the climate, the lakes disappeared 10,000 years ago because they evaporated. The lakes left behind large areas of salt deposits. An example of the salt deposits is Badwater Basin. Just 3,000 years ago, a smaller group of lakes occupied the floor of Badwater Basin, although that has vanished by now. Currently, only a small pond is what remains of the
water. There are quite a few canyons in Death Valley including the Mosaic Canyon, the Golden Canyon, the Twenty Mule Team Canyon, and more. These canyons formed, mostly, because faults developed in the area many years ago. Water has been channeling through these faults, and slowly carved out these canyons. Occasional flash floods bring sand and gravel down the canyons, and continues this process. The surges of water and debris coming down the canyon also creates another geologic characteristic called alluvial fans.
The geology of Death Valley is constantly growing and changing. One of the most recent changes in the geology of Death Valley is the creation of the Ubehebe Crater. The crater was caused by aggressive steam explosions when the hot and molten magma encountered with groundwater. The crater formed only 300 years ago, which means that the geology of Death Valley if moving and changing ad infinitum.
The topography of Death Valley is constantly moving and changing. Erosion gradually carves at ancient rock formations, which reshapes the surface of the land. Badwater Basin continues to recede, and mountain ranges continue to rise. The same tectonic plates and forces that originally created the valley are still there, which means they may become active once again. No one can really predict, determine or analyze the geological future of Death Valley, however, one thing geologists know for sure is that Death Valley has been changing for millions of years and still continues to change.
Death Valley’s decipherable geologic history dates back to 500 million years ago in the Paleozoic Era, when it was just a warm and shallow sea. Mountains warped into their shape, volcanoes erupted in the region, areas lowered while other areas escalated, both erosion and deposition occurred, lakes evaporated, and the geology of Death Valley still continues to change. No one knows and no one will know what will occur in the future until it actually happens. One thing is for sure, it changed then, it keeps changing now, and will change in the future.
The present topography and landscape of Death Valley National Park was formed by extremely slow, but major, changes over many many years. The oldest rocks found in Death Valley were formed over 1.7 billion years ago. These rocks date back to …show more content…
the Precambrian Era, and even though they are able to be seen in portions of the Black and Panamint Mountain Ranges, geologists are not able to decode them because they have been so heavily changed throughout all these years. The next best resource of deciphering the geologic history of Death Valley would be the marine sediments formed during the beginning of the Paleozoic Era, about 500 million years ago.
These rocks and sediments suggest that during the Paleozoic Era, Death Valley was the location of a warm and shallow sea.
One of these types of rocks and sediments includes limestone, found in the Funeral and Panamint Mountains in Death Valley. Limestone is a biogenous type of marine sediment. Biogenous meaning ‘made up of life’, is composed of the hard and rock-like parts of dead organisms, such as the teeth and bones. The reason why geologists believe that Death Valley was once a shallow, warm sea is because limestone is typically formed and found in shallow parts of the …show more content…
sea.
As time passed, this warm and shallow sea began to retreat towards the west as the land began propelling upwards. This uplift was caused by the movement of tectonic plates. Death Valley lies near the border between two of these tectonic plates. Compressional forces slowly folded, twisted and broke the fragile crust while the tectonic plates gradually moved sideways in relation with each other. This extensive deformation of the rock occurred throughout the Mesozoic Era, between 65.5 million years ago to 251 million years ago.
As the movement of fault and the creating of mountains spread throughout the land surface, the Earth’s crust enervated. Hot and molten magma underneath the surface of the Earth erupted, thus creating volcanoes at these weak points. The volcanoes in the Northeast, present day Nevada, covered the Death Valley area with many layers of ash. Time passed and the heart of the volcanic activity moved westward, making a link of volcanoes, from the present day Furnace Creek area, to Shoshone. This practically entombed the older rocks in the Black Mountains. The subsidiary results of the eruptions comprise of Artist’s Palette, and the borax deposits that became very lucrative in the late 1800s. This chain of volcanic activity in Death Valley went on throughout part, which was two million years ago to 65.5 million years ago, of the Cenozoic Era.
About three million years ago, the movement of the crust changed, and Death Valley as how we know it finally began to form. The forces changed direction, so that compression became expansion. This expansion of the crust permits large chunks of land to gradually slip past each other along faults, thus forming valleys and mountain ranges that alternate between each other. For example, the Panamint Mountain Range and Badwater Basin are now both located on the same tectonic plate. They are both turning eastward, like a single structure, although one is located 282 feet below sea level, while the highest peak on the Panamint Mountain Range, called Telescope Peak, is 11,049 feet above sea level.
Erosion and deposition, though quite the opposites, occurred in Death Valley around the same time.
Uninterrupted erosion was happening in Death Valley, although it was very slow. While the Earth would sink, the ground adjacent to the sinking part would wear off. As for deposition, water trailing down the mountains would bring down sand and rocks, which would be deposited at the base of the mountain. For example, beneath the surface of Badwater Basin, there is 11,000 feet of layered salt and deposition. Death Valley has been put through some major climate changes throughout the past three million years. Death Valley was part of a group of large lakes during North America’s last Ice Age. However, due to a sudden warming in the climate, the lakes disappeared 10,000 years ago because they evaporated. The lakes left behind large areas of salt deposits. An example of the salt deposits is Badwater Basin. Just 3,000 years ago, a smaller group of lakes occupied the floor of Badwater Basin, although that has vanished by now. Currently, only a small pond is what remains of the
water. There are quite a few canyons in Death Valley including the Mosaic Canyon, the Golden Canyon, the Twenty Mule Team Canyon, and more. These canyons formed, mostly, because faults developed in the area many years ago. Water has been channeling through these faults, and slowly carved out these canyons. Occasional flash floods bring sand and gravel down the canyons, and continues this process. The surges of water and debris coming down the canyon also creates another geologic characteristic called alluvial fans.
The geology of Death Valley is constantly growing and changing. One of the most recent changes in the geology of Death Valley is the creation of the Ubehebe Crater. The crater was caused by aggressive steam explosions when the hot and molten magma encountered with groundwater. The crater formed only 300 years ago, which means that the geology of Death Valley if moving and changing ad infinitum.
The topography of Death Valley is constantly moving and changing. Erosion gradually carves at ancient rock formations, which reshapes the surface of the land. Badwater Basin continues to recede, and mountain ranges continue to rise. The same tectonic plates and forces that originally created the valley are still there, which means they may become active once again. No one can really predict, determine or analyze the geological future of Death Valley, however, one thing geologists know for sure is that Death Valley has been changing for millions of years and still continues to change.
Death Valley’s decipherable geologic history dates back to 500 million years ago in the Paleozoic Era, when it was just a warm and shallow sea. Mountains warped into their shape, volcanoes erupted in the region, areas lowered while other areas escalated, both erosion and deposition occurred, lakes evaporated, and the geology of Death Valley still continues to change. No one knows and no one will know what will occur in the future until it actually happens. One thing is for sure, it changed then, it keeps changing now, and will change in the future.