Week 7 Field Trip

The playa surface of Death Valley is one of the most interesting stops that I made. The “racetrack” of the playa is almost completely flat which is a perfect area of water to flow from the surrounding mountains surrounding it. It was observed that the “life-span” of these what we could call lakes is very short due to the shallowness of the water it holds. My questions about this however, is how is it possible that it forms into almost perfectly shaped polygons? When I see rivers or streams that have dried out in other portions of the United States, the cracks are very “un-organized” and can very from in length and width. In this image however, one can observe how perfectly these shapes are formed. Is this simply due to the amount of time that it takes for the lakes to dry? Or is it the composition of the mud that forms these features in the first place? This would help me develop my geologic map and soil compositions in the is particular area.

The Ubehebe Crater is another stop that I have made on my field trip. It is obvious from the picture that something with remarkable happened in this section of earth. With some research, I found that a volcanic blast was responsible for this creator feature. This magma, just like electricity used the path of least resistance as it followed a fault along the Cottonwood mountain range were it eventually lead to a large explosion as the magma meet water. My one question that of course I would like to know is this possible to happen again? Even though it currently does not look like there is water, what would it do? I would also like to know the different rock composition below the now hardened lava. This would give the an idea of how old some of this rock may be.

Our last stop on the field trip is the Father Crowley Point which is much different from the other portions that we have observed. In this section of Death Valley, it is almost like a desert like feature like seen in the image. Also in this picture, it is pretty obvious that there is some erosion due to wind conditions. Some of my questions about his particular stop is why does the wind always seem to flow in the same direction? Is this due to a mountain range that only allows so? If so, does any water come from those mountain ranges that disrupts this surface?