Week 7 Death Valley Aerion OKelley

Death Valley

Frank, D. (n.d.). Death Valley geology field trip. Retrieved from https://geomaps.wr.usgs.gov/parks/deva/ftrac2.html

This week I took a trip through death valley. The first thing that caught my eye was at the Racetrack Playa stop, where rocks move without any obvious force hundreds of meters, leaving a trail behind. One such rock traveled in the pattern above, and begs many questions about wind, water, and friction levels. This movement is an amazing collection of geological phenomena, and I would love to see if there were things regarding shape, moisture levels, composition of the surface, and wind/weather that one could predict or recreate this motion. I think identifying exact timelines of movement and comparing to historical weather data would be an excellent place to start. Solving this puzzle may lead to a lot of interesting ends, such as (apparent) perpetual motion.

Ventifacts, Death Valley National Park. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.marlimillerphoto.com/WE-56.html

This photo, tied to the tour, caught my eye as well. The weathering on these ventifacts looks almost like art, and it makes me question the composition of the rock that remains, and how many of the holes and grooves were due to the composition of the rocks before they were eaten away by the years of sandblasting. A core sample that would probably answer the more basic questions of the structure and composition of this rock without weathering.

Aerial view of Ubehebe Craters, Death Valley National Park. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.marlimillerphoto.com/Ig-108.html

This photo was also incredibly interesting and made me wish for a much higher resolution one. Natural exposure of layers from magma and groundwater interaction lead to a very interesting image into the layers of rock that have accumulated over the years. This photo alone really gives insight into the origin of volcanic activity as it exposes much history in the local area when it removed everything above that groundwater in what had to have been an incredible explosion. I think that this would be an excellent place to go through all sorts of geological history, and examining the angle, layers, age, and composition of the rocks in this area would be time well spent.