Week 7 - Death Valley

One of the first stops I was interested in seeing was the Artist's Drive, in the Black Mountains of Death Valley. The Drive is cut by flash floods that cut deep canyons in the surrounding rock, forming an alluvial fans as the flood zones reach the valley. Noticing the color of the rock, it leads me to be curious of the geological history of this place. Different colors indicate different mineral content. The reds are formed by iron as it oxidizes once espoused to the air. The effect is even more beautiful with yellowish rocks containing smaller amounts of iron. The rocks appear to be mostly sedimentary, composed of fine sand, but also evidence of past volcanic ash.

Source: https://geomaps.wr.usgs.gov/parks/deva/ftart1.html

Next up was the Devi's Golf Course, a hellish but interesting desert landscape comprised of intricate salt formations. These formations were created by the last lake of the area, which has dried up some 2,000 years ago. The remaining salt from the lake could tell an interesting picture of the time. Trapped in the salt might be fossils, and the white salt does not hide any impurities, which might be an aid to analyzing the mineral content of the water. Since it grows slowly, at just an inch in 35 years, the layers of growth should effectively catalog the changing environment.

Source: https://geomaps.wr.usgs.gov/parks/deva/ftdev1.html

Finally, the last stop is at Zabriskie Point. The landscape is formed of an ancient lake bed, which sediments settled into mudstone rocks, which is a soft rock that is susceptible to erosion. During the intense rains that Death Valley can receive, water gouges deep rivlets into the hills.

Source: https://geomaps.wr.usgs.gov/parks/deva/ftzab1.html