Week 7 - Death Valley - Juan Torres

                                           Death Valley

 

The pictures above are from Badwater in Death Valley.  It is called Devils Golf Course, the question that comes to mind is why is it called Devils Golf Course and how did the salt crystals form in this area?  Based on the terrain depicted in the image, I would gather the information on the topography and geologic composition of the area around the salt pan and determine what type of rocks and minerals compose them and the process that derived the salt crystals.  Knowing the surrounding terrain would help explain how it was that salt crystals were deposited in the Badwater Basin.

Ubehebe Crater pictured above is also located in Death Valley in the North tip of the Cottonwood Mountains.  The picture shows the crater which more likely was formed by the eruption of a volcano.  I would like to know what type of igneous rocks were formed by the magma from the volcano.  To gather information I would examine a geologic map to see the type of rocks that were created and I would also search for information on the process of how the crater was formed.  Based on the image it would seem that it would take a great force or explosion of hydro-static expansion to create a crater like it.



Furnace Creek is a natural oasis that is located in Death Valley.  One of the questions that I would like to explore is how an oasis gets its water being that it is in the middle of a dessert with about two inches of rainfall per year.  To find information on how this oasis is formed and how it gets it water I would research a topographic map to determine the source of the underground aquifer.  Based on the location of Furnace Creek it is most likely that springs in the Amargosa Range are part of the water source of the oasis.